CWS 3.0: March 11, 2015

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Happy staff make money for you

At our Staffing Industry Executive Forum next week, I’ll be leading a panel of experts on why it makes sense to keep employees engaged and happy. Our expert panelists come from a range of small, midsize and large firms in terms of size and experience. While the audience is staffing executives, buyers of staffing firm services should pay attention to this topic as well, because happy, engaged staff at your suppliers means they may be able to better attract and retain top talent for you. According to Kevin Sheridan, a leading expert on employee engagement there are some very clear benefits to engaged employees. Here are just a few:

  • 20 times more innovation and creativity
  • 37% higher sales
  • 125% less burnout/job stress
  • 51% less turnover
  • 62% less safety incidents by engaged business units

Best-in-class organizations are 350% more profitable than organizations with average levels of employee engagement levels.

In addition, as Jon Osborne, Staffing Industry Analysts’ VP of strategic research points out, “All companies should know what their employees think about them. It’s essential information in the War for Talent, and that applies to internal staff just as much as temporary workers.”

Temporary employment is expected to increase by 3% (or 75,384 jobs) this year over last, and 13% (354,877 jobs) over the next five years, from 2014 to 2019, according to a new CareerBuilder study. Meanwhile, our buyer survey says 18% of talent within organizations will be contingent (2014 Contingent Buyers Survey: Short‐term and long‐term contingent workforce projections). Don’t you want the best talent? Then look at employee engagement as one critical component when you make your decisions on which suppliers to engage.

So what makes staffing firm employees engaged, productive and motivated? It’s not always the money, in fact staffing firms that focus on retaining/recruiting staff, training and creating a positive company culture are on average year over year more profitable (2013 Staffing Company Survey: Staffing firm priorities). That’s good news for buyers that use these firms. Look at engaging staffing firms who value:

  1. Ongoing training
  2. Company culture
  3. Teamwork
  4. Communication
  5. Flexibility
  6. Competition and incentives
  7. Employee recognition

If reduced turnover and higher productivity interest you, then look at some of Staffing Industry Analysts’ Best Staffing Firms to Work For winners (to be announced next week at the Executive Forum, Orlando) and others who receive accolades for their employee engagement practices. These are companies whose employees complete anonymous online surveys that focus on questions relating to team effectiveness, feeling valued, trust in senior leaders, compensation and benefits, etc. They are rated by their internal employees as the best places to work, coolest companies to work for, top 100 places to work, and more.

You know your company wants the best and most engaged workforce; this should apply to your staffing suppliers too. After all happy, productive, engaged contingent workers and staffing firms ultimately will help you make more money too.