How prepared is your professional staffing service provider?

Posted by: Joel Capperella

Though Labor Day unofficially brought summer to a close, the workforce lessons we learned during our summer vacations – from building client relationships, to asking the right questions when selecting an RPO provider, to remembering the recruiting basics, and more — should stay with us year-round.

So before we cap off our summer series, here’s one more lesson for you to keep in mind.

In June, my wife and I took the children to Hershey Park, an amusement park between Harrisburg and Philadelphia. The plan was to go early in the month before school let out and the heat got too much for our little ones to deal with for a day. It didn’t work out quite as we expected. Our day at the park, while enjoyable, was one of record-breaking heat, and we ran into busloads of elementary school children on their end-of-year field trip.

The workforce lesson discovered while standing in line with overheated children? Preparation. The day was made more bearable because we had prepared — for the heat at least. The crowds were a surprise.

In the workforce world and, in particular, when leveraging professional staffing services, preparation can be three-fold.

1. Job description. Too often, job descriptions are taken for granted. The result is that the right candidate cannot be identified for the rate you are willing to pay. Professional staffing service providers have significantly more perspective on certain jobs than your organization does. That experience must be relied upon to ensure that the cost and speed-to-fill expectations associated with a particular talent need are realistic. Before you select a staffing provider, you determine the level of attention they give to ensuring job descriptions are well-defined and whether or not they are willing to take on the responsibility of helping you refine them to suit your talent demands.
2. Talent community. Professional staffing service providers must be invested in filling your most pressing needs, and also sourcing for the needs you’ll experience tomorrow. It is crucial to partner with a provider that makes it their business to connect with the people who not only possess the right skills to fill your talent needs, but who are well matched to the company’s values, culture, and work ethic. It is a matter of preparation that the professional staffing service provider must anticipate your needs, the needs of their other customers, and the desires of the potential candidate. Doing so will ensure the company receives the highest cost-to-value possible on professional level temporaries.
3. On-boarding. How well prepared are your professional staffing service providers to accelerate the on-boarding process of the individuals that will join your team? Tight and well-defined on-boarding that clearly identifies what the customer, candidate, and professional staffing service provider is responsible for will enable swift productivity. Collaborative on-boarding and allowing the staffing provider to give direction over what needs to happen strengthens the relationship. This partnership ensures that cost is adequately controlled and quality is appropriately delivered.

This one particular day in June reinforced the importance of looking ahead — doing so helps make the experience that much more enjoyable. And it’s an easy transition to insist that when engaging with your professional staffing service provider, you think through the needs and scenarios they will help you with.

This sort of preparation will inevitably result in a more engaged, productive, and cost effective segment of your workforce.