Berks & Beyond Blog

Help your staffing service help you.

Continuous improvement should be a goal of any business relationship – your relationship with your staffing provider is no exception.  Help your staffing firm deliver better results by providing them with frequent, measurable feedback.  By letting them know what they’re doing right, as well as how they can improve, you can make your staffing function even more efficient and cost-effective.

Ask internal staff who supervise temporary employees to periodically fill out a simple report card for your staffing service.  It can evaluate quality of fills, ease of working with the staffing specialist, timeliness of service, etc.  Then, share the feedback with your staffing provider.  They will use the information to identify opportunities for improvement, to further customize the service they deliver, and to make your job as easy as possible.

Here are a few sample questions to consider:

The Staffing Firm

1. How well does the staffing firm demonstrate an understanding of your business?
2. How well does the staffing firm meet your expectations?
3. How would you rate the staffing firm’s service, as compared to other services you’ve used?
4. How would you rate your staffing service representative?

The Employees

1. How well do the employees fit the assignments?
2. How would you rate the employees’ attitudes toward their work?
3. How punctual are the employees?
4. How prepared are the employees (i.e., how quickly do they get to work)?

How well are we doing?

At Berks & Beyond, we pride ourselves on the quality of both our service and our employees.  We want to know what we’re doing right and where we can improve.  Please contact us with your feedback, so we can deliver even better results for your organization.

As managers, we intuitively know that giving and getting honest feedback is essential to grow and develop, and to build successful organizations.  So, why is it that many of us put off giving feedback to our employees?  Maybe it is because there are so many ways to screw it up.

Here are some common feedback mistakes:

• Speaking out only when things are wrong.
• Providing generic praise without specifics or an honest underpinning.
• Waiting until performance or behavior is substantially below expectations before acting on it.
• Giving negative feedback in public.
• Criticizing performance without giving suggestions for improvement.
• Not conducting regular performance reviews.

Clearly, giving and receiving constructive feedback is a skill that must be honed.

Developing proficiency in this area is essential to building good relationships with, and motivating peak performance from, your team.  To help get you started, here are four tips for providing feedback the right way:

1. Be proactive.  Nip issues in the bud and avoid messy interpersonal tangles that result from neglected communication.  If you meet with employees regularly to give feedback, it conveys, “Your success is important to me, so I want to be accessible to you.”
2. Be specific.  Although it’s not easy to provide negative feedback, it’s important to be as clear as possible by giving specific examples that illustrate your point.  Instead of saying, “Your attitude is bad,” say, “When you miss deadlines, then cross your arms and look away when I discuss it with you, it gives me the impression that you don’t care about the quality of your work.  Can you help me understand this behavior better?”
3. Develop a progress plan.  Be clear about the specific changes in behavior that you expect in a specific period of time, and follow up as scheduled.
4. Link employees’ performance to organizational goals.  Reinforce the value of your employees’ contributions by giving specific examples of how their work and positive behaviors serve the organization and its customers.

At Berks and Beyond, we understand and appreciate the value of constructive feedback.  So, we’d like to hear from you.  Please contact us with your questions, comments, and suggestions.