With the Great Resignation keeping talent pools limited, many companies are struggling to keep up with demand. Perhaps you’ve been asking your employees to work too much overtime or you’ve been asking workers to take care of tasks they’re not trained for because you don’t have anyone else who can cover that area. Or maybe with the busy season, your company can’t afford to shut down production lines or other processes essential for meeting your goals. If you stretch your current staff too thin, you risk losing them to burnout or to another company. To assist your full-time workforce, it may be time to implement temporary workers.
Here are five ways temporary staff can help your business increase its productivity.
Effective Workload Management
Companies can often find it challenging to manage workloads and effectively administer daily tasks. Your employees might be spending too much time entering data from receipts to an excel spreadsheet or navigating between multiple systems can disrupt staff from the primary responsibilities of their jobs, which may cause a delay in projects.
If your current team is spending too much time on administrative duties, consider hiring temporary employees to handle these responsibilities. Your staff will be able to spend less time on admin and more time doing what they do best.
Manage Rapid Growth
When growth is rapid, staffing services can relieve the burden created by new employees. Hiring new full-time employees is risky if you’re unsure if the growth can be sustained long-term. When your organization is growing, you don’t want to add new full-time employees until you’re sure that the business can handle it. Hiring temporary staff is a way to “test the waters” and determine if that’s the right fit.
For instance, temporary workers can help you experiment if the organization needs to hire ten new employees within a year. This will give you a better idea of how much work is involved in onboarding new hires and whether or not you’ll need to hire full-time employees after the temporary ones leave. If you find temporary staff members who are a good fit for your workplace, you could consider hiring them as full-time employees.
Overcome Talent Shortages
It’s no secret that it’s been difficult to find qualified people during the current talent shortage. Organizations may be able to fix the problem temporarily by hiring employees from a staffing company specializing in your industry. A staffing agency can provide eligible workers with the skills and experience the job requires.
The right candidate can help your business overcome talent shortages and keep your business strong. Temporary employees who exceed company expectations while on assignment may be offered a permanent position; which allows organizations to hire already trained and up to speed team members.
Reduce Overtime and Prevent Burnout
Overtime or extra working hours are sometimes unavoidable, and there are times when you have to require your employees to take on more work beyond their normal hours. However, overworking employees can cause a decrease in productivity and even burnout, which can be counterproductive to the organization’s bottom line.
Temporary employees can help prevent burnout by giving your current staff members time off. This not only gives them a break from the work they’re doing now, but it also allows them to recharge and be ready when increased needs arise.
Increase Capacity
Hiring someone on a short-term or temporary basis gives you the flexibility to expand your workforce as your organization needs it and gives you time to evaluate whether that extra help will be required long-term.
Temporary workers are also beneficial if you’re faced with an unexpected spike in demand, like during the holidays or seasonal needs. They’re great for seasonal work, or, if you have a major project coming up, bringing on additional staff for the duration can help ensure that it gets done on time and within budget.
Temporary staffing is becoming a widespread recruitment solution, especially for businesses experiencing growth. Companies that outsource employment must consider how to best utilize the temporary workforce to increase productivity, efficiency, and overall work quality. They can help enhance the productivity of a business through effective workload management, reducing burnout, and mitigating talent shortages. In some cases, temp workers can help with capacity issues or provide coverage during times of peak activity or absence for other employees.
About EG Workforce Solutions
We’ve been in this business for decades and have developed a deep network of professional connections. Whether they’re companies looking for talent, job seekers looking for work, or an up-and-coming store in need of some temporary help, we know the right people to bridge the gap between the hiring and the hired.
But what’s more, we get to know people. From employers hiring to candidates looking, we take the time to
listen and learn. We hear your likes, talents, and needs. We gain an understanding, and with it, we’re able to
facilitate lasting relationships between businesses and people.
High-volume hiring or recruiting for many open positions in a given time frame is challenging, especially in the era of The Great Resignation. Hiring teams are spending huge amounts of time sifting through and reviewing resumes, screening applicants, interviewing, making offers, and onboarding new hires making it difficult to maintain a high level of quality candidates. Keeping your high-volume hiring process efficient and strategic for both candidates and recruiters is key. Here are four strategies for successful high-volume hiring.
