While turnover is an important metric, it often doesn’t paint the bigger picture when it comes to KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). High turnover is just one of the many symptoms of chronic disease. If we did a full scan, we’d likely find additional underlying symptoms that are beyond any staffing agency’s control. Things like low pay rates, companies not hiring people in, employees not getting a full week’s pay due to an equipment malfunction shutting a line down, and poor relationships with supervisors.

What we’ve found, however, is that we can control KPIs that drive toward reduced training and OT costs, like:

Manager Satisfaction

“People don’t leave their jobs, they leave their managers.” People are more likely to leave a company if they feel things aren’t being handled fairly at work. Managers are the ones who can align people and create positive feelings within their team and company – so use that to your advantage. 

Quality of Candidates

Employees who are placed in jobs that are too difficult for them or whose skills are underutilized may become discouraged and quit. By carefully studying the requirements for the job and asking applicants the proper prerequisite qualifications, you can minimize the chances of this happening. 

Engagement between the Associate and their Supervisor

Employees need guidance and direction – especially new ones! The absence of proper training (and communication) from a supervisor may cause employees to fall behind in their performance and feel they lack the ability to do their job. 

Satisfaction – the associate actually likes being there!

The nature of the job itself contributes just as much as the manager towards an employee’s decision to leave. It’s important to note that although you may feel you can’t change the work itself – you can still give a sense of independence, more feedback, and a feeling of involvement in any role. 

Taking a look a the underlying symptoms and addressing them will ultimately lead to an increase in productivity.  So, what is your current productivity performance and how is it trending v. target? How are standards of performance measured for contingent staff within your organization?

When talent demand is high, employers must have a solid employer brand in place to stand a chance against competitors fishing in the same talent pool. If you want to catch a fish, you better have the most attractive bait.

A company’s employer brand is how the company is perceived by prospective employees when they are determining whether your business is a place they’d like to work (and existing employees when deciding whether they want to stay, too). It encompasses culture, benefits and compensation, values and overall reputation. While most employers understand the importance of employer branding in their recruitment efforts, many are unsure of how to start the process of refining their employer brand to meet their candidates interests and needs.

WHY EMPLOYER BRANDING IS SO IMPORTANT TO GET RIGHT:

• According to the National Association for Manufacturers’ (NAM) most recent manufacturers’ outlook survey, the primary business challenge cited by manufacturers surveyed was attracting and retaining a quality workforce. In fact, nearly 70 percent of respondents cited this as their number one challenge.
• A strong majority of candidates identify reputation as a key factor when considering a new job. And, according to Glassdoor, candidates read at least four reviews before forming an opinion about a company.
• Additionally, employers with a strong employer brand can reduce their cost-per-hire and increase the number of qualified applicants they receive, not to mention reduce turnover. (LinkedIn)

When candidates are considering a new employer for full-time or temporary work, their opinion is often influenced by factors of an employer brand, like:

• Company mission and vision
• Company location(s)
• Compensation and benefits
• Opportunities for advancement
• Job security
• Management
• Culture
• The team, and who they’ll be working with
• Company values, including corporate social responsibility and community efforts

Without these employer branding elements clearly defined and communicated, recruiting success is unequivocally compromised.

START STRENGTHENING YOUR EMPLOYER BRAND – NOW

In addition to customized recruitment messages, videos, and social recruitment strategies, it’s important to create and distribute content that is relevant and interesting to your target pool of candidates – and to pipeline talent ahead of critical needs. A major benefit of having a developed employer branding strategy is that reactionary recruiting becomes the exception instead of the norm.

To begin honing your employer branding strategy, consider starting with these three steps:

1. Partner with marketing. It is important to promote the whole company – mission, vision, values – not just open jobs. Work with marketing and other internal stakeholders to share a holistic message that gives special consideration to the talent you’re trying to attract to the business.
2. Safeguard your online reputation. An employer brand is nothing you can completely control. It lives in the hearts and minds of your employees and candidates. What you can do, however, is take an active role in the conversations being had about your company as an employer. Stay close to your online review profiles, like Glassdoor, Yelp, and other company-rating sites, and engage with people on social media.
3. Be authentic and flexible. Meet with your target audience on their terms – meaning, if the talent you’re trying to attract is online during certain days of the week or times of day, make it a priority to have someone covering the desk at that time. Candidates today are expecting real, not templated, responses to their questions, and they’re expecting it on their time. Deliver an experience that caters to them.

If you would benefit from having an exploratory conversation about your employer brand, contact us. We have offices in Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, Grand Rapids, Sturgis, Marysville, OH, and Tipton, IN. We’d be happy to meet with you to discuss how you can improve your employer brand and better attract (and retain) the talent you need to successfully operate and grow your business.

In 2005, Professors W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne launched a revelation in business strategy by encouraging companies to evacuate shark infested waters.

