As the end of the year draws near, final results are tallied for the past year, and budgets are developed for the coming year, what trends driving change in staffing for 2015, will drive your planning?
The Chinese proverb says: “When the winds of change blow, some people build walls while others build windmills.”
As a client using a contingent workforce (staffing solutions or temporary employees) in your operation, you need to know what drives planning.
As a staffing firm, you are already (or should be) feeling it.
As a temporary worker, you should examine the opportunities change brings to your chosen job path, and explore continuing education and training to take advantage of it.
Preparing for change takes vision and leadership. Barton Staffing Solutions has that vision, and leadership. Looking forward, three key areas in 2015 will drive change for clients, firms, and employees:
1. Demand for skilled workers.
2. Law and regulation.
3. Technology.
Demand for Skilled Workers
Reading the lines, and between the lines, of the nation’s and world-wide labor reports it’s easy to see that industry-wide demand for workers with unique and expert skill levels has increased. The American Staffing Association calls this the “skills gap” and publishes an index to track this demand. Heightened demand comes from innovation in all industries that has changed the way operations run. The continuing economic recovery pushes this gap further, as operations have re-tooled, invested in advanced manufacturing technology, robotics and automation of more tasks through computerization.
We’ve seen this dynamic in history before. Remember how word processors, email and the concept of the paper-less office were to converge and reduce the demand for paper? It had the opposite effect. More people could write, communicate and publish – which increased the demand for paper, well beyond typing paper, but into specialty products. Likewise, automation in the long-term increases the demand for workers – albeit with higher-level skills.
Law and Regulation
One would have to have not read a single paper, watched the news, or been to the doctor…, pretty much one would have had to have lived under a rock, as they say, not to hear about changes in regulation that affect both employers and employees, alike. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has rolled out. Opinions continue to debate it, but in the end, most employers have implementation requirements to meet (or should have met, by now) or they face penalties. And, as well, employees must meet ACA requirements, or pay penalties in the future.
In addition to healthcare laws affecting staffing, the intense management of workers compensation (WC) costs, unemployment (UE), safety in the workplace (OSHA), and the IRS’ recent recognition of PEOs all affect staffing – including staffing firms, clients who use staffing, and temporary workers. Ask these questions:
- If you are a staffing firm, is your management team, and employees fully trained and aware of these changes, and how they affect the business?
- If you are a client using contingent workers, are you prepared to fulfill your responsibilities? Has your HR partner kept you informed all year so you can prepare?
- If you are an temporary employee, are you aware of the healthcare requirement? Have you signed up with one of the options?
Technology
In the past, independent systems for ATS CRM, ERP, have persisted. In many firms, spreadsheets continue to be the tool used to manage and track many aspects of the staffing business. Today however, an ATS independent of billing and payroll is a competitive disadvantage your staffing firm may have that ultimately introduces risk for you.
Infrastructure has already shifted to leverage cloud, mobile, 24/7 internet access, persistent and secure databases, and ultimately has become easy-to-use. This is the technology baseline we’ve built up to in 2014.
In 2015, technology focus of competitive firms will shift from automating recruiting and staffing tasks, to a deeper support of staffing firm’s and client’s profitability of the business on a weekly, monthly and quarterly basis through integrated business tools and customized analytics.
Cross-system integration will increase between systems that support applicant tracking and dispatch, staffing firm ERP and back-office, client’s HRIS, banking and payroll, and state and federal regulatory systems (ACA, Taxation, WC, UE, etc.).
Your staffing firm will need a training program to deliver the benefits of this technology to you, as a client.
Business Owners, CEOs and CFOs Need To Know
These three trends are co-dependent. Progressive staffing firms should be telling their clients about their investment in advanced technology, its adoption, training programs and integrated deployment. If you are a CEO or CFO, and these trends and changes are news to you, don’t take the risk of assuming 2015 is business as usual for your contingent workforce. You need to find out why this is news in your organization.
Barton Staffing Solutions is proud of their early adopter and progressive use of Automated Business Designs Ultrastaff staffing software. Internally it demands a strong process-centric workflow approach and an on-going internal training program for recruiters, administration and management. The Ultrastaff front-office and back-office solutions support its alignment and compliance activities that these 2015 trends put on your business.
Call and ask Barton Staffing Solutions about our focus to stay ahead of the trends driving change in staffing, and how our vision, leadership, and implementation works for you.