ABR Blog

When it comes to effectively staffing your business, the options are endless – and can be, frankly, a little overwhelming.  Today’s post is dedicated to straight talk about a strategic staffing service that may be of real value to your organization:  planned staffing.

The 101

So, what exactly is “planned staffing”?

Simply put, planned staffing is the strategic use of temporaries to accommodate workloads known to vary in seasons or other cycles.  Traditional planned staffing strategies typically allocate between 10 and 20 percent of the total workforce as supplemental (temporary) employees.

To implement a planned staffing solution, a company’s decision makers meet with a highly trained staffing professional to discuss how the organization’s workload changes throughout the year.  The staffing professional then analyzes the company’s workforce needs, and designs a comprehensive plan for managing the peaks and valleys with supplemental staff.

When business surges, temporaries are brought in to handle the additional business volume.  Once the peak cycle is completed, the staffing firm reassigns its employees to other companies.

Planned Staffing Benefits

For businesses with (at least somewhat) predictable surges in demand, a planned staffing option offers a number of benefits:

• Flexibility.  Bringing in supplemental staff allows you to handle surges in demand without impacting fixed expenses.  Your workforce stays lean and flexible.
• Less risk and expense.  Using temporaries during short-term peak periods is less burdensome, risky and expensive than hiring – and then laying off – direct employees.
• Instant access to the help you need.  Your staffing provider will recruit in advance of your needs, to ensure you have qualified candidates ready to work – right when you need them.  At your request, the staffing firm can even develop customized orientation materials to get temporaries up-to-speed more quickly.
• Fewer layoffs.  When business slows, it’s the temporaries who go first.  As a result, core employees enjoy increased job security.
• Less burnout and overtime.  Using supplemental staff reduces overtime and eliminates the burn-out overwork can cause.
• Hiring benefits.  When you implement a planned staffing solution, you have the luxury of hiring employees from a pool of temporaries who are already trained, and have proven their dependability and cultural fit.  Discuss your temporary-to-hire options with your staffing provider.

Is a Planned Staffing Option Right for Your Business?

If your business experiences frequent and/or predictable changes in workload, contact ABR Employment Services.  We’ll discuss your needs, help you weigh your options and determine if planned staffing is right for your organization.

Temporary employees can do so much for your business.  They can help you:

• meet critical deadlines;
• lower employment expense and risk;
• and free your staff to focus on core competencies, to name just a few.

But while using staffing services is clearly a smart business strategy, the ways you use them can be an equally important consideration.  Here are a few best practices to help you get the highest return from your contingent staff, while minimizing co-employment concerns.

1. Set clear performance expectations.  Determine what you want temporary employees to accomplish and provide those requirements to the staffing firm.  Document tasks to be performed, required skills, and expected standards of performance.
2. Benchmark your staff.  Ask your staffing provider to test one or two of your staff members using their skills assessment software.  This will help you determine which tests your temporaries should take, as well as minimum acceptable scores.
3. Do not tolerate poor performance.  Track each temporary employee’s job performance.  If any of them fail to meet your standards, ask the staffing firm to replace the employee(s) immediately.
4. Prepare your staff.  Foster a  positive work environment by clearly explaining where and why you are using temporary employees.  Open communication will encourage cooperation and keep your staff from viewing contingent workers as a threat to their own job security.
5. Provide a job site orientation.  Provide a facilities and resources tour for new temporaries.  Be sure to introduce them to co-workers and onsite supervisors who can answer questions and provide direction.
6. Do not train contingent workers.  If training is required, ask your staffing vendor to handle the training.  You want the employer of record to be responsible for training of its employees.
7. Do not negotiate the pay rate of your temporary workers.  While it’s fine to negotiate bill rates, all discussions regarding pay, benefits, and raises should be between the staffing service and its employees.
8. Do not coach a temporary on job performance.  Provide all feedback to the staffing firm’s service coordinator and request that they, in turn, coach the employee.
9. Train your service coordinator.  Bring the service representative on-site to inspect your work environment and develop a thorough description of job duties and performance expectations.
10. Do not terminate a temporary employee directly or discuss future job opportunities.  All changes in job status should only be discussed with the staffing firm.  You may refer temporary employees to publicly available job openings.

Achieve More With Staffing

ABR Employment Services wants you to achieve even better results with staffing.  Contact us today to learn more about how our services can help you save time, money, and headaches.

