With the world changing at an unparalleled pace due largely to developments in technology, the modern workplace is evolving at exponential rates.
Today’s staffing managers are faced with new behaviours emerging as a result of the rise of social media, collaborative tools built on cloud-based software, and the influx of the millennial majority workforce.
Progressive staffing managers around Australia have already been making the necessary changes to adapt to these trends, implementing new digital tools, improving workplace flexibility, and maximising mobility. However many managers are still playing catch-up, ie; using email and text as their core communication platforms.
Regardless of where you are in this spectrum of management, understanding what characteristics form the future staffing manager will help you plan and adapt to ensure you’re able to remain at your peak performance.
1. Future Staffing Managers Have A Technology First Mindset
The future staffing manager is responsible for discovering more efficient and effective ways of getting a job done.
Since technology is typically faster and more efficient than human labour, having a technology first mindset is going to help you discover faster processes and more efficient ways to manage your staff.
When we say technology, we don’t mean knowing how to send an email or send out a group text. A future staffing manager explores technologies that are innovative, disruptive and have a positive bottom-line-impact on the business.
2. The Future Staffing Manager Embraces & Champions Change
Managers who encourage and embrace a new process or technology that impacts the bottom line, are going to be recognised. A study by Leadership IQ found that 45% of employees didn’t like to challenge the status quo, thus were less open to new processes or innovations within the business. The study also found that for a company to successfully implement change, they needed 70% of the business to be on board.
As a manager with a technology first mindset who understands that new software and processes will impact the only thing that matters to the business–the bottom line–it’s integral that you’re championing change and helping that 45% reach 70%.
Companies like Kodak and the Taxi Industry are a testament to what happens to a business when they take a finger off the pulse of change and are slow to embrace the future.
3. The Future Staffing Manager Can See The Big Picture
The future staffing manager looks at the bigger picture of their workforce. There is so much more to a staffing manager’s role than just filling a shift.
You have to consider role optimisation, efficiency of current processes, staff wellness, and understand the overall capacity of your staff. Once you have an understanding of the bigger picture, you’ll be able to pinpoint ways to be more cost effective and efficient.
In the past, businesses have identified the recruitment process for high-churn roles as a big-picture issue, asking themselves “Why do we have a full-time employee spending significant amounts of time recruiting staff, who just end up leaving in a few months?”
By turning to an innovative new way of workforce management, known as flexible staffing, to source, hire, manage and pay their high-churn workforce, they’ve been able to save a salary worth $70,000.
4. The Future Staffing Manager Can See When Staffing Doesn’t Need To Be Permanent
The traditional staffing model starts with recruitment; managers create a job description and post it onto a job board to find a new employee to fill a specified role with core responsibilities.
However, with the rise of the contingent workforce, and the technology enabling it, there are options available to hire on a shift-by-shift or job-by-job basis, reducing the risk of full-time employment when roles are high-churn or the skill isn’t needed long-term.
In a 2016 Deloitte survey of 7,000 executives titled Human Capital Trends 2016, 42% of executives surveyed plan to increase, or significantly increase the use of contingent workers over the next three to five years.
When you consider looking at hiring for a skill, instead of an employee, it can change the game…
What skills do you need? Is it a high-value, full-time skill? Will you need this skill for a long period of time? Is this type of role a high-churn role?
If the answer is high-churn, and the role you’re hiring for isn’t full time, it’s worth acknowledging that there may be a contingent workforce available for you to tap into.
5. The Future Staffing Manager Is Obsessed With The Staff Experience
The race for talent is on, with Mercer predicting 90% of employers are anticipating more competition for talent, especially in the Australiasian region.
Thus, future staffing managers must be driven to focus on creating a compelling and engaging staff experience.
Being obsessed with staff experience is about having a new mindset–knowing that even your casual workforce cares as much about the environment they work in, as you do the quality of their output. Creating an environment that is fair, diverse, equal and driven by the company’s culture will help staffing managers retain talent.
Susan Peters, Senior Vice President, Human Resources at General Electric says, “We define employee experience simply as seeing the world through the eyes of our employees, staying connected, and being aware of their major milestones. In the last year we have appointed a Head of Employee Experience and we are developing a strategy to create an employee experience which takes into account the physical environment our employees work in, the tools and technologies that enable their productivity, and learning to achieve their best at work.”