Berks & Beyond Blog

What is strategic staffing, and what can it do for your organization?

Many of our clients enjoy the benefits of our temporary staffing services for last-minute and short-term staffing requirements.  But depending upon your unique workforce needs, one of Berks & Beyond’s strategic staffing solutions may be the right choice to help your company stay flexible, competitive and efficient.

Here is a quick overview of our services and what they can do for you:

Planned / Just-in-Time Staffing:  Regular, planned use of temporaries to handle your peak production periods, seasonal activities or special projects.  Our staffing experts will help you analyze your workload throughout the year and determine the right times to bring in supplemental staff.  Together, we can develop a proactive staffing plan that saves you money and minimizes your need for layoffs by supplementing your core workforce with temporary help during your busiest periods.

On-Site Staffing:  If you have high-volume staffing needs, Berks & Beyond can provide a staffing manager to work on-site, directly at your location.  Your On-Site Manager will handle every facet of coordinating, ordering, planning and tracking of contingent employees.  Because the On-Site Manager acts as the central contact for hiring managers, coordinates recruiting activities and handles personnel-related issues, you are free to focus on your most important priorities.

Managed Staffing:  Berks & Beyond assumes responsibility and accountability for your entire staffing function, from hiring and recruiting to managing temporary employees.  Our managed staffing services provides the convenience of having a single source for all your staffing requirements.  We eliminate the most time-consuming and frustrating parts of hiring, deliver the best candidates available, improve efficiency and reduce your staffing costs.

How can Berks & Beyond Employment Services help you?  Please contact us today to discuss your hiring plans, staffing challenges and business goals.  Together, we can create a comprehensive solution that delivers the results you need.

Admittedly, it may be a little early to light a Yule log. 

But if you’re in the customer service, administrative/clerical, hospitality, shipping/delivery, inventory or technology/finance industries, you’re probably headed for a busy – if not your busiest – time of year.  If you’re going to require extra help this holiday season, it’s definitely not too early to plan for your staffing needs.

Here are just a few reasons why:

• Prevent rash hiring decisions.  If you wait until the last minute to recruit and hire, you may find yourself “up against a wall” when business suddenly surges.  Waiting until your needs are urgent may force you to make hasty hiring decisions.
• Get a jump on your competitors.  Many companies will wait until next month to gear-up.  Why not start your efforts now and reach the most qualified candidates before other seasonal employers get them?
• Avoid being overwhelmed.  This year’s seasonal job market will be flooded with applicants.  With so many job seekers competing for positions, the sheer volume of résumés and applications may bog you down.  Give yourself as much time as possible to find the best candidates by starting the search process early.

If just reading about seasonal hiring makes your stomach churn, relax – you don’t have to do it alone.  Staffing firms specialize in helping companies like yours effectively manage the highs and lows of business cycles.  Plan your workforce needs now with your staffing partner to:

• Get the flexibility you need.  Seasonal temporaries can handle surges in demand without impacting fixed expenses.
• Say “goodbye” to post-holiday layoffs.  Since the staffing service is the seasonal employees’ employer of record, you can avoid the hassle and expense of letting workers go once things slow down.
• Access the talent you need, right when you need it.  Planning your workforce needs now gives your staffing firm time to locate the most qualified staff for you, especially when you require a large number of workers – so they’re available right when you need them.
• Shorten learning curves.  Your staffing provider will recruit seasonal workers with the specific skills and experience you require.  The provider can also, at your request, develop customized orientation materials to help reduce training costs and get workers up-to-speed more quickly.
• Eliminate additional administrative and legal burdens.  By using temporary employees, you avoid the social security, payroll and other tax and legal burdens associated with seasonal employees.  Freedom from these hassles will give you more time to focus on other important priorities.
• Cut back on overtime.  Temporary employees help you minimize the additional cost and burnout overtime causes.

Plan Your Workforce Needs with Berks & Beyond Employment Services

If your business has frequent or predictable surges in demand, a planned staffing option may be right for you.  Planned staffing is the strategic use of temporaries to accommodate workloads known to vary in seasons or other cycles.

First, a Berks & Beyond staffing expert will work with you to examine year-round fluctuations in workload and identify peak demand periods.  Next, we will create a customized staffing plan for your business that: provides temporary employees to handle your busiest times; reduces or eliminates your need to lay off employees during slow periods; frees you to focus on the most critical parts of your job.

