When it comes to scheduling hourly workers, time really is money. Managers and executives may recognize the significance of employee scheduling. Still, it can seem like an impossible task. Maintaining a fair and functional schedule that keeps everyone happy is a full-time job all on its own. Scheduling more than 100 hourly workers may be a burden for both the managers that spend hours trying to create these schedules every week and for the employees who don’t always get the schedule they wanted.
Knowing exactly how to schedule employees isn’t easy. And there are many last-minute changes that occur, such as split shifts and requests for time off. Emergencies, such as employees calling in sick or needing their hours covered also need to be taken into consideration as extra time that managers will inevitably spend on trying to manage a cohesive schedule, said Leon Pearce, lead software engineer at Workforce.
“Schedules are never complete, they’re constantly changing. Managing the lifecycle of schedules takes some pretty good tools to do it well,” Pearce said.
Matt Fairhurst, chief executive officer of Skedulo, a mobile workforce management platform, said that tackling these continuous challenges is organized chaos. “The complexity of scheduling hourly workers is mind-boggling, and the chaos grows exponentially beyond 50 workers,” Fairhurst said in an email statement. “It’s a living, breathing, ever-evolving puzzle that never quite gets solved.”
Fair workweek laws are something else to be aware of when creating hourly schedules, Fairhurst said. It’s smart for managers to do some research and ensure that the company is in compliance with local fair workweek laws, which right now are in flux.
“A large part of managing the hourly workforce is not just managing and communicating schedules, but helping establish and comply with work conditions, constraints and rules that help govern fair working practices, fatigue management and more,” Fairhurst said. “It’s important for systems managing the working week of any hourly employee to have the capability to ensure these constraints are understood, respected and optimized for.”
Employee scheduling software can help make sure that the schedule continues to work best for both the employees and the business by tracking time off requests, shift trades, availability changes, overtime and projected sales all in one place. This saves managers time and gives employees more control over their work lives. “It leads to having a more engaged and happier staff, because they’re more likely to be working the hours that they wanted, which is the best case for everyone,” Pearce said. “It also gives a lot of time back to the managers and allows them to focus more on the actual business as opposed to the administration type of tasks.”
It’s beneficial for employers to make scheduling more flexible and give employees a greater say in what their schedules look like, according to Mike Zorn, vice president of work strategy at WorkJam, an employee engagement app for the hourly workforce. “Giving people the ability to swap schedules is critical,” Zorn said. “If you give people the ability to pick up schedules when they want to work, you’re less likely to have turnover because they’re making a commitment to that time rather than the manager telling them [when to work].”
Managers should develop a self-service mentality to relieve themselves from the tedious scheduling tasks in order to put more valuable time into their responsibilities that will ultimately help the business succeed, according to Zorn.
“It takes the manager away from those critical things that a manager should be doing, which is inspiring people, coaching people and making sure the strategies are being produced,” he said. “Anything that takes away from the key things that a manager should be doing is detrimental to the overall business.”
Rachel Druckenmiller, founder and chief executive officer of Unmuted, started her HR and leadership journey long before receiving the Game Changer award in 2019. In this Q&A, Druckenmiller tells Workforce what she has learned along the way, and gives advice regarding how to keep pushing forward in the face of change.
Workforce: How have you grown professionally over the course of your career?
Rachel Druckenmiller: I’ve learned how to discover and use my strengths. I have pursued learning and development opportunities every year, whether it’s reading a book, attending a conference or training, taking an assessment, or learning from teachers, coaches and mentors. I’ve pursued what my dad calls “interest-driven work.” I became a health coach in the midst of dealing with my own health challenges. I went back to school to study my field more intensely and earned a master’s degree in health science in my late 20s. I have completed trainings and certifications in the area of workplace culture, well-being and professional speaking. I’ve worked with mindset, performance, improv, writing and vocal coaches who have helped me show up more fully and boldly.
