Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for recruitment agencies.
A checklist built from how recruitment agencies work, to print or save as a PDF and bring to any supplier meeting.
What the software should cover
Tick each one that matters to your business.
- Mandate and job description register
- Candidate pipeline
- Résumé database and search
- Interview line-up and feedback
- Offer and joining tracker
- Placement billing and replacements
- Recruiter daily report and targets
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- For agency owners
- For recruiters
- For team leads and account managers
- For accounts
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Open mandates by client, recruiter and age
- Pipeline count at sourced, screened, submitted, interviewed and offered
- Closures made, offers declined and backouts before joining
- Candidate sources that end in a placement
- Invoices raised, collected and outstanding by client
- Replacement cases and free replacements given
- Recruiter targets against submissions and closures
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- SMS and email
- Mailbox pickup for CV attachments
- Calendar for interview slots
- Job portal CV import
- Payment links and gateways
- Accounting software export on request
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- Will a recruiter know if a candidate was already sent to that client?
- Can CVs come in from a mailbox or a job portal?
- Is this an ATS or a recruitment CRM?
- Does it schedule interviews with the client panel?
- Is the replacement window tracked after joining?
- Can a fee be billed as a share of annual salary?
- Does it cover contract staffing as well?
- Can invoices reach my accounting software?
- Can candidates apply through our own website?
- What does it cost?
- What sets how soon recruiters can work mandates on it?
- What should the agency bring together?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- The same résumé goes twice
- Client feedback never comes back
- Offers end in a backout
- Replacement windows are not counted
- The daily report eats every evening
Prefer to talk it through? See the recruitment agencies page.