is your staffing agency ready for the new world of … white paper/staffing...they can start a new...

1 Is Your Staffing Agency Ready for the New World of Work?

Discover how to adapt to changing expectations from clients and candidates

Is Your Staffing Agency Ready for the New World of Work?


Con

tent The Workplace Has Changed

CHAPTER 1

What You Can Learn From Today’s New Competition

CHAPTER 3

Candidates are KingCHAPTER 2

03 So What Exactly is Different in This New World of Work?

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What You Can Learn From Today’s New CompetitionHow to Monitor the CompetitionUse Business Partnerships to Expand Your ReachProtect Your Turf by Nurturing Clients and CandidatesWhere Are Candidates Dropping Out of Your Talent AcquisitionNew Opportunities in the New World of Work

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The Dilemma of Low Unemployment and High DemandTechnology has Introduced New ExpectationsCandidates Value Flexibility, Speed, and SimplicityHow to Adapt Your Talent Strategy to Attract More Candidates5 Reasons Candidates drop out of your Hiring & Onboarding ProcessCandidate Experience and a Smooth Onboarding Process is Key for SuccessHelp Your Clients Scale During Peak Hiring PeriodsCompliance Counts


The Workplace has Changed.

Since the 1990s the world has undergone major shifts in the way people look for jobs, apply for jobs, and the actual jobs themselves. One of the biggest drivers of these changes is new technology that’s been introduced into the workplace, first with laptops and email, now with smartphones, chatbots and artificial intelligence. The world of work will continue to transform as new technologies are broadly adopted.

So What Exactly is Different in This New World of Work?

Today, a candidate can find a job through a job board, apply for that job via SMS, and be onboarded all through a mobile phone. Candidates demand simple applications, immediate feedback, and a fast onboarding process so they can start a new job quickly. If you can’t deliver an easy experience for candidates, someone else can.

Thanks to advancements in technology it’s easier than ever to find and start new jobs. Looking for a new job used to be a very time-consuming process, which disincentivized candidates from accepting contingent roles or searching for a second job that fits into their schedule. Instead, they would opt for traditional full-time employment. Today, however, technology has made it easier than ever for candidates to find new jobs quickly, driving more candidates to contingent roles that fit their lifestyle—it’s estimated that by 2020 50% of the US workforce will hold a contingent role.


With all of these changes, one thing remains consistent; clients still demand high-quality candidates to support their ever-growing needs.

While technology has improved the speed at which candidate data can be collected, there is still a need for a high-touch recruitment model to ensure that candidates, and your clients, remain satisfied with your services.

In the New World of Work you can expect new competition which you may have never faced before. You will now need to take into consideration on-demand companies (think Uber & Lyft) and Online Staffing Platforms (such as Wonolo, Field Nation, and BlueCrew) competing for the same talent pool that temp staffing agencies previously had a monopoly on. Current headlines scream about the “All Out War for Talent” raising the competitive bar for everyone. In today’s competitive landscape, the new reality is that you as a staffing agency must continue to adapt to attract quality candidates and deliver for your most demanding clients.

Whether a client requires a high-level executive or 400 seasonal warehouse employees – you as a staffing agency must be able to fill those needs in a quick, compliant and transparent manner.


The Dilemma of Low Unemployment and High Demand

Candidates Are King

Candidates are the lifeblood of staffing agencies. If you regularly deliver exceptional candidates in a timely and cost-effective manner, you will continue to succeed and win new clients. But how have candidates expectations changed in the New World of Work and how can you adapt your strategies to remain their go-to source for new jobs?

It’s a good time to be a job seeker in the US as we are experiencing historically low unemployment rates. With a booming economy, businesses are producing at record levels and demanding top talent. You don’t have a moment to waste when it comes to attracting top candidates to your jobs. According to research from Glassdoor the average time-to-fill rate in the US has gone up to 28.1 days in 2016 from 19.3 days in 2001-2003. You need to make sure you’re making it as easy as possible for candidates to apply for your jobs or risk missing your hiring goals.

It is a candidate-driven market. Today, it’s critical to optimize your recruitment and placement processes to ensure you are not unduly losing candidates at high-impact stages of the hiring cycle. To combat this, many staffing agencies are now testing their processes from the view of the candidate. How long does it take to fill out an application? Connect with a recruiter? Fill out required compliance forms? Have a background check cleared? Complete onboarding for a new job? Try experiencing your systems, workflows, and processes from the candidate’s point of view to ensure you can acquire and keep qualified candidates.


