| Improving
Profitability Through Partnering With a Staffing Service |
The American Heritage
Dictionary defines partner as: "A person associated with another
or others in some activity. Synonyms: colleague, ally, associate.
These all denote one who cooperates in a venture, occupation or challenge.
Partner implies a relationship in which each party has equal status
and a certain independence but also implicit or formal obligations
to other or others."
Partnering with a staffing service can be defined as an agreement
between a business and a staffing service where both parties profit
from the relationship. Exactly what is that relationship? And how
does each benefit? The answers to these questions are as varied as
the types of problems businesses have. Consistent elements, however,
are that both parties respect and trust each other, and by working
closely, they find solutions where otherwise none might have been
found. Partnering is more than just a good position fill, quality
service or being responsive to business needs. Successful partnering
brings long range strategic value to each organization, helping to
increase productivity, control expenses and improve profitability.
Partnering is occurring for strategic purposes in countless businesses
today. To illustrate the point, here are five true case studies of
how businesses are profiting by partnering with a staffing company.
Industry:
Public School District: substitute service, custodial, clerical and
warehouse departments.
Challenge:
All substitute employees must meet the same employment requirements
as current district employees. A strong union must agree to the staffing
arrangement as part of its collective bargaining agreement. Finally,
employees must be integrated into the system quickly and efficiently.
Objectives:
Reduce payroll expenses, maintain high standard of employment and
centralize scheduling and dispatching of staff while meeting the union's
approval.
Partnership:
A staffing service accepted the challenge and developed a innovative
program. The staffing service agreed to accept current substitute
employees onto their payroll. They also recruited new employees that
met the district's standards (reading, background checks, etc.), and
they centralized notification and dispatching of substitute employees
to the appropriate work location.
Results:
Working closely with the school district, the staffing service implemented
a program that is proving to be a winning program for the district,
its supervisors and the substitute employees.
Due to the efficiencies gained from centralized staffing, the average
hours worked per substitute increased over 200% from 15 hours to near
40 hours per week. This made the substitute employees happier and
reduced turnover. Subsequently, the district spent less time on non-productive
activity. The supervisors spent less time on paper work and more time
managing the staff. Also the payroll and accounting departments had
less paper work due to less turnover and more work from fewer substitute
employees. The district accomplished its overall goals of reduced
payroll expense (less overtime due to more efficient scheduling) and
greater productivity from its employees. The staffing service secured
a long term contract for the partnering program allowing better planning
and recruiting.
Industry:
Manufacturer of CD's and tapes.
Challenge:
In a labor market that was getting tighter and tighter, a manufacturer
of CD's and tapes was experiencing difficulty finding workers for
the twelve hour shifts that were required for optimum production line
productivity. In addition, because the plant was not located within
easy access to public transportation, there was a high amount of absenteeism.
Finally, to allow optimum staffing flexibility, the company uses a
high percentage of the temporary employees.
Objectives:
Develop an employee program with a staffing service that would assume
management of the all temporary employees. The minimum goals were
to provide quicker fulfillment of worker orders and one point of contact
for all their staffing requirements. In addition, under the best case,
the program would also free human resources of the recruitment function,
plus consolidate billings and invoicing, and streamline administration
workload.
Partnership:
A staffing service that was supplying temporary workers on an as needed
basis, developed an vendor-on-premise arrangement. This program places
3 staffing service supervisors on-site at the manufacturer, supplies
all temporary workers and provides seven day a week, 24 hour coverage.
In addition, the staffing service implemented two unique features
- transportation where the employees contributed $ 25 per week for
the service and job sharing that split the 12 hour shift between two
employees each working 6 hour shifts.
Results:
This vendor-on-premise program started in 1997 and continues to this
day. In addition to filling job orders quickly, the turnover rate
for the temporary workers has been reduced by 10%. The manufacturer
gains the administrative benefits which accompanies working with a
single source provider. The vendor-on-premise program also provides
negotiated employee expenses, coordination of all job orders, overseeing
schedules, compilation of reports and statistics on temp usage, and
manages many other administrative tasks.
Industry:
Grocery distribution and warehousing.
Challenge:
An extremely low unemployment rate in Central Florida provided the
primary roadblock for efficient staffing at this large grocery distribution
center. To compound the problem, there was a high degree of turnover
due to several safety issues and morale problems.
Objectives:
The company looked for a staffing service that would work with them
to solve their temporary staffing challenge.
Partnership:
The grocery company did not expect the staffing service to solve all
their employment issues. Rather, they looked for a partner that could
work with them. In addition to the staffing service placing all advertisements,
the staffing company was allowed to interview new applicants on-site
as well as look through old applicants for potential new candidates.
Also, both companies participated in job fairs, safety training, new
employee orientation and team morale-building programs.
Results:
Low unemployment is an ongoing challenge. However, the partnering
relationship continues and even recently expanded to a second North
Florida distribution center. The staffing service continues its on-site
interviewing providing high quality workers consistently on time.
The turnover rate of the temporary workers has been reduced. Also
a large number of the temporary workers proved to be of such good
quality that they have since become permanent employees.
