Integrated Solution Archives

Navigating the AI Transformation in Staffing

To stay competitive, firms must embrace and effectively leverage these technological advancements.

The AI Revolution in Staffing

AI is transforming core staffing processes. Tedious tasks are now automated, freeing up time for higher-value activities like strategic advisement. Here are key areas where AI is making an impact:

Candidate Sourcing and Matching: AI algorithms analyze extensive data to identify ideal candidates quickly and accurately, reducing the time to fill positions.
Screening and Assessment: AI automates candidate screening, evaluating qualifications, soft skills, and cultural fit, enhancing the efficiency and accuracy of the hiring process.
Chatbots and Virtual Assistants: AI-driven chatbots engage candidates, answer queries, and provide seamless application experiences 24/7.
Data-Driven Insights: AI analyzes data to offer insights into market trends, compensation, and candidate behavior, aiding in data-driven decision-making.
Process Automation: AI automates routine tasks like onboarding and compliance checks, allowing recruiters to focus on strategic activities.

Staying Competitive with Customized AI Tools

To thrive in an AI-driven staffing environment, firms must invest in tailored AI solutions. Whether through a comprehensive applicant tracking system (ATS) or specialized sourcing tools, choosing technology that fits organizational needs is crucial. Customizable tools ensure seamless integration with existing workflows.

Continuous learning and education for staff are also essential. As AI evolves, employees must stay updated on advancements to maximize tool effectiveness. Organizational leaders can leverage AI insights for strategic planning, fine-tuning recruitment strategies, understanding market dynamics, and making informed decisions.

Enhancing the Human Experience

AI can significantly enhance the candidate experience. Tools like AI-driven chatbots provide quick responses and assistance, making the application process smoother and more engaging. This leads to better employee retention and reduced turnover.

For recruiters, AI is a tool to augment capabilities, not replace them. Encouraging recruiters to use AI for relationship-building, personalized communication, and strategic decisions is crucial. Educating clients about AI benefits and transparent usage enhances their recruitment process.

Embrace AI or Get Left Behind

The staffing industry is undergoing a profound technological shift with AI at the forefront. Firms that embrace AI and adapt their strategies will stay ahead in this competitive landscape. AI streamlines operations, improves experiences, and provides valuable insights for decision-making.

AI tools must be vetted for data privacy, ethical considerations, and compliance with relevant laws. When used correctly, AI can transform the staffing industry meaningfully.

By investing in AI, providing continuous education, and fostering human-AI collaboration, staffing firms can navigate this evolving landscape and establish themselves as industry leaders.

Bilflo’s Back-Office Automation: Streamline your staffing operations with Bilflo’s back-office automation services. From payroll to compliance, our solutions free up your team to focus on strategic growth. Embrace AI-driven efficiency and stay ahead of the curve with Bilflo. Get access to an instant demo.

Navigating 2024: Key Trends from the State of Staffing Report

The staffing sector is rapidly evolving due to new technologies, changing workplace dynamics, and economic uncertainties. Therefore, quickly adapting to these changes is now essential for staying competitive. The 2024 State of Staffing Report sheds light on the key trends shaping the industry, which is crucial for both staffing professionals and employers aiming to stay ahead.

Emerging Challenges with New Dimensions

The staffing industry faces ongoing challenges like finding qualified workers and attracting new clients. However, these challenges have evolved. For instance, remote work has expanded candidate options, while post-layoff talent pools present mismatches. Additionally, many companies are now opting for direct contracting, bypassing traditional staffing agencies.

Opportunities vary by sector; healthcare and science are promising, tech hiring is cautious, and niches like engineering show potential. Meanwhile, industrial and office jobs remain uncertain. Leading agencies are leveraging AI tools and automation to enhance recruitment, though outdated processes and talent shortages remain significant hurdles.

Key Insight: Embracing technology, enhancing candidate experiences, and building strong talent pools are critical for success in the post-pandemic world.

Key Insights from The 2024 State of Staffing Report

Automation and Technological Advancements

Automation is revolutionizing staffing processes. Leading agencies automate tasks like candidate sourcing and interview scheduling to boost efficiency. While adopting automation can be daunting, it is essential for reducing administrative burdens and staying competitive.

Practical Steps:

Identify Tasks for Automation: Automate repetitive tasks like resume screening and interview scheduling using advanced Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS).
Leverage AI Tools: Use AI-powered platforms for initial candidate assessments to save time.
Streamline Communication: Implement automated email workflows to keep candidates informed throughout the application process.
Optimize Scheduling: Integrate scheduling tools with your ATS to simplify interview arrangements.

