January 5, 2023 | Last Updated on: January 24, 2023
Are you the owner of a staffing firm and seeking better methods to control the expenses of your business? Every kind of company has the challenge of keeping its spending under control, and staffing firms are no exception to this rule.
In this piece, we will discuss several essential methods that may help you reduce expenses in your staffing agency. These strategies are designed to be cost-efficient while also being helpful in assisting with the achievement of optimum profitability.
We’ll discuss things like how to build a productive workforce, how to make use of technology, how to negotiate costs with customers, and plenty of other issues, and we’ll also offer some pointers on how to measure the efficacy of each method.
A staffing company is a company that helps other businesses fill open jobs in their organizations by supplying them with temporary and contract workers. This allows them to fill gaps in their workforce and operate their businesses in a seamless and efficient manner. These companies are able to provide other companies with individuals that have the necessary credentials and work experience to fill positions they need in a timely manner, removing the need for businesses to go through the pains of the regular hiring process.
These companies act as staffing partners to find the right candidates with the right staffing strategy. They are also able to give services that are more individualized, such as recruitment, background checks, evaluation exams, orientation, onboarding, and training programs.
Staffing firms often focus on a certain industry or domain, but they are also able to lend their services to businesses that are wanting to recruit individuals with expertise in a variety of professions.
They often have teams of recruiters that are always seeking suitable employees who possess the essential skills and capabilities to match the precise criteria outlined for specific jobs in the industries in which they specialize.
When a staffing business finds a candidate who is a good fit for a job, they often provide extra services to the employer on the employer’s behalf. These services may include drafting contracts or negotiating wage packages.
Staffing businesses can usually assist employers in three ways. One is by providing temporary employees – these are employees who work on a specific job or assignment for a set period of time for a company, usually with a formal start and end date. Another option is temp-to-hire employees – these are employees that have a limited engagement with a company as they decide whether or not the employee would be a good long-term fit for their business. Finally, staffing agencies can assist companies with direct hire employees – in situations like these, the staffing agency essentially serves as an experienced recruiter, finding a qualified candidate for a permanent position within a client’s company.
In the case of temporary employees and temp-to-hire employees, unless and until the time comes when the client business hires the employee full-time, the staffing agency is responsible for hiring and paying the employees. Under these terms, the employee actually works for the staffing agency, even though they are completing a job or task for a client business. This means that staffing agencies have to deal with the difficulties of having employees just like any other business, including deciding on whether they will offer benefits, what sorts of benefits they will offer, dealing with workers’ comp insurance, etc. With direct hire employees, the client business will hire the candidate directly.
All-in-all, the core premise of staffing agencies boils down to the placement of qualified individuals in appropriate jobs. Staffing businesses specialize in being able to assist in the process of matching individuals with employers – whether for temporary or permanent work – and are therefore a sort of middleman between job seekers and employers. And they serve a pivotal role in assisting companies in establishing a flexible and dynamic workforce that can scale up or scale down to the company’s needs at any given time. Given this, it makes sense that the staffing agency industry has seen two years of continuous growth and is expected to continue to grow in years to come.
Working with a staffing company has many benefits, including the following:
Businesses, organizations, and government agencies all need human solutions, and staffing companies give such answers. As previously noted, the types of employment that are commonly included in staffing services include temporary staffing (temp to hire), contract-based jobs (temporary), and full-time placements.
Jobseekers can often find steady work and fill any gaps in their professional expertise or career path by taking advantage of the many options that can be provided by a staffing firm. Staffing agencies typically give their workers a range of jobs. This can make them highly versatile and of great help to companies. Plus, they often specialize in locating the most qualified candidates for certain sectors or job openings.
Staffing agencies offer the experience and resources necessary to establish appropriate matches between businesses and job searchers and cut out all the difficulties associated with hiring new employees. Background checks and other screening procedures for prospective workers are some of the human resource support services that are offered by staffing agencies. They could be able to aid with the processing of payroll as well as the management of taxes related to employment contracts. Many staffing organizations are also able to give knowledge of labor law requirements depending on the region in which they operate. This ability is determined by the location in which they do business. This can help shrink the human resource needs of a client business dramatically, allowing them to focus on what they do best while allowing the staffing agency to deal with the intricacies of hiring and maintaining a workforce (this can be especially useful in industries that are prone to high turnover).
In addition to assisting businesses in the process of finding individuals who meet their qualifications, these companies often provide in-depth research on current trends within a particular industry or sector that may influence recruiting choices.
They are able to assist in the identification of possible new recruits thanks to their expertise in the business as well as their contacts. Indeed, the best staffing agencies are one step ahead of the game and can have employees on-hand and on-site before available jobs even need to be posted or advertised publicly.
