Large organizations rely on sizeable, productive workforces to function at a high level and deliver results for their clients. Consequently, labor costs represent a significant proportion of your outgoings.
You need to be sure not only that you have sufficient human resources to maintain output, but that you're attracting and retaining the right talent by offering competitive pay.
Furthermore, there are many other financial factors to consider beyond obvious costs like recruiting and paying staff, such as the productivity losses that occur when vacancies go unfilled or you hire the wrong person for the job.
When you need to get your workforce costs under control, teaming up with a specialist partner is one of the quickest and most effective ways to do it. Here are some of the best examples of how working with an HR services provider can help you manage your labor costs:
Avoiding bad hires
A bad hire is a scenario that everyone wants to avoid. Recruiting someone who turns out to be the wrong fit for your organization, or who simply isn't able to do the job to the required standard, is a waste of time, money and effort for all parties. It can also be demotivating and damaging to morale.
On a purely financial level, it has been reported that a bad hire can cost your business 30% of the employee's first-year earnings.
One of the biggest benefits to be gained from working with an HR partner is significantly increasing your quality of hire. Dedicated HR services providers specialize in recruiting the right people for particular roles, by taking a rigorous and proven approach to candidate screening, analysis and reference checking.
This is an area where modern tools and technologies like Checkster can prove invaluable.
Less advertising spend
A lot of the financial commitment involved in hiring workers comes from the need to market and advertise available roles on job boards and other platforms. There is an understandable temptation to position and promote your vacancies in as many channels as possible, but this can be an expensive way to approach recruitment.
The right HR services partner can help you find the best applicants quickly and easily, by providing access to a vetted, proven pool of talent.
This takes a lot of the time and hard work out of the process of advertising positions and identifying suitable candidates. Members of staff who would have been required to do this work will be given more freedom and flexibility to focus on other tasks that could generate more value for the business.
Reduced admin burden
There is a lot of administrative work involved in managing your human resources, from planning shifts to managing overtime and payroll. For big businesses with large, diverse workforces, these activities can become hugely complicated, costing your HR team a lot of time and money.
When you make the decision to team up with an HR services provider, you benefit from being able to offload a lot of this admin responsibility. If you often use flexible workers during busy periods, for example, you can rely on an HR specialist to analyze available capacity, bring in the people you need and look after processes like onboarding and payroll management.
An on-site partner can prove particularly effective if you're looking for HR services that are tailored to the unique demands and challenges of your business.
More flexibility
In many industries - manufacturing being one of the clearest examples - seasonal trends and fluctuations in demand dictate businesses' output, and consequently their need for staff.
If you're looking to make the most efficient use of your resources at all times, flexibility should be a key part of your workforce management. The services and expertise of an HR partner can help you optimize your flexible hiring and align your talent supply with your production cycles.
You can minimize wasted resources by scaling your workforce up and down as required, meaning you only pay for hours worked and overtime spend is minimized. Furthermore, you reduce the risk of deadlines being missed or orders not being filled due to understaffing.
Digital solutions
Tech innovation is making a vital contribution to the ongoing evolution of HR, and most businesses have something to gain from embracing new systems and technologies to optimize key hiring and workforce management processes.
As far as cost efficiency is concerned, methods like electronic invoicing and automation of key tasks such as applicant screening, reference checking and workforce analytics can give your human staff more time to concentrate on other jobs that make good use of their skills. These processes also reduce the risk of human error, which can have financial implications.
An HR services partner can help you keep up with the latest tech developments and decide which tools will benefit you the most.
We have created a cost savings calculator that can show you how much you could save by working with Randstad Inhouse Services, our unique solutions for recruiting and managing skilled flexible labor.
Doris Schaad
Commercial Manager
Doris joined Randstad in 1996 and holds the position of Commercial Manager for Randstad Inhouse Services. Previously, she served as National Key Account Manager and District Manager for the Staffing Businessline. Doris is an employer branding expert and appreciates the interaction with customers. In her free time she is active and can be found out and about in nature or at the gym, which provides her with the ideal balance to her often busy workday.