Enhancing the Candidate Experience

In a competitive job market, providing an excellent candidate experience is vital. Agencies that excel prioritize responsive communication and seamless application processes, ensuring a positive journey from the first click to hire. Furthermore, a great candidate experience not only attracts top talent but also generates high-quality referrals.

Effective Strategies:

Create Targeted Content: Develop blog posts and resources that resonate with your ideal candidates, showcasing your expertise and company culture.
Expand Beyond Job Boards: Use social media platforms like LinkedIn to directly connect with potential candidates.
Maintain Clear Communication: Ensure consistent and transparent communication throughout the application process.
Support Career Growth: Highlight your commitment to candidates’ long-term success through resources and mentorship opportunities.

Economic Adaptability

The economic landscape requires staffing agencies to be flexible and creative. Slow demand from clients and a shortage of available candidates emphasize the need for adaptability. Data-driven strategies can help agencies thrive despite these challenges.

Data-Driven Approaches:

Analyze Successes: Identify your most profitable clients and tailor your marketing messages accordingly.
Personalize Marketing: Use data to craft targeted messages that address specific client needs.
Monitor and Adjust: Regularly assess marketing performance and refine strategies based on data insights.

Client Acquisition in a Cautious Market

With talent shortages and economic uncertainties, acquiring new clients is more challenging. Employers are cautious about hiring, prioritizing flexibility and career growth opportunities.

Adopting AI in Staffing

AI adoption is on the rise in staffing agencies, with tools like ChatGPT being used for tasks such as writing job descriptions. AI enhances efficiency and productivity, allowing agencies to focus on strategic activities.

AI Integration Tips:

Implement AI Tools: Use AI for automating content creation and candidate assessments.
Humanize AI Output: Ensure human editors refine AI-generated content to make it engaging and relatable.

Bilflo: Streamlining Your Back-Office Operations

At Bilflo, we understand the complexities of the staffing industry. Our back-office automation solutions simplify your operations, allowing you to concentrate on business growth. From payroll processing to compliance management, Bilflo handles routine tasks, saving you time and resources. Let us take care of the administrative load so you can excel in today’s dynamic staffing environment.

Contact us today to discover how Bilflo can transform your back-office operations.

2023 Recruiting: 8 Tips to Attract More Candidates

As the labor market in the United States continues to tighten, businesses must focus on proactive ways to attract job seekers to fill their openings. The US Labor Department reported in January 2023 that there were 10.5 million job openings across the country as of November 2022, with about 1.7 vacancies for every available worker. Employers must look for ways to entice and hire qualified applicants to meet the growing demand for workers. Furthermore, a Korn Ferry study predicts a global human talent shortage of more than 85 million people by 2030.

Businesses must use all available resources to attract job seekers to combat this looming problem. This could include targeted recruiting, competitive wages and benefits, and creating an employee-friendly workplace. Furthermore, posting job openings on social media and job boards can be an effective way to reach a large number of potential candidates. Employers can ensure a pool of qualified applicants to choose from in the future by taking proactive steps to address the talent shortage.

Here are eight tips to help you attract more candidates in 2023.

1. Job Posting Tips: Job postings should be succinct, informative, and easy to read. Make sure to include the necessary information, such as job title, salary range, location, job responsibilities, and qualifications. You should also include any additional benefits or perks. Additionally, use keywords that are relevant to the job posting so that it will appear in searches.

2. Utilize a Job Board with an Extensive Resume Database: Look for candidates in the right places, such as job boards, social media, and other online platforms. The best place for you might not be the best place for someone else, so look into the unique offerings of each type of platform.

Because they provide a large and constantly replenishing pool of talent, resume databases have numerous advantages. This allows you to fill positions quickly while also saving money.

A good job board will also let you search its database for qualified candidates in a variety of ways, including by role, skills, location, expected salary, and much more.

3. Use Niche Job Boards

Niche job boards are those that specialize in a specific industry, field, or skill set. They receive less traffic than large websites such as Indeed or LinkedIn, but they allow you to fish for the exact fish you want.

The following are some examples of niche job boards for specific roles:

For startups, Try AngelList, VentureLoop, and Startupers.
For Remote work, Advertise on WeWorkRemotely, NoDesk, or Remotive.com.
For developers, Try Dice and CrunchBoard.

4. Utilize Banners, e-shots, and other premium tools: Many job boards provide a variety of premium tools to help you promote your job and attract qualified candidates. As an example,

Jobs with premium featured ads appear at the top of search results.
CPM display advertising enables you to target specific audiences and display banners promoting your company’s profile and job opportunities.
Featured jobs, banners, e-shots, and tools that allow you to add an engaging video to your jobs and showcase your company culture are among the other tools available.

5. Examine Your Job Boards on a regular basis.

Not all job boards are created equal, and things change. It’s worth checking in on a regular basis to ensure that the job board you’re using is serving your needs.

