Last week, I discussed specific challenges staffing firms face in this current market. Here, I cover a handful of solutions that staffing firms can adopt to effectively address the challenges in today’s marketplace; some of which can be easily implemented.
Automating the Process to Be Streamlined. Timing is critical in the business of staffing services — many of whom cater to a varied list of industries. After providing a job description, the staffing company is often given a small window of time to fulfill the request in delivering the right candidate. Surprisingly, many staffing companies are using outdated tools/methods to manage their daily workflow processes of prospecting, recruiting and billing. The use of such expired technologies presents a great risk in losing prospective talent to the competition.
Automation is a way out. The processes are streamlined, efficiency is improved and errors are reduced. It is important to note that automating the workflow process will not resolve the problem itself, the company’s staff must be appropriately trained to use the new system effectively.
Workforce Management Simplification. Effective recruiting recognizes and retains talent for placement opportunities in the immediate or near future. The best recruiters can identify a candidate’s strength(s) while objectively noting their weaknesses and personality traits. Such close examination allows for a well-informed placement decision benefiting both the job candidate and his/her new employer. Staffing firms must be careful to avoid placing multiple candidates with similar skill sets within the same employer, unless specifically requested or warranted, as such leads to unnecessary expense. This oversight has become more common in the staffing industry as technology increasingly allows our workforce to work remotely, on behalf of multiple geographies. To combat this challenge, IT solutions can aid staffing firms in maintaining a central repository of their employees, sub-contractors and applicants. The solution will minimize duplicate placements and will allow firms to easily track/update candidates’ skill sets in real-time from anywhere at anytime, thus greatly enhancing the sourcing process.
IT & BPO Combined Offering. A staffing firm’s decision concerning technology usage is dependent on cost optimization and in gaining strategic results such as enhanced service delivery. Decisions as these must be balanced with the consequences of technology implementation such as training costs and misalignments between software and strategy that can ultimately threaten the bottom-line.
Synergy must be maintained between IT and BPO,which when combined together,cover almost the entire business(i.e. front-office, mid-office, back-office) in making significant changes in the areas of value creation, cost reduction, revenue generation and customer satisfaction.
Cloud Based Solutions & Artificial Intelligence. Both artificial intelligence and cloud technology are positioned to dominate. Cloud, in the not so distant past, was considered optional tech to a company – now, it is essential.Artificial intelligence adds to this technology allowing for increased profits by reducing repetitive manual work. In using a SaaS model, there is no need for the client to purchase hardware/separate licenses or for IT staff to manage servers — such services are simply addressed by the vendor. Clients can realize cost and efficiency benefits.The use of carefully calibrated artificial intelligence could effectively process large data sets into meaningful insights, resulting in an accelerated hiring process. Combining both cloud and AI would help reduce cost, time and manual intervention.
Let’s remember, there is so much happening in the world around us — challenges present themselves every minute of every hour of every day — though with challenges, come opportunities for solutions. Given today’s frequency of change, the staffing industry must adapt (and adopt new measures) to compete in the 2016+ marketplace.
“We don’t grow when things are easy, we grow when we face challenges”
