Optima Site Solutions are market leaders in UK Construction recruitment. For 20 years, the recruitment agency has sourced temporary contractors and permanent recruitment solutions for thousands of clients. With a large, multi-national portfolio of specialist candidates, the agency prides itself on going the extra mile to find the best contracts and provides invaluable support to enhance candidates’ employability.
Situation
Optima Site Solutions works to source, place, and manage national and international candidates based in the UK for construction positions. The CRM system is the lifeblood of the company, holding over 165,000 candidate records which are used daily by its team of recruiters. As the UK Construction industry has experienced a loss of EU labor due to Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic, the recruitment agency partnered with Experian to boost its data integrity.
Challenge
Before the data cleanse, Optima Site Solutions experienced:
- A lack of visibility– The Operations team knew that the data was out of date but could not identify uncontactable candidates.
- Data inconsistencies – Many international phone numbers were missing dialing codes and incorrectly formatted.
- Time inefficiency – Recruiters spent time trying to contact candidates who did not have a valid number or email address, which delayed the recruitment process.
- Costly communications – Approximately 4 million texts were sent to candidates last year alone, totaling $168,000. The agency was charged even when the mobile numbers were dead.
Solution
The recruitment agency approached Experian regarding a data cleanse for its candidate records, which was managed by Experian’s Professional Services team. The objective was to identify and exclude candidates that were not contactable via email and/or phone, protect the email sender's reputation and enable cost savings on communications. The cleanse would also give the agency an up-to-date view of the size of its candidate pool.
Outcomes
Since the data cleanse, Optima Site Solutions has benefited from:
- An accurate view of candidates – Over 65,000 uncontactable candidate records were instantly disposed of, leaving over 100,000 genuine contacts in the CRM system.
- Reduced SMS costs – Every text sent costs 4 pence, whether the number of active or dead. The volume of messages sent has dramatically decreased with instant cost savings.
- Improved sender reputation – Using only valid emails in campaigns has helped to protect the company’s sender reputation and lower the bounce rate.• Increased staff productivity – Recruiters have greater confidence in the contact information they use and save up to 1 hour each day.
- Better experience – Staff are able to build better relationships with candidates over time
What's next?
Optima Site Solutions is continuing to put data integrity at the forefront of the organization’s strategic agenda. The team will continue to work closely with Experian for regular data auditing while also exploring real-time data validation solutions to ensure valid and accurate data is first captured from candidates.
