STAFFING RESOURCE CENTER

The COVID-19 pandemic forever altered the way companies do business and how employees regard their careers. To keep pace, your temporary labor playbook may need a revamp as well.

What's changed in the marketplace, and how can staffing help you adapt to these changes? Here are a few noteworthy data points and trends:

Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA) predicts a 12% increase in contingent workforce spend in 2021 after a 17% decline in 2020. Much of the job loss and stagnation in 2020 can be attributed to panic by both businesses and consumers. As organizations formed new ways of doing business, companies settled into two camps:

• Essential goods and services companies needed to find ways to keep their employees safe and productive.
• Other companies shifted to a remote work model, which brought challenges of their own.

As we move through 2021, however, your business must adopt a more proactive approach to thrive. The economy is expected to rebound as vaccines become more widely available. Will you be ready? Consider these three questions:

Are your company policies stuck in 2019?

Have your legal and HR teams review all onboarding materials, procedures, and handbooks to ensure they not only comply with labor laws, but also take into consideration the changing landscape. Your remote onboarding and training practices might have been thrown together in reaction to the coronavirus pandemic, but now is the time to see if it's everything you would like it to be.

How has your workforce changed?

Many companies find remote work a valuable addition to their workflow and plan for at least part of their workforce to work from home. Remote work may enable employers to reduce overhead, improve employee productivity and prevent absenteeism. New jobs have been created by COVID-19, such as cleaners, temperature checkers, and contact tracers. If you can add these types of jobs, you should put a strong recruiting and training program into place. Other positions with increasing demand are call center, customer service, and picking/packing jobs as consumers shift to shopping online.

Can you use staffing as a strategy?

Companies tend to think of temporary staffing as an "in case of emergency: break glass" solution. This is not the most effective way to leverage staffing. A strategic approach can save you from last-minute scrambles, keep costs down and help you prepare for the unexpected. By taking the time to be proactive, you can plan for a productive and prosperous future.

What a Modern Staffing Strategy Can Do

Boost profitability. Your staffing strategy can have a significant impact on your organization's bottom line. Companies that add contract or temporary employees to their team can control spending, cut costs, and maximize their ROI. Consider where temporary help can do the most for your business when your budget may be tighter in the post-2020 recovery.

Increase productivity. Use temporary labor to prevent bottlenecks that can slow processes down, costing valuable time and money. If your business increased as a result of the pandemic, you may find employees stretched to their limits. Staffing can help prevent employee burnout driven by excess overtime and keep them working at peak efficiency.

Manage growth. Some companies have been surprised by growth. The pandemic opened new opportunities for companies that were able to pivot. As demand for PPE, medical devices, plastic dividers, and any number of products and services continues, temporary workers can provide needed labor without the risk of full-time hires. Much of this demand may drop off at the end of 2021, with any luck. You can bring in additional help on a temporary or temp-to-hire basis until you have a more accurate picture of your hiring needs.

Access specialized talent. Experts can be expensive. Why pay for in-demand specialists longer than you need them? Instead, engage them on a contract basis. Keep them on board only as long as needed, or task them with training your full-time team. A staffing firm with an extensive talent database can provide quick access to specialized talent.

Eliminate bad hires. If you're having difficulty filling positions, temporary-to-hire is a solution that allows you to give potential employees a chance to prove themselves. Maybe you've identified a candidate who doesn't check off all your must-have boxes but seems to have a great attitude and a willingness to learn. Temp-to-hire allows you to give them a chance without the risk and expense of a bad hire.

Minimize turnover. High turnover can cause project delays, quality erosion and reduced employee morale. Temporaries can step into positions prone to high turnover, alleviating the stress and expense of replacing employees who leave.

Eliminate overstaffing. If your workloads have predictable ups and downs, use planned staffing to convert fixed expenses to variable. If you're not yet fully confident in how your company is weathering changed market conditions, staffing can control costs. Minimize your permanent staff to the level needed to sustain your core volume of work, and then proactively plan to bring in supplemental help only when it's needed. Planned staffing will decrease your need for lay-offs and unemployment claims while this period of uncertainty continues.

Limit benefits expense. Benefits can add significantly to payroll expenses as much as 30% to 35%. By maintaining a limited core staff and add temporary employees to the team, your benefits expenses are limited to only your full-time employees. The staffing firm takes responsibility for paying their employees' benefits and other employment-related expenses.

Minimize legal exposure. Your staffing partner is the employer of record for their temporary employees. They assume responsibility for payroll, statutory taxes, and all government reporting. They also ensure that non-discriminatory hiring practices are followed, safeguarding you against potential lawsuits.

As you look for strategies that keep your business profitable and productive in 2021 and the coming years, consider what temporary staffing has to offer.