Regularly review your job boards to ensure that your postings are up-to-date and that the resumes in the database are relevant to the job openings. This will help you narrow down the list of potential candidates.

6. Make the application process easier.

According to research, 90% of job seekers abandon their application if they are redirected to an external site during the application process, such as from a job advertisement on a job board to your website’s application form.

Despite the fact that very few people carry their resumes on their phones, 64% of job seekers apply for jobs via mobile devices, which makes the issue worse.

By importing the candidate’s information from their resume on the job board directly into the application form on your site, a direct application integration removes barriers. From the perspective of the job seeker, this occurs seamlessly; the result for you is nine times more applications!

7. Create an Employee Referral Program.

Employee referral programs are nothing new in 2023, but they are still challenging to get right.

A quick way to meet exceptional talent is to request recommendations from your current employees’ contacts. The fact that this recruitment strategy is totally free is what makes it so appealing!

One of the best methods for recruiting is through employee referrals, for the following reasons:

Referred candidates experience less turnover.
They are higher-caliber hires.
Their sourcing is cost-effective.
The key to successful employee referral programs is to strike a balance between quality and incentives. But not their poor connections—you want your staff to recommend people from their network actively.

The good news is that creating employee referral programs is simple, inexpensive, and produces qualified candidates quickly! It’s no surprise that it’s one of the most popular recruiting strategies among technical recruiters.

8. Nurture former employees

In keeping with the talent pool, one of the most overlooked recruitment strategies involves contacting former employees.

Therefore, it may seem like a bad idea at first to hire someone who previously worked for you, but bear with us. If the employee left on good terms, they might be ideal for their old role, a different role, or a new role higher up in your company.

Previous employees have the ideal combination of in-depth knowledge of your business and fresh knowledge, experience, and skills from working for other companies. Additionally, you’ll spend less time onboarding and hiring more quickly.

Conclusion:

In 2022, the competition in the job market was fierce. Recruiting top talent will still be difficult, even after it eases up a little bit in 2023.

These 8 efficient recruitment tactics offer some simple strategies that you can use to fill more positions, attract higher-quality applicants, and shorten your hiring cycle.

We suggest putting them to the test in your company to determine which ones are effective for your market and candidate pool.

About Bilflo

Bilflo tracks sales and recruiting activity, consolidates time and rates from various systems, and unifies sales and gross profit data. With all of this data in one place, you get an accurate overview of your contractors, team members, and organizational health.

Schedule a demo today to learn more about how Bilflo can help you streamline your staffing process!

How to Build the Right Tech Stack for Your Staffing Firm

Having the right tech stack is critical to optimizing your staffing firm’s business operations. But what exactly is a tech stack? And how do you build the right tech stack for your staffing firm?

Your tech stack is the set of technology tools that your staffing firm employs to achieve its objectives. It is the backbone of your company, supporting the work of your recruiters, administrative staff, and employees.

Why does your tech stack matter in today’s staffing landscape?

Choosing the right technology allows your staffing firm to remain competitive in the marketplace.

In today’s market, there is still a scarcity of qualified job candidates. This makes it more important than ever to reach, screen, hire, and onboard employees before your competitors—and to keep them.

Technology can help you boost your recruitment efforts by automating processes and workflows.

When your recruiters are preoccupied with administrative tasks, they have less time to contact job candidates. Automation allows you to accelerate tasks like sourcing and screening, allowing your recruiters to reach out to more candidates.

You can use technology to enhance the candidate and employee experience.

The right technology stack will make it easier for applicants and employees to fill out paperwork, search for open positions, and communicate with your staffing firm. When you create a positive candidate experience, your employees and job applicants are more likely to recommend your company, which boosts your reputation and generates more referrals.

Building a Successful Tech Stack

Things to consider when building your tech stack:

1. Business Goals: Consider what business goals you are trying to achieve with your tech stack, such as improving customer experience, increasing efficiency, or reducing costs. This will help determine which technologies are most appropriate for your needs.

2. Compatibility: Integration is important for a variety of reasons. It is necessary for increasing efficiency, eliminating redundancies, and creating a unified system. Integration helps to avoid duplication of effort, thus reducing costs and improving workflow. It also allows for improved data management, as data from multiple sources can be consolidated into a single source

3. Security: Security should be a top priority when building a tech stack. Ensure that the technologies you select have secure authentication systems and data encryption.

4. Scalability: Consider how the technologies you select will scale with your business as it grows. You want to ensure that you are not limited in the future.

5. Budget: Make sure you are aware of the cost of the technologies you are selecting and that they fit into your budget. Additionally, consider the ongoing costs of maintenance and upgrades.