Just over a year ago, I started to more intentionally pursue training that would ultimately give me the confidence to start my own business as a professional speaker and trainer. I’m grateful for all the opportunities I’ve had to grow and learn and will continue to pursue growth by challenging myself and immersing myself in new ways of thinking.
WF: How has your career changed?
Druckenmiller: I started at a small company as an intern in 2003 and transitioned to full-time in 2007. It was there that I had the freedom to become an intrapreneur, someone who has many of the traits of an entrepreneur but does so within a company and with a stable paycheck and benefits. I started primarily as a consultant working for an employee benefits consulting firm. I’ve morphed into a thought leader in the field of well-being and a speaker who is focused on humanizing the workplace. Last year, I made the decision to follow in my parents’ entrepreneurial footsteps and launch my own company as a speaker and trainer. I’ve never felt more fulfilled or free. It’s been wonderful.
WF:What are some of the changes you’ve seen in HR over the past few years?
Druckenmiller: I’ve been encouraged to see the trends toward humanizing the workplace and putting people first. For a while, it seemed that policies, procedures and perks were what mattered most, but much of that was surface-focused. HR was tasked with “fixing” workplace culture, but we’ve now come to realize that it’s not just HR’s responsibility, it’s everyone’s responsibility to shape the culture of their organization. HR recognizes that having a great culture goes beyond the perks like ping pong tables and rock-climbing walls and is really more about how we can make people feel seen, heard and valued.
I’m seeing more of a focus on creating memorable and meaningful experiences from employees throughout the employee life cycle. Whether they’re using scavenger hunts as part of the onboarding or team building process or incorporating more pulse surveys to gather ongoing feedback, there is more intentionality than ever before. HR is committed to fostering connection, especially among dispersed workforces. Using video conferencing technology allows remote workers to feel more connected and to see their colleagues.
I’m seeing HR become more integrated into the strategic discussions within their organization instead of being viewed as “the people police” in their own little silo. They’re being incorporated into more learning and development conversations and strategies, as companies embrace more customized, micro-learning approaches. They’re often the ones bringing attention to the importance of upskilling in the area of emotional intelligence, something that is lacking among many leaders today. The strategies progressive HR leaders are putting in place are helping organizations brand themselves as best places to work and employers of choice.
In the field of well-being, which has been an increasingly important aspect of HR strategy, there has been a shift. The focus is on the value of investment and genuinely caring for people’s well-being instead of just focusing on the immediate financial return on investment. I’m grateful to see that shift. I’m also encouraged that HR and other business leaders are embracing a whole person approach to well-being, one that incorporates financial, career, social-emotional, community and physical health components. The increasing focus on mental health, humanized parental leave policies, flexible work schedules and sabbaticals is exciting. It’s been a long time coming for us to truly put people first and to make decisions that will benefit all stakeholders, not just shareholders. Employees expect employers to care, and HR realizes that and sees the need to respond.
WF: What advice would you tell yourself five years ago?
Rachel Druckenmiller, founder and CEO of Unmuted
Druckenmiller: Keep showing up. Sometimes we show up and don’t know that anyone is noticing what we’re doing, whether that’s speaking up in a meeting, creating and sharing content or coming up with new ideas. We don’t always see the immediate impact of our contributions, but the key is to be consistent. Keep showing up, even when you don’t feel like it.
Trust yourself and trust the timing of your life. You have committed to years of training and development and honing your skills. You have an important message to share, and if you keep sharing it from a genuine place sharing with the intention of serving others versus serving your ego, it will pay off. Everything will unfold in its proper time. What is meant for you will not miss you.
You will gain confidence as you continue to do your work. Do the inner work, do the relational work, be open to feedback and be open to changing what’s not working. Doing the hard work builds strength and will help you sustain yourself when things are hard.
Spend more time with those you love. Work is important and it will always be there. There is always more work that you can do. But we can’t replace the moments we miss with the people we love. Go on weekend getaways with your husband and your friends. Have more lunches or dinners with your parents. If you are successful at work but depleted at home, then you are not going to be happy. Invest in relationships.
