Bullhorn report finds recruitment firms are profitable but still facing challenges

More than 75% of staffing and recruitment firms met or exceeded their revenue goals last year, according to a report from CRM and recruitment software providers Bullhorn.

The report, titled “2017 North American Staffing and Recruiting Trends Report: Above and Beyond Business as Usual” found that many firms were remaining "bullish" for 2017 in the face of economic challenges and talent shortages.

The firms that were surveyed added that they expect this year to more profitable and productive than last year. Bullhorn reports that 80% of companies expected "some revenue growth", and 17% expected revenue growth of more than 25%.

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The companies added that financial stability was more important than expanding the businesses' branches and locations.

According to the study, domestic economic hurdles were a bigger concern than global ones.

As for Brexit, three quarters said they were “indifferent” or “not concerned”, respectively, while there were divided opinions on the impact of the Trump administration on business with a close to 50/50 split on the matter.

The biggest challenges identified by respondents was the ongoing talent shortage, especially when it comes to engineers and developers, as well as problems with tapping into new and existing customers.

A number of respondents added that they were neglecting databases that helped them find untapped customers and that there was a lack of metrics available that could help.