On your own work.
Your job adverts, your candidate messages, your compliance spreadsheet. Not slides.
Home / Recruitment and staffing agencies
Sector: recruitment and staffing
Someone on your side of the table when the systems don't work.
Norloch gives recruitment and staffing agencies in Edinburgh and across Scotland independent technology leadership. We review what you've got, fix the CRM you already pay for, connect payroll and compliance, and automate the chasing, one proven phase at a time.
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Most agencies start with a training session for consultants and admin. See the session
Updated October 2026
In short
Norloch provides independent technology advice, CRM remediation and workflow automation for recruitment, staffing and care agencies in Edinburgh, Scotland and the UK. That includes reviewing Salesforce, Bullhorn and Vincere setups, integrating payroll systems such as Staffology, Sage and Xero, automating compliance tracking and candidate communications, and reviewing supplier and IT support proposals on the agency's behalf.
Norloch is led by Shanoor Hussain, a fractional CTO and former Head of Managed Services at Datatonic and Cloudreach, and works on a phase-by-phase basis so agencies never commit to more than one proven step at a time.
Start here
Train the team first.
Most agencies start with a session for consultants and admin staff. They learn what the tools can do with candidate comms, job adverts and compliance chasing, and we see what's worth building.
Safe with candidate data.
What never goes into a public AI tool, which settings matter, and a one-page usage policy that fits your GDPR obligations.
Ends with a list, not a pitch.
A short priced list of what we'd automate first. Do it with us, do it yourself, or do nothing. Most pick one.
The problem
Why agency systems end up half-built.
Recruitment is one of the most software-heavy businesses there is, and one of the worst served by it.
The CRM was never finished.
Salesforce, Bullhorn or Vincere went in, the consultant left, and half the team went back to spreadsheets and WhatsApp.
Payroll is a separate world.
Timesheets, rates and hours re-keyed into Staffology, Sage or Xero every week.
Shift-filling is manual.
Broadcast texts, phone calls and replies tracked in someone's head.
Compliance is a filing cabinet.
Right-to-work, DBS/PVG, training certificates and renewals, checked by hand, found late.
A previous project failed.
An all-in-one system promised everything, delivered scheduling badly, and ended in a dispute. The directors are right to be wary.
Every supplier has an opinion.
The CRM developer, the IT support firm and the payroll vendor each quote for their piece. Nobody owns the whole.
What we do
Advise first. Build only what's missing.
The order matters. We don't build until the foundations are fixed.
- Independent review. A plain-English assessment of your CRM, payroll, compliance and IT setup, and what to do in what order.
- Supplier quotes checked. We read the proposals from your Salesforce developer or IT support firm and tell you what's fair, what's missing, and what to push back on.
- CRM fixed, not replaced. Finishing the setup you already paid for, so the team actually uses it.
- Payroll and timesheet integration. Hours and rates flowing from the CRM to payroll without re-keying.
- Compliance tracking. Expiry dates, missing documents and renewals surfaced automatically, before an audit does.
- Candidate and client communications. Shift broadcasts, confirmations, reminders and follow-ups drafted and logged, with a person deciding what's sent.
- IT and security sorted. The right support contract, Cyber Essentials, and no 36-month lock-ins.
How we think
What we've learned working with agencies.
Directors are cost-wary for good reason.
So every phase is priced before it starts, proven on live work, and can be stopped without losing what's been built.
Fix before you add.
Most agencies have more software than they use. The win is usually in finishing and connecting, not buying.
The agency manager is the champion.
We frame everything around operational shape and revenue, so the case is easy to make upstairs.
Candidates are people.
Automation handles the chasing. A person handles the conversation.
FAQ
Common questions.
We've been burned by a system before. Why would this be different?
Because we don't sell a system. We review what you have, fix what's fixable, and build only the pieces that are missing, one at a time, each proven on live work before the next is scoped. You own everything and pay for each phase separately.
Do we have to replace our CRM?
Almost never. Salesforce, Bullhorn, Vincere and JobAdder are all capable. The usual problem is that they were set up badly or never finished. We fix the setup and connect the gaps.
Can you review quotes from our other suppliers?
Yes. A lot of our work for agencies is sitting on your side of the table: reading the Salesforce developer's proposal, checking the IT support contract, and telling you plainly what's worth paying for.
Is candidate data handled safely?
Yes. Any automation runs inside your own systems, personal data is minimised before it reaches any AI model, and a person approves anything that goes to a candidate or client. We document the data flow for your compliance file.
What does it cost?
An independent review is priced by the day at £1,500; a few days is usually enough. Builds such as payroll integration or compliance tracking are fixed price, £1,500 to £5,000 for a first system. Training from £2,000 per team. Full pricing.
Do you work with care and social care staffing?
Yes. Care, social care and healthcare staffing have the heaviest compliance and shift-filling load of any sector, which is exactly where this pays off.
Had enough of systems that don't talk?
Free 30-minute call. Tell us what you've got and what went wrong last time. We'll tell you what we'd do first.
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