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Effective Recruiting, Staffing and Applicant Tracking in
a high turnover
Environment: Filling seats in a demanding work environment.
Today’s labor economy faces new challenges entirely
unlike those of the past. With increased international outsourcing
of both skilled and unskilled labor, in addition to aggressive
downsizing, seemingly neverending RIF programs (reductions
in force), cuts in health benefits, and cuts in retirement
benefits, levels of employee commitment have dropped dramatically.
The resulting effect is a high rate of turnover in the workforce
across a broad range of industries. Employers everywhere
face a growing need to work around the issue of high employee
turnover, and many are finding answers in effective human
resources management solutions.
That’s because managing a workforce made up of short-term
employees requires a revolutionized approach to directing
this changing field in the industry. Specialists in the management
of human resources consistently advise that it is highly
important to recognize the key features for an ideal staff.
Indeed, not only must employers who are staffing a high turnover
work environment look for staff that is well qualified and
productive, but they must also be easily replaceable. It
is under this paradoxical model that the right applicant
tracking system must utilize the best practices for developing
a committed and productive workforce when recruiting, staffing
and tracking its employee applicants across the entire cycle
of the recruiting, hiring, and training process.
Lower your costs by up 44% with an effective
Recruitment and Staffing Strategy
Placing a high
level of importance on recruitment and staffing coupled to
a strongly structured training process is fundamental
to the success of this system, and to the uninterrupted operation
of the organization. To begin with, effective staffing and
employee recruitment depends on seeking a combination of
demonstrated behavior and performance. This is mostly determined
through the interview process. Here, a well-structured series
of interviews will effectively assess the applicant’s
level of commitment as well as his or her past job performance.
In addition, it will be able to provide an informed prediction
of how well equipped the employee will be when entering the
workforce.
In addition to the interview, effective recruitment and
staffing involves attracting the right people to apply for
positions in the workforce. The first step to this process
involves knowing where to search. In certain situations the
best candidate for the job may come from within the company
itself. Regardless, it should be recognized that creating
concise and targeted job descriptions help to effectively
gather up the right talent. For instance, a job description
that is brief as well as precise (i.e. lists the necessary
requirements without rambling on about a series of ideal
features desired) is the best way to pool a high number of
recruits while weeding out those who are not qualified.
While a well-planned interview should be effective in determining
the value of the applicant, it should also help the employer
develop a clear understanding of his or her past performance
metrics. Asking detailed questions about the performance
as well as how it was carried out is an effective way of
formulating a clear projection of the applicant’s future
contribution to a company.
Indeed, there is no better way to determine the projected
success of an applicant than by looking at his or her past.
If the applicant helped to increase sales, productivity
or growth in his or her job function, then it is likely the
same performance can be expected.
In addition, successful applicant
tracking is essential
to maintaining a qualified and on-demand workforce in a high-turnover
environment. Keeping track of an active database of applicants
is necessary in order to quickly fill up jobs once openings
for them are created (which is obviously a continually occurring
phenomenon in high-turnover work environments). Indeed, this
is absolutely essential to successful human resources management.
These best practices feature proven success. To demonstrate
this, one case study that was recently produced by the Peter
Manchester Associates found that a busy call center in Kentucky
was able to increase its labor productivity metrics by 44%
when human resources managers applied these advanced recruitment,
staffing and management practices. The actual cost of running
the call center went down by a stunning 16% simply from filling
more seats with employees rather than short term contract
workers, as well as employing a more effective training component
that weeded out quitters before they reached the call center
floor. That is the essence of human resource management in
action.
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