If you are considering opening a staffing company, you should be prepared to be able to handle all of this. It’s not easy and something that takes time, skill, and effort. Indeed, the key factor in opening any staffing agency is being an expert or having a strong working knowledge in a specific industry and industry contacts that trust you. Unfortunately, staffing agencies usually are not companies you can just start overnight without any sort of previous background in a specific industry.
It may be a challenging endeavor for a staffing company to keep its expenditures under control, particularly as the company grows and additional people are brought on board.That said, there are some tips and tricks to help minimize costs.
Regularly reviewing expenditures and looking for places where money may be saved is one of the most successful cost-cutting strategies. This can help uncover any potential areas for cost reduction.
If you keep track of all incoming and outgoing expenditures, including payroll, overhead costs, and marketing efforts, it will be easier for you to identify areas in which adjustments need to be made.
This may seem like basic advice, but many businesses forget about the power of keeping detailed books and financial records. Having a good accountant that can help identify areas where your expenditures are too high or can be cut can make a world of difference, boosting margins and increasing both short-term and long-term profitability.
Cutting down on recruiting costs is huge for staffing agencies. There are a bunch of ways you can do this – so don’t be afraid to get creative and think outside of the box.
For example, instead of doing in-person meetings with potential employees, see whether it is feasible to conduct business via the use of video conferencing software such as Zoom or Skype. You will save time and money as a result of this, and you will still be able to maintain a connection with your consumers.
Trying to reduce the amount you are spending on job board postings? Try offering your current employees kickbacks for successful referrals that lead to hires. Incentivize them to do some of your recruiting for you. This can help put more money in your employees’ pockets – keeping them happier – while at the same time cutting down your costs. Plus, it lets everyone know that they are a part of a larger team effort.
Another huge aspect of cutting down on recruiting expenses is figuring out how to keep employee turnover low. The more employees that leave your company for other businesses and job opportunities, the more time and money you will have to spend finding new employees and onboarding them. Certain industries have higher turnover than others, so think about what your industry demands. Do you need to start offering benefits to employees? Do you need to offer better benefits? Maybe you need to pay employees a slightly higher wage. Whatever you can do to reduce employee turnover can go a long way in reducing long-term recruiting costs.
Automating certain procedures like payrolls, invoices, reporting, or scheduling may also be useful since it reduces human labor, which can drive up unneeded expenses. It will also reduce the administrative burden and capacity constraints. Pretty much any business – not just staffing agencies – can benefit from bringing new technology and automation to their workflow and internal processes. The more you can automate, the more time you can invest in the tasks that really need your attention.
Making an investment in technology, such as software solutions that are designed specifically for staffing companies, can help save money in the long run by streamlining processes that would otherwise require a lot of manual effort or time to complete.
This means you will likely need to invest in a good applicant tracking system (ATS) which will enable you to start saving candidates’ resumes and match them with job openings. There is an incredibly large selection of cutting-edge software you can utilize as a staffing agency. Many systems now available offer functions like tracking employee hours, payroll management, monitoring attendance records, scheduling employees at job sites, communicating with employees, and more. All of these software options help drive efficiency and streamline your business’s processes, enabling your company to scale and grow over time with minimal difficulty. Average software costs (i.e. per user rates, etc.) typically drop dramatically as your business grows, so saving will only increase as your business expands.
Each of these functions is an essential component that is required for effectively controlling staff expenditures. Moreover, they help to determine employees’ annual salary and other staffing needs.
Reducing operating costs is another way to control costs for your staffing company. Typically, staffing companies do not work on-site at a central office – instead, they send employees to various client job sites. As such, you may be able to operate with minimal to no office space. It is possible that you might reduce some of your operating expenses by giving employees the option of working from home either sometimes or permanently as part of their employment agreement. For example, if you have an accounting or IT team, they may not actually need to be at an office.
You can also find ways to reduce expenses for supplies, such as going paperless, doing paperless billing, etc. Or maybe you can find better bulk discounts than the discounts you are currently getting.
Reducing print advertising methods and focusing on digital advertising can also help reduce costs. It costs a lot less to design an ad for Instagram than to design one for a newspaper and then pay to have it printed. Granted, if your print advertising methods are effective, you may not want to shy away from them. But keep in mind that there are all kinds of cost-effective marketing methods nowadays.
You may come across many time-consuming liabilities in a work environment. Most of these problems arise due to a high employee turnover due to temporary staff leaving, or difficulty managing staffing costs.
A small business may benefit more from permanent employees if they hire them with proper strategy and reference checking.