If your company is like most, you may struggle to find effective ways to reward employees without spending a lot.  Thankfully, when it comes to boosting morale in these unpredictable economic times, money isn’t everything.  Here are some creative ideas to keep your staff’s spirits high, while keeping an eye on your bottom line:

1. Keep employees informed.  Make sure employees understand your organization’s current “state of the union.”  Communicate what challenges and goals your company faces, as well as the factors that will contribute to your success. 
2. Let employees know what they can do to help achieve that success.  Explain how increasing customer service and loyalty, increasing efficiency, minimizing waste, etc. can help achieve company goals.  The more employees believe they can have an impact on organizational outcomes, the higher morale will stay.
3. Ask employees for input.  Before making decisions that impact their roles or work – and may possibly lower morale – ask employees for their feedback.  If you attempt to understand their perspectives and feelings, changes will be more readily accepted.
4. Respond to staff members’ questions and requests promptly.  Morale suffers greatly when employees feel their concerns are just ”swept under the rug.”  So if you don’t have one already, create a formal process for addressing employee issues in a timely manner.
5. Give employees a sense of ownership by increasing responsibility.  For example, one Philadelphia-based consulting firm creates voluntary employee committees to set up an annual health fair and ongoing food co-op.  The extra work makes employees feel good and allows potential leaders to hone their skills.
6. Consider alternative rewards to company picnics.  Believe it or not, many employees find forced company socialization a burden.  So instead of spending money on an annual cookout, consider awarding spa or salon gift certificates, movie passes, etc. to thank employees for their individual efforts.
7. Institute a peer-nominated employee recognition award.  An Atlanta business school awards employees for personal achievements as well as organizational contributions that go beyond job responsibilities.  This company finds that recognizing just one employee creates a huge boost in morale company-wide.
8. Offer more flexible work schedules.  For many workers, especially single parents and other caregivers, having the flexibility for personal time to handle family obligations is a huge morale-booster.  And often, your company can offer this perk without incurring additional expense.  Ideas include earlier/later start times; working four 10-hour days; working from home one day a week; and job-sharing.

Staffing as a Morale-Booster

Here are two more ways ABR Employment can help keep your staff’s spirits high:

• Treat an employee to a day off.  Allow us to provide a temporary replacement for the day.
• Reduce employee burnout.  Bring in our temporaries to help ease the burden of overtime.  Remember, you can avoid paying overtime by using our employees to handle the extra hours.

Well, it’s official – the recession is technically over.  The economy grew 3.5% in the third quarter this year, according to the BEA’s (Bureau of Economic Analysis) quarterly GDP report.

Sure, the recovery is going to take awhile.  Consumer spending is still down; unemployment is still high; the foreclosure crisis is still playing out nationwide.  And unfortunately, your business may still be stuck in a rut of stale, survival-mode thinking.

But as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, our economy will improve.  So get a jump on your competitors by planning now for the growth that’s around the corner.  These quick tips will show you how to leverage staffing to prosper in 2010.

Test new ideas.  Before you commit to hiring direct staff to implement a post-recession business concept, you can test your idea with temporary employees.  These temporaries can assume a direct role, or they can fill in for your staff members involved with testing the new idea.

Try before you buy.  Once your need for staff increases, temp-to-hire services can mitigate hiring decision risks.  You can literally try employees out on the job, to see how they perform and fit into your corporate culture – before extending an offer for direct employment.

Manage rapid growth.  A good staffing service can function as an extension of your human resource department.  By taking the time to learn and understand your business, they can help you quickly and cost-effectively recruit temporary employees and direct hires who will succeed in your work environment.  Establish a good relationship now, so that you’re ready to “explode out of the box” when the upturn hits.

Access the knowledge you need.  Staffing firms allow you to bring in the expertise you need on a short-term basis.  These experts, especially temporary technical and professional staff, can be used to complete growth initiatives related to anything from new business lines to system upgrades.  Alternately, these highly skilled temporaries can teach new skills to direct employees in your organization.

Meet immediate placement needs.  Most staffing companies maintain robust applicant databases.  They can often instantly identify candidates who have the skills, experience, and personality traits that match your work environment.  They can also supply competent temporary employees who can fill in until you’ve found the right people for immediate openings.

ABR Employment Services is ready to help your business grow.

Even if your business isn’t experiencing post-recession growing pains yet, now is the time to prepare.  Contact one of our staffing experts today to discuss your goals for 2010.  Let us show you how we can provide the staff to realize and exceed your expectations.

Superstars.  Overachievers.  High performers.

