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My Advice To A Public Staffing Company CEO: Go Work A Desk!
I’ve been advised by various people whom I hold in high esteem that I should work more ‘on the business’ and less ‘in the business’. I’m sure these people have my best interest at heart, and to cut them some slack, they may have offered that comment after seeing me emerge unshaven and frumpled from an all night coding session. But I don’t really buy it. Or at least, it …
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Clear Vision For Staffing
Racing across Michigan with sleet pounding on my windshield as the last squirts of Splash run out of my Avis rental car’s reservoir and with my head poking up and down trying to find some view of the road, I smile, because it’s worth it. ‘It’ being the staffing industry and in particular, the group of staffing companies and TempWorks employees I’ll see on my 850 mile, four state tour. …
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The Arithmetic Of Staffing
When my Dad taught me the arithmetic of staffing some 30+ years ago, it wasn’t necessary to be a Certified Public Accountant to understand the calculations. Thirty years ago, a gross profit calculation was as simple as Bill – Pay = Gross Profit. Back in those days, we enjoyed profit margins large enough where we didn’t sweat operation twists such as employer taxes and workers’ comp, since rates were so …
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The Niche Market Fallacy
A common fallacy in the staffing business is that pursuing new market niches will increase your company’s market valuation. I’m not sure where the fallacy originated, but I hear it propagated most by merger and acquisition broker-types that have fallen in the trap of confusing correlation with causality. Yes, there is a correlation – buyers often seek niche players as a way to enter a new market. But there is …
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The Importance Of Follow Through
Follow through is critical when playing golf, and it’s just as critical in business and personal relationships. In golf, you must devote mind and body to “follow through” for the other parts of the swing to work. A good golf swing winds the spine over a stationary pelvis, generating torque and a release of energy involving the arms, wrists and all manner of muscular movement and mental calculation. The importance …
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How To Build A Profitable Vendor Management Business
What industry practice has done more to ruin relationships, decrease quality hires, keep hiring managers from communicating effectively with recruiters, increase corporate bureaucracy, generate countless meetings, waste hundreds of hours in unfruitful training, and ultimately result in long, expensive implementations? Ask anyone in staffing during the last 10 years and you’ll get the same answer: Vendor Management Systems (VMS). The underpinnings of this failure range from power-hungry HR departments to ill-conceived …
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Lessons From The Staffing Industry Crash Of 2002
If the stock market is any indication – and it is – the staffing industry is in for some tough times. I’m getting calls from friends in places like Dubai and France asking how bad it’s going to get. The Hang Seng was down more than 8 percent the other day alone, and the staffing stocks in the U.S. markets have already been cut in half over the last six …
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Cash May Be King, But Technology Is Prince Charming
Many of you smaller operators are loudly wondering how and, more quietly, if you can become a major player in the staffing industry. The industry has changed in many ways, with technology being the major driver of change. Unfortunately, smaller companies have suffered more than they prospered from it. Why? Because most small and start-up staffing companies lack the necessary resources to utilize the sophisticated technology-based tools which allow them to play …
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Thinking Of Using A PEO? Think Twice.
Just Say No To PEO The decision to open a staffing company is not an easy one. The countless hours of thinking, planning, figuring and stressing often result in either no action or, sometimes worse, misguided action. If you spend weeks, months, or even years figuring out how to go about starting your own business, yet fail to ever open the doors, you probably haven’t lost much more than time …
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How Technology Has Changed The Staffing Industry
Although commonly associated with the rise of computers after WWII, staffing technology enjoys a long and rich history. Scheduling systems date back to the Chou dynasty when Chinese harem administrators developed algorithms to manage menstrual cycles and schedule conjugal visits with the emperor that would coincide with fertility. You can trace payroll back at least to ancient Rome, when paymasters devised a salary system based on salt (the word “salary” …
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