Industry guide
HRIS for Recruitment Agencies in the Philippines: Define Your Scope First
By ElevenOS ··5 min read
A recruitment agency manages several different groups of people: its employees, candidates in its database and the client contacts involved in hiring. An HRIS can organize the agency’s own employee records, attendance, leave and payroll. Client recruitment introduces another set of requirements, including submissions, placements and commercial tracking. Before choosing software, identify which group and workflow you want to improve. That decision makes the demonstration, quotation and implementation much more useful.
Published by ElevenOS. Product scope and quotes can change; confirm your requirements with each provider.
In this guide
1. Identify whose records and payroll you are managing
List your agency employees, the candidates you introduce to clients, and any other workforce whose administration you handle. A candidate database containing thousands of people does not automatically mean thousands of employee subscriptions.
For each group, record who maintains the information, who approves changes and which organization owns the next step. An accepted client placement may belong in the client’s HR process rather than your agency’s payroll. Where employment or payroll responsibility is unclear, settle that question with the responsible business owners before configuring the software.
Ask how the vendor counts active employees, recruiters, candidates and client accounts. An employee-based HRIS price may not describe your recruitment system’s licensing model.
2. Map an ordinary working week for your own team
Start with one recruiter or coordinator employed by the agency. They need a maintained profile, a work schedule, a way to record attendance, a leave process and access to their payslip. Their manager needs to review exceptions without chasing several chat threads. Payroll needs the approved information by a known cutoff.
A recruiter might attend a client meeting, forget a punch or request leave during a hiring campaign. Demonstrate the review and correction process under your company’s policy. Location-based clocking should fit the agreed work arrangement, including approved offsite work.
ElevenOS Starter lists employee records, self-service, attendance with geofencing, schedules, leave and approvals. Growth adds payroll and payslips. Ask to follow one example across those workflows so your team can judge the daily effort involved.
3. Evaluate hiring and reviews as defined workflows
ElevenOS Growth includes recruitment and performance tools. Its recruitment workspace provides requisitions, openings, candidates, pipeline stages, interviews, offers and a talent pool. Those are useful areas to demonstrate when assessing hiring for your own organization. For example, follow an application for an internal recruiter vacancy through screening, interview and an offer.
Employee performance is a separate process. The review workspace supports assigned self, manager and peer reviews, with historical versions and receipt acknowledgement. Decide which people will submit reviews, who can see the results and how your managers will use them during development conversations.
These capabilities do not by themselves establish an agency client CRM, client candidate submissions, placement accounting or commission calculations. Put those requirements on a separate list and ask for direct evidence of fit. Similarly, verify email delivery and the exact calendar workflow during your demo; an interview record alone does not prove an external calendar has synchronized.
4. Give client recruitment its own requirements list
Client recruitment can start with a sales conversation and continue through a job brief, candidate shortlist, client feedback, offer, placement and invoicing. An internal hiring pipeline covers only part of that operating picture. Ask to see how each client’s records and candidate submissions are organized, especially when the same candidate is considered for several openings.
Products can address this scope differently. For example, Sprout’s official Manatal page describes a client portal for candidate sharing and client job requisitions. That is a concrete agency-facing workflow to examine in a comparison, rather than assuming every product with recruitment features handles client collaboration the same way.
If your existing agency system already manages these tasks well, include keeping it in the shortlist. You may be able to improve internal HR without replacing the system recruiters use to serve clients. Confirm any proposed connection before treating it as part of the implementation.
- Client operations: contacts, job briefs, submissions and feedback ownership.
- Placement operations: start dates, replacement periods and placement status.
- Commercial operations: fees, invoices, recruiter commissions and approval evidence.
5. Agree on data handoffs, permissions and total cost
If you keep separate systems, name the record that each system owns. Candidate contact information may remain in the recruitment platform; employee pay details belong in the approved HR and payroll process. Define the fields to transfer when someone joins your own team, the person who checks them and how duplicate records are resolved.
Give recruiters, managers and payroll staff access appropriate to their work. Test that client-facing users cannot see internal salary or review information. Ask vendors to demonstrate the actual roles you need and the export process you would use when changing systems.
Price the agreed employee scope separately from agency software seats and integrations. ElevenOS Growth’s standard monthly formula is ₱2,490 plus ₱129 per active employee, with a 10-employee billing minimum. That is ₱3,780 at the minimum, before applicable taxes and separately quoted services. Named integrations and API requirements need scope confirmation; ElevenOS lists these under Enterprise.
6. Pilot a complete workflow before the first cutoff
Choose a small group that represents your working arrangements and pay components. Prepare anonymized examples for an attendance correction, a leave approval, a new employee and a payroll adjustment. Have the person responsible for each step try the workflow and record anything that still requires a manual handoff.
Reconcile the sample payroll with your current process and resolve differences before changing live payroll. If commissions are part of employee pay, agree how an authorized, checked amount reaches payroll; do not assume placement data calculates or approves it automatically. Confirm migration, training, support and acceptance responsibilities in writing.
Bring the two requirement lists to an ElevenOS walkthrough: internal HR and payroll, then agency client operations. We can assess the relevant ElevenOS workflows and identify what needs another product or further scoping.
Frequently asked questions
Can a recruitment agency use ElevenOS for its own employees?
Yes, ElevenOS can be evaluated for the agency’s internal HR, attendance, leave and payroll workflows. Confirm the employee population, policies, required outputs and implementation scope during a demo.
Does recruitment in Growth include a complete agency placement system?
The published Growth scope includes candidate tracking, hiring and employee reviews. It does not establish client CRM, candidate submissions to clients, placement billing or commission automation. Assess those requirements separately before selecting your systems.
Do all candidates count as payroll employees?
A candidate record and an active employee record serve different purposes. Keep them separate in your requirements and confirm the vendor’s billing definitions. ElevenOS’s published plan formula uses active employees, subject to its minimum.