Software solutions to include and why they are important.

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS): ATS software is important because it helps businesses manage their recruitment process. It allows them to track and manage job applications, keep up with applicant information, and automate processes like resumes, job postings, and interviews. It also helps businesses create a better candidate experience and make sure they are hiring the best people for their business.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software: CRM software helps businesses manage customer relationships. It allows them to track customer information, manage customer interactions, and create marketing campaigns. With CRM software, businesses can better understand their customers and build better relationships with them.

Recruitment Marketing Solutions: Recruitment marketing solutions help businesses attract the right candidates to their open positions. They allow businesses to create campaigns, track the success of their recruitment efforts, and optimize their strategies. This helps businesses find the right candidates and ensure they are hiring the best people for their business.

Timekeeping Solutions: Timekeeping solutions help businesses track employee hours and manage payroll. They can help businesses monitor employee attendance, manage employee schedules, and create reports. This helps businesses be more efficient and accurate when it comes to managing their payroll.

Billing and Invoicing Software: Billing and invoicing software is important because it helps businesses track and manage their invoicing and billing processes. It allows them to quickly create invoices and track payments. This helps businesses ensure they are billing their customers accurately and on time.

Business Intelligence: Business intelligence helps businesses make better decisions. It allows them to analyze data, create reports, and identify trends. This helps businesses make more informed decisions and stay ahead of the competition.

Conclusion

Any new technology should be approached with caution, especially if it represents a significant investment. However, staffing tech stacks are no longer a new technology. They are, in fact, proving to be a necessity.

Staffing firms must shift their focus from working IN the business to working ON their business. And that work should be centered on the creation of a fully functional technology stack. Because, when done correctly, a technology stack has the potential to transform your organization into something far greater than the sum of its parts.

With Bilflo, we make it simpler to manage your technology stack by giving you a single point of control and visibility into your entire tech stack. This helps you to monitor performance, identify areas of improvement, and make informed decisions about how to manage your tech stack.

When you have all of this functionality in one platform, you improve the efficiency of your staffing firm by making it easy for your team to perform their day-to-day tasks without having to switch between multiple tools.

Looking for a software provider with industry-leading technology solutions? Contact our team to learn more.

The Benefits of Using Online Staffing Software

One of your objectives as an agency is to streamline the recruiting process in order to meet the demands of your clients as efficiently as possible.

As your staffing firm grows, you want staffing software that is scalable, cost-effective, simple to use, and accessible anywhere. Here’s where staffing software on the cloud comes in.

Software as a Service (SaaS), often known as cloud-based software, is software that can be accessed from any location using a web browser and doesn’t require any installation or management of software on a local computer.

Here are some benefits that may be helpful to you if your business is still on the fence regarding cloud-based staffing software:

1. Shouldn’t the front and back offices be friends?

Have you ever thought about how nice it would be to access and analyze your workforce and sales data in a unified system of record?

One approach to significantly boost productivity at your staffing firm is to be able to integrate the front and back offices of the business,

2. Self-service is popular with clients and staff.

By enabling your staff and clients to utilize online access, you may relieve your team of the pressure of having to engage in the back-and-forth game of calls, emails, etc. that takes up their time and diverts them from hiring the finest people.

3. Payroll in no time. Eliminate the headaches.

Even accountants and payroll officials dislike reporting season since it may be a stressful time to verify data accuracy. If you do it the old-fashioned way or are utilizing unfriendly software, it may be a difficult process to meet the urgency of deadlines, such as payroll.

Why not choose a system that consistently meets payroll obligations and is aware of your company’s needs? The fact that staffing software is aware of these and other industry-specific requirements is one of its many appealing features. Additionally, a solid staffing software solution makes sure you can easily export the reports you want into your ERP system without any hassles, which brings us to our next point.

4. It can integrate with other systems.

Adopting a software solution that seamlessly connects with your current company systems will benefit your accounting team. As we indicated above, you might profit from many other facets of your organization, like human resources, recruiting, and more, if you had the capacity to support services beyond payroll. If your various applications don’t communicate with one another, being competitive in the era of cloud-based solutions might mean that your company falls behind the competition.

5. Multi-tenant and frequent releases

Due to the way the cloud works, users of the product are always running the most recent version of the program, which is often patched and updated to satisfy user demands. Instead of needing to wait two or more years between typical software releases, new features are now accessible a few times each year. Another advantage of this is that everyone who uses the cloud software is always using the same version of a release. As a result, there will be no compatibility problems or need for substantial changes.

