Last Friday, employment numbers came in and the number of individuals under the temporary-help service sector increased for the fifth straight month. This is not surprising; in fact it is a typical response to the tail end of a recession. At the beginning of a downturn, companies stop using temporary workers before layoffs, but as things pick up they realize they’ve cut too deep and hire temporary workers to meet the needs of their growing business until they are able to hire full-time roles.
Last post I discussed a relationship with a client that is very expressive of their appreciation of what we provide and how that translates into Wall Street Services working harder on their behalf. I contrasted that with our experience with our large clients who outsource the management of their temporary staffing to a Vendor Management Solution provider (VMS.) It is my experience that the very nature of the VMS client relationship is antithetical to Staffing Companies having an experience of being appreciated. VMS providers are hired to improve efficiency and reduce cost and they do so by interacting with their Vendors as if they are providers of a commodity. As they are not part of the company they are managing staffing for they also do not have sufficient access to the information necessary to have their staffing vendors really successful.
I just came back from a client meeting that was incredibly invigorating. The client is a European Bank and I must say I would run through a brick wall for them.
Why? Well, they appreciate our efforts and they are expressive about their appreciation.
This simple act results in huge dividends for this client. We are constantly searching for ways to make the lives of our contacts at this bank easier. Recently, we’ve been putting together profiles of the divisions within the bank that use the most temp staffers. These profiles allow us to get a better grasp of the type of employee who is most likely to be successful in a role there. These profiles minimize turnaround time of resume submission as well as time spent describing the needs of the department and skills/experience required for placement there. We’re even able to streamline our billing process, and because of the ease with which we’re able to work with this client, we find ourselves prioritizing their orders above all others.
Now of course we do all we can for all of our clients but with this European Bank our efforts come more naturally. Because I know they appreciate our efforts, I think of them more often in a good light. And because I think of them more often, I come up with more ideas about improving their experience with Wall Street Services. And because they like it when I do things for them, I am eager to implement my ideas. All of this leads to them being more appreciative and the cycle continues.
Now if I compare this experience with some of our large multinationals who outsource the management of their temporary staffing program to separate Vendor Managers, it is a very different experience. Read the rest of this entry »
Yesterday the Wall Street Journal published an article on converting temporary positions in to full time opportunities entitled “Making a Temporary Stint Stick.”
The article has some good points but respectfully misses some important steps in this process.
Keeping your eye on the RIGHT target…
Nic Askew, a film maker I know, sent an e-mail a while ago asking for introductions to leaders to interview for his films. Rightly so, Nic is very concerned with the lack of leadership shown in this country and wanted to make it a theme in his next series of films. Particularly he wanted to highlight the aspects of leadership that are more elusive and often overlooked.
This is the first in his series on leadership. I was moved by it and wanted to share.
Ok, long time since my last post. It was a wonderfully busy January which, frankly, took me by surprise. Last January it was so quiet I thought the phone would never ring again. Which is decidedly NOT the case now. I am very grateful.
An acquaintance wrote this Business Week article entitled “Why Victims Can’t Invent Anything.” I loved the article and have been thinking about it a lot. The premise is that innovators see failure as an opportunity and, in fact, failure is the catalyst of innovation. Particularly after such a rough economic climate, this rings true with me.
We had an interesting thing happen yesterday that reminded me of the importance of being direct, even when it hurts.
We have a new person in training with our fulfillment team who is learning the ropes of our recruiting process. Last week this new employee sent an e-mail to a few of the temporary workers we have not worked with in a while to check their availability. She got a response from one of our staffers stating that she was no longer working with Wall Street Services because after contacting us multiple times with her availability and her desire to work, the WSS staff did not respond.
Recruiting is the core of what we do. All of the other services we provide start with our ability to bring good candidates through our doors. I’m really struggling with this critical aspect of our business – there are so many people looking for work but at the same time our clients’ expectations have gone up dramatically. Many of the people we would have placed quickly two years ago will not be accepted today.
As the economy improves, we need to dramatically increase the number of candidates we select. A recent New York Times article speaks of a surge in the hiring of temporary workers (Uchitelle, 2009). As the economy improves, this trend in hiring will continue. It has been a very tough time for the recruitment industry – any industry for that matter – but what I need to do now is determine how best to increase the quantity of high quality applicants.
Forgive the Obama slight – I am actually a big supporter of our President. It is just throughout the campaign, whenever I saw an Obama Hope poster, I chuckled. And it wasn’t the cynic in me.
I think that Hope is the most dangerous thing when interviewing candidates. Particularly for those of us who are empathetic. I for one really want people to succeed and strive to see the best in people. When making critical hiring decisions, however, hope is a killer because we simply cannot hope away our concerns. Those people who are most successful are unequivocal in their history of success – when you interview them it is clear. Yet when we like someone, feel sorry for them, or are just tired of looking, we need to be most diligent. I find it is those situations when I let Hope distort my judgment.
Last week I wrote how bulge bracket investment banks (and other large corporations) have an inherently flawed system in outsourcing the management of temporary labor to Vendor Management Services (VMS.) The VMS employees are unable to provide their vendors, the sources of consultants and temporary labor, with the information they need to be excellent and insulate the hiring managers from the sources of labor. This is in part a result of equating Consultants and Temporary employees with office supplies.