Charlton Morris is a talent solutions firm with offices in Leeds, Manchester, Peterborough and London. The firm specialises in recruitment for the life sciences, medical and industrial sectors. Charlton Morris’ vision is to change the way the world sees recruitment by giving its people and customers the best possible experience. To make this vision a reality, Charlton Morris employed a data-driven approach that champions an unparalleled candidate experience, supported by its use of Bullhorn solutions.
The challenge
Before using Bullhorn, Charlton Morris’ end-to-end operations were considerably less efficient. Like many other recruitment agencies, it used office-based whiteboards to monitor key performance metrics.
This lack of efficiency held the firm back in certain key areas. Charlton Morris needed greater visibility into data and performance metrics to make the changes necessary to realise its vision.
Why Bullhorn?
Charlton Morris had already experienced success using Bullhorn’s customer relationship management(CRM)/applicant tracking system(ATS). Although this increased productivity, its reliance on manual KPI monitoring meant that they could not track and leverage data in decision-making.
To address this, the company needed something to improve its tracking of key metrics – a solution that could easily be interpreted and offered full-scale visibility to recruitment consultants.
This revelation led to the decision to integrate Bullhorn Analytics into the agency’s existing processes. The addition of Bullhorn Analytics enhanced the firm’s tracking ability, giving them a full spectrum of digital tools to help realise its vision.
The results: everything in one place
The addition of Bullhorn Analytics provided a one-stop-shop for data transferred from the CRM. A major advantage of this was the fact that business leaders and consultants now had a single source of truth for data and could track processes in every category.
Having this all-in-one place means that anyone with access can easily flag issues and identify opportunities for growth. Business leaders now have more confidence in introducing changes, as anyone who needs proof of viability can simply view the metrics.
The other major advantage is that the database is purely digital, so the firm no longer relies on whiteboards to track important metrics.
Kris Holland, Director of Marketing and Revenue Operations at Charlton Morris, said: “Bullhorn Analytics improves visibility and allows you to be much more analytical with everything you do. It encourages better practice and process mapping”.
Justifying a four-day working week
The data Bullhorn Analytics made available enabled Charlton Morris to implement the major changes necessary to realise its vision in the years that followed.
Among these changes was trialling a four-day working week. This significant shift was a major benefit to the employees as they had an improved work/life balance, which led to increased productivity.
Charlton Morris discovered some rather interesting (and positive) results at the end of the four-month trial. Most importantly, the company discovered that its productivity rate was higher when staff worked a four-day week.
The firm’s fill rate increased by a quarter (26%) and its internal candidate applications increased by 1,000% when the four-day working week was announced – proving that the proposal was a welcome cultural shift.
Charlton Morris also managed to increase the rate at which sent CVs became interviews by 7.6%. During the initial four-month trial period, the firm also recorded 11.1% more interviews booked per recruiter. This was in part due to the increased conversion rate but, at the individual level, CV-sending activity increased slightly.
Using this full-spectrum set of data, the firm was able to quantify the effects of the four-day working week across the entire business. Holland was impressed by the breadth of information on offer: “Comparing data over three years with Bullhorn Analytics enabled us to look at data with a critical eye and be objective about it.”
A better experience for all
Using Bullhorn Analytics – as well as Analytics Program, Slice & Dice, Trends and Oneview – Charlton Morris was able to deep dive into its productivity data sets. This spanned a range of metrics, including time to fill, interviews undertaken, number of CVs sent to interviews, as well as number of jobs compared to the fill rate. By using KPIs and real-time client performance data from Analytics, consultants could easily see where their work was having the greatest impact and decide how to invest their time most effectively.
In turn, this contributed to its vision of providing a better service to both its clients and employees. Consultants’ time is a precious resource and being able to clearly see where it would be best spent alleviates stress. All this is possible due to the one-stop-shop nature of Analytics and how simple it makes measuring existing clients’ results.
Charlton Morris has now started using Bullhorn Analytics in other areas. For example, with Bullhorn Analytics, Charlton Morris now tracks and measures the performance of each client. Analysing the data enables them to understand what makes profitable, long-term clients stay. They then use this knowledge to consult on processes that will give both clients and candidates the best possible outcome – a faster placement.
Commenting on this freedom of direction, Holland noted that: “Bullhorn Analytics is the central point of truth that allows us to analyse the most effective tools we’re using. Whether hitting the phones, putting together email marketing campaigns or taking a content-led approach to candidate or client acquisition, Bullhorn Analytics allows individuals to work in a way that is most effective for them.”