Optimizing Your Staffing Operations with a Web Dashboard
Staffing Software Complemented by Web Dashboard for Actionable Intelligence
By Steve Taylor, President of VCG, Inc.
(as seen in the July/August Issue of StaffDigest)
Key Benefits of Web Dashboards
- Graphical representation of key performance indicators
- Can access via the Internet
- Customizable screen views based on company role
- Actionable data for quick decisions
- Comparative analysis to optimize business operations
Owners face many challenges in today's highly competitive staffing industry from finding candidates most likely to succeed with your clients to controlling operating costs and maintaining margins. Daily decisions you make relating to these challenges are critical to your success. How often have you made a snap decision based on incomplete information and your own best guess 'gut' instinct?
Wouldn't it be great if you could be more proactive, and make decisions based on easily accessible, timely data? Software applications called dashboards now make this possible. They integrate with your staffing software to provide real-time information that can be viewed by staff throughout the company to make informed, timely decisions.
Dashboards provide a graphical presentation of your company's key performance indicators (KPIs) or metrics, and the ability to quickly analyze them. Complicated information is presented in easily understood graphs, charts and other visual formats in real-time that help you to make confident decisions based on current information, not gut instinct.
Some common KPIs for a staffing or recruiting firm are average time to fill an order, the number of open vs. filled assignments, the percentage of resources to fill, gross margin percentages and billed hours vs. projected hours. Dashboards let you analyze these KPIs as frequently as necessary: hourly, daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly. It is a convenient business intelligence tool that can reveal operational details at a glance.
Because some dashboards are Web-based, they can provide "anytime, anywhere" access via the Internet. Want to keep tabs on your daily operations while you're away from the office? A dashboard is a convenient tool for staffing firm owners or senior management who want to stay on top of daily business operations.
For example: Your dashboard KPIs show that your 'time to fill' ratio has increased significantly at one branch. Using the dashboard's drill down functionality, you can quickly assess the issue. You can glance at open orders for the branch, how many candidates have been interviewed and look at client orders open. This information access and analysis enables you to find out the 'why' as well as the 'what.' Is it a recruiting issue or did your sales force drop the ball? Knowing the 'why' allows you to get to the specific root of the issue.
This type of 'intuitive' functionality has management gurus taking notice. Forrester Research estimates that 40 percent of the 2,000 largest companies are using a dashboard module. Due to the popularity of the dashboard, it has now become a cost-effective management tool for small companies as well.
Whatever the size of your staffing firm, dashboards can be tailored to accommodate the unique information needs of ownership, managers, sales people and staffing coordinators. They can track the critical metrics they need to do their job more effectively, and help improve your firm's performance.
In addition to revealing operating and tactical details of your business, dashboards provide insight into measuring your strategic performance. Profits are up from last quarter? Why? Was it a better job market or did your fill rate go up? How are your sales people and recruiters performing? How is a new line of business doing compared to another?
In the increasingly competitive staffing industry, these metrics give you a clear idea of how your staffing firm is performing, and help you identify steps you need to take to increase your profits and ultimately, your business' success.
More about VCG's Web Dashboard solution.
About VCG
VCG provides comprehensive staffing and recruiting solutions that power success. Since 1976, VCG has helped hundreds of companies and more than 14,000 professionals worldwide achieve operational excellence by streamlining their unique business processes and accelerating finding and placing the people most likely to thrive. VCG, C-PAS, StaffSuite, TempWare-V, WebPAS, StaffSuite WorldLink and WebPAS WorldLink are registered trademarks of VCG, Inc. For more information visit: www.vcgsoftware.com or call 1.800.318.4983.
For more information regarding VCG or our solutions, visit our website, VCG Staffing Software, or call 800-318-4983. VCG, C-PAS, StaffSuite, TempWare-V, WebPAS, StaffSuite WorldLink, and WebPAS WorldLink are registered trademarks of VCG Inc.