Hiring the right talent requires a specialized skill and therefore companies have invested a lot of time & money to establish processes & tools that ensure they recruit the right team. Just as companies are competing with each other to sell their products & services, there is also an intense competition for those resources that can help them achieve their business goals. So, in order to attract the best talent available in the industry, many companies have created policies that are employee friendly, offer a rewarding environment and yet promoting an innovative work culture.
AN OVERVIEW
Businesses continuously face the challenge of adapting to the new scenarios that they encounter while attempting to meet their ambitious plans. As technology keeps changing, skill gaps keep widening, resource utilization continue to drop - there is an urgent need to develop and adopt an approach that mitigates these risks, gain edge over competitors and put businesses on a growth path. Employees form the core of an organization’s success - defining an appropriate team structure with a good mix of experienced, entry-level and functional experts is the first step towards achieving this goal. Staffing is an ongoing & critical process and so needs a comprehensive strategy that not only addresses the current resource requirements, but also assesses re-skilling for improved utilization, forecasts for future, adopts tools & technologies that speed up the recruitment cycle times.
Creating a roadmap, a constant review of the effectiveness of the process, course correcting as & when needed and bench marking against other industry leaders, will go a long way in laying the foundation for establishing a great team. Companies that have aligned their staffing strategy with their business goals resulted in improved productivity, optimization of resource costs and hastened product development cycles. Below are some of the elements of a well conceived staffing strategy.
1. DEFINE STAFFING NEEDS
As part of establishing the resource needs for an organization, it’s imperative that a careful look at the current and future needs of every department is taken into account. Conducting a workshop, involving all the key stake holders, including department heads & resource managers, will give great insights into current resource utilization, skill gap and staffing requirements to take care of the future needs. Those departments, such as engineering & IT, which have large teams, need a further detailed assessment, and if overlooked, are likely to have a much higher impact on the overall performance. Also, a close look at the historical data on individual department’s staffing needs, how the numbers grew / fell in relation to the business prospects will offer some additional inputs to the overall human resources plan.
At times, it may not be possible to accurately plan for the resources due to several uncertainties involved in the business and so it is advisable to have an additional staffing buffer of 10-15%, depending on the criticality of a department that a business majorly depends on. Besides there are other challenges such as availability of skilled resources, their associated costs, leads times to acquiring such resources and regulatory requirements ( such as diversity, equal opportunity employment etc.,) that need to complied with. Engineering & IT staffing are two such departments that fall in this category, for a majority of industry segments.
2. EXPLORE STAFFING MODELS
There are a number of ways that companies can get benefited if they adopt the right staffing model. Depending on the nature of the business and the kind of resources that are crucial for effective functioning, organizations can structure their resource needs in a manner that is not only cost effective but also ensures a seamless functioning of their activities. Partnering with a staffing agency, to accommodate fluctuating workloads, constantly changing resource needs, long lead times involved in the hiring process, attrition etc. will help businesses leverage the flexibility and the risk mitigation that every organisation want to take advantage of.
Besides, having a strategic staffing services provider offers a number of other benefits including – project ready resources, access to global talent pool, resources on-demand, flexible / dedicated teams, and turnkey project execution and so on. This works pretty good if a project or a team of skilled engineering resources need to deployed in a quick possible time. For example, partnering with an IT staffing agency or an engineering staffing agency, which has local & global presence, for those niche skills will offer great advantage both in terms of costs and competencies.
3. CREATE A ROADMAP
A detailed staffing plan with milestones will ensure that the resource needs are properly aligned with the organizational goals, current& future, thus meeting the commitments in a timely and consistent manner. A well crafted roadmap helps in weighing various options towards building an optimum resource capacity both for the in-house as well as for the external partner staffing agencies. Besides, it gives an opportunity for the recruitment teams to establish the operational details (such as funds, tools, schedules, forecasts etc.,) and develop a comprehensive on how to accomplish the set targets.
First of all, as a strategy it serves to a great advantage if companies can identify if all tasks are executed completely by an in-house team or can be outsourced or is it a bit of both. For a majority of the businesses that we have supported, it was found that a range of 40-60% of the resources can be outsourced and only then businesses have seen significant benefits. Besides, the in-house team can also make the best use of the full-time, temporary, contract or consulting positions and arrive at the right composition. A similar formula can also be applied to the staffing agencies for outsourced part. So now, a roadmap that constitutes every such detail shall provide deep insights into the human resources needs and allow organizations to exercise better control overall process that includes resource management, optimization of costs, recruitment & hiring efforts and offer a hassle free work place environment.
4. REVIEW KPIs
The success of a well thought of strategy depends on how well it is conceived, implemented, tracked and reviewed. By establishing the right, measurable & result oriented parameters, you will be setting yourself on a road for success. A core team of all the relevant stake holders (which include staffing agencies & other talent acquisition partners) is formed, which on a regular basis reviews the predefined goals against the accomplishments, course corrects to meet any un-foreseen challenges and sets the agenda for the next milestone review. This way the staffing plan remains relevant and ensures that all the human resource needs of every department are fulfilled in a timely manner.
A roadmap is a work in progress document and needs to be constantly updated in order to be able to accommodate the changing business environment, technology advancements, customer expectations and last but not the least, the aspirations of the employees. Organizations that meticulously plan, foresee and assess every aspect mentioned above, will help them to be in a position to attract, acquire & retain the best talent in the most efficient & cost effective manner.
Gotech Consult is one of the prominent IT staffing agencies that serve the resourcing needs of customers located predominantly in United States, UK, India, Sweden and Germany. Onsite staffing, remote teams, Outsourcing & Technology Consulting are some of the areas of interests. If you are looking hire a software developer or a technology solution architect or need help in developing a staffing strategy for your business, we offer several possibilities to engage with us. For more information please get in touch with us.
