Improving Profitability Through
Partnering with a Staffing Service
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 three case studies of how businesses are profiting by partnering with a staffing company.
Case Study #1
Company: Trucking service
Challenge: Finding qualified office personnel. As a result, the company experienced high turnover and couldn't find replacements. Constantly having to find, hire, and train new people was very costly.
Objectives: Find people with the skills and experience necessary to fill their office positions; they will reduce turnover and decrease hiring costs.
Partnership: A local staffing company was able to custom design a skills testing program to assure that all candidates had the necessary skill set.
Results: To begin, the staffing company tested the current employees--only to find they had critical skill deficiencies. As a result, the staffing company helped the transportation company develop guidelines for new applicants. With a set criteria, they would be able to find more suitable candidates in the future. The company was so pleased with the results from the skills testing, they decided to hire the staffing company to do all their screening for office personnel. Since then, the transportation company has experienced a rise in productivity.
Case Study #2
Company: A rapidly expanding investment services firm
Challenge: Sustaining growth--hiring people quickly without sacrificing on quality and character. The company's management was overwhelmed by the constant burden of recruiting, interviewing, and background screening. Too much time was being directed to the hiring process--time that could be more effectively used to manage their business.
Objective: Find an ally that understands their needs and could provide applicants that met their strict requirements.
Partnership: A staffing service that had worked with the investment services company for over eight years was asked to provide additional background screening to the applicants it referred to the company.
Results: The staffing company was consistently able to provide high quality people because they took the time to understand the investment company's needs and used behavioral hiring techniques. Through the partnering relationship, the staffing service assumed greater responsibility for recruiting, interviewing, and screening. The companies have developed mutual trust and a clear understanding of 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. The investment company can now grow comfortably because they have the people they need.
Case Study #3
Company: Civil service
Challenge: Whenever they hired an employee and the person did not work out, there was a tremendous amount of legalities associated with terminating the individual's employment. Since the unemployment rate was high and there were a large number of candidates searching for work, the client was overwhelmed with the volume of resumes to review and screen through.
Objectives: Help reduce turnover and save the client time and money in finding the right fit candidates.
Partnership: The staffing firm suggested they utilize their services to hire an employee on a temp-to-perm basis where the employee would be on the firm's payroll for the first 12 weeks of working on their site. The staffing firm told them that would be helpful to them in two ways:
Results: The company chose to work through the staffing firm on a temp-to-perm placement. The firm filled their position quickly after they placed the order. The employee worked out so well that the company didn't have to face any legal issues with civil service guidelines.