Develop a “Candidate First” Application Process
Find, attract, and engage applicants with your own candidate-first job application process. It starts with reaching them where they’re already spending their time — Snapchat, TikTok, LinkedIn, or other social media platforms. Many job seekers use their cell phones to look at social media and apply for jobs in today’s world. Employers could make it easier for applicants to apply for positions on their mobile devices. Some job candidates may not have access to desktop computers and need to be able to find jobs using only their mobile devices. It is important for an employer to have a mobile-friendly website and allow job seekers to upload their resumes using their devices. Lastly, let them apply with a simple one-click process. Ensure that you cut any fluff from the application process and keep the fields to the bare minimum whenever possible.
Speed Up Sourcing with Talent Rediscovery
Talent rediscovery is a recruitment software that integrates into your existing ATS (Applicant Tracking System) and helps you identify whether candidates who applied for a previous position at your company are qualified for an open role. When you enter a job description of a current application, the talent rediscovery algorithm will search every resume in your ATS and display the most suitable matches. This type of technology can help organizations manage their talent in today’s unpredictable labor market, which allows businesses to gain better visibility into the workforce to understand the skills that are already within their current systems.
Most ATS software isn’t intended for searching for “rediscovered” candidates. Many systems let you search resume databases using keywords; they have some limitations, including the possibility of false positives (finding candidates who are not the most qualified ones due to keyword stuffing on their resumes). And false negatives (not finding candidates who have strong qualifications due to overly specific keywords). This makes it challenging to match previous applicants to an open request unless you’re using a dedicated talent rediscovery tool.
Automate Resume Screening
The use of resume screening software such as Lever, Greenhouse, SmartRecruiters, and LinkedIn Recruiting are becoming crucial to the hiring operations of many companies. Typically, a high-volume job posting will draw in various resumes from qualified to under-qualified candidates. Using an automated resume screening reduces the number of time employees dedicate to sifting through unnecessary resumes by analyzing the resumes of existing employees to learn the qualifications of a job. Candidates who fit the criteria are then ranked and graded from A to D, making it quicker for your hiring team to contact the most qualified candidates first.
Use Recruiting Metrics To Stay Efficient
High-volume hiring is time-consuming, requiring considerable oversight to ensure that each candidate progresses through the different stages of the interview process appropriately. Automating certain steps in the recruiting process, such as screening and lead assessments, allows recruiters to focus on more strategic tasks.
Here are two recruiting metrics you should be gathering to find shortcuts in your high-volume hiring process:
1. Track conversion rates to eliminate unnecessary steps:
For example, LinkedIn’s customer success interview process for new hires includes three steps in its interviews. The first round of interviews is a phone screen with a recruiter who rates candidates on a scale of 1-3. When the data showed that 90% of candidates who scored a 3 made it to the final interview, they eliminated the second interview for those specific candidates.
2. Follow engagement patterns to find the drop-off point:
Identify the weak points in your candidate experience by examining your organization’s engagement patterns. This might mean adding more interactive careers pages, increasing the number of touchpoints between recruiters and candidates, or creating an offer that is competitive with other similar opportunities. The most crucial step of the hiring process is finding the weak points.
High-volume hiring has a number of different strategies that can be applied to various organizational structures, job requirements, and candidate pools. A “candidate first” application process is an excellent way to approach hiring new employees. Using technology to speed up both sourcing and screening can make the shortlisting of candidates less time-consuming. Finally, using appropriate metrics to find shortcuts will make the process as a whole more efficient.
About EG Workforce Solutions
We’ve been in this business for decades and have developed a deep network of professional connections. Whether they’re companies looking for talent, job seekers looking for work, or an up-and-coming store in need of some temporary help, we know the right people to bridge the gap between the hiring and the hired.
But what’s more, we get to know people. From employers hiring to candidates looking, we take the time to listen and learn. We hear your likes, talents, and needs. We gain an understanding, and with it, we’re able to facilitate lasting relationships between businesses and people.
