Partnering for Staffing Success – Why the Hybrid Model Makes Sense

social_connectionsThe phrase easier said than done could have been invented to talk about the hiring process. Identifying the requirements for a role is one thing; finding someone with the right skills who also matches the company culture, in the right location and who is interested in moving and fits the budget is another thing entirely.

Even after finding the right person, a lot of things can still go wrong, hence why businesses are inundated with calls from recruitment agencies offering to help. Yet many enterprises find dealing with agencies can be an incredibly frustrating and unproductive affair. But it isn’t the only option. The alternative is a different model, based on working with a trusted partner offering guaranteed delivery, rather than a series of impersonal agencies. The hybrid model offers HR departments and procurement leaders a faster, more responsive way of securing quality candidates, removes the risks associated with hiring and adds value across the gamut of HR activities.

Employing a hybrid model and engaging a long-term workforce solutions partner offers much greater value for money to HR departments. An embedded partner is able to understand the culture, hiring needs and skills requirements of each team in far greater detail than an external agency. Moreover, establishing a hybrid model with a trusted organization can yield benefits across a range of areas within the HR remit including workforce planning, HR metric analysis and payroll management.

More than Just a Recruiter

Getting the right HR and procurement processes in place can be difficult. For example, conducting rigorous and effective interviews to fully analyze potential employees abilities or onboarding them once they have joined can be complicated. Traditionally, it has been incumbent on HR departments to ensure that all of these activities are being carried out capably. Under a hybrid approach, staffing partners can assist with a whole range of HR services such as visa and immigration challenges, salary benchmarking and technical testing among others.

Staffing partners are able to administer psychometric and personality tests, coding exams and cultural pre-screening interviews to select a small range of highly-qualified candidates – saving HR departments and line managers a lot of time. Importantly, the close nature of the relationship means interviews and pre-screening tests candidates go through aren’t generic, one-size-fits-all processes but specifically tailored.

Post-starting, there is still a lot of work for HR teams to make sure new employees are up to speed and integrating well into the team. These issues are widely recognized within the industry, demonstrated by the fact that less than one in three executives are satisfied about onboarding, rating their organization’s processes as either below average or poor. Yet the majority of companies receive little to no assistance from their staffing suppliers in helping candidates acclimatise to a new role. Partner agencies should be offering extensive post-placement care and gathering HR data to analyze and find trends, in turn helping tighten up onboarding processes and reduce staff turnover.

Time Waits for No Project

One of the most important features of the hybrid model is the transfer of risk away from the organisation and on to the staffing partner. The cost of a bad hire can be significant – the Harvard Business Review has calculated that 80% of company turnover is due to poor hiring decisions and virtually every manager knows the issues that a serious mismatch can cause. But for larger organisations, hiring is a constant. The UK has one of the lowest average job tenure rates in the OECD meaning enterprises are constantly running the risk of making a bad hiring decision. This status quo makes even less sense when factoring in that a good percentage of roles are only needed for the length of a specific project, not long-term. In contrast, the hybrid model means a team of specialists can be deployed rapidly, on an as-needed basis which enables organisations to run effective, lean programs.

By definition, hybrid agencies have a deep bench of talented consultants who can join projects at short notice. These candidates also come with a guarantee about their capabilities, offering companies a much simpler option, particularly in the case of project work. Taking on shorter term workers from a partner provides several layers of security for organizations. Staffing partners are able to guarantee a swift hiring process, vouch for the consultant’s technical abilities and handle the administrative aspects such as making sure all insurance documents are satisfactory and in-date. Meanwhile the company has total flexibility about contract length, which helps keep costs down.

Ultimately, while the scope of activity that has fallen under HR departments remit has grown significantly, the availability of competent support from agencies hasn’t evolved in line. Making sure that help is available across the board to help overwhelmed HR leaders deliver a seamless service is should be the role of the modern staffing partner. The success of the hybrid model in blue-chip organisations shows the appetite for an increased level of engagement and the range of areas that agencies can assist with to make HR professionals more productive and drive business growth.

Farida Gibbs

Farida Gibbs
Farida Gibbs is CEO of Gibbs Hybrid.

Farida Gibbs

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