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Impact On Staffing 5.7 Million Job Openings

staffing 5.7m job openingsWhat impact on staffing 5.7 million job openings has is critical to strategy. CNN reported that his is close to the record (5.9 million last July) number since the Department of Labor began reporting this statistic in 2000.

With staffing 5.7 million job openings creates new levels of demand on the pool of available workers. This new pressure is having a profound affect in manufacturing and other industries that rely on staffing resources.

CNN reports that the good news is that 1) Employers are hiring and 2) workers are more confident in leaving their current job.  CNN reports that the bad news is that employers 1) cannot find the skilled workers they need and 2) there is a skills gap in what is needed over skills employees have.

Here’s a few critical factors that staffing firms must balance in filling job orders for their clients:

  • Over-minimized pay rates becomes a liability and invitation for turnover. Staffing agencies compete for talent daily.
  • Recruiting has become increasingly more challenging. Compliance requirements increase the challenge.
  • Temporary workers have multiple opportunities at more than one agency.
  • Client’s unique requirements increase the time to recruit and assign a candidate to fill demand.
  • In order to pay their bills, applicants will take the first job assignment offered over another that is a week out in the hiring decision process.
  • Background checks have become the norm at many clients.
  • Education confirmation is also another requirement that has increased time to fill.

One result of all these factors is increased turnover and higher NEW employee training costs due to increased training demand as turnover drives a younger tenure in traditional company workforces. Companies in every industry must plan for this increased cost.

Unfortunately, the skills gap has been exacerbated by the decay of vocational training, and increased cost of vocational education where it still exists. There are fewer workers with the skills in demand because this trend has gone unaddressed for 2+ decades (a generation).  Filling the skills gap is not an overnight objective – but it must be done. Working closely with staffing firms like Barton staffing Solutions for your staffing needs drives toward that objective.

How can staffing firms and their clients work together to address these factors and accelerate meeting the demand for skilled workers?

  1. Set realistic wages based on the local market.  The best workers will find the firm and staffing agency with jobs, that have pay set at the market, or just above. And pay a sustainable mark-up to your staffing firm for their service.  Sure, you can squeeze it lower, but the cost in other forms will increase. Partnering with an excellent staffing agency will pay off in your own company’s profits.
  2. Allow pending backgrounds and education confirmations for assignment starts. A quality staffing firm’s recruiter screening activity is able to identify the best applicants, background and education checks only confirm what they already have learned.
  3. Forget onsite managers. Nothing is gained by demanding an onsite manager. It’s been proven time and time again that this approach provides a false sense of security while turnover and retention remain unchanged. Instead have your staffing firm put another recruiter on their team working to deliver quality workers that meet your expectations.  The time saved and reduced costs from not having the roles filled has greater value to the bottom line.
  4. Expand programs to include staffing resources. Invite and include your staffing firm’s resources in all training and development programs. the more vertical you can train all employees in your company’s products and services the more they will have allegiance to the job assignment at your firm.
  5. Subsidize staffing benefit programs. They cost money for your staffing firm to provide as incentive for employees to be on your team. Your staffing firm is doing everything possible to maintain a profitable margin just like your company – and that means offering benefits to temporary workers such as health insurance. If you don’t pay a surcharge to support those employee benefits, employees retention is difficult, and the cost of turnover and retraining more temporary workers will far exceed the cost of subsidizing your staffing firm’s benefits programs.
  6. Drop under-performing staffing firms. It’s a fallacy to think that having many staffing firms compete to fill your temporary worker pool is good for your business. Instead, this is a proven race to the bottom. Exclusivity, or two collaborating staffing firms will produce greater results.  The threat of losing the business to six other staffing firms simply loses your staffing firm’s interest in excellence.  You have already told them they lost, when there are six staffing agencies in your facility. Avoid that race to the bottom.

Excellence in staffing is the key to filling the staffing jobs that you have open.  Working with your staffing firm is the best way to address the recent pressure identified by the Department of Labor as reported in the CNN story.

Barton Staffing Solutions is your business partner when it comes to understanding the impact on staffing 5.7 million job openings has for your company. We work with you to develop competitive pay rates that will reduce turnover. We come with facts, and share our deep understanding of how the economics of staffing can be the greatest benefit for your firm’s workforce strategy.  We know the typical, and not so typical unintended consequences that can occur by taking shortcuts.

Call us today, we’d like to talk business.

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