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The Times They Are A-Changing
Dub Anderson, The Anderson Agency

In the late 1990’s, our industry rode the wave of change to unprecedented growth by way of technology. Technological changes didn’t force staffing services to change the basic ways they operated or how they charged for their services. We were doing staffing at its essence: find workers, qualify them and fill orders.

Now, three years after the economic and technological bubbles burst, staffing is again faced with a time of change that, in some ways, is more profound and far more demanding. This time the change is not being led by the growth of new industries, but as a by-product of technology and the recession it helped cause. These are called structural changes, meaning that many of our clients are changing their basic approach to business.

These alterations are the result of several recent and accelerating events. One is the use of technology as a way to increase productivity, meaning fewer workers are required to do the same work. Secondly, outsourcing and a “WalMart” mentality of driving vendor margins down have forced many companies to adopt a new approach to business. CEOs are not talking about new ideas as a way to be competitive, but how cheaply they can run their company.

This presents both opportunities and challenges for staffing.

1. Opportunities:

a. If companies in your market are in a low-employee, low cost mode. the use of temporaries will be crucial. You can be a relief to their over-worked employees by offering staff for projects and contracts.

b. If they are not using temporaries and not hiring, then perhaps you can offer fee for service where you assist, or even replace, the HR people. This also appeals to a company’s running lean business model.

c. Pitch your Master Vendor or Vendor on Premise service which, again, relieves the HR department of having to spend time dealing with multiple staffing services. As a VOP, you also take away the need for certain permanent line managers.

2. Challenges:

a. If a structural change means a company is to run as lean and low cost as possible, then they may not use staffing services at all. Some of these companies are not worth your sales time and others want to strip your margins to ridiculous lows.

b. The nationals drive and accept low mark up business. You can’t compete at their low levels. Your hope is that they will stumble and you can come to the rescue and be able to demand higher mark ups because you offer a higher and more dependable level of service. Solid service at a higher rate will almost always trump lousy service where orders are not being filled, workers don’t stay on the job, and the wrong skill sets are sent.

c. Sell concept again. Educate prospects and clients to the benefits of your services. We forget to grow existing business too often, allowing others to come and take over a department down the hall at a client’s facility.

If your clients and prospects are profoundly changing how they make their money, then you must know who is making the decisions and what their new expectations are. Some clients you may simply have to let go. With others, you can work into, and become a part of, their new strategies.

The good news at the end of the day is that American business needs, and will use, staffing services in most markets more than ever. The projections on future industry growth are very positive.

So see change as your friend, developing new uses for your services. Take a new look at how you approach your staffing business and plan how you can change for the better.





DID YOU KNOW?
Did you know that TempNet is made up of staffing services who never compete with each other? The non-competitive atmosphere at TempNet fosters the free flow of ideas, strategies, and experience. Visit the membership section for a full list of membership benefits