Ask for help when you need it. You’re not a burden. You’re not weak. You’re not going to be seen as incompetent. You are a human being who has limitations. Open up to people and share your struggles. Let other people help you and support you. Whether it’s seeing a therapist or asking for more support at work or at home, speak up for what you need.
WF: What have you learned over the course of your career in HR?
Druckenmiller: Focus on the good in people. So often, HR professionals can become jaded because they’re often dealing with all of the dysfunctional aspects of a workplace. Remembering why we are in this space — to serve and support people and to create workplaces where people can thrive — can encourage us to keep going and to keep showing up.
Reach out to your peers when you’re struggling or need input or insight. You are not a burden and you deserve as much support as anyone else. You are a helper and giver by nature, but if you constantly pour out from your cup and don’t fill it back up, you won’t be good for yourself or for other people.
WF: What are some things that you value most about your career?
Druckenmiller: I have a platform that gives me the ability to use my voice to speak up, speak out and spark transformation at work that carries over to our lives at home. As a speaker and trainer, I’m finding that my messages around humanizing the workplace, igniting intentional leadership and unmuting our voices are resonating with people in all levels of leadership. It’s an exciting time to be in a field that celebrates and elevates the human side of work. As one of the founding members of the Baltimore Chapter of HackingHR and as a member of the online community Humans First, I’m encouraged to see all the good that is happening around the world as HR and well-being continue to evolve.
Nate Thompson, vice president of strategy and innovation at OppenheimerFunds, said that in order to be successful in the HR industry, letting go of traditional approaches and learning how to adapt to change is a must. In this Q&A, Thompson reflects back on his journey through HR while highlighting his accomplishments and the most important lessons that he’s learned along the way.
Workforce: How have you grown professionally over the course of your career?
Nate Thompson: The biggest theme in my career has been reinvention. I pay close attention to disruptive trends, external and internal, and try to stay ahead of the game. This approach naturally helps me expand beyond a single function or discipline, such as HR. By bridging multiple disciplines — in my case tech, HR and transformation work — I dramatically increase my value as the organization inevitably changes. In my view, ultralearning and versatility are essential in a world that is changing faster than ever before. Whatever you are working on now is going to change dramatically very soon, so we all have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
WF: How has your career changed?
Thompson: Over 20 years ago, I started my career in technology and loved it, but quickly figured out that tech is highly perishable and technologists routinely hit a glass ceiling if they don’t build strong soft skills. That realization led me to leave one of the top tech companies in the country, Qualcomm, to voraciously pursue a suite of skills that are essential to being a strong leader today. After spending a decade in HR and learning and development work, I was uniquely prepared to take that work back into technology, most recently strategy and innovation. It really doesn’t matter how good you are at your specialty if you don’t understand the disruptive forces changing your industry and can’t see or influence the bigger picture. This is why I created and speak on a model called the well-rounded professional to help people evolve beyond being a one-trick pony. Again, when the world and industry are in a state of non-linear change, you can’t take a traditional approach and hope to survive as a professional or as an organization.
WF: What are some of the changes you’ve seen in HR over the past few years?
Thompson: To put it bluntly, traditional HR and traditional learning and development are dead. Today, we need a dynamic, digital and data-driven HR that is deeply aware of the disruptive trends, rapidly experimenting, learning and stepping up to be a strategic thought leader in organizations. This is scary, hard and requires a lot of courage. This is about helping to co-create a new shared strategic narrative, driving the future of work, culture transformation, experimentation, innovation, enabling alignment, engagement and empowerment, reinventing talent programs to enable autonomy, mastery and purpose, moving to real-time immersive cohort-based learning and ultralearning in future skills. That’s why some business leaders don’t want to work with HR and create backdoors. Future leaders in HR are humble enough to release the old idea of control and establish a growth mindset of dynamic strategic partnership with their various business partners. Future leaders in HR are humble enough to release the old idea of control and establish a growth mindset of dynamic strategic partnerships with their various business partners.
