ABR Blog

Can staffing services really drive profits?  In a word, “Yes!”

In today’s economy, businesses need to do everything possible to maximize the R-E=P equation.  And if your company is like most, your employment-related expenses are among the biggest line items on your company’s P & L.  The more actively you manage these expenses, the more profitable you can become.

Of course, driving profits is about more than just cutting costs.  It’s also about maximizing workforce productivity and effectively matching your human resources to the changing challenges and opportunities your business faces.  Used properly, staffing services can play a vital role in achieving all these ends.  Here are just a few ways on-time (temporary) employees can drive profits in your organization:

• Stay lean and flexible. Design a strategic staffing strategy that limits core employment to that necessary for minimum production volumes.  Staff up with skilled on-time employees to meet peak demand periods or sudden surges in business.
• Focus on core activities. A staffing professional can help you critically examine work flow processes in your organization to identify administrative, repetitive or other support tasks that are being performed by highly compensated employees.  Bring in on-time staff to take over these tasks and free valuable team members to focus on their most vital priorities.
• Lower employment-related costs due to turnover. Take a look at your hiring and termination costs by job functions.  Determine where high turnover positions exist and re-staff with on-time employees (temporaries) to reduce hiring, training and termination costs.
• Reduce overtime expenses.  Work with your staffing representative to analyze your overtime expenditures.  Look for opportunities to use on-time staffing instead of overtime to reduce labor costs and prevent employee burnout.
• Shorten learning curves. As your company incorporates new technologies, bring in contract technical professionals to support your project teams.  They can help get your employees up-to-speed and productive more quickly, saving time and money in the process.  Once training is done, so are your training expenses.
• Capitalize on new opportunities. Have you ever had to table a great idea, simply because you didn’t have the resources to work on it?  For those times, consider supplementing your team with on-time and/or contract employees.  From support staff to senior executives, highly qualified specialists can be brought in to either manage the execution of new ideas or support your internal team while they work on the new opportunities.

ABR Employment Services – Driving Profits for Wisconsin Employers

Need to aggressively manage staffing expenses?  Looking for new ways to increase productivity?  Have a great business idea, but lack the human resources to turn it into a reality?  Contact ABR Employment today.  We have the knowledge, business expertise and highly skilled candidates you need to Comprehend, Fulfill and Achieve your business goals.

As our economy struggles to gain steam once again, businesses are forced to make tough choices regarding their workforces.  Skyrocketing employment costs such as insurance, overtime, payroll taxes, healthcare and other benefits, coupled with the uncertainty of just how long a recovery will take, are placing enormous pressure on employers to run lean.

Here are just a few of the ways on-time (temporary) staffing can help your business contain expenses, manage uncertainty and maintain productivity during a slow economic recovery:

Contain employment costs.  Healthcare, workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, Social Security and overtime costs continue to rise each year.  On-time (temporary) staff can help you mitigate these costs:

• As the on-time employee’s employer of record, the staffing service pays benefits, unemployment, taxes and other personnel expenses.  You pay only for productive hours worked.
• When you use on-time staff to handle special projects and peak production periods, you don’t have to increase your fixed payroll costs – or direct headcount.
• You can eliminate overtime, and the employee burnout it causes, by bringing in on-time staff to handle extra hours when business picks up.

Manage uncertainty.  If your business faces an unknown future in this economy, consider using on-time (temporary) staff to keep your workforce flexible.  You can bring in additional labor and expertise when you need it, while avoiding the expense and problems caused by overstaffing.

Increase focus.  When times are tough, every employee must be put to his or her highest and best use.  On-time staff can be used to handle low-priority, mundane, or non-core business functions, so that your regular staff can focus on their most important priorities.

Minimize layoffs.  Although some businesses may be hiring again, many others continue to face the threat of layoffs.  Planned staffing services can help you smooth the fluctuations in your workload that typify the onset of a recovery - providing the on-time staff you need to handle sudden surges in demand, while reducing the need for layoffs once things slow down again.

Maintain productivity.  Staffing services carefully pre-screen and test their workers to ensure they have the skills and attributes necessary to perform for your company.  In certain cases, the staffing firm will even train and orient new on-time staff for you, to help you maintain productivity.  And because staffing services handle recruiting, screening, interviewing, testing and reference-checking for you, their services help you be even more productive.

Through good economic times and bad, ABR Employment Services provides the services your business needs to thrive.  Contact us today to learn more about our staffing services for Wisconsin employers.

Admittedly, it may be a little early to light a Yule log. 

But if you’re in the customer service, administrative/clerical, hospitality, shipping/delivery, inventory or technology/finance industries, you’re probably headed for a busy – if not your busiest – time of year.  If you’re going to require extra help this holiday season, it’s definitely not too early to plan for your staffing needs.

Here are just a few reasons why:

• Prevent rash hiring decisions.  If you wait until the last minute to recruit and hire, you may find yourself “up against a wall” when business suddenly surges.  Waiting until your needs are urgent may force you to make hasty hiring decisions.
• Get a jump on your competitors.  Many companies will wait until next month to gear-up.  Why not start your efforts now and reach the most qualified candidates before other seasonal employers get them?
• Avoid being overwhelmed.  This year’s seasonal job market will be flooded with applicants.  With so many job seekers competing for positions, the sheer volume of résumés and applications may bog you down.  Give yourself as much time as possible to find the best candidates by starting the search process early.