Technology has Introduced New Expectations

Smartphones have changed the way we do most things. You can now invest in a stock, book a trip around the world, order groceries, and apply for a job all with a few taps on the tiny screen in your pocket. This expectation has reshaped how we think of things, in both our personal and professional lives - we have come to expect immediate feedback and seamless user experiences in all areas of their lives. When it comes to their future employers, it is no surprise that candidates are now “tech-expectant” and will seek out jobs that make it fast and easy to apply in order to start working as soon as possible.

Today, when you order a pizza, you can see real-time updates of where that pizza is in the process of being delivered to your home. If people have come to expect this of a $10 interaction, you better believe they expect it from something as important as their place of employment. Candidates now demand that same level of transparency in the job search and onboarding process that they are accustomed to in the rest of their lives. However, many organizations have simply failed to deliver here. This creates an opportunity for those staffing agencies that excel in these areas to truly pull ahead, differentiate and thrive in today’s new economy.


Candidates Value Flexibility, Speed, and SimplicityThe New World of Work has been driven by the rise of technology platforms where candidates can now easily find, apply for, and begin working at a new flexible job from their smartphone. Application and onboarding processes are seamless, making it simple for a candidate to start working under their most-preferred working arrangement.

Paper applications, ink signatures, multiple in-person interviews, and lengthy staffing processes are a thing of the past for many industries. On-demand platforms, digital compliance apps, virtual video interviews, and quick-to-staff processes move valuable candidates through the talent funnel more quickly. Glitches, bottlenecks, and out-of-date application systems will drive candidates elsewhere. Forward-thinking staffing agencies are reviewing their workflows and technology to ensure that the candidate experience includes an easy-to-navigate application and onboarding process.


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How to Adapt Your Talent Strategy to Attract More Candidates

Review your strategies for attracting tech-expectant candidates.

Streamline your processes to include digital application and compliance forms, video interviews, and quick-to-staff processes that reduce bottlenecks.

Test your processes from the candidate’s viewpoint to ensure ease of use.

1Too many job options

Applying for jobs is time consuming

Complicated or confusing application processes

No feedback loop - Did I get the job?

Background checks & drug screens are scary & slow

5 Reasons Candidates Drop Out of Your Hiring & Onboarding Process

REASONS OUR SOLUTIONS

Make it easy to find your jobs

Easy apply - Use existing tools to apply

Simplify application process

Provide clear and timely feedback

Provide an easy & transparent background check & drug screening process


Client Requirements Are Increasingly Complex

Clients, no matter what industry they are in, are feeling the pressure to secure top talent right when they need it – and they are expecting YOU to provide it for them. They look to staffing agencies for their expertise, knowledge, and candidate connections, and to find alternatives to complicated and time-consuming compliance and background check functions, especially when hiring contingent workers.

Clients are Demanding Real-TimeData and Greater Transparency

According to a study by McKinsey companies that use online talent platforms can increase revenues by up to 9% and reduce costs by up to 7%. Clients now expect to be able to access real-time data anytime of the day. This new set of expectations has introduced more significant pressure on staffing agencies to provide increased transparency to clients throughout the entire hiring and onboarding process - especially during the background check process.

Clients now demand visibility into each part of the talent acquisition funnel - they want up to date information about when their selected candidates will begin working. They also want to view real-time data on the whole funnel to understand earlier on if they are going to be behind on filling roles on time. Clients need to be able to update their teams internally, plan their production and coverage schedules, and have visibility into if they will meet all of their hiring goals.

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Candidate Experience and a Smooth Onboarding Process is Key for SuccessClients want to hire candidates with a great attitude, and the hiring process can have a huge positive, or negative, influence on both the candidate and the client. The last thing a client wants is to lose someone right at the final hour, or worse, for the hire to show up to work on their first day with a negative impression of the client due to a poor hiring and onboarding process, already looking to leave this job for another gig. Your clients want every worker that starts with them to have had a great experience and be excited to get started on day one.

Clients also want to avert issues with contingent start dates. The quicker and more transparent you can make the background check process the better. Clients want to avoid workers starting a job and then quickly having to be removed if they don’t pass the background screen. This is a bad experience for everyone involved. The candidate is unhappy because they are no longer employed for a job they thought they had. The client is upset because they spent time training the candidate, now need to find someone new to fill the role and also feel exposed to risk. And you as a staffing agency aren’t happy because you lose revenue and may have passed on another candidate that was qualified since you thought the role was filled. By having a streamlined screening process with transparent ETAs for when the screen will be complete, you can better manage this process.


Start by analyzing each part of your hiring process and identifying which parts don’t scale. Then once you’ve found the parts of the process to focus on you can design a new process by building in-house or selecting vendors that can support high volumes and large-scale requests while maintaining quality.

