Given the complexities and rigidness involved in the jobs market, organizations are striving for agility to respond quickly to meet their business demands. Flexi staffing industry allows both employers and workers to better adapt with the increasing volatility in labor market. An organization can adjust its manpower according to the demand dynamics, giving them an upper edge in the wake of alarming competition. As the recent study of Indian Staffing Federation says that 75% of corporates prefer hiring through flexi staffing agencies, there are some important factors which should be kept in mind while associating with any staffing firm. The inputs are basis ISF Thought Leadership Round table conducted in late July with top notch HR heads & directors from HDFC Fund, Voltas, Infosys, Intex, Metlife among other who provided their inputs.
Governance/Compliance strict adherence: Corporates (principal employers) should prefer to work with staffing organisations when it comes to critical compliance management. Today, the reason the labour reforms are greatly impacting business houses is purely due to improper compliance and possibly miss outs on various accounts of negligence. Robust systems that are a key business area of a staffing company means their channels of compliance will be well controlled.
Understanding of Laws/reforms: Corporates find it cumbersome to deep dive into all amendments and labor reforms, thus the staffing partner, whose core business is to operate basis the laws and reforms, are best equipped to guide the client company during critical/business impacting changes. The more knowledgeable the partner, better they will be acting at the right time to avoid legal issues arising from miss outs.
Service Track record– Most of the client companies choose staffing firms based on their Past Work, Compliance Track Record and Geographical Spread as top priority, however the decision making is also based on the staffing partner’s brand and ability to be a partner. Noticeably, Reference Check and Compliance Proofs are the top most checkpoints for the customers across region and across the flexi staff strength of their workforce.
Understand customer’s criticality of turnaround time.
Staffing firms that keep active relationship with customers, can understand their requirement much in advance and that helps the customer in fulfilling his internal commitments well in time. In a dynamic business environment, ask is always to be able to fulfill requirements as of yesterday. In such an environment, the better relationship with job seekers and a good understanding of the customers’ business processes, will always be an advantage to partnership.
Cost model
All businesses run for profit, so the partner who tries to cut short on pricing, to gain business, will also cut short of processes to meet his costs. A corporate always need to be wary of such companies. Low cost never means good quality, or event safe partnership. End of the day, principal employer is the corporate and the law binds them to ensure their partner is compliant with the laws. Thus, establishing a profitable partnership will be the only win-win situation for both.
Relationship with employees/job seekers
A staffing partner provides people who are the brand for the customer’s organisation. If they are not treated well, the brand of the customer is the first to get challenged. Thus, ensuring
that the staffing partner maintains good relations with the placed candidates/job seekers at all time, become advantage to their customers.
Process orientation through standardized tools – Visibility into prevailing practices for e.g. redeployment rates, employee satisfaction rates, grievance handling process etc. – Ability to support across different cities and countries, are a critical part of the customers to look at a staffing partner. Customer organisations prefer process oriented and transparent approach, thus, it becomes a critical partnership supplement.
Value Additions
Customers always likes to be treated with care and have well maintained relationship. Thus staffing partners, who are able to go beyond the obvious assignment, though at a minimal cost, but able to add knowledge/value to the customer organisation, should always be given an opportunity. Only relationships which has potential to grow, will be advantageous for the customer.
To Summarize
Staffing companies are providing candidates engaged in different professions to their client organization, who are looking for perfect employees that fit in with the concerned organizational goals and work environment. Staffing companies helps in providing the right skill sets as well as right candidates to the corporates for the better growth of the Indian economy. Staffing industry acts as an enabler for the growth of the economy.
(As originally appeared in Business World – http://bwpeople.businessworld.in/article/Choosing-a-right-staffing-partner-reduces-complexities/04-09-2017-125327/)
