“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
Benjamin Franklin
One of the patterns we see with our clients, especially larger clients, is relying on one staffing agency to support their large-scale operations, sometimes these operations number in the hundreds of contingent workers. In speaking to these clients, we hear the same two themes, high turnover rates and constant understaffing leading to productivity losses which can’t help but impact profitability, which begs the question. “Why wouldn’t these clients be motivated to have a backup plan?”
While no one wants to enter an engagement unless they are totally committed to the process and expected results, the fact is often adjustments need to be made to achieve those desired results. Being prepared to make those adjustments is an integral part of setting the game up to win, in professional sports it’s those adjustments that have produced the likes of Tom Brady, Brett Favre, James Harden and Joe Montana to name a few who started their careers on the bench, sports version of Plan B. So why the reluctance to engage other staffing agencies, especially when your primary supplier is not fulfilling your operations managers need for labor? These are some of the limiting beliefs holding back many largescale users of contingent labor:
- Agencies are drawing from the same pool of workers, so why should we go through the headache of multiple suppliers for the same substandard results?
- What our single source agency is providing us (high turnover, high callout, and short staff) is symptomatic of the current environment
- We went through an RFP to “find” a new agency and were successful in getting our current provider to cut their rates, so at least now were not paying as much for the substandard results we’re receiving.
“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” – Tony Robbins
At All Purpose Staffing we have been fortunate enough to secure a place on the bench of some of the area’s largest users of contingent labor and have turned that into a role as a starting player. This is because like people, no two staffing agencies are the same and the monochromatic mentality endemic in the industry as highlighted in our above examples has many users of contingent labor, both large and small, convinced substandard results is a natural and unavoidable byproduct of this service. At All Purpose Staffing we know nothing is farther from the truth and the quality of the assignment starts with the employees’ first engagement with our recruiters and how our relationship begins. Needless to say, our Platinum Rule of engagement is the cornerstone to developing the relationship with our employees a successful engagement with our clients demand. We also know the labor market is constantly evolving and what may have worked last year may be the source of this year’s failure, this is the main reason we are in constant communication with our clients as well as our employees as the clues to tomorrow’s changes are present today.
If you are looking for a new way to look at your staffing solutions please give us a call, we would welcome the opportunity to learn more about your business and share with you some of our success stories.