When it comes to maintaining cost management in a staffing organization, as previously noted, one of the most significant dangers to watch out for is high employee turnover. It may be expensive for a staffing organization to see a high turnover rate among its employees.
There typically are high replacement expenses connected with replacing a bad hire, in addition to the amount of time and effort that will be necessary to educate a new hire and get them up to speed. Employee turnover can become a real nightmare for businesses and can become a systemic issue. You will want to keep a careful eye on your turnover ratio and be incisive about finding out what is causing current employees to leave. When an employee lets you know they are leaving, be sure to ask them why and understand what is causing their departure. Keep careful track of what these employees say so that you can try to identify trends over time. Then, you can act on fixing the issues causing them to leave.
It is critical for businesses to make investments in their onboarding procedures in order to guarantee that new hires get enough training and are immediately prepared to make a contribution after beginning their employment.
Employees may not be able to carry out their responsibilities in an effective and efficient manner if they have not received the appropriate training and direction, which might lead to more problems in the future.
Automating some aspects of an organization’s onboarding process is a great way for businesses to save costs and save time without sacrificing the quality of the education they provide to newly hired employees. Plus, it is critical to keep up with the latest trends in training that are impacting your staffing agency’s niche industry. You don’t want your team to fall behind and have to catch up later. Being innovative and staying ahead of the curve is critical.
Staffing organizations need to be aware of the possible legal concerns that are associated with the employment techniques they use as well.
When it comes to the hiring of employees, businesses have a responsibility to ensure that they comply with all applicable laws and regulations. This responsibility includes the payment of fair wages, adherence to anti-discrimination laws, provision of legally mandated benefit packages where applicable, etc. It is important to always remain up-to-date on all local laws and regulations concerning employment so that you don’t end up on the wrong side of a lawsuit or fines.
You will also want to make sure your business is leveraging the proper insurance in its operations. Any reputable staffing company should have workers’ compensation (known as worker’s comp) insurance to deal with any unfortunate mishaps on job sites. Even though your employees will be working for other companies, they are still your employees, and you are responsible for them.
Unfortunately, workers’ comp insurance can be difficult for staffing agencies to obtain, since many insurance companies do not want to deal with the unique risks posed by staffing agencies (since staffing agencies send workers to multiple job sites that change frequently, it’s hard for them to assess risk). This can cause many staffing agencies to put the need for a good workers’ comp insurance plan on the back burner. However, the results can be disastrous. Only one awful accident could put your entire business at risk. As such, taking the time to find the right insurance company and expert to get the right policy can pay dividends in the long run and dramatically reduce costs for your company. Working with an insurance broker can be ideal, as they can help match your business to the right policy.
Key indicators to control the costs of a staffing company can be broken down into two separate areas:
This information should be gathered from a variety of sources, including those inside the firm as well as those outside of it, so that the business may assess whether or not its existing employment expenses are excessive and need to be modified.
The management of employee turnover rates, training programs, and career advancement opportunities are all components of personnel management, which is particularly crucial for staffing organizations.
Additionally, the management of finances places an emphasis on the control of labor costs. This is accomplished by detailed budget planning and/or forecasting that anticipates future cash flow requirements or pinpoint areas in which savings might be generated. If you are a small staffing agency, working with a qualified outside accountant can make a huge difference in terms of identifying areas where savings can be found. Meanwhile, if you are a larger company, you may want to consider investing in an internal finance team.
Regardless of whether they are internal or external, accountants who are familiar with small business operations – particularly those of staffing agencies – can help analyze wages, training costs, onboarding costs, profit margins, and more to help your business identify areas where cost efficiencies can be found.
If you are considering starting a staffing firm or are already operating one, learning how to maintain cost efficiencies is critical. The above only scratches the surface and gives a quick idea about what sorts of areas efficiencies can be found in. But it doesn’t elaborate on how to make them a reality (for example, this guide doesn’t explain how to dive deep into your financial statements and understand where savings can be found).
These are often difficult skills to learn and often come with experience and time on the job, so finding qualified individuals who can join your team to help you can make a huge difference. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel – there are thousands of staffing agencies already keeping costs low and driving impressive margins. So, do yourself a favor and don’t go it alone. Find qualified professionals who can help you along the journey. There may be added costs, but they will likely pay for themselves in multiples in the long run. Oftentimes, running a successful comes down to surrounding yourself with and leading the right team. You can’t learn and do it all – so finding valued team members is critical.
At Biz2Credit, we are dedicated to serving the nation’s small business community. As part of this, we maintain our Biz2Credit Blog by posting new articles each and every day covering the latest news, trends, and events impacting America’s small businesses. So, please continue to check back here for all the latest information!
April 12, 2024
