Why Outsourced Staffing is the Answer to Hiring

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Your business relies on attracting and retaining the very best talent. When done correctly, recruiting and staffing talent for your company is a full-time job (trust us, we know). If you are relying on your human resources staff to also manage recruiting and hiring – thinking that these are the same responsibilities – you’ll be ineffective both at finding new employees and caring for your current workers.

Curious about outsourced staffing? Here are some of the benefits our clients enjoy.

You control the hiring process

Working with a staffing agency doesn’t mean that they handle the hiring for you. Your company has complete control over who you ultimately decide to hire. The staffing agency helps to narrow the field. They will pour over resumes and do preliminary research to ensure that you spend your time on only the best candidates. You dictate what you need for each position and what kinds of candidates you’ll hire. The hiring decision is always yours.

You’ll attract candidates you may not have otherwise found

Your business is successful because you’re knowledgeable about your industry. You know where talent is coming from, what their experience is and what their interests are. While this is important knowledge, it may be limiting you from finding the right person for the job. The best candidate may have training in a different but related field or may have experience in another industry but has met similar challenges. The people working at staffing agencies are experts in finding the right pieces of a person’s background that will help them perform good work. Because the staffing agency isn’t entrenched in your industry, they can think outside the box and provide a creative solution.

You’ll recruit someone for more than just their skills

Education, training and skills aren’t the only components that make up a good employee. A person can be an excellent line operator, but if they don’t get along with the team those skills won’t do you much good. A staffing agency will get to know you and your company, what your culture is and what you’re looking for beyond the couple of bullet points in the job posting. They can help you to find a truly perfect fit.

You save money

Just because staffing is a full-time job doesn’t mean that you have to come up with the funds to hire more staff just to staff your company. Outsourcing is a common way for companies to retain expert knowledge in a variety of fields without having to pay for a full-time employee or entire departments. Hiring a new employee is costly, so you want to make sure that you’re being thorough and strategic every time. Enlist the help of an expert who can offer you not only great candidates, but also peace of mind and cost savings.

If you’re curious how a staffing agency can help your business, contact Award Staffing today. Our business is your talent!

Minnesota Employers Struggling to Find Skilled Laborers

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We know from listening to our clients that Minnesota employers have had a difficult time finding skilled laborers to fill job openings. Although Minnesota added 7,400 jobs in October – up substantially from 1,100 new jobs in August – companies still need help recruiting the employees they need.

The sectors that created new jobs include leisure and hospitality; trade, transportation and utilities; manufacturing; and construction. Leisure and hospitality saw the biggest boost, with 4,900 added jobs.

While these gains are good for job seekers, they aren’t good for companies. Without a reliable pool of skilled workers, businesses have been unable to create new jobs, hurting the state’s economic growth. While the number of new jobs has increased since the summer, Minnesota trails behind economic growth in other states.

Inability to find skilled workers is a top complaint from Minnesota companies across sectors. Companies are struggling to replace baby boomers upon retirement. When these workers retire, they take with them decades of knowledge about a particular industry and/or company. The more skill or training required, the harder it is for companies to fill these vacant roles.

The construction industry has been hit hard by the skilled labor shortage. In a survey by Associated General Contractors (AGC), 92 percent of Minnesota employers reported difficulty filling jobs for some or all hourly and salaried positions. Nearly half believe it will continue to become harder to hire over the next year.

Creating a pipeline of skilled workers

Some companies are working to train new and existing employees for more skilled and technical positions. The state government created the PIPELINE Program offers grants designed to help businesses find, train and retain skilled workers.

However, some training programs have proven unreliable. The AGC survey also reports that businesses find four in 10 workers coming out of technical programs to be poorly prepared, and that half only had “fair” training.

Another way that businesses are working to handle the gap is by turning to automation. Instead of hiring more employees, they are purchasing more equipment to increase productivity. While this helps in the short-term, it could harm how future workers are trained for skilled jobs.

Attracting and retaining skilled workers

While the state remains in a talent crisis, your business needs to impress skilled candidates so that they want to work for – and remain working for – your business.

Employees are looking for more than just wages to attract them to a job. Benefits like health care, retirement, tuition reimbursement and daycare will help meet If you want your business to stand out from your competitors, listen to their needs and consider how you can address them.

Many companies are finding success training employees themselves rather than waiting for them to complete a technical program. Young and mid-career employees who are eager to learn and/or have leadership experience would be excellent for an in-house training program. Offering opportunities for a promotion and job development will make your company more attractive and make employees feel more appreciated.

If you’re interested in how you can attract more skilled candidates to your business, we’re here to help. Contact us today so we can discuss your hiring needs.