Industry:
Investment services.
Challenge:
An expanding company in a growth industry required new positions to
be filled quickly. Also due to the nature of the business, the new
employees needed to be high quality and high character people. The
investment services company's management was overwhelmed by the constant
burden of recruiting, interviewing and the necessary background screening
process. Management was devoting too much time to the hiring process
and felt time could be more effectively used to manage their business.
Objectives:
Find an ally that understands their needs and would provide applicants
that only met their strict requirements.
Partnership:
A staffing service that had worked with the investment services company
for over eight years was asked to provided additional background screening
to the applicants it referred to the company.
Results:
While no formal contract exists between the two companies, the staffing
company has consistently provided high quality people. The investment
services company now allows the staffing service to assume a greater
share of the responsibilities for recruiting, interviewing and screening.
The companies have developed a mutual trust and clear understanding
of what is expected and what must be delivered. The investment services
company now accepts employees based on the staffing company's referral,
and relies exclusively on the staffing service to oversee the entire
recruitment process, complete with background checks.
Industry:
Healthcare, fully accredited network of HMO's.
Challenge:
In an industry that is being driven by cost control, a regional HMO
in Orange County, California was experiencing growing labor costs
and difficulties in finding and keeping temporary employees.
Objectives:
Retention of a flexible workforce due to an internal headcount restriction
and cost control.
Partnership:
The HMO and a staffing service teamed to provide an innovative solution
where after six months the contingent staff would transition to the
staffing service employ. The employee would receive a comprehensive
benefit package where costs would be shared between the staffing service
and the HMO. Also, a cost reduction plan was implemented based on
length of service of each employee. A partial list of the benefits
are: holiday and vacation pay that mirrors that of the HMO's regular
employees, health insurance, a 401k plan, direct payroll deposit,
annual merit review, credit union and child care discount.
Results:
This program began in 1997 with seven employees, and continues today
with over 40 employees participating. This comprehensive program has
resulted in higher self esteem of the contingent workers, higher productivity,
lower turnover, reduced training expenses and increased employee referrals.
In addition, the HMO has lowered its labor expenses and enjoyed increased
profits.
| Partnering
Is Good Business |
Partnering with
a staffing service makes good business sense for many reasons. You
have just read five situations where partnering has helped make a
business more successful. Temporary help and permanent placement are
the most commonly used services provided by staffing services. However
for many organizations, achieving long-term goals necessitates the
implementation of more sophisticated and sometimes more creative solutions.
In most situations, companies seek to gain competitive advantage by
developing strategic partnerships and mutually rewarding relationships.
This section provides an overview of the most common strategies and
partnerships currently being employed between staffing services and
client companies.
Traditional
temporary help:
In the traditional sense, a worker is recruited, screened and hired
by a staffing service. The staffing firm assigns people to work at
client sites, generally to supplement the clients' employees to cover
absences, temporary shortages, or special projects. When a company
uses a staffing service as an ongoing solution to a staffing problem,
the traditional temporary scenario is then elevated to a strategic
partnership.
Permanent Placement:
Like the challenge job-seekers face in finding the perfect position,
employers often face a struggle to recruit and screen qualified applicants.
For this and many other reasons, companies turn to staffing services
to assist in their hiring process. The staffing service will completely
handle the responsibility of recruiting, interviewing and checking
references of potential applicants for the client. The staffing service
will present qualified candidates to the employer, who then interviews
the candidates and makes the final hiring decision.
Long-term
temporary assignments:
Like the challenge job-seekers face in finding the perfect position,
employers often face a struggle to recruit and screen qualified applicants.
For this and many other reasons, companies turn to staffing services
to assist in their hiring process. The staffing service will completely
handle the responsibility of recruiting, interviewing and checking
references of potential applicants for the client. The staffing service
will present qualified candidates to the employer, who then interviews
the candidates and makes the final hiring decision.
Contract
workers:
Usually contract workers are highly skilled technical workers - such
as engineers, programmers, communication network specialists, etc.
The terms of the arrangement are usually long-term and sometimes require
travel or multi-year assignments. Contract workers help companies
to cost effectively staff project based activities.
Single
Source Management:
The staffing service provides coordination of all staffing needs --
temporary, permanent, contract, etc. for a client company. Typically,
the staffing company provides a single point of contact and is responsible
for filling all job orders, overseeing scheduling, consolidating billing
and invoicing. Should a situation arise that requires an employee
with specialized skills, or a peak demand of temporary employees that
exceeds the staffing service's current resources, the single source
management service will subcontract with other staffing services to
fill the order.
Payrolling:
In payrolling, a company needing help identifies specific people and
refers them to a staffing service, which employs them and assigns
them to work at the company. The staffing service oversees the pre-employment
process, administers the payroll, retains employment records, provides
worker's compensation coverage and absorbs unemployment costs.
Temp-to-hire
program:
These employees are initially hired on a temporary basis with the
understanding that if they perform the job competently, they will
be converted to full-time employment. The temp-to-hire period can
vary, but generally lasts 10 weeks.
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