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Thanks for joining us today here at Warehouse and Operations as a Career, I hope you’re having an outstanding week so far! So where are we at week wise, let’s see, so we’re in week 39, next week starts the 4th quarter of the year, can you believe the year is wrapping up in only 13 more weeks? I always try and review my goals for the year about now, kind of check on how I’ve done, what I’ve accomplished, maybe make that last minute push towards bringing one to completion and yes, sometimes having to move one or two over for next year. How’s your goals coming along? Are you keeping those journals updated, and getting noticed by your management, working towards that next task or promotion? I think of this month as a time to reboot myself too, to start thinking of my goals and planning for next year. Send us an email to host@warehouseandoperationsasacareer.com and let us know how you’re doing with your goals, or let us know if we can help ya in any way. And don’t forget to check us out on Facebook and Twitter using @whseandops, there’s a lot of discussions going on their during the week too. Well let’s get on with week 39 I guess, week 40’s going to be here before we know it, shoot week 52 is racing our way now.
So this week I was asked about Staffing Companies, why can’t I just fill out an application at a facility I want to work for? Why do they use a staffing company? Doesn’t it make more sense to just hire employees? Well that’s kind of a three pronged question but let’s start by looking at what a staffing company is.
Staffing companies are in the business of supplying employees. I’m familiar with 3 different types so we’ll look at those today. We’ll be sticking with light industrial placements, one’s dealing in general labor, skilled positions or using equipment and those that fill all the utility positions in the warehouse. Now some agencies specialize in short term assignments, maybe day labor placements. When an employer needs 20 people for 3 days or 3 weeks they may reach out to such an agency. This type of service may use something like an availability list, a list where people call into the service each evening or morning and ask what assignments are available. Then there’s the services that are offering Temp to perm placements. These agencies are utilized by employers for the more skilled positions, or where a little experience is needed, maybe something in a productivity environment where training of some sort is going to be required. These agencies are a quick one stop shop for the employer. They are placing all the ad’s, print, classifieds, social media etc and combing through the resumes, interviewing, hiring and running any required background checks and drug screenings. Then you have the Sourcing Agencies. These agencies are typically experts in a few particular fields and can offer their clients not only skilled associates but experienced and trained employees for their tasks. These are almost always Temp to Perm offerings and the goal with these companies is for us to be hired on with their clients as quickly as possible. What this type of agency supplies is quite a bit different that the other two.
So back to our question, Why do they use a staffing agency, doesn’t it make more sense for them to just hire employees. Having been on both sides of staffing companies, hiring them and working with them I’ll try and share a few thoughts. First let’s imagine as a Company or Employer what it’d take for us to maintain a seasonal workforce, even to keep that many names and phone numbers updated and at our fingertips when we needed them. Placing 20 people could take us days or weeks, and then we’d have the cost of advertising for those positions, looking through hundreds of resumes and setting appointments to interview the prospective applicants, hiring them and then qualifying them, oh and then there’s all the time and expense for background checks and any drug screens if we need them for the positions. In this scenario it’s easy to see how making a phone call to those that specialize in having people ready, willing and able to go to work can make a lot of sense.
And for those positions requiring more than just manpower, the more specialized task, maybe requiring some experience using a particular type of machine, conveyor system, assembly or manufacturing process or powered industrial equipment. Staffing agencies are constantly advertising for those individuals. It’s how they make their living. Many of today’s corporations can get bogged down in the hiring process. I’ve heard it can take 2, 4 even 6 weeks, through no fault of their own, for HR to complete their on-boarding processes. A staffing agency has qualified people in their database and can usually fill the position immediately. I feel it’s a win win, we as applicants get placed and the client or customer gets an employee to the floor quickly. They can start us right now, get those jobs done and, if they like the job we’re doing for them they can start their own hiring process once the commitment to our agency has been met.
And then we have the Sourcing Agencies. Now a sourcing company, although like a Temp to Perm or long term assignment agency, usually has a different relationship not only with its customers but with us employees as well. In my experience these agencies will be looking for employees with experience, specific experiences with the task their looking to fill. Their clients may be paying a premium for that experience and we as associates can sometimes find ourselves being transitioned to their client much sooner even. They typically specialize in a particular segment of the industry like production, manufacturing or productivity positions. Many may offer complete programs like Sanitation, Security, and Safety as well as the typical warehouse positions. In my experiences these companies have a very close relationship with its customers. If we’re recognized as a hard worker, one that’s committed to our jobs they may be able to communicate that to the client, get us in the door with the experiences we possess, and their client will know we’re interested in operating that next machine or piece of equipment. They could be willing to train us down the road on something else.
Now I’m not sure there’s any one type of staffing company that’s better than the others, but I do think it’s important that we understand what and who we’re signing on with. Just as we’ve spoken about doing our research of companies that we’re interested in working for I feel we should have a plan even when going through a staffing organization. Let’s check their online reviews, it’s ok to ask them about the clients they work with, especially the one their speaking to us about. Let’s be sure we’re getting what we want after we’ve completed our commitments with them. Be sure to check out any benefits that not only they offer but the benefits their client may offer should we be transitioned over to them. That made me think of another type of assignment staffing companies sometimes are offering. Sometimes a company will, for a variety of reasons, have a position they intend to always keep as a full time Temp position. This could be due to a task that has to be done at their facility but it just don’t fit within their corporate structure. Maybe for headcount reasons or their applying the manhours to another department or maybe this position just makes things flow better or is easier for the shift but no one else in the corporation is running their facility that way. It’s certainly ok, and it’s our responsibility to ourselves to ask what type of position we’re being offered, short term, Temp to Perm or if this position will ever be considered for hire. Its great to finally realize a full time job but it’ll be quite the let down to learn later that we’ll never have the opportunity to be transitioned over or be employed by the company we targeted.
We’ve discussed 3 types of staffing but by no means are all Staffing companies created equal! I know people that had a bad experience with a staffing agency before and would never use another one, even if their targeted employer used one exclusively to pull their hires from. As with anything we’ll see good and bad. One of the great things about today is we have information and reviews at our fingertips! Now that’s not to say we should take reviews at face value of course. We need to remember an ex-employee may have oversold themselves on something and has left a bad review when it’s recognized and their released from their assignment. It’d be nice if reviews always told both sides of a story, but I can’t help but feel most of them will be written sincerely and honestly state their feelings. We should read them, educate ourselves about the agency just as we should be researching where we want to work!
We can get that Career job through a staffing agency and I think more and more organizations are learning they can get that perfect and loyal, career minded employee from a staffing or sourcing agency! I’ve always felt or found that the try it before you buy it model to be cost effective and I am seeing more companies utilizing it, it just makes sense to me. And that being said I believe the same can work in our favor, we can try on a new industry or position first through an agency, if the new jobs enjoyed we have the position. If we find its just not for us we can share that with the agency and odds are they’ll just find us something else!
Well I hope I’ve given you something to think about this week and answered a couple of questions on the Staffing industry.
I’m looking forward to next week’s episode, it’ll kind of go along with what we’ve talked about today I think. We’ll have a few recruiters and hiring agents calling in next week to share what they’d like to see in applicants and speak to us about Resumes, our Profiles and what maybe would help us as applicants or things that could help them get us placed quicker! We’ll have a lot of fun with it and I think you’ll find it informative and interesting! Until then please work safe, follow your Safety procedures. There in place to keep us safe and get us and our peers back to our friends and family at the end of the day!