As a forward-thinking manager today, you hope to create a work culture in which each employee can thrive. You want people to feel empowered to contribute not just their labor but their creativity. And you want everyone to feel the satisfaction and happiness that comes with empowerment. To reach those goals, you need to give employees the room to experiment, and the tools and information to take their skills to the next level. Here are some tips on how to do it.
Lead with Empathy
It’s not always easy for managers to connect with workers on a personal level. But it’s well worth the effort. Body language, facial expressions, the tone of your voice—all can help show employees you’re genuinely concerned about them and want them to succeed. Be ready to talk when they need to hear from you and listen when they have something to say. Focus on showing all of your workers that you genuinely appreciate them as individuals. It can go a long way.
To be empowered, workers must know they have a stake in the future. So, don’t just tell them about tomorrow; help them set the path toward it. Review and, if necessary, refresh your mission statement, vision statement, and strategic plan. And, as much as you can, make them part of planning and goal setting, even if it’s just at the department level.
Properly Equip Them
Make sure you’re not holding back any of the critical tools and information workers need to make thoughtful decisions. By properly equipping them—with data, tech, or whatever else they need—you build on trust and foster confidence throughout your teams.
Trust Them
You can’t fake trust. (Although some employers try to.) Wear it on your sleeve. Set clear expectations and standards, but create an environment in which workers can be creative and innovative. Don’t be afraid to let them fail. When they see you won’t second guess them, they’ll begin to focus on results and carry the organization forward, empowered.
About EG Workforce Solutions
We’ve been in this business for decades and have developed a deep network of professional connections. Whether they’re companies looking for talent, job seekers looking for work, or an up-and-coming store in need of some temporary help, we know the right people to bridge the gap between the hiring and the hired.
But what’s more, we get to know people. From employers hiring to candidates looking, we take the time to listen and learn. We hear your likes, talents, and needs. We gain an understanding, and with it, we’re able to facilitate lasting relationships between businesses and people.
In the wake of a global pandemic and seismic shifts in our culture and the way we work, people from all walks of life are taking long hard looks at their jobs—and deciding to leave. Many of those people are seeking more than just a better paycheck or a change of scenery, they’re looking for something more. Something that makes their lives more fulfilling. Here are a few ways you can help your current workforce find happiness right where they are.
Don’t Delegate Drudge Jobs
Make daily work life more interesting by giving employees responsibilities that go beyond their assigned tasks. For example, offer them committee memberships that can influence product development, include them in decision making, or assign them to high-profile projects.
Provide Regular Reinforcement
This one’s easy to do but also easy to forget. People want to know how they’re doing, both in terms of meeting expectations and where they need improvement. So tell them. Offer rewards and recognition as well as coaching that leads to greater success.
Avoid the Blame Game When Challenges Arise
When a problem occurs––when a worker falls short on a task—focus first on the work system rather than the person. Analyze what factors may have led to the problem. If you conclude the individual, not the system, was at fault, try resolving any issues with that employee first, before heading to HR.
Be Ready to Listen
The first step toward happier employees isn’t you talking. It’s you listening. Yes, you can guide workers by asking questions, but then allow them to express themselves. And don’t be afraid to ask for advice or opinions.
Don’t Forget Compensation and Titles
For employees, the basics are always the same. They want to feel properly compensated, appreciated, and rewarded. So monitor pay and development. Make sure you’re offering training and opportunity for workers to learn new skills and promotions. Then recognize them—with increased pay and new titles—when appropriate.
About EG Workforce Solutions
We’ve been in this business for decades and have developed a deep network of professional connections. Whether they’re companies looking for talent, job seekers looking for work, or an up-and-coming store in need of some temporary help, we know the right people to bridge the gap between the hiring and the hired.
But what’s more, we get to know people. From employers hiring to candidates looking, we take the time to listen and learn. We hear your likes, talents, and needs. We gain an understanding, and with it, we’re able to facilitate lasting relationships between businesses and people.