Sharks? In Michigan? Well – the proverbial shark. Essentially, they are suggesting that companies are better off searching for ways to gain “uncontested market space” (referred to Blue Oceans) instead of competing with similar companies (sharks) and struggling to survive (the Red Oceans).

In staffing and recruiting, the pool of unemployed folks is getting redder and redder by the day. These waters are full of the same group of people day in and day out who are checking job boards for the next best thing. Likewise, they’re also full of competitors who are fishing for the same candidates. And while job boards can be a good resource, it shouldn’t be your company’s only strategy when recruiting, as the net you’re casting only goes so far when trying to catch new applicants.

Perhaps you’re saying “Christy, this makes total sense to me. But how do I get to the Blue Ocean waters?” Simply put, you’re going to need a bigger net. And WSI Recruitment & Staffing can help! WSI can help you make the competition  irrelevant by finding associates who are ideal for YOUR workplace and taking your story to them, rather than crossing our fingers and hoping they stumble upon your company’s job post among a sea of hundreds.

Job seekers today have changed how they search for employment. If you don’t make the necessary adjustments to meet them where they are, you are always going to be treading in red, shark-infested water.

In today’s talent market, it’s tough to find good workers – but this is especially true in manufacturing.

According to last quarter’s NAM Manufacturers’ Outlook Survey, finding a qualified workforce continues to be the greatest challenge faced by manufacturers, with 69.9 percent of respondents citing it as the primary challenge they’re facing right now. According to previous NAM surveys, finding qualified workers has proven to be a challenge throughout 2019. In Q1 71.3 percent of respondents cited the inability to find skilled workers as a top challenge, and in Q2 68.8 percent said the same thing. Attracting and retaining a quality workforce is made easier when talent acquisition efforts are supported by a committed staffing partner who is equally as dedicated to providing superior service and results – both for you, and for your workforce too.

The national workforce shortage has led to an increased demand for staffing support. But increased demand shouldn’t mean that you receive any less support from your staffing provider. If you’re experiencing any of these pain points, it’s time to reconsider whether your staffing provider is truly the partner you need:

• Inconsistent performance; different people working on open requisitions means varied results
• General lack of follow-up to internal stakeholders
• Candidates shared with hiring managers are missing basic qualifications and other must-haves
• Lack of innovation or creativity to find resumes from alternative resources – versus mining job boards
• Receiving candidates who have already been considered by human resources and/or hiring managers

What to Look for in a True Staffing Partner

In manufacturing, you are an essential part of an overall supply chain function. Delivering products, therefore, is wildly important – and you need people in order to do it. Staffing providers are in a similar business, delivering resources – i.e. talent based on supply and demand. One main difference, however, is that people are not a commodity – and they shouldn’t be treated as such either. In today’s tight talent market, job seekers have options, and this often puts them in the driver’s seat of the supply/demand story.

When a staffing provider poorly represents themselves in the market and/or to candidates this can be a sign they may not be the best partner for promoting or protecting your employer brand.Instead, here are indicators of a partner designed to deliver talent while contributing to your employer brand and story:

• An Enhanced Employer Brand Experience. As a representative of your brand, your staffing partner
  should fully understand your culture, values, employment brand and be prepared to embrace and champion
  your name. A true partner will seek ways to enhance your brand by offering innovative ways to build your
  talent community, all while never missing a beat when it comes to delivering the people you need – now –
  for your open requisitions. A staffing partner can even provide you with tailored recruitment messages,
  videos, and other customized content built to deliver great talent – and to pipeline candidates ahead of
  hiring needs. Make this a must!
• Superior Account Management. A true staffing partner is not only available to fill requisitions but to learn
  from you and your business, gaining deeper insight into the heart of your operations. An added benefit of a
  strong account team is they can help alleviate some of the administrative burden that go into the hiring
  process – while maintaining a positive, consistent candidate experience. Look for partners who dedicate a
  tenured account management team, and who are well-versed in your hiring and onboarding procedures.
  Together, this team can help contribute, enhance and deliver on your employer brand promises.
• Proof Your Recruitment Strategy is Working – For Your Business. Your staffing partner should be
  delivering – and able to report on their delivery – tangible recruitment performance that can be tied to
  business objectives. Metrics like increasing fill rates, decreasing turnover, and reducing time-to-fill are
  important to measure – and they can be tied to revenue and real business value, like decreasing expensive
  mandatory overtime when jobs go unfilled and increasing employee satisfaction and thus retention and
  output. Recruitment is a business and when done right, it can mean the difference between meeting
  production and revenue goals, or not. Make sure your recruitment strategy has a health check in place and
  that your staffing partner can provide both data and results that matter for the business.

When qualifying staffing providers, ensure they’re doing what you need them to be doing for you by measuring their performance. Consider limiting, or ending, the relationship when delivery is not meeting your business goals or expectations. You and your company deserve better.

And remember, cheaper is not always better. It can be easy to commoditize a service like staffing, but ultimately you can end up seriously hurting your company’s hiring prospects in the process – now and in the future. Read online reviews, check references (yes, staffing providers have references too!), and don’t settle for less than a partner when it comes to your staffing needs.

