FIRESOFT People is an Australian born recruitment agency that focuses on the IT & Digital recruitment space. This involves services such as infrastructure & architecture, BI & analytics, project services, software & development, fintech and executive roles. FIRESOFT People was founded in 2012 by Erin Evans and Danny Normington, hwit the key principle to challenge the status quo. Together they knew they could set the standard for IT recruitment in Australia.
Bullhorn caught up with FIRESOFT People’s Co-Founder, Erin Evans and Marketing Manager, Jessica Karanfilovski to understand how FIRESOFT is leveraging the Bullhorn Platform to drive technological change within their organisation and lead the industry from the front.
The Challenge
When FIRESOFT People launched their business back in 2012, they utilised a very low tech ATS tracking tool. When they decided to grow and scale the business they realised they needed a more robust solution. Erin Evans explained they were searching for a new platform that is “sticky for the long term, it needed to allow us to scale and not top out again.”
Their previous recruitment technology involved using separate systems that didn’t connect and “speak to one another.” They quickly realised this wasn’t a long term solution and saw the need for a system that enabled separate services to be added to their ATS which would result in one system operating as their “single source of truth.” Jessica noted, FIRESOFT wanted to “seek out that transparency and find out what’s happening with the company at any time” This is when the business made the move to Bullhorn, adding Bullhorn Automation and Bullhorn Analytics to their suite not long after, to ensure they had the robust long term solution they needed.
The Solution
When the decision was made to change ATS, FIRESOFT People explored all the key players on the market. After being referred to Bullhorn by a respected peer in the industry, it was Bullhorn’s ability to track reporting, customise processes and create their own workflows within the system, which sealed the deal for them. Erin felt that many of the other ATS’s on the market were “very complicated and very administrative heavy. We are very aware that sales people like to do things in the fewest clicks possible.” Instantly on implementation of Bullhorn an “initial big win was the ability to create a workflow that was standard to the way we do things, so when new consultants joined the business it was a very simple process to follow.”
Over two years ago, Erin flagged automations as a “must have” when the time was right for their business. Erin highlighted, “Bullhorn Automation enables FIRESOFT People to heighten our level of contact and communication with candidates and clients and provide a better experience for both.” With automation in place, they’ve been able to reduce the burden on their recruiters. “We’ve been able to automate a lot of the tasks, mainly the ‘busy work’ of the recruiters”, Jessica said. “It’s all been automated so that if a recruiter does forget something, Bullhorn Automation is there to make sure nothing is missed.”
As the business has scaled, FIRESOFT have enhanced their platform further by implementing Bullhorn Analytics. “Bullhorn Analytics has literally been groundbreaking for us”, Erin said. “It is one thing I feel can have an immediate and huge impact on visibility of trends and patterns. We are easily able to understand output versus ROI on each stage of the process.” Using the Analytics suite, FIRESOFT’s admin team is able to share how the business and its consultants are performing on a daily basis, followed by a weekly summary as well. “Bullhorn Analytics ensures that everybody in the business has a snapshot of what each person has been working on, how they’re tracking. It gives us an easy way to measure success or figure out where we need to improve as well”, Jessica stated. With Bullhorn Analytics, Erin highlighted “there’s no hiding for anyone, leadership included, so it’s been phenomenal.”
The Results
Since implementing Bullhorn, FIRESOFT has seen major improvements in their business performance. The key has been their ability to track and report on data, enabling the business to push towards better outcomes. “It has enabled consultants to really drive their own business every single day”, Erin explained.
Being able to create the right workflows and remove all the things that were not needed, resulted in phenomenal feedback from the FIRESOFT People consultants. “We loved that when our consultants asked, can we do this or that [with Bullhorn], the answer is always yes.” Erin detailed that “Over the years, being able to add in the marketplace partners and add in automation and data analytics, we just feel empowered.”
Bullhorn Automation has been effective on the marketing front for FIRESOFT People too. “You can reach a lot more people, much quicker with Bullhorn Automation”, Jessica explained. “We love that we are able to touch base with our candidates and clients more personally based on their actions. It has been really great from a customer experience perspective and elevating the marketing side of things through the business”, said Jessica. She gave the example of an application acknowledgment or rejection email. Jessica stated “It’s a simple one but they do go a long way. It’s those touchpoints with our brand that constantly remind candidates and potential clients that we are here, we’re thinking of them and if they need us they’re able to get in touch. It is helping with the customer journey, but it’s also eliminating a lot of the time and the effort that it would’ve taken traditionally to do to get to a certain task.”
By leveraging Bullhorn, FIRESOFT’s team has been able to work more closely across different functions of the business. They have a team named ‘Matrix’, a cross collaboration between marketing, admin and support who work closely together to create and execute many of their campaigns. In addition, FIRESOFT People know their Bullhorn Account Manager is just a phone call away should they need additional support or guidance. Jessica said, “Our account manager is really great at building those relationships and getting us the help we need to ensure that we are leveraging all of the Bullhorn platforms that we have.” She continued, “I’ve really appreciated the assistance that I get from our Bullhorn Account Manager. Relationships are very important in this day and age and that’s what we are trying to build with our own clients. So we do appreciate the personalised services that we receive [from Bullhorn].”
The Future
FIRESOFT People want to use Bullhorn and the efficiencies they’ve gained to grow their business further. “We really want to bed this down. We want to ensure that it’s part of the culture here, but also part of the process and the workflow. So for us it’s really about enabling growth and diversifying our service offering”, Erin stated.
On automation, Jessica explained, “We want to take our automations to the next level. We are thinking about ‘what’s next for us?’ What are other clients doing that is really getting a good return on investment.” She continued, “We’re very much focused on humanising the experience and ensuring that every touchpoint of our customer journey is pleasant for candidates and clients and our staff as well. We wanna just make things as easy as possible for everybody involved.”
Erin concluded “in answering where we anticipate the company going in the future? We have a three to five year plan. It’s always been measured against the technology capacity and its ability to deliver to those requirements. So it’s very exciting!”
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