As 2021 comes to an end, the staffing industry can look back on a year of progress despite the ongoing pandemic. The IT staffing sector experienced good fortunes as strong demand for IT talent and a shortage of skilled IT workers created plenty of new business opportunities for IT staffing firms. To stay competitive in such vibrant business conditions, IT staffing firms should look ahead and identify strategies to improve business in 2022. This month’s newsletter looks at a couple of ways IT staffing firms can strengthen their business in the new year.
SIA’s North America Temporary Worker Survey found that 49% of temporary workers felt that they were not well coached by their staffing firm and see room for improvement, with 8% reporting that they were “totally unprepared.” Preparing workers for assignments can serve as an important factor in talent retention. This is evident in the survey, with the top two reasons temporary workers quit an assignment being lack of training and misaligned expectations. Dissatisfaction can be damaging to a firm’s reputation as well; the 8% of workers who felt “totally unprepared” would likely never recommend their agencies to anyone else and gave their staffing firms an aggregate net promoter score of -34%.
Adequacy of coaching/preparation, as reported by temporary workers (N = 5,389)
Click on chart to enlarge
Source: SIA
SIA’s Temporary Worker Survey also received suggestions from more than 1,500 temporary workers on how staffing firms can prepare talent to succeed at new roles and discovered several themes among the responses. Better communication about the job duties was the most-cited theme. Some ways to improve communication include providing written job descriptions with specific details about the hardware and software to be used on the job, as well as being transparent upfront about any concerns contractors may encounter, rather than leaving them to be surprised. Another way to prepare temporary workers is to provide training — something the IT staffing sector, in particular, could benefit from. Training can come in many forms. Merely supporting temporary workers with access to manuals and reference materials can be extremely helpful.
Another area many IT firms can improve upon is how they manage remote workers. Compared with pre-pandemic levels, remote working in IT is likely to remain structurally higher in 2022 and beyond. Communication can also play a vital role here in keeping workers engaged. Meetings should take place over video calls to help make up for the reduction in face-to-face interactions when working from home, so be sure to invest in the appropriate technology. IT firms should also ensure workers have adequate equipment to be productive at home, including software such as a VPN or file-sharing tools. SIA’s survey of remote temporary workers revealed confusion and dissatisfaction regarding computer equipment, with some reporting that they were unable to work upon hire because their computer was not delivered on time and others were disappointed to learn they had to buy the equipment themselves. These and other insights into managing remote work at staffing firms can be found in SIA’s North America Staffing Company Survey.
Improving temporary worker preparedness and effectively managing a remote workforce are among the 15 Best Practices in Managing Your Staffing Business included in SIA’s recently published report. Check out the full report for more ways to stay ahead of the competition in 2022.