6. Configuration and Tailored to Users’ Needs

One of the best features of a multi-tenant SaaS system is that it can operate on a subscription model depending on the specific requirements of a firm. This enables such businesses to utilize the software based on usage levels. Because there is no need to buy a license for software that may have more features than a business needs, this saves businesses money compared to a traditional software approach. Businesses may benefit more from this variable pricing approach by being able to manage user counts as needed. With staffing software that is cloud-based, a firm may use what they need when they need it.

Our recommendation

Switching from a traditional to an automated process is a big decision to make for your staffing organization. At Bilflo, we understand the needs of staffing agencies. That’s why Bilflo works with your existing applicant tracking (ATS), payroll, and accounting systems through open APIs to save time, reduce errors, and minimize data entry.

With Bilflo’s back office automation, you can transform your staffing company, by replacing labor-intensive back-office tasks while fueling the business intelligence you need to scale your company.

About Bilflo

Bilflo tracks sales and recruiting activity, consolidates time and rates from various systems and unifies sales and gross profit data. With all of this data in one place, you get an accurate overview of your contractors, team members, and organizational health.

Schedule a demo today to learn more about how Bilflo can help you streamline your staffing process!

The Advantages of Electronic Invoicing

Electronic invoicing is more efficient than paper or digital invoicing in terms of cost, speed, and accuracy. It also integrates more seamlessly into your accounting process and is more environmentally friendly.

It is becoming increasingly probable that some tasks and procedures that are currently completed manually will eventually be automated. Sending invoices is no exception to the general rule that automating manual procedures enables you to optimize your business and get it closer to operating at full efficiency.

What exactly is an electronic invoice?

An electronic invoice is electronic throughout its entire life cycle, which means that all aspects of its creation, sending, payment, and financial bookkeeping are handled by computer systems from start to finish.

Nevertheless, this should not be confused with a digital invoice, which is just a paper invoice that has been converted to digital form—probably in PDF format. Digital invoices are different from electronic invoices because they require human workers to enter the information from the invoice into the books—a procedure that is neither totally electronic nor automated.

Electronic invoices can be sent online or in a variety of file formats. For example, Bilflo provides a gateway for electronic invoicing that allows users to send client bills via email with only the click of a button.

The Benefits of Electronic Billing

When you contrast electronic invoicing with conventional paper invoicing, you discover that electronic invoicing performs better than traditional invoicing techniques in a number of areas.

Cost

As opposed to paper or digital invoices, adopting an electronic invoice allows you to save a sizable sum of money. With a digital invoice, you won’t have to pay for the paper your invoices are printed on or the postage you’ll need to use to mail them to your clients. In terms of a digital invoice, in the long run, you’ll save money because it will take less time to enter your data into accounting books. Data input for a digital invoice still needs to be done by a staff member, which takes time and demands payment (time is money!).

For instance, the US Treasury predicted in 2013 that the adoption of electronic invoicing would result in yearly cost savings of $450 million and cost reductions of 50%. It is probable that these numbers have increased since the report’s publication.

Efficiency

Most people who use electronic invoices discover that doing so makes their company and consumers’ lives easier. Electronic invoices often integrate seamlessly with your accounting software, eliminating the need for the labor-intensive and (sometimes) costly data entry procedure. They can be automated to send out recurring bills, can be paid by your customer with a single mouse click, and they can be sent out automatically to customers who have signed up for your service.

Speed

The pace at which these operations take place can significantly shorten the time it takes for your invoice data to be entered into your accounting system. Compared to paper and digital invoicing systems, electronic invoices can be delivered, received, paid, and settled considerably more quickly. This eliminates the time (and cost) required for an employee to manually enter the data from the electronic invoice format into your accounting systems by simply uploading or automatically syncing the information.

Accuracy

Compared to digital and paper invoices, electronic invoices are more likely to be correct. The process of creating an invoice is simplified when you utilize an electronic one, which reduces friction. There are various processes in which mistakes might occur when an employee is in charge of data input and transmission, such as during invoice production, client payment, and data entry, as in the case of paper and digital invoicing techniques. However, there is only one time in using an electronic invoice when a mistake can be made, and that is when the invoice is first created. In conclusion, employing an e-invoice reduces the possibility of errors in your billing procedure and accounting records.

Environmentally responsible

Environmentally speaking, utilizing electronic invoices is preferable to using paper ones. Using an invoicing technique that doesn’t include paper will demonstrate that your firm has taken social responsibility when it comes to protecting the environment, as the production of paper goods has been known to considerably contribute to deforestation.

The better approach to doing business

Due to the numerous advantages that electronic invoicing offers, an increasing number of businesses are using or developing electronic invoicing systems. Comparing paper-based billing to digital invoicing is more cost-effective, quicker, more accurate, and better for the environment. Additionally, you may save a ton of time and money by simply integrating electronic invoicing into your accounting books, which will help you keep your financial records organized and current.