For example, you may discover through your analysis that anytime you have a spike in hiring, your background check provider’s turnaround time doubles. If this is the case, then you’ll want to send out a new RFP to background check providers that service industries or clients that regularly have spikes in the number of reports they need to run. By approaching the vendors that service these clients, you can then evaluate whether they meet your other criteria for background checks in addition to being able to maintain the same turnaround time and accuracy during large spikes in volume.

As a staffing agency that has all these pieces in place, you will be in a prime position to be a trusted business partner for high profile clients. To do this well, your Talent Acquisition Strategy must include the ability to rapidly scale to accommodate a significant spike in seasonal work to meet your largest current (and future) clients’ needs. Accommodating a massive spike in demand, professionally and in a timely manner, will make you the go-to market leader. Consult our questionnaire to determine how to improve your talent acquisition strategy prior to your client’s peak hiring season. →

Help Your Clients Scale During Peak Hiring Periods

Will you be able to accommodate an unexpectedly large hiring request form a client without hiring additional staff at your agency?

Will you be able to maintain quality when the large request comes in?

?You must be able to say yes to both of these questions with confidence. Your clients need you to be able to support their large requests when they have them, and they can’t afford for your processes to break down during these times.

If you don’t have the processes in place to accommodate your clients’ peak hiring seasons you need to start optimizing your processes now so that you can scale up with clients demand.

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QuestionnaireClients care about having access to the best candidates possible when they need them. In advance of your client’s peak hiring season brainstorm how you can update your talent acquisition strategy to increase your pools of qualified applicants.

1. How can you make it easier for candidates to apply for your jobs?

2. How can you automate the qualification process when possible?

3. How can you suggest jobs that the candidate is a fit for, to put them in more talent pools even if they aren’t qualified for the initial job they applied for?

4. How can you suggest jobs to candidates that don’t pass the background check or drug screening criteria for one job, but would pass for other job openings you have?


Compliance CountsCompliance requirements are getting more and more complicated - from increasingly comprehensive background checks to a higher number of client-specific required onboarding forms, to a larger number of audit requests, the compliance landscape is becoming more and more difficult to keep track of. For a staffing agency to deliver an excellent experience for their clients, they should consider working with vendors that are proactively incorporating compliance into their products and processes and continually monitoring the changing landscape to ensure that as new regulations, guidelines, and laws go into effect the vendor is updating their processes and products. That way you and your clients are better covered.

Ensuring that your staffing agency’s compliance functions are in top shape is vital not just for your reputation and ease of onboarding, but also to avoid undue risk exposure. You want your clients to know that they can depend on you to protect them.

Ensuring that your staffing agency’s compliance functions are in top shape is vital not just for your reputation and ease of onboarding, but also to avoid undue risk exposure.

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Online staffing platforms like Wonolo, Field Nation, and BlueCrew and On-Demand companies like Uber and Postmates have changed the game regarding a seamless application and onboarding process for candidates. There is a lot you can learn from these companies about how to deliver a mobile-friendly experience and how to create a more frictionless, efficient source-to-start hiring cycle.

What You Can Learn From Today’s New Competition

If you’re a staffing agency who specializes in temporary workers, you are likely competing directly with these companies for talent. So you’ll want to consider how much you want to invest in updating your processes to be competitive. Whether you decide to build a platform in-house, buy a white-labeled online staffing platform or select vendors that will automate the most critical parts of your process - you need to develop a strategy to continue to attract candidates to maintain your competitive edge.

Even if you’re a staffing agency who doesn’t directly compete with these new platforms, it’s still a good idea to study them. You should be thinking about how to optimize parts of your process to improve the candidate experience, and no one is doing it better than these companies, so these are the companies you want to emulate as you adapt your strategies. You’ll want to take a slightly different approach to identifying what parts of the process can be improved to best serve the industries and roles you specialize in.


How to Monitor the Competition

Step 1Identify a few companies who are doing an excellent job attracting and onboarding talent seamlessly.

• What online platforms are they using?

• What vendors have they partnered with?

• What’s their Candidate Experience process?

• Is their process entirely hosted on their app or platform?

• Do they offer a high level of transparency into next steps?

• How easy was it for you to find, apply to and be onboarded for a job on their platform?

• How many channels do they use to advertise open positions?

• Are they social media savvy?

Step 2Answer these questions:


Use Business Partnerships to Expand Your Reach

Is your candidate’s experience flawed with technology bottlenecks?

If yes, consider looking into building a better user experience yourself, contracting this out or white labeling existing technology.

Do you have a hard time finding enough qualified candidates for your roles?

If yes, invest in new sourcing software that can attract and acquire more qualified candidates while saving your team time.

