Filling temporary roles can be a challenge, and that’s why many organizations turn to the help of staffing agencies. Staffing vendors can help your business access highly-skilled, experienced and talented independent contractors (ICs) and non-employee workers.
Yet even staffing agencies may struggle to fill temporary positions on behalf of your company if you haven’t taken steps to position your business as an ‘employer of choice’ for non-employee workers.
That’s because the entire world is currently facing a shortage in skilled workers. Business and HR leaders view the skills shortage as a top concern, according to a report from the Society for Human Resource Management, with 75 percent of respondents claiming there is a shortage of skills in candidates.
The use of temporary workers is a fantastic way around this skills shortage for most companies, however, with more businesses building a non-employee workforce than ever before, it’s crucial your organization takes some steps to look outside the box and improve your appeal to temp workers.
With that in mind, Conexis VMS has created a list of four strategies that can help your business position itself as an employer of choice for temporary workers, access temp workers you may not have considered before, as well as ensure you are making the right staffing agency decisions through the use of a vendor management system (VMS).
#1 - Focus on the candidate experience to improve re-engagement
Not every temporary worker you hire has to be completely new to your organization. In fact, businesses can navigate the skills shortage successfully and improve their access to talented workers by re-engaging temporary workers that have previously worked at the organization.
To ensure non-employee workers not only want to work with your business again, but also give great word-of-mouth recommendations to other temp workers, make sure their entire experience with your business runs seamlessly. To do this, your company needs to focus on the ‘candidate experience’.
That means improving how you treat resources once you receive their resume, improving their experience during the interview, developing a world-class onboarding process, paying them on time, giving them feedback during their time at your company, all the way to closing the process seamlessly.
#2 - Be as flexible as possible
As we mentioned in our first point, temporary workers often choose temp jobs for the flexibility and improved lifestyle it offers them. If you have strict hours and rigid schedules, then it’s very likely that your business is damaging its access to highly-skilled and experienced temp workers.
To improve the quality of your non-employee workforce, make sure you strike the right balance between a schedule that works for the objectives of your business and the desires of the temporary workers in your locale. The more flexible your business is, the larger the pool of talent that you’ll have access to.
#3 - Make sure your job postings are clear
Whether your business or your staffing agency is responsible for writing job postings and advertisements, it’s crucial they are absolutely clear, concise and that the application requirements are clearly laid out to potential candidates.
A great job posting will make it crystal clear what experience your business is looking for, what skills the temporary role requires and what certifications you expect your candidates to have. Your job postings should weed out any unqualified candidates and leave the ones who will help you achieve your goals.
#4 - Consolidate your staffing agencies in a VMS to improve your vendor decision-making
Since your organization is working in partnership with staffing agencies to source, engage and hire temporary workers, it’s highly important that your business has complete visibility into vendor performance.
The use of a VMS to consolidate your staffing vendors into one centralized location will help to ensure your business is making good vendor choices and that you are able to effectively track, measure and manage their performance.
The ability to measure your vendors’ performance will allow your business to perform real-time assessment of the traction your vendors are getting, allowing your company to make fast changes if they aren’t performing as expected.
The improved visibility into vendor performance that a vendor management system brings will help your business meet non-employee workforce targets such as time-to-fill, time-to submit and turnover, as well as ensure you are paying the best rates for the best-quality temp workers.
Want to learn more about the benefits of a VMS, and how the use of an automated, centralized solution can vastly improve the management of your entire non-employee workforce management program? Contact Conexis VMS today. We would love to help.
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