Users of electronic invoicing have witnessed the benefits it may have for a company.

It would not be unexpected to see an increase in the number of manual operations becoming digitized in the future, given how much commerce is done online. One of the simplest ways to improve a generally laborious process is by using electronic invoices. Automated invoicing is also the more effective way to issue invoices. So, if you haven’t already, you should consider adopting electronic invoicing, especially if you want to be a pioneer in your field.

If you’re a staffing company, Bilflo is a great option for automating client billing and managing hundreds of contractors at once.

Source: TechRadar

Best Practices For Tracking Contractors’ Hours And Payroll

Tracking Contractors’ Hours And Payroll: Introduction

Tracking hours and doing payroll have traditionally been very labor-intensive processes. For staffing, keeping accurate hours and payroll can be more challenging than for most other industries. With large numbers of workers on the payroll at any given time and a high population of transient workers, there’s simply more opportunity to make mistakes, leading to a lot of work for not a lot of output. That being said, the output that is produced is critical to almost every type of organization. Remember, we’re talking about both time and money here, and automation can help save up to 75% on labor costs when properly implemented. In order to accomplish this, we recommend using a combination of automated timekeeping and payroll programs optimized for contractors.

Timekeeping Software

Timekeeping software is a key component of almost any business these days. Offering a host of benefits over traditional punch card systems, it allows for a reduction in payroll while increasing accuracy in time tracking. Here are some of the top benefits of using automated time tracking software.

Reduce Legitimate Error

Sometimes mistakes are going to be made, even the best employees make them. But there is a way around this, automation. By automating your timekeeping process, you virtually eliminate this risk. Simply put, there’s no one to make an error during this process as the entire thing is managed by software.

Lower Labor Costs Associated with Timekeeping

Manual timekeeping requires manual data entry. At this point, it’s more cost-effective to automate than staff many roles. This isn’t necessarily news, but it does need to be taken into consideration. For timekeeping specifically, eliminating the need to collect and enter time information into the system can be a huge timesaver with so many contractors on the payroll.

Enhance Real-Time Financial Planning

The ability to accurately know how you’re doing is key to planning for the future. That’s why automated timekeeping software’s ability to provide that data is so appealing. With traditional timekeeping, companies had to wait until payroll got involved to have a real idea of where they stood in regards to labor costs. Even then, the data was out-of-date by the time it arrived. Now, with the ability to have accurate labor costs in real-time, forecasting is easier than ever.

Decrease Scheduling Time

The need to schedule large groups of individuals can be time-consuming. The maintenance of these schedules after publication even more so. Having them centralized in a single location, where there can be no mixups that leave a client short-staffed, is paramount to keeping clients happy. Should a change need to be made, a qualified manager or administrator can go in and make them and it will be disseminated to everyone who needs to know in an instant.

Cut Down on Time Theft

This is the big one that occurs to most people when you mention the benefits of automatic timekeeping software. Buddy punching, “forgetting to clock in” and giving a false start time, and the manual alteration of timecards have been problems in the workforce for as long as people have been paid by the hour. With an automated time tracking system, those problems are things of the past. Keeping an exact digital record of arrivals and departures of your workers with ease makes time theft a much harder task to accomplish.

Payroll Software

Just like timekeeping, payroll automation and software have gone a long way toward reducing now avoidable errors when paying employees. A critical part of nearly every business, payroll software is responsible for managing, maintaining, and monitoring payments to employees by a company. These programs are ubiquitous and come in a variety of flavors. However, all share the same key benefits.

Employee Self Service

A payroll manager’s day can be busy enough without everyone personally stopping by who needs a copy of an old paystub or some minor piece of personal information adjusted. By offering self-service portals for employees. These types of programs can take a great deal of strain off the payroll department. Most employees would rather get this information themselves rather than be a bother, so the process is doubly efficient.

Stay Compliant

With the Fair Labor Standards Act requiring a minimum of the previous three years’ payroll records to be saved at any given time, automating your process ensures that every bit of information you’ve entered into the payroll system is saved until you delete it. This way should any issue ever arise with the government, you can have everything you need right at your fingertips.

Generate Reports

What good is data if you don’t do anything with it? With automated payroll software, you can create specific reports based on almost any payroll-related metric. Whether it’s total payroll over the years or comparing an onslaught of contractors during a specific time of the year, every year, by having your data in digital form you can easily create most reports you can think up.

Save Money

Automation came around to save money, plain and simple. Today, one of the biggest drivers behind the adoption of automation in payroll is still cost-cutting. Beyond the accuracy and increased capabilities, there is also money to be saved, a fact not to be forgotten. In fact, automating payroll can decrease your payroll expenses by as much as 80%.

