Playbook, recruitment agency
Three clocks running on a recruitment website
A branch has opening hours and almost nobody who urgently needs them is on the website at that hour. The times that decide anything here are attached to work: when a shift starts, who answers when somebody cannot get there, and when hours have to be in to be paid this week. An agency that publishes only its office hours has answered the least useful of the three questions it is being asked.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for opening hours holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- Assignments start before and finish after any office is open, so a worker who cannot make a six o'clock start needs an out of hours number rather than a note saying the branch opens at nine.
- The payroll cut off is a fixed hour on a named day and it governs money, which makes it the most consequential time on the whole site and the one most often buried three clicks down.
- Registration usually runs in set slots rather than all day, so a branch being open does not mean anybody can walk in and register at four in the afternoon with a folder of documents.
- Client contact hours are a separate answer again, because a hiring manager who needs cover on site tomorrow morning is asking how late a booking can be taken, not when the door is unlocked.
How it arrives
- what time does the branch open
- who do i ring if i cannot get to my shift at 6am
- what time do timesheets have to be in by
- can i come in and register this afternoon
- are you open on saturdays for temps
- how late can we book a worker for tomorrow
What has to be indexed for this to work
| The out of hours number and what it covers | Who answers, between which hours, and what they can actually do. This belongs inside the handover wording as well as in a document, because a worker who cannot get to a five o'clock start will not read a page first. |
|---|---|
| The timesheet cut off as a day and an hour | Not before the weekend, but the exact day and time, with what happens to a late submission. Ambiguity here costs somebody a week's pay and produces the angriest messages the site ever receives. |
| Registration slots, stated separately from branch hours | Which days and times you register candidates, whether an appointment is needed and how long to allow. A branch open all day that registers only in the mornings has two answers, and publishing one of them sends people home. |
| The latest a client can book cover for the next day | Your booking cut off for next day work and who takes it after the branch closes. Clients ring round at five in the afternoon, and the agency that publishes this is the one that gets the booking. |
The reply
The branch hours are on our contact page, but they are probably not the times you need. If you are on assignment and cannot get to a shift, use the out of hours number rather than waiting for the office to open [1]. Timesheets have to be in by the cut off on our payroll page to make that week's run, and that time does not move [2]. If you want to come in and register, that runs in set slots rather than throughout the day, so check before you travel. I cannot book anything or see who is in, so tell me what you need and I will pass it on.
It says the obvious answer is the wrong one in the second sentence, which is unusual and correct here. The out of hours line comes before the cut off because a missed shift is the more immediate of the two. And it separates the branch being open from registration being available, which is the wasted journey candidates make most.
Where it stops
The trigger. The visitor cannot get to a shift, has missed or is about to miss the cut off, or wants to know whether a consultant is available right now.
I cannot see who is in or hold a slot for you. If this is about a shift today, use the out of hours number on our contact page, and leave me your name and an email so I can pass it on as well.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never say the branch is open at a time not in your published hours, because somebody will travel on the strength of it.
- Never say a late timesheet will still make the current pay run.
- Never say a consultant is available now, since the assistant cannot see a rota or who is in the office.
- Never treat a worker who cannot get to a shift as an opening hours enquiry, because that is an operational problem measured in minutes.
Questions
- Our hours are already on the contact page. Why write more?
- Because the times people ask about are the cut off and the out of hours number, and neither is an opening time. Publishing office hours alone answers the question almost nobody has urgently.
- Should the out of hours number sit in the handover wording?
- Yes. A worker who cannot get to an early start is not going to read a page, and a number that appears in the first reply is the difference between a covered shift and an unexplained absence on a client site.
- Can it say whether somebody's consultant is in today?
- No. It cannot see a rota, a diary or anybody's whereabouts. It can give the hours and the routes and take a message, which is what the question was reaching for anyway.
Keep reading
- Everything for a recruitment agencyTwo audiences on one website. Process, payroll and compliance questions are answerable, application outcomes never are.
- Handling opening hours in generalHolidays, seasonal variation, last orders and multiple sites. Keeping one source of truth so the assistant and your map listing agree.
- Three addresses, and the one that must not be publishedRegistration is at the branch, the interview is at the client and the work is elsewhere again. Which address may be given out, and when.
- The questions candidates will not ring a branch to askWhat to wear, how long it takes, whether there is a test. The registration nerves nobody will phone a branch to ask a consultant about.
- A refund here is a clause, and usually not moneyRebate scales taper, a replacement usually comes first and conditions void both. What may be quoted when a hire leaves in week three.
Try it on your own material
Upload a document or point it at your site, paste one line of HTML, then ask it something only your business could answer.