SI Review: September 2013

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Beyond the Daily

Trends That Matter

We include developments from the Staffing Industry Daily News and The Staffing Stream to help you focus on emerging movements that could shape your business for the better.

Who’s Engaged?

Pharma, biotech pros say their firms have keys to engagement.

Workers in the pharmaceutical/biotech sector are more likely to say their companies have many of the right mechanisms in place to keep employees engaged compared to workers in other industries, according to the second-quarter 2013 Randstad Pharma engagement study.

Sixty percent of pharmaceutical/biotech workers reported that their employers provide regular performance reviews, compared with 44 percent of employees polled across all industries. Additionally 53 percent in this sector said their employers invest in employees’ careers through training and development versus 35 percent of employees overall.

Help Wanted

Firm lists hard-to-fill occupations.

Employers still struggle to find new employees for technology-related occupations, sales, healthcare and a variety of other areas, according to research by CareerBuilder. More than a third of hiring managers, 35 percent, currently have positions that have remained open for 12 weeks or longer.

Forty-one percent of companies continuously recruit throughout the year to maintain a pipeline in case a position opens up down the road.

Women vs. Men

Women want location, men want career progression.

Salary and benefits rank as the biggest draw for both men and women when it comes to choosing an employer, but differences exist between the genders when it comes to defining other elements of employer attractiveness, according to an employer branding survey conducted by Randstad US.

Forty-four percent of female respondents chose location as an important employer attribute, compared with 35 percent of men. Opportunities to advance ranked highest for men at 42 percent, compared with 36 percent of women.

New! Lower Prices!

Is lowering prices in staffing always a mistake?

No, it’s not. Sometimes lowering your price makes a lot of sense. But, and this is a BIG but, don’t use price as a negotiation tactic. Instead, use price as a positioning tool and part of a bigger marketing strategy.

Traditionally, price signals quality. High price = high quality. Low price = junk. But price can be used a lot more strategically — and lower prices don’t have to mean low quality, commodity business or weak client relationships.

—Source: “Lowering Prices in Staffing Is a Mistake … Right?” The Staffing Stream, by David Searns, president and CEO of Haley Marketing

A New Age

The old ways of recruiting just won’t cut it anymore.

Recruitment is a very tough industry. Companies can recruit straightforward roles directly. It’s the difficult ones they struggle with. A recruitment firm has to specialize and its consultants have to understand the market.

So what type of person succeeds in recruitment now? Those who can build relationships and connect with their clients and candidates. You need to access prospective candidates that others can’t source, faster. Understanding what sits behind a job description and get to the heart of a culture are also key, as is being able to influence — and challenge and push back.

—Source: “The New Age of Recruiting,” The Staffing Stream, by Paul Endacott, managing director, Southeast Asia, Ambition