The pandemic changed the workforce and life as we knew it, causing significant strain on organizations everywhere. Forty-seven million people left the workforce, the expectations of the remaining workforce changed overnight, and pay rates increased rapidly as competition for qualified workers intensified. Federal shutdowns and supply chain issues continued to cause disruptions. Everyone was forced into survival mode, where it’s incredibly difficult to focus on connections, growth, and development. Many organizations adapted and made decisions quickly to survive, but were unable to focus on the smaller, yet important things.
As things continue to level out, it’s time to look at the partnerships we have in place and ensure that they are the best fit for long-term sustainability. Valuable partnerships require honesty and accountability from both parties with a shared focus on common goals. Does your hiring partner meet these basic expectations?
Accountability
- Does your hiring partner provide clear data about the market to help in the decision-making process?
- Do they provide regular key performance indicators that show progress?
- Do they respect and adhere to the safety standards of your organization?
Tracking objective results are one of the best ways to determine progress and ensure accountability with your talent provider. Your partner should provide insights showing the impacts of the market as well as the KPI's affected during every project. The best KPI's to track changes for every business depending on their areas of focus (for more information about what KPI's would be best for your business, explore our recent blog about KPI's here). For example, HTI focuses on accountability during staffing projects by providing clients a full post-hiring event report. Our report walks them through budget breakdowns, community engagement, brand awareness, candidate interest and event turnout. This transparency provides a strong understanding of the components driving home a successful hiring event – so we can respond quicker, target better and hire more.
Communication
- Does your hiring partner ask questions to fully understand your needs, your culture, and your processes?
- Is your partner engaged with your leadership team?
- Do you and your employees have a consistent point of contact they can go to when they need something?
Understanding your company's needs is a foundational step towards success. Your talent partner should have open, honest and frequent communication with your team. This helps develop a strong plan of action and ensures they can support you through any bumps along the way. Implementing talent strategy plans means communicating with several layers of leadership and departments. It's important that your staffing provider stays in touch and updates all the necessary employees - there shouldn't be a reliance on any single point of contact.
Trust
- Do you trust them to represent your company well and speak on your behalf?
- Can you depend on them to complete payroll and invoicing accurately and on time?
- Do you trust them to come up with creative solutions for problems that arise?
- Do they follow through with decisions and do what they say they will do?
Your staffing provider has built a reputation in the industry and in your organization. Across the board, their reputation should reflect dependability and professionalism. When you decide on a talent partner, that relationship impacts how your own brand is perceived by your employees and community. Therefore, it's important to evaluate their reliability during all stages of your partnership. After all, 3 million employees work for staffing providers every week in the US (ASA), there's a lot of responsibility, planning and execution involved in managing a larger workforce - do you trust your staffing provider to lead the way?
Many of the pandemic disruptions continue to stabilize, yet things are still changing at a rapid pace in the workplace. Organizations must be sure they have the right partnerships in place to ensure long-term sustainability. Does your hiring partner deserve to be part of your long-term strategy?