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A new approach to staffing

Guest post by: Hannah McKinnon

Article Overview: Ever been in the situation where your company is temporarily overstaffed and you're faced with making people redundant or acception you have to pay for idle time and take a hit on your bottom line? Wouldn't collaborating with companies in the reverse situation with a view to sharing skills make sense? Here's how, and why, the pooling of human resources makes so much sense.

A new approach to staffing

Staffing often tops the list of challenges facing businesses, regardless of the industry. Having the right

number of staff at the right time is a common issue facing all businesses, particularly those whose

operations are subject to seasonal or project related ups and downs.

It would be hard to find too many businesses that have not faced the problem of changing staffing

needs. Changes in the flow of orders, contracts and client requests can easily cause peaks and

troughs in the workload requirements.

Companies try to plan their employment cycles ahead of time, but that’s as tricky as coming up with

a budgeting forecast that will hit the mark further down the road.

Estimates do not guarantee accuracy. At the same time, inaccuracies can be very costly. If a company

ends up understaffed for example, it could be paying more than it should to hire additional

temporary staff. Alternatively, it might be overstaffed during an unexpected idle time. Either way,

both situations have a direct and negative impact on the bottom line, and it hurts.

Diving into pooling resources

One solution to this problem is closely collaborating with companies that have similar fluctuating

human resource needs and pooling resources.

Take for example Company A and Company B. Company A underestimated the number of staff

required and is faced with a busy period for which it needs more people. It could hire additional staff

on a permanent basis, and run the risk of having to lay them off later. Alternatively, it could hire staff

temporarily through an agency, which can be very expensive.

On the other hand, Company B has less work than originally anticipated because of a project delay,

and has permanent staff members that are idle.

If these companies were brought together to pool their human resources, they could solve the

problem efficiently from a staffing and economic standpoint. Company B would lend their

underutilized permanent staff to Company A and invoice Company A the staff salary cost. The

employees may not even have to work in a different location. Depending on the work to be done,

and the available technology, the employees could carry out the tasks for Company A from their

usual place of work at Company B.

The end result is that Company B saves money by offsetting downtime costs and increasing its

bottom line. Company A obtains the resources of suitably qualified and recommended staff. Paying

salary costs for these resources is more cost‐effective that hiring them through a staffing agency. The

employees also benefit by being able to work on different projects, in a different environment and at

the very least, broadening their horizons.

This approach could also be used for two companies that operate during opposite seasons, for

example. If they could be brought together to share their human resources, this solution could

guarantee continuity in service of their employees.

The bigger picture

Pooling of human resources can apply to countless branches of commerce and industry. In fact, there

are many roles that are not industry dependent and are perfectly transferable from one to the other.

After all, the greatest asset that any business possesses is its staff. But for the most part, staff is also

the most expensive item on the profit and loss statement. Over the years, many efforts have been

made in the workplace to increase working efficiency, yet virtually nothing has been done to create

more efficient use of staff.

It stands to reason that we could see far greater economic efficiency by bringing together companies

that have fluctuating staffing problems. While that may mean developing closer working

relationships with competitors, resolving staffing shortages or overages through pooling can have

considerable benefits from both an economic and employee retention standpoint.

In most cases, the fear of “industrial espionage” is no more of an issue than hiring people from a

staffing agency. On the contrary, whether you are the “borrower” or the “lender”, staff is entirely in

the hands of each individual company, which is in control of the process. It is the company that

decides to whom it will lend its staff and from whom it will borrow. This is a luxury that traditional

recruitment solutions simply do not allow for.

Goodwill hunting

Pooling can also extend to permanent staffing needs. A company may need to downsize and

permanently reduce a full‐time employee to part‐time, or terminate an employment contract

altogether. Other companies can look to them to tap into a rich source of qualified, recommended

personnel. In helping employees find alternative employment, companies are able to gain goodwill

and respect, both of which help image and reputation.

Learning to be flexible when managing fluctuating staffing needs can be a challenge, but ultimately it

will be beneficial for everyone concerned – from shareholders, to companies to employees. So

before laying off staff members, or calling a staffing agency, pooling is well worth a closer

examination.

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Article Tags: bottom line, human resources, new approach, overstaffed, pooling, recruitment, resources, staff sharing, staffing, understaffed



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