Talent management will be the key as the market recovers

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As the market recovers, one of the first impacts on our industry will be a revival of the temp and contract market. Temp-to-perm will be huge. Employers will see increased work volumes as the economy recovers,but will “dip their toes” into the labour market at first, hiring flexible solutions initially. But then, as momentum is gained and confidence returns, they will start to hire permanently. But the first place they will go for their permanent hires will be to transition tried and tested contractors onto their permanent payrolls. The big issue forus in the staffing industry will be talent management. It’s important we strategise and behave as if we are thinking years ahead when it comesto talent – because candidates will become a short resource again very
soon.

Invest not only in adding talent to your database, but also ensuring relationships are built with them and that your systems allow you to access them fast. Find a way to shift the consultants’ mindset from running job board ads after they have taken an order – to a fully integrated talent strategy where your company and your staff are interacting with candidates and potential candidates, in their
communities, all the time.

It’s going to be a whole new talent world going forward. The other issue is to think hard about the type of talent companies will be hiring in the recovery. Your tactics need to be based around building a relationship with the 10% that will be in demand and able to be placed, so that as the market rises you will be ready with the right stock at the right time.

It’s not about lots of talent, it’s about the right talent.

Comment by Joel Capperella on May 3, 2010 at 9:51am: Greg—Happy to see that you believe it will be “a whole new talent world going forward,” and could not agree more. I’ve written a great deal about this topic on The Seamless Workforce, including recommendations on how to address this “new talent world,” such as offering creative alternative benefits, implementing internship-style staffing rotations, sharing budget responsibilities and promoting personal branding. Thank you for adding to the public discourse.

Joel Capperella, http://blog.yoh.com

Comment by Doreen Koronios on May 3, 2010 at 3:57pm: Interesting post Greg. An important issue to remember when hiring temps and contract workers is to make sure they go through the same vetting process used when hiring permanent employees. In other words, make sure to do a thorough background check! Temps and contract workers have access to some of the same company information and files as do permanent workers. In order to protect your organization against fraud and theft, it is important to make sure all workers are thoroughly screened. It's up to the HR professional to ensure that the temporary agencies follow the same standards as your company. We just wrote an informative white paper on this very subject. You can download it for free at www.carcogroup.com.