If just reading about seasonal hiring makes your stomach churn, relax – you don’t have to do it alone.  Staffing firms specialize in helping companies like yours effectively manage the highs and lows of business cycles.  Plan your workforce needs now with your staffing partner to:

• Get the flexibility you need.  Seasonal on-time staff (temporaries) can handle surges in demand without impacting fixed expenses.
• Say “goodbye” to post-holiday layoffs.  Since the staffing service is the seasonal employees’ employer of record, you can avoid the hassle and expense of letting workers go once things slow down.
• Access the talent you need, right when you need it.  Planning your workforce needs now gives your staffing firm time to locate the most qualified staff for you, especially when you require a large number of workers – so they’re available right when you need them.
• Shorten learning curves.  Your staffing provider will recruit seasonal workers with the specific skills and experience you require.  The provider can also, at your request, develop customized orientation materials to help reduce training costs and get workers up-to-speed more quickly.
• Eliminate additional administrative and legal burdens.  By using on-time (temporary) employees, you avoid the social security, payroll and other tax and legal burdens associated with seasonal employees.  Freedom from these hassles will give you more time to focus on other important priorities.
• Cut back on overtime.  On-time (temporary) employees help you minimize the additional cost and burnout overtime causes.

Plan Your Workforce Needs with ABR Employment Services

If your business has frequent or predictable surges in demand, a planned staffing option may be right for you.  Planned staffing is the strategic use of on-time employees (temporaries) to accommodate workloads known to vary in seasons or other cycles.

First, an ABR Employment staffing expert will work with you to examine year-round fluctuations in workload and identify peak demand periods.  Next, we will create a customized staffing plan for your business that: provides on-time (temporary) employees to handle your busiest times; reduces or eliminates your need to lay off employees during slow periods; frees you to focus on the most critical parts of your job.

Remember, the early bird gets the worm – it’s never too early to discuss your staffing needs with ABR Employment Services.

Temporary employees can be a great asset to your organization.  They can help you meet critical deadlines, fill-in for unplanned absences and free your core staff to focus on their most important tasks.

But if your company uses large numbers of temporary employees, it’s easy for your direct staff to fall into an “Us vs. Them” mentality.  And although treating temporary workers as an entirely separate workforce may seem innocuous, the practice can have unintended consequences for your direct employees – and your company as a whole. 

For example, research from the University of Arizona has found that direct employees (particularly at lower levels) are less satisfied with co-workers and bosses when working with a higher proportion of temporary employees.  Why?  The responsibility of training and socializing temporary workers on company-specific processes is often assigned to direct employees.  As a result, having more temporaries can complicate full-time workers’ jobs.

Here are a few suggestions for improving the working relationship between temporary and direct employees to achieve even better staffing results:

• Make temporary employees feel included.  While temporaries are, in fact, a separate part of your workforce (and must be treated differently because of co-employment laws), you and your staff can still make them feel welcome in your organization.  By encouraging social interaction (e.g., formal or informal introductions) among all workers, you can foster social ties that are essential to a cohesive workforce.
• Educate your direct staff.  Take the time to clearly explain the role and value of temporary workers.  The better your direct employees understand the benefits temporary employees provide, the more likely they’ll be to work productively with them.
• Take advantage of training.  If you use large numbers of temporaries, many staffing services will develop customized orientation and training programs for specific positions.  This shifts the time-consuming burden of getting new temporary employees up-to-speed off your direct employees’ shoulders.
• Consider strategic staffing options.  If your direct staff is burdened with the administration, training and management of temporary employees, consider implementing a strategic staffing option.  From primary partner staffing to VOP to planned staffing services, these solutions can optimize the relationship between your direct and temporary employees - saving you time and money while improving worker performance.

Bottom line, there are a number of steps you can take to keep relations between temporary and direct employees positive.  And the more positive their working relationship, the better your results will be.  Contact ABR Employment Services today to learn more about our strategic staffing solutions for Wisconsin employers.

Demand drives profit.  Cost-containment drives profit.  Efficient processes drive profit.

But can temporaries drive profits?

Absolutely.  By deploying the right staffing strategy, you can greatly enhance your ability to control costs, improve productivity and manage risk.

Need proof?  If so, you’ll appreciate the following case study of a business that discovered the profitable benefits of strategic temporary staffing:

CASE STUDY:  Enacting New Plans

The Challenge:  A public transportation department decided to expand service offerings by building a new trade and transit center.  They needed to hire ten additional employees, ranging from bus operators, to service reps, to a project manager – all under a tight budget, and without the help of a human resources department.

The Solution:  The transportation department relied on a staffing service to source candidates, using a combination of advertising and database searches.  To fill the positions quickly – without sacrificing quality – they used several service options, including temporary hires, temp-to-direct options and direct placement.  The staffing firm also developed specialized application forms to gather critical records such as background check releases and drug screen consent forms.

The Results:  Thanks to this staffing services’ recruiting capabilities, the transportation department reviewed at least three qulified candidates for each position.  And using their hiring system, all of the positions were filled on-time and within budget.

By outsourcing the recruiting process and using temporary and temp-to-hire services, the department shifted and reduced overhead expenses.  In doing so, they enjoyed significant cost savings.

Productivity also improved.  Because staffing specialists focused on recruiting and hiring, the department’s employees could concentrate on core job concerns.

Finally, the transportation department minimized their exposure to hiring risks.  By taking advantage of temp-to-hire services, the department was able to try out potential employees on the job before extending an offer for employment – thereby reducing their chances of making bad hiring decisions.  Legal exposure was also reduced, because the service followed non-discriminatory hiring practices for direct hires and assumed all tax and reporting requirements for temporary employees.

ABR Employment Services Can Help Drive Your Profits

As one of Wisconsin’s premier staffing and placement firms, ABR Employment Services can customize a staffing plan that will enhance your company’s profitability.  Call us today to learn how.

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.

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.