Nate Thompson, vice president of strategy and innovation at OppenheimerFunds
Thompson: HR is fighting irrelevance and the path forward has to be a fundamental transformation. This will be deeply inclusive of the future of work and the new technologies reshaping all industries. Technology is amazing and powerful, the most powerful organizations in the world are technology companies. In fact, almost every company is becoming a tech company because tech is the backbone and universal language of business. The most valuable resource in the world is data. But let me be clear, this is not about the shiny penny of technology. People are still the heart and soul of our world, communities and organizations. Culture is still the operating system of our companies and culture is the output of leadership behaviors. This is still deeply about people, leadership and culture transformation. HR has a remarkable opportunity to step out of the shadows, lead this transformation, help their organizations surf the waves of disruption and thrive in the future.
WF: What are some things that you value most about your career?
Thompson: Making a powerful difference in people’s lives. That’s what matters most. Inspiring people and helping them to achieve their potential while co-creating transformation — especially now. Leaders and employees are scared. The future is uncertain. What is next for me? What is next for us? What does it mean to be human now in an increasingly digital and automated world? We are wrestling with huge challenges and the future is undefined. While it is scary, this new era is such a gift. I openly admit that I don’t have all the answers, but I know that if I deeply care about people and create a space where we can authentically and transparently talk about what’s happening, we can come to a shared understanding and vision of the future, lock arms and navigate this new frontier together.
WF: What advice would you tell yourself five years ago?
Thompson: Nate, people are going to say you are crazy, just know you are years ahead of where everything is heading. Go fast and be courageous because when the third decade in the 21st century hits, it will be glaringly obvious how far behind most are and how vital these years will have been in defining your approach to fundamental transformation.
WF: What have you learned over the course of your career in HR?
Thompson: HR leaders and professionals are good people trying to do good things, but the traditional approach has fallen too far behind. It’s time for a reckoning and revolution. There is no time to waste, this conversation of reinventing the function should dominate the HR conversation for the next five years. Let go of old HR dogmas, cut the old waste and irrelevant programs now, look outside for new ideas and spend your time reinventing in alignment with the disruption reshaping your industry and business. If your current HR leaders can’t lead that, you need to hire some inspiring leaders who can — and they might not come from HR.
In this Q&A, Dan Schawbel, managing partner of Workplace Intelligence and New York Times bestselling author, discusses the changes that have occurred throughout his career and the HR industry, as well as what innovations are to come in the near future.
Workforce: How have you grown professionally over the course of your career?
Dan Schawbel: Every experience I’ve had and every person I’ve met has helped shaped my career path since I started over a decade ago. In my early career, I wanted to try everything and today I’m focused on what I’m best at and the audience I can add the most value to. Growth has given me clarity in my career.
WF: How has your career changed?
Schawbel: In the first phase of my career, I helped individuals build their online personal brands, then I transitioned to focusing on managing a multi-generational workforce. Now, I’ve transitioned to topics like the future of work and being human in the age of technology. Throughout each phase of my career, my goal has been to advise companies while being a champion of the worker. By serving both audiences, I can make a bigger impact.
WF: What are some of the changes or trends you’ve seen in HR over the past few years?
Schawbel: The biggest HR trends over the past few years are the rise of employee activism, the use of artificial intelligence, the skills gap, the mental health, and loneliness crisis, internal mobility sustainability and the emphasis on the employee experience.
Dan Schawbel, managing partner of Workplace Intelligence.
WF: What advice would you tell yourself five years ago?
Schawbel: The biggest advice I would have told myself is that change is already happening, even if it’s not universally seen and felt. The workplace trends we talk about are already happening and in order to prepare for the future, we have to adapt in the present.
WF: What have you learned over the course of your career in HR?