How Bilflo Can Help

So, now we know how useful automation can be in the world of payroll and timekeeping. But the staffing world has its own unique challenges. That’s where Bilflo comes in. Specifically designed to integrate with your existing ATS through open APIs, it helps cut down on back-office expenses by automating essential but often time-intensive processes. Below are some examples of how Bilflow can help your staffing company cut down on unnecessary overhead while attaining new levels of accuracy and efficiency in hours tracking and payroll.

Tracking Contract Data

Keeping track of every detail of contract assignments can be a real lifesaver when you have so many contractors working for you at the same time. Bilflo can track a wide variety of data points associated with your contractor, all in a single easily accessible place. So, rates, burdens, timecard types, overtime rules, job site addresses, workers’ comp codes and rates, location-based burdens, approvers, sick and vacation journals, client agreements, candidate onboarding records, and more, are all at your fingertips with Bilflo.

Timecard and Expense Management

There’s a lot that goes into managing time and expenses. Particularly when you have such a large and transient pool of workers. With all of this, there can be many issues with inaccurate time, whether accidental or otherwise. The American Payroll Association estimates that 7% of total payroll can be attributed to inaccurate time. That’s why automation can be so helpful. With Bilflo, you can:

Automatically create, send & get approval for contractors’ timecards
Calculate overtime in all 50 states
Contractors can upload necessary documentation for reimbursement or as required
Timecards come in a variety of forms to suit your needs or can be imported from another program.

Automatic Data Transfer

As we just showed with timekeeping, manual entry of information is one of the biggest causes of error in business. The manual transfer of information between payroll and billing software can wreak serious havoc on a company’s finances due to errors and inconsistencies. By automatically retrieving and transferring data from contractor profiles to and from payroll, there is a significantly reduced risk of error.

Take the Guesswork Out of Invoicing

When invoicing, there can be a lot to keep track of. With Bilflo, you don’t have to rely on memory or handwritten notes. You don’t even need to access more than a single digital repository to see everything you need to invoice with confidence, including:

Payment terms, billing addresses, line item information, POs, email, and mail delivery preferences.
Automatically create invoices from client-approved timecards.
See reports in real-time on your contractors’ timecard status.

Accounting Integration

Integration between timekeeping and payroll makes sense on just about every level. However, there are many payroll departments that aren’t communicating as well as they should with their counterparts in timekeeping. With more businesses than ever are using accounting software to track their billing, integration between accounting and timekeeping software is more important than ever. Bilflo was built with this in mind. Now, you can export invoices in full detail and programmatically create and update invoices in your billing system all in a single place.

Find Answers Easily

Now that we have all this data, what can we do with it? According to Bilflo, the implications are broad. Because so many different data points are now held in one place, they can be utilized to create in-depth and novel reports that make the most of the various metrics Bilfo collects in innovative ways to give you the most utility out of the raw data input.

Tracking Contractors’ Hours And Payroll: Conclusion

Whether it’s the time-intensive nature of administrative tasks when performed by a human or our unfortunate propensity for error while completing those tasks, automation goes a long way toward limiting inefficiencies in the back office of staffing agencies by addressing those very issues head-on. By providing integration with a host of different ATSs and automating the most problematic tasks, Bilflo will help streamline your business processes so you can keep your focus where it should be.

How AI is Changing the Game for Recruiting

Even though it may seem like something out of a science fiction movie, AI or artificial intelligence is now here to stay. While often depicted as scary in contemporary films and TV, AI has proven to be extremely helpful to the recruiting and staffing industry due to an increasing demand for human capital paired with a diminishing supply of experienced and talented people within the labor pool.

Although it is still in its infancy, it has made inroads in many industries, but perhaps none more profoundly than in recruiting and staffing. AI for recruiting is the application of artificial intelligence to the talent acquisition process, and is designed to streamline or automate some part of the recruiting workflow, especially repetitive, high-volume tasks. According to a recent IDC report, in 2 years time 77% of HR organizations will be using AI for talent acquisition. While 56% currently use AI for this purpose. Let’s take an in depth look at all the ways AI is changing the game for recruiting.

AI FOR RECRUITING: SOURCING CANDIDATES

One of the most time-consuming and mind numbing parts of a recruiters job is manually going through loads of resumes looking for the appropriate candidates. Nearly half of recruiters say they spend close to 30 hours a week on sourcing alone. Instead of overtaxing recruiters, AI is making it possible to automatically narrow down the best people based on experience, skills, tenure and other qualities by applying this knowledge to automatically rank, grade, and shortlist the strongest candidates. Intelligent screening software that automates resume screening represents a huge opportunity for recruiters because it integrates with your existing ATS. This means it doesn’t disrupt your workflow or the candidate workflow and requires little IT support, not to mention it accelerates the hiring process.