At WSI Talent, we love data! And we love reporting on the great things we’re able to do for our clients every day. If you’re looking for transparency, resiliency, expertise and innovation, consider us the next time you’re in need of a staffing provider – and partner. Get in touch with one of our local offices to learn more. We’d love to meet you!

Online reputation monitoring is a real thing. An important thing. Not only do you want your customers to give you great reviews, but have you ever thought about what your employees and former employees are saying? Everyone has access at their fingertips to check out your company – and what your online reputation is saying about your company culture, management, and work environment is just as important as your product and service quality.

I spent less than 15 minutes online and was able to get a few reviews of businesses right here in Grand Rapids:

• “No matter how good of a worker you are, you will be degraded and talked to like you are trash.”
• “I wouldn’t recommend anyone to work here. I’m happy I got out of such a toxic work environment!”
• “The building IS filthy all the time, so you don’t have to worry about keeping it clean.”

Those reviews could very well be about your company. Even if they’re not, they should make you sit up and take notice. And while it’s easy to shrug off reviews like these as only being written by disgruntled or “bad” employees, we’ve found that people feel emboldened to really speak their minds – whether true or slightly inaccurate –  when they’re behind the safety of their screens. Often, they do. not. hold. back.

Negative comments are just as powerful as positive ones like these:

• “Place of employment: good company to work for, good people and benefits.”
• “A great company that cares about its products and people. First class all the way!!!!”
• “I have been here for almost 2 years and I love it. I have great co-workers and great bosses. They really go above and beyond for everyone.”

Which ones would you rather have future employees read about your business?

The goods news is, your online reputation can be helped. First, you need to figure out what kinds of stories and experiences you’d ideally want people to share with the world, especially with future employees. Then you build and maintain a work environment that supports those experiences. That makes it easier for the final step, which is make it easy for others to tell your story in a positive, organic light.

At WSI, we work with our client partners regularly on reputation management initiatives because helping your business tell it’s story is not only our passion, but it also enables us to get the quality associates that you are looking for! Learn more about our staffing solutions and what makes us different at www.wsitalent.com.

When it comes to business decisions – and especially in staffing – the cheapest option is not always your best option.

Hunting for bargains. Shopping sales. Last minute deals. The pursuit of more for less is what the culture for consumer goods has become.

But what about when it comes to business decisions? The over-arching drive to “get the bottom dollar deal” can cloud important aspects of the decision-making process. Are you actually comparing apples to apples or are you thinking only of the dollars you’ll be saving?

I’ve had countless conversations with business owners and decision makers discussing their needs and project goals (be it online advertising, software implementation, staffing needs, etc). When I come back with a proposal that outlines what we’ve discussed and the investment required for achieving those goals, sometimes the conversation comes to a screeching halt.

“I spoke to another company that can do it cheaper.”

Now, I’m all for saving money. But this is usually when I’ll ask to see the other company’s proposal, because I’ll give an honest review of it for your company’s benefit. If we are indeed comparing apples to apples, then I absolutely understand going with the other company. But if there are five of your “must haves” missing, I’ll point that out, too.

We’ve all heard the adage “You get what you pay for.” Going with the cheaper option almost always costs more. Take shopping for clothing or shoes, for example. Sure, you can buy a t-shirt at Wal-Mart for $5. But it’s not going to last nearly as long as the $20 t-shirt from Banana Republic. When you have to replace a cheap item repeatedly, it ends up costing more than if you would have spent $20 in the first place.

From a business perspective, purchasing something based on the lowest price will likely result in the quick realization that it’s missing key functions. I’ve seen companies piece together multiple lower-priced services for the full functionality they required in the first place, only to have it end up costing so much more than if they would have just spent the extra money to begin with.

At the end of the day, I may not have the cheapest option for your company’s staffing needs, but I do have the most valuable option. WSI isn’t for everyone, and that’s ok. Instead of getting into pricing wars with our competitors, we focus on our client partnerships and providing them with the best service in the industry.

At WSI, we take a great deal of pride in the level of service we provide our clients. It’s why we’re a 5-time ClearlyRated Best of Staffing Client Satisfaction Diamond award winner. We are raising the bar of the staffing world by providing solutions that go beyond just providing warm bodies!

It’s not what we do that differentiates us from other staffing firms, it’s how we do it. We believe marketing and recruiting go hand in hand and look forward to showing you how we can make our competitive advantage your competitive advantage. Let’s connect!

“It just feels different.” We hear this from our clients time and time again who have worked with other staffing firms in the past.  What makes us different than other staffing agencies is our purpose-driven strategy for recruiting and managing their temporary workforce. 

Join us this month as we dig a little deeper into the life of our very own Jeff Harp. Jeff has done great things for our Marysville Branch and even though his dreams of being a Professional Golfer didn’t pan out, we’re glad he ended up with us. Let’s get started!