Do you make these common staffing mistakes?
When was the last time you realized that you missed something obvious that impacted your making the sale, filling the order, or just following through with the client or candidate? If youve been in the staffing industry for any length of time, youve probably made one or more common mistakes. They are the kind of things that happen in a moment of forgetfulness as you speed through your day. Yet, over time, these little mistakes can add up to big dollars. So staying aware of these issues and putting a process in place to prevent them from happening will improve your efficiency, service and profitability. Heres our Top Ten (plus one) common staffing mistakes (in no particular order):
Not recording temporary employee paychecks issued outside the system back into the system (issuing a manual check).
This one always creates a big headache, because your staffing software can't track manually issued checks. Your accounting staff has to figure out why the books don't square up. And, as time passes, it becomes harder to remember the who, what, when, where, and why of such checks. Its important to take care of recording such checks into your system ASAP.
In our survey, the results indicated that many of the respondents are not involved in payroll or billing, or have very good systems in place, as only 30% indicated it was an issue, and then only a few times a year.
Not recording temporary employee pay advances into the system and recouping the advance on the next paycheck, or billing the customer if appropriate.
This mistake leaves (your) money on the table. Unless youre in the business of charitable giving, make sure you record everything necessary for accurate payrolling and billing.
Our survey showed that not many respondents are involved in payrolling or billing, or that they have good systems and processes in place. Only 20% of respondents felt that this was an issue once or twice a year.
Not remembering to bill or pay for an expense associated to an assignment.
This is another one that leaves your money on the table, increasing the cost of the assignment to you, and reducing profit.
Of our respondents, 60% felt this was a problem, and 20% indicated that this happened once or twice a month.
Not following up with the candidate that didnt get the job.
Heres one that should be a piece of cake, but no one likes to be the bearer of bad news. Set-up "ticklers" in your system to remind yourself to do the right thing and communicate with the candidate. It keeps the door open and let's them know youre still working to find the right position for them.
Fully 100% of survey respondents related to this common mistake, and 30% indicated that it happened more than once or twice a week!
Not investing in people who are already placed extending an assignment is a lot cheaper than finding a new assignment.
Making a few additional follow-up calls can pay big dividends. You can find that the client really likes the work being done by the temporary employee, or that, with a little training; the person assigned could easily handle a different, more profitable assignment.
Of our survey respondents, 70% agreed that this was a common mistake, although generally it was one that, on average, happened only a few times a month.
Not re-evaluating your sales process.
Still selling like you did three or five years ago? Is it working as well as youd like? Not only are your customers more sophisticated and demanding, your candidates and employees are as well. Remember youre selling your services to TWO audiences who are constantly going to challenge you with, "Why should I choose you?"
We weren't surprised to find that 80% of the Internet-savvy staffing professionals in our survey had either recently completed or were beginning the task of re-evaluating their sales process.
Not focusing on what you do best.
The "big picture" diversification strategy for growth can hurt you big time if youre not careful. The key here is to have more than just a strategic goal, but to develop the tactics personnel, systems, marketing, and more that will support the strategy.
Survey respondents generally indicated that diversification was a good thing, as 60% indicated that they had three or more service lines of business, while only 10% focused on a single line.
Not expanding your recruiting efforts beyond Job Boards.
When you advertise for candidates on Job Boards, youre competing with everyone else, including the HR manager for the firm youre trying to get the candidate for. Remember that the best candidates are those that are currently working. Chances are, these passive candidates are not posting their resume on any Job Boards. In fact, according to Recruiters Network only 34% of currently employed passive candidates have their resumes up to date.
Our survey results were fairly evenly divided here, as 40% of respondents sent 0%-to-50% of their jobs to job boards, and 40% sent 50% or more of their jobs to job boards. Interestingly, 20% of respondents indicated that they did not use job boards at all.
Not leveraging job postings on your company website.
It should be easy for potential candidates and current employees alike to see what you have to offer. If youve got a Website, this is a must to increase your candidate pool. It helps if you write up each position in an active voice that "markets" the position in an interesting way. Also, make sure that every one of your other marketing efforts, such as newspaper advertising, includes a call to action to drive candidates and clients to YOUR Website for more information. And to keep them coming back to your site, ensure your posted positions are always fresh and accurate.
Again, our survey respondents were divided here, with nearly 50% indicating that they post every job to their own site, while the other 50% said they post less than half of their jobs.
Not pre-qualifying resumes you receive before adding them to your database.
Heres a classic example of Garbage In, Garbage Out. Why clog up your candidate database with a bunch of unqualified resumes? The junk just slows down your every search for the "diamond". The best solution is to have a "bucket" to put those unqualified resumes in that still enables you to search and sift through them as your needs change. Then when you find a likely candidate, you import that one into your database for follow-up.
In our survey, 30% of respondents pre-qualified less than a quarter of the resumes they receive. Another 30% pre-qualified 50%-to-75% of resumes, and a strong 40% pre-qualified every resume they received.
Staffing coordinators forget to ask for new orders when they do quality check calls.
This common mistake, from one of our survey respondents, is so obvious that it should be stamped on the phone of whoever makes quality check calls, "Always ask for more business!"
Knowledge is power.
By now you might be congratulating yourself saying that, Ha! Ive never made any of these mistakes! Well, perhaps not. Even so, theres a good probability that youve got some oops of your own that show up every now and then. And with awareness of the challenges, they'll be easier to overcome.
VCG's staffing software has the capabilities you need to help reduce the costs of all of these common staffing mistakes.