Staffing for a Better Bottom Line

Fundamental Value
HR professionals, and others who make organizational staffing decisions, benefit from the flexibility that Pinnacle’s staffing programs provide. This flexibility manifests itself in many ways.

For routine needs, Pinnacle Staffing can deliver workers for daily, seasonal, or cyclical assignments in a timely manner. This approach to staffing is inherently more efficient than the traditional approach—advertising a position, wading through stacks of résumés, running background checks (if necessary), and then having to wait two weeks or more for new hires to start. Not only can Pinnacle help HR professionals fill positions with qualified candidates fast, HR professionals don’t have to worry about the cumbersome process of setting up payroll and benefits for new workers and assignments can be terminated at any time.

In fact, without this kind of service, it would be nearly impossible for many organizations to staff up for short-term projects or find temporary replacements for employees who are sick or on vacation. The red tape alone would make it extremely difficult, and access to a ready pool of workers would be a continual challenge.

Strategic Value
Pinnacle’s unique access to a wide range of workers is one of the essential benefits we offer our clients. By working with Pinnacle, HR professionals can quickly find individuals with specific skill sets or hard-to-find work experience. Those individuals can be brought on board for a brief period or they can be hired permanently.

This flexibility enables an HR department to serve an organization in a strategic manner. They can now respond quickly to changing business needs without burdening a company with excessive head count or unnecessary legal exposure. This type of staffing agility is used as a competitive advantage by many progressive thinking companies.

A recent report from the U.S. Department of Labor supports this notion. The report found “employers that have flexibility in adjusting labor requirements to meet product and service demands have a competitive edge over those with less flexible human resources policies.”

Respected researchers agree, saying companies that embrace work force flexibility and engage staffing firms tend to do better economically. “Increased reliance on contingent labor… is associated with superior subsequent performance… [and] no increase in systematic risk,” concluded a study published in the journal Decision Sciences. Economists Nandkumar Nayar of Lehigh University and G. Lee Willinger of the University of Oklahoma compared firms in a carefully constructed sample and found that corporate earnings, gross margins, and stock returns improved after the increased use of temporary or contract workers.

This realization has been emerging for quite some time. In a 1999 survey of HR managers at more than 1,200 firms, more than 90% said “flexibility in staffing issues” was important, and 95% said that flexibility was being achieved by using temporary and contract employees from staffing companies. The survey was conducted by the American Management Association.

More recently, the American Staffing Association polled 500 businesses that used staffing services in 2004. Nine out of 10 said it was important to them that “staffing companies offer flexibility to businesses so that they can keep fully staffed during busy times.” When survey participants were asked specifically why they use staffing firms to obtain temporary and contract workers, they cited three main reasons:

1. To fill in for absent employees or to fill a vacancy temporarily
2. To provide extra support during busy times or seasons
3. To staff special short-term projects

Changing American Work Force
The reality is that America’s work force is changing. It’s not just employers that are looking for flexibility. Many workers are looking for flexibility in their employment arrangements. This observation is backed by empirical evidence—three million Americans work in temporary or contract positions every day.

The composition of these three million people is also changing. In the past, temporary assignments were often routine clerical or warehouse positions that required little expertise. Today, however, many temporary and contract employees are mature, experienced, and well-educated. They are at a point in their careers or their lives when flexibility has become very important.

In a 2006 survey of staffing employees conducted by ASA, two-thirds of workers said flexible work time was an important factor in their decision to become a temporary or contract employee. Another one-quarter of survey participants said it was an extremely important factor. More than half said needing time for family was important, and an additional 20% said it was extremely important.

It is also worth noting that although staffing employees want flexibility, they are willing to put in long hours. In the ASA survey, 79% worked full-time—about the same percentage as in the overall work force.

A New Reality
Global competition is affecting nearly every industry. Financial markets are prone to enormous swings. Consumer demographics and psychographics are changing continuously. The truth is that it’s harder than ever for companies to forecast their staffing needs. The cost of overstaffing can diminish profitability and viability for a company. The cost of understaffing can result in missed business opportunities that may never present themselves again. The use of temporary or contract employees to smooth out labor needs has grown substantially. Companies increasingly hire temporary help when they are busiest and then cut back when demand falls.

The result of this new reality is that the job security and career continuity that previous generations experienced no longer exist for many Americans. An army of contract workers has emerged in our country, reflecting fundamental changes not only in the economy, but also in corporate management practices and in our attitudes about employment.

Contact a Pinnacle Staffing specialist today and let us design a strategic program for you.