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Innovative Ideas to Move Your Staffing Business Forward, Part 1

As summer begins to wind down and students and teachers prepare to head back to school, learning is on everyone’s minds. Learning is advancement—taking what you know and adding more knowledge and experience to be and do better.

With this sentiment in mind, here are some fresh ideas to finish your year strong and help plan for greater achievement next year. Ultimately, implementing new ideas can propel your staffing business towards greater innovation and impact—e.g. acquiring top talent, expanding your client roster, better serving your customers, and increasing employee engagement.

What’s holding you back? Take this latter half of the year to execute an idea or two that could move your business forward! In no particular order, let’s explore some ideas!

 

Idea #1 – Develop a residual referral program to create economic entanglement with your customers.

In a market where talent is tight, make it a win-win climate that reinforces everyone to do their best and ensures satisfaction through every step. A residual referral program allows you to focus on getting the best people and retaining them, while playing on two major principles: emotion and economics.

For example: say you retain a nurse, Bob, through a referral program; meanwhile, the referring nurse, Gina, gets a dollar for every hour that Bob works on an assignment. The very nature of this referral arrangement encourages Gina to identify the very best talent for the position because her economic benefit is linked to Bob’s fit and performance. The goal—cost effectively finding and retaining top talent—is achieved! As the employer, you don’t pay out anything unless that referred talent works. Additionally, you have a passionate, recruitment force you can enable with financial incentives, as well as a modest investment in a tool (i.e. business cards with referral details on the back).

 

Idea #2 – Always use outside trainers and subject matter experts to train staff on industry software and résumé database websites.

In addition to the training provided by your software vendors, you want to incorporate training from “power users” of those products and technologies. Their insights can reveal tricks and troubleshooting to help flesh out the standard user manuals. From there, you can develop your own custom user manuals, if your settings and needs require it or if your team would benefit from it. Furthermore, you can reward people for contributing to it and treat it like an ever-evolving knowledgebase that you improve over time. Ensure it continues to add value as your needs, intelligence, and use of these products changes and grows.

 

Idea #3 – Be truly mobile—allow and equip your staff to perform all of their essential work functions from the road or from home.

If your reaction to this idea is “they have cell phones,” then you’re missing the point: today’s workforce does not want to be chained to a desk; they want the ability to be mobile. This drive for mobility is also consistent with changes in the industry, and the types of services your clients are or will be expecting of you. Companies that create a mobile workplace are the ones who will be prime for greater success, whereas the ones who stay stagnant will struggle to survive.

 

 

Idea #4 – Implement a call planning worksheet for sales calls.

First, understand what a sales call costs your organization (it’s likely somewhere between $400 and $700). The old-school way of planning what you’ll say while you’re on the off-ramp to a sales meeting is not competitive anymore. Every call requires you establish a primary and secondary objective, identify anticipated objections and potential questions, and that you know exactly what it is you can offer within the goal of your meeting.

Make the best use of your meeting with that prospect or client because they’re giving you something very precious:  their time. Don’t squander the opportunity to position yourself as a problem-solver who understands their specific challenges. Distinguishing yourself in that way will set you apart from your competition, but it requires planning and preparation.  Try turning to LinkedIn, websites, and social-selling best-practices, and do your research; you will see the quality of every sales call increase.

 

Keep the ideas flowing! Check out our next blog for another batch!

 

Source: “28 Rapid-Fire Ideas to Rock Your Staffing Business,” 2018 SIA Executive Forum North America. Ideas presented by panelists: Mike Jacoutot, Founder & Managing Partner, Butler Street; Eric Jaquith, Director of Talent Acquisition, CDI Corp.; Chris Martin, SVP, Randstad Technologies.

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