Remember, the early bird gets the worm – it’s never too early to discuss your staffing needs with Berks & Beyond.

Demand drives profit.  Cost-containment drives profit.  Efficient processes drive profit.

But can temporaries drive profits?

Absolutely.  By deploying the right staffing strategy, you can greatly enhance your ability to control costs, improve productivity and manage risk.

Need proof?  If so, you’ll appreciate the following case study of a business that discovered the profitable benefits of strategic temporary staffing:

CASE STUDY:  Enacting New Plans

The Challenge:  A public transportation department decided to expand service offerings by building a new trade and transit center.  They needed to hire ten additional employees, ranging from bus operators, to service reps, to a project manager – all under a tight budget, and without the help of a human resources department.

The Solution:  The transportation department relied on a staffing service to source candidates, using a combination of advertising and database searches.  To fill the positions quickly – without sacrificing quality – they used several service options, including temporary hires, temp-to-direct options and direct placement.  The staffing firm also developed specialized application forms to gather critical records such as background check releases and drug screen consent forms.

The Results:  Thanks to this staffing services’ recruiting capabilities, the transportation department reviewed at least three qulified candidates for each position.  And using their hiring system, all of the positions were filled on-time and within budget.

By outsourcing the recruiting process and using temporary and temp-to-hire services, the department shifted and reduced overhead expenses.  In doing so, they enjoyed significant cost savings.

Productivity also improved.  Because staffing specialists focused on recruiting and hiring, the department’s employees could concentrate on core job concerns.

Finally, the transportation department minimized their exposure to hiring risks.  By taking advantage of temp-to-hire services, the department was able to try out potential employees on the job before extending an offer for employment – thereby reducing their chances of making bad hiring decisions.  Legal exposure was also reduced, because the service followed non-discriminatory hiring practices for direct hires and assumed all tax and reporting requirements for temporary employees.

Berks & Beyond Can Help Drive Your Profits

With a full complement of staffing service options, Berks & Beyond Employment Services can customize a staffing plan that will enhance your company’s profitability.  Call us today to learn how.

When it comes to effectively staffing your business, the options are endless – and can be, frankly, a little overwhelming.  Today’s post is dedicated to straight talk about a strategic staffing service that may be of real value to your organization:  planned staffing.

The 101

So, what exactly is “planned staffing”?

Simply put, planned staffing is the strategic use of temporaries to accommodate workloads known to vary in seasons or other cycles.  Traditional planned staffing strategies typically allocate between 10 and 20 percent of the total workforce as supplemental (temporary) employees.

To implement a planned staffing solution, a company’s decision makers meet with a highly trained staffing professional to discuss how the organization’s workload changes throughout the year.  The staffing professional then analyzes the company’s workforce needs, and designs a comprehensive plan for managing the peaks and valleys with supplemental staff.

When business surges, temporaries are brought in to handle the additional business volume.  Once the peak cycle is completed, the staffing firm reassigns its employees to other companies.

Planned Staffing Benefits

For businesses with (at least somewhat) predictable surges in demand, a planned staffing option offers a number of benefits:

• Flexibility.  Bringing in supplemental staff allows you to handle surges in demand without impacting fixed expenses.  Your workforce stays lean and flexible.
• Less risk and expense.  Using temporaries during short-term peak periods is less burdensome, risky and expensive than hiring – and then laying off – direct employees.
• Instant access to the help you need.  Your staffing provider will recruit in advance of your needs, to ensure you have qualified candidates ready to work – right when you need them.  At your request, the staffing firm can even develop customized orientation materials to get temporaries up-to-speed more quickly.
• Fewer layoffs.  When business slows, it’s the temporaries who go first.  As a result, core employees enjoy increased job security.
• Less burnout and overtime.  Using supplemental staff reduces overtime and eliminates the burn-out overwork can cause.
• Hiring benefits.  When you implement a planned staffing solution, you have the luxury of hiring employees from a pool of temporaries who are already trained, and have proven their dependability and cultural fit.  Discuss your temporary-to-hire options with your staffing provider.

Is a Planned Staffing Option Right for Your Business?

If your business experiences frequent and/or predictable changes in workload, contact Berks and Beyond.  We’ll discuss your needs, help you weigh your options and determine if planned staffing is right for your organization.