BETTER ENGAGEMENT WITH CANDIDATES

Anyone that has ever gone through a number of interviews with a variety of companies can tell you that the process can sometimes feel dehumanizing. Ironically, it’s because many times humans, in this case recruiters and HR professionals, let emails, phone calls, and inquiries go unanswered due to the sheer amount of work they have on their plate. The result is that otherwise talented candidates that may be a good fit will slip through the cracks because they feel disillusioned with the hiring process of that organization. This is where AI can be especially effective because it can automatically respond and reach out to candidates with more info and even with full on conversations. Even though candidates know that there may not be a human behind this interaction, at least the organization is keeping them updated and answering any questions they have in a timely manner. Additionally, AI and automation can provide assessment testing and scoring without human intervention to create more efficiency in the hiring process by qualifying candidates quicker.

REMOVING BIAS FROM THE HIRING PROCESS

Unfortunately we all have biases. We tend to pre-judge people based on incomplete information and while most of these biases are not borne of malice, they are nonetheless harmful. Additionally, these biases often lead to bad hiring decisions that can negatively impact a company’s culture. Since AI isn’t warped by human biases, the outcomes it produces have less to do with race, gender, disability, or sexual orientation and more on skill and competency. This technology helps standardize the hiring process which ultimately results in more inclusive workplaces which have been shown to improve a company’s bottom line.

REDUCTION OF HIRING TIMES

In order to thrive, companies need to fill openings within their organization in a timely fashion. The reasons for this are keeping positions open can overburden existing staff, draining their morale and lowering productivity. Perhaps the most important benefit that AI offers is how much it reduces the hiring lifecycle. By automating the most repetitive and time-consuming parts of the hiring process, recruiters and HR professionals are able to find candidates, move them through the hiring pipeline, and onboard them quicker. The best part is that this technology can be integrated into existing recruiting processes without disruption.

DOING MORE WITH LESS

No matter what industry you’re in, executives are always looking for ways to cut costs while improving efficiency. Recruiting is no different in this regard, but luckily AI accomplishes the “do more with less” credo. This technology frees recruiters from menial tasks in a way never before seen, allowing them to forge more deep and meaningful relationships with candidates. This increased time spent with candidates allows HR staff and recruiters to go beyond just skills and achievements to see if a candidate would be a fit with company culture and to better assess their soft skills.

AI FOR RECRUITING: IN CONCLUSION

The bottom line is that AI has made recruitment faster, better and more fair. It’s by no means meant to replace humans in the hiring process, but rather to augment their skills and make them more potent by eliminating tasks that are menial and time consuming. Strangely, AI actually helps humanize the hiring process by improving workflows, improving engagement, and allowing everyone involved to feel more appreciated and allowing recruiters to spend more time getting to know the candidates they are looking to hire.

90 Percent of the Online Data Has Been Created in The Past Two Years!

Yes, you read that right. According to IORG, 90% of the online data in the world was generated in the last 2 years.

This is because of the new technologies we have such as Social Media, Internet-connected devices such as voice navigation, google maps, wearable technology (fitness tracker) just to name a few.

Though this doesn’t directly impact staffing agencies, have you ever wondered how much data your staffing company has generated, and are you able to make read and translate this data to gain insights?

At Bilflo, we consolidate and track sales & recruiting activity, time & rates from various systems and unify sales and gross profit to provide you with Business Intelligence for individuals, team performance, and the overall organizational health. You can easily generate valuable insights to see which part of your business is doing well by using predetermined filters or create as many filters as you need to effectively manage your business.

Bilflo helps you make data-driven decisions that have a dramatic impact on your bottom line and the overall growth of your company. And with Bilflo’s (Web-based) software, you can freely manage your business anytime, anywhere!

If you would like to find out more information about how Bilflo can benefit your business, you can request a Discovery Session and see it in action for yourself.

The Future of Staffing Lies in Automation.

No matter how small or big the number of employees at your business is, it would help if you considered opting for automation with your staffing services.

Despite growing fears that automation would replace everything from temporary workers to highly educated professionals, it should be underlined that the majority of the automated benefit will be realized in the need to educate, rather than remove, the new workforce. Plus, as made obvious by COVID-19, there is a growing need to outsource new talent at a faster pace in order to keep up with the diversifying needs of a consumer base that has also been transformed due to the circumstances.

When you opt for automation in your staffing services, you get everything from A-Z. In a way, staffing automation encompasses a lot, from automatically sending messages to changing internal information to analyzing the post-hire experience. Hence, this gives your employees more time on meaningful and productive activities like driving tangible growth and improving connections, rather than non-productive and repetitive tasks.

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