4 common staffing issues, and how to solve them
This is how you solve the most common issues within the staffing industry
Slow hiring processes
Many companies have long hiring processes, and this might represent a problem for candidates because they need a job as soon as possible and they will always have more than one option when looking for a job.
If the hiring processes at the staffing agency are greater than those of other employers, the staffing agency is in danger of not being able to hire that candidate and of having to find a new candidate to be able to fill that empty position. This is a problem especially when the candidate is an excellent fit for a certain role and generates complications with clients, who are the ones who need their services to be able to fill empty roles.
How to solve this issue: The secret ingredients to lower the occurrence of this issue are to stay highly organized and to be honest with your candidates at all times. Staying highly organized is going to help you prioritize and ensure you aren’t letting candidates or roles stay static for long periods of time. It is also going to help you predict how long a certain recruiting process is going to take and in that way, you will know exactly what to tell your candidates when they ask about it. In addition to this, being honest with the candidates regarding how long the process is going to take gives them a nice overview so that they can make a decision to continue with the recruiting process or not, and it gives the staffing agency a clearer view of who is really going to stay until the end and who isn’t.
Also, keeping constant communication with the candidates and updating them about the next steps is going to make them feel safe and know that the staffing agency really cares about their time and values the talent they can bring to the company if they get selected.
Ensuring a candidate is a good fit
One of the biggest challenges for staffing agencies is finding candidates that are a good fit for the roles that need to be filled. This issue arises from the necessity to fill roles as fast as possible because sometimes staffing agencies tend to concentrate more on how many positions they fill rather than the quality of the candidates they are filling the positions with.
This is totally normal, considering point number one in this list, but there are some tricks you can use to diminish this problem.
How to solve this issue:
Make sure the interviewing process is well structured and oriented to knowing more about the candidate and their personal background rather than their professional one. Their professional background is important since it is a great part of what makes them suitable for a role or not, but all of this information can be found in their CV, LinkedIn page, etc. Instead of going through their professional experience, make sure the interviewing process is more focused on them as an individual, and encourage them to share information about their personal goals, passions, mindset, fears, and motivations… Concentrate on those aspects that are key to knowing if a candidate is a good fit that cannot be poured into a CV.
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High turnover rates
Employee turnover happens when a skilled employee quits the company suddenly. This represents a big issue within the staffing agency world because it causes the agency not only to lose valuable employees but also to incur new and unplanned recruiting and training processes that later on translate into unplanned costs and affect profits.
High turnover rates are typically originated from a broad variety of factors, that include: poor working conditions, poor pay, employee management issues, etc.
How to solve this issue: Thankfully, there are a lot of ways of solving this issue, specifically because it is usually something that originates from other issues that might be afflicting the agency. Fixing this issue is important because it also helps rectify all the other problems associated with this one, and therefore, improves the overall performance of the agency. One way of solving high turnover rates is to evaluate the agency’s workplace culture, and make proper changes that help the employees feel more comfortable with it. Also, auditing the experience of the employees in the agency is going to help check if important factors like the current pay structure and the number of opportunities to grow are aligned with the employee's goals.
Talent shortage
Talent shortage is one of the top reasons why companies need staffing agencies to help them fill in particular roles, and this also happens inside the staffing agency world. This issue usually occurs when there is a highly specialized role that needs to be filled but there are not enough qualified employees available to fill the role.
How to solve this issue: An excellent way of solving this issue is to identify key growth areas where clients might need talent in the future. Forecasting trends within the industry the staffing agency is focused on will show recruiters what roles are likely to be more difficult to fill. This will help recruiters plan and organize recruiting campaigns well in advance so that when the opportunity comes, they get to offer a proper candidate to their clients on time.
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