Whatever you call them, you know your company’s success depends on hiring and retaining them.  The following list will help you identify what sets the best and brightest apart:

1. They have found their focus.  High performers know their strengths and have found an expression for their talents in the workplace.
2. They are forward-thinkers – about projects and their own careers.  To thrive, they need to know how what they’re doing now will impact the future.
3. They are accurate appraisers – of peers, projects, and themselves.  They can spot talent in co-workers and chinks in their competitor’s armor.  Likewise, they recognize their own weaknesses and strive to improve them.
4. They are self-managers.  Research has shown that high performers consciously apply a systematic approach to every project they tackle.  This disciplined approach makes them more organized, productive, and fulfilled.
5. They are intrinsically motivated.  While money is undoubtedly important, high performers are fueled from within.  Their need to attain personal and organizational goals is often as great a reward as compensation.
6. They are optimistic.  High performers see the glass as half-full.  They tend to treat obstacles and setbacks on the job as temporary and therefore surmountable.
7. They respect other high performers.  Rather than focusing on hierarchy, high achievers operate within a society of mutual respect.  As a result, they will lend a hand to others with talent and help them flourish.
8. They are results-oriented.  These individuals won’t sit quietly and do a job just because they’re told to.  Top performers need to know how their efforts affect the organization’s “big picture,” and measure their efforts in terms of bottom-line results.
9. They take risks.  “Nothing ventured, nothing gained” is a personal mantra among high performers.  They do their homework, accept change easily, and are calculated risk-takers.

ABR Employment’s staffing professionals are experts at identifying high achievers who will perform well in your organization.  We offer a variety of recruiting and staffing services to deliver the best and brightest for you.

Just as you’d prepare a list of questions to interview a job applicant, you should also take the time to interview a potential staffing provider.  When selecting an agency, the American Staffing Association recommends that you consider several factors.  The following list will help you choose the right staffing firm for your needs:

1. Reliability.  Is the company well-established with a good reputation in the community?
2. Recruiting.  Is the agency’s recruiting program aggressive?  What kind of database does it maintain?
3. Testing.  What are the company’s testing and evaluation requirements?
4. Retention Programs.  How long do employees stay with the company?  If the company retains employees for a long time, you’re more likely to be sent qualified workers when you need them.
5. Professional Permanent Staff.  How experienced are the company’s permanent staff members?
6. Knowledge of Your Needs.  When you talk with the staff, do you feel confident that they truly understand your needs?
7. Prompt Service.  How quickly can they fill your needs?
8. Quality Control.  What type of quality control procedures are in place?  Does the company check back after your order has been filled?
9. Insurance Protection.  Do they have adequate insurance to protect you against workers’ compensation claims and other problems that might arise?
10. Guarantees.  Does the company offer any type of guarantee?  What happens if you are dissatisfied?

Now it’s our turn to ask you a question:  What is the most important factor you consider when selecting a staffing service?  You may leave your comment below, or contact us via e-mail.  The more we at ABR Employment know about your needs, the better equipped we’ll be to meet them.

What business isn’t looking to control expenses? Staffing firms offer many effective solutions for reducing overhead, managing operating costs and improving organizational performance. Used effectively, staffing services can save you more than they cost.

Here are some key ways you can use staffing to reduce costs in your organization:

Convert fixed expenses to variable.
Develop a plan to staff your business strategically. Minimize the number of permanent employees on your staff to the level needed to sustain your core volume of work. Proactively plan to bring in extra help when it’s needed.

Bring in expertise on an as-needed basis.
Temporaries can deliver the experience and skills you need without impacting fixed expenses. As an added benefit, temporary “experts” are often less expensive than consultants.

Lower benefits costs.
Limit benefits expense by using temporary employees. Most temporary employees receive only limited benefits which are paid by the temporary staffing service. Companies with extensive benefits programs may not want to offer full benefits to all employees. Using a temporary staffing, payrolling or employee leasing service may make it possible to offer more limited and cost effective benefits programs to these employees.

Eliminate overtime.
Use temporary employees to reduce the amount of overtime worked by your permanent staff.

Reduce training costs.
Reduce training costs and learning curves by bringing in temporary employees who are trained and have experience using the skills you need.

Streamline recruiting.
Use a permanent placement service to eliminate the costs and time involvement associated with advertising, screening resumes, interviewing, testing and reference checking applicants.
 
Lower payroll expenses.
Administration Eliminate the costs associated with processing and administering your company’s payroll and benefits by using a payroll or employee leasing service.

Reduce unemployment claims.
Using a temporary in place of a short-term employee prevents an unemployment claim from affecting the client company.  Legally, payrolled or leased employees work for the company providing the payrolling or employee leasing service. All claims affect the staffing service’s unemployment rating, not yours.

Eliminate operating inefficiencies.
Inefficient functions can be outsourced to services that can perform the work more effectively. The outsourcing service should be able to reduce expenses and improve performance while allowing your company to focus on its core competencies.

Develop a Strategic Staffing Plan for Your Organization
At ABR Employment Services, we help clients evaluate their current workforce and develop a strategic staffing model to help lower overall employment costs and access the skilled talent they need.  Discover more about ABR’s staffing solutions.