Is screening interested candidates taking too long?

If yes, look into vendors that can filter out candidates through questionnaires, chatbots, video interviewing technology, etc.

Are your background checks or drug screens continually causing you to fill roles late or is the user experience so bad that candidates are getting confused or worse dropping out?

If yes, evaluate new background check and drug screening providers to find vendors that provide transparency into when screens will be completed and have a seamless user experience.

Are you having trouble meeting peaks in demand from your clients?

If yes, evaluate your processes across the board to determine what doesn’t scalewith increased demand and re-evaluate any vendors that can’t adjust for scale.

It’s time to take an honest look at your delivery models to find out where you are vulnerable to your competitors and align with trusted business partners that will give you a competitive edge. As you evaluate each stage in your talent acquisition funnel, you should determine if you need to add a new vendor to improve your process or re-evaluate an existing vendor that may not be meeting your new requirements.

Where Should You Focus YourPartnership Efforts?

Your clients reach out to you because you are the expert in your field, whether it is temporary staffing, executive recruiting, or securing top industrial talent. Just as they partner with you, your agency may need to partner with an expert to meet your goals. Here are a few questions to answer to determine where to focus your partnership efforts.


Protect Your Turf by Nurturing Clients and CandidatesYour relationships with your clients and candidates are paramount to staying competitive. As technology replaces face-to-face interviews and application processes, your ability to connect with clients and candidates is more important than ever.

Candidates are initially impressed by easy-to-access jobs, application submissions, and background check processes, as well as the menu of full-time or temporary jobs you have to offer.

But after that first job, your gig-seeking candidates need email reminders of jobs they are qualified for, and that YOU are the agency that can connect them with work they love. Email, tweets, and social media reach them where they live, and remind them that you are their trusted source for work they enjoy. Check in with them during and after a recent job to see how it went, giving a personal touch to an otherwise automated transaction. Remember, your new competition is thinking like lifecycle marketers, and they are optimizing their talent acquisition strategy not only for the New World of Work but also to build long-term relationships.


You should evaluate how you can promote repeat hires and develop a system that automates this as much as possible. When looking for inspiration on how to do this well, don’t limit yourself to traditional competitors, put on your marketing hat and evaluate how other companies that drive repeat business are doing it today.

Your clients also require engagement, often needing a high-touch connection. Traditional methods still work, including having lunch and touching base with phone calls and emails. But will you be the top-of-mind resource when it comes to an influx of temporary jobs they need to fill for the peak holiday season? That’s when your year-round relationship building efforts count. It starts on “day one” when you establish the relationship by bringing them high-quality candidates, filling their job orders on a timely basis, billing them correctly, and making the whole process seamless. Reminding them that you are a thought leader through special reports, current statistics, and top trends validate your expertise. Client relationships are a vital part of your business model, and discovering ways to become or remain their #1 recruiting partner is essential.


Where Are Candidates Dropping Out of Your Talent Acquisition

Are you having trouble finding enough qualified candidates for roles?

Are you losing qualified candidates after they’ve applied?

This questionnaire will help focus you on specific areas of your talent acquisition funnel that may be causing you to lose qualified candidates by identifying where drop off is happening so that you can focus on partnering with technology providers to improve that part of your funnel or building a seamless custom experience.

If Yes, at what stage are you losing qualified candidates?

Answer these questions to determine where to invest in improvements to your talent acquisition process. Check all that apply.

After completing all paperwork and screenings, but before starting work, are candidates dropping out of the process?

Are candidates not working with you again after their initial job?

Do candidates stop looking to you for future opportunities after they don’t get offered the first job they apply for?

After initial applicationAfter screening/interviews During background check During drug screenAfter background check/drug screenDuring 1-9 / E-Verify


The New World of Work requires a deeper commitment to connecting clients and candidates with technology while using seamless processes that make it easy for both parties to say YES. Competition for talent is stiffer than ever, but there is a lot you can learn from your competition to ensure you’re continuing to adapt to changing expectations from candidates and clients. By taking a fresh look at your talent acquisition strategy, you’ll ensure that your clients and candidates will continue to choose you as their staffing agency in today’s New World of Work.

Checkr’s mission is to build a fairer future by improving understanding of the past. Our platform makes it easy for thousands of customers to hire millions of people every year at the speed of the gig economy. Using Checkr’s advanced background check technology, companies of all sizes can better understand the dynamics of the changing workforce, bring transparency and fairness to their hiring, and ultimately build a better future for workers.

New Opportunities in the New World of Work

For more information please visit: www.checkr.com

http://www.checkr.com

is your staffing agency ready for the new world of … white paper/staffing...they can start a new...

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