A STAFFING SHORT STORY by Bob Lanza
When she opened the front door to the branch office everything seemed in order. The message light was blinking; the air was stale from the air-conditioning being shut down all weekend while screensavers provided the only light in the office. With a flip of a few switches, “Any Name” Staffing was up and running. At the top of the hour, the Monday morning phones would be ringing with clients asking for supplemental workers and prospective employees calling to be placed in those jobs. After a few minutes of pleasantries, the recruiters and sales staff would be at their desks generating job orders and screening candidates. Whether one had any knowledge of the staffing industry or not, it was evident that the office produced revenue. This morning would have just a little twist in that a new employee would be starting.
Her name was Carolyn and she would be training as a Business Development Professional. She was to take some time to learn the staffing business by working in all phases of the operation and then begin to forge new relationships for “Any Name” Staffing.
Carolyn’s background was for the most part entry level. As a recent Liberal Arts grad, she had spent summers working in retail while also gaining experience as a Youth Leader at summer camps. Carolyn was mature beyond her years and interviewed very well. She first came into “Any Name” Staffing to obtain a contract assignment at one of the various corporate headquarters that calls this region home. She impressed her recruiter so much that she was passed on to meet with the owner about a possible position with “Any Name” Staffing. “Any Name” Staffing management always stressed that if every an outside candidate had the right stuff, they should be passed on.
The meeting with “Any Name” Staffing’s owner went as equally well for Carolyn. Her professionalism and engaging personality won over the owner. He felt strongly that Carolyn could be instrumental in breaking into some new markets as the need to increase and diversify their sales mix became more crucial.
Seventy percent of “Any Name’s” business came from three accounts. These accounts were long term “Any Name” clients. Two of the books of business were opened up by the owners. The “Any Name” staff worked intensely to maintain a primarily exclusive arrangement. Due to competitive pressures, all the major accounts had decreasing profit dollars over the years. Maintaining these accounts required more time and man hours but still covered a tremendous amount of overhead.
The strategy was to begin to hire a group that could focus on smaller and mid-sized clients with higher margins. Carolyn would be part of this group.
Carolyn was told to begin her first day at 9:00am and walked through the front door at 8:45am. When she walked into the reception area the front desk clerk proceeded to attach an application to a clipboard and handed it to Carolyn.
Carolyn, in her natural charming way said good morning and introduced herself. Handing her the clipboard, the receptionist told Carolyn to fill out the front and back of the first two forms and read and sign the other documents. Carolyn informed her that she had already filled out these forms and was starting at “Any Name” Staffing that day. Embarrassed, the receptionist apologized and said that no one had informed her that you were starting today, please wait one minute.
Carolyn took a seat in the lobby and in a few minutes the door of the office opened and out came, John, the Branch Manager.
“Hi, Carolyn, come on in; our owner forgot to tell us that you were starting today and for that I apologize”.
After leading Carolyn into the office, John had her sit at his desk until the owner arrived which was usually between 9:30am and 10:00am.
During the 40 minutes at John’s desk, Carolyn received a quick coming attraction to the staffing industry. John received a call from a departmental manager at their major client who had two candidates “no show”. Another call was from an angry temporary field employee who still had not received their paycheck. After receiving a call from an old client requesting five proficient Excel operators, John turned to Carolyn and said, “It must be Monday”.
At around 10:00am, the owner arrived and apologized for being late. He brought Carolyn into his office and offered her a seat and something to drink. After sifting through his messages, he excused himself because of an accounts receivable problem. About thirty minutes went by before he returned. For Carolyn, it felt like two hours. The owner then said –
“Here is what I am going to have you do today; in the back room we have a series of tapes that we are going to have you watch. They’re about 4 hours long and they will instruct you on interviewing and generating job orders. How we make money is by companies calling us because they need temporary employees. We charge a premium on top of the employee’s hourly pay. After today, I will have you work in all the different departments in order to learn the business”.
Carolyn spent the remainder of her first day taking notes and watching a talking head on a poorly produced video series on staffing. When she returned from her second day she was processing timesheets in accounting. For the remainder of the week she sat with one of the best sales representatives in the company only to hear about how he has brought in all the business and was not getting paid what he is worth.
At the end of her second week, Carolyn resigned from her position. Without any exit interview system, the reason for Carolyn’s resignation was not forthcoming. She indicated to some employees that she was pursuing an opportunity in the fashion industry.
This pattern has been an all too familiar scenario at “Any Name” Staffing.
If this scene seems similar to your staffing organization then shame on you.
For those who believe that the story is too far-fetched and that no one would loosely structure the first days of a staffing career this way I assure you this scenario is more common then you think. Many staffing owners gamble with their new hires the way many drop money on the blackjack table in Vegas. Many owners believe that their job is to hire the best talent and allow them to independently navigate their way through the staffing labyrinth without any orientation process. The golden fountains and the multi-million-dollar architecture of the Vegas Strip are not paid for by winners. Gambling with your staffing dollars without a strategic and tactical orientation process is a losing proposition.
A talented employee poorly coached is no better than an untalented employee greatly coached.
Remember the “Five-Step Process” to stack the deck in your favor.
- Assess – New hires and current employees against a benchmark then….
- Design an orientation and training program specific to your company and market.
- Deliver the material in a way that educationally and logistically makes sense then….
- Reinforce everything on a continual basis and create…
- Accountability for executing your selling system.