Schawbel: I’ve learned that almost everyone in HR has an unorthodox background, which makes sense because you can’t major in HR in undergraduate college. This means that all HR professionals have a unique lens that allows them to add value to workplace programs.
WF: What are some things that you value most about your career?
Schawbel: I had two choices of career paths to pursue when I was focused on personal branding; marketing or HR. I chose HR because I wanted to help people achieve career success and I saw HR as the path to doing so. My theory is that if we improve the workplace, we improve a person’s entire life since one-third of our lives are spent working.
WF: What do you foresee in the future of HR?
Schawbel: Based on my research, it appears that HR departments will be consolidated in the future. HR administrative roles will eventually be removed from the economy, while the more strategic roles will maintain as long as professionals build the right alliances in their companies. If you’re in HR and you feel like you’re working “like a robot,” you will more than likely be replaced by a robot. Think about getting experience outside of HR to protect your future within the industry.
Tiffani Murray was one of the first recipients of the Game Changer award when the program launched 10 years ago in 2011. In this Q&A, Murray discusses her journey through HR, what she has learned and how the industry has changed over the years.
Workforce: How have you grown professionally over the course of your career?
Tiffani Murray: I was about 10 years into my career when I was nominated for the inaugural Workforce Game Changer award. I had established myself in human resources and HRIS about five years prior, and had taken my background in computer science and industrial engineering into a crash course of a career change from that of a pure IT project manager. There was so much to learn about employment processes from talent acquisition to sourcing candidates and compensation, benefits, diversity, performance management and succession planning. I am thankful that I had the opportunity to work for the most recognized brand in the world, Coca-Cola, and to learn from some of the best.
Over the next 10 years I’ve continued to grow in my career, expanding from my initial specialty area of applicant tracking and recruiting systems to now include everything under the sun when it comes to HRIS. I’ve implemented learning management systems, rolled out performance management programs and technology, upgraded total rewards tools to allow HR to provide new benefit offerings and allow for precise compensation management. To round things out, I’m currently working on a new payroll implementation. I’ve also been afforded new responsibilities and scope, moving from a new manager to a senior management position and landing in a director role reporting to the chief human resources officer.
WF: How has your career changed?
Murray: My career has changed overtime because I’ve been afforded unique and challenging opportunities. I have gone from a consumer products company to contracting at a fast-casual restaurant chain known for customer service and a great chicken sandwich. I have been able to work for one of America’s top homebuilders and
took a turn as a consultant for one of the world’s beloved luxury sports car names. I’m now working for a hometown furniture retailer with 135 years of history behind it that has taken the stance of making HR technology a priority for the business and its employees.
WF: What are some of the changes or trends you have seen in HR over the past few years?
Murray: Technology, technology, technology. Since being named a Game Changer, the shake-ups in the HR tech world in terms of mergers, acquisitions and IPOs were plentiful. They have slowed down and we are left with major HCM solution providers and niche players. Organizations will continue to swap out one for another and other organizations, believe it or not, are still making the move from manual disparate systems to one or two core solutions. There are still companies doing basic HR work, including recruitment processes, on paper, but this has decreased over the last 10 years. Many companies are still not on top of their HR technology strategies. Vendor selection, implementation and core HRIS strategy will be discussion points at the HR executive level and you’ll see more partnership between HR and IT here.
HR processes, including performance management, training, recruitment and assessments are all moving away from desktops and laptops and are essential needs for organizations to have accessible on their tablets, phones and devices. There is also a push for more employee engagement through workforce social channels that allow for informal mentor-mentee relationships, provide an opportunity for formal and informal feedback.
Tiffani Murray, 2011 Game Changer recipient
Artificial intelligence has also been emerging on the scene over the past several years. How HR can use AI most effectively still remains to be seen, but companies are starting to explore this most readily in recruiting and also learning technology.
HR organizations have to now deal with a dispersed workforce that has three or four different generations represented in it. How do you cater to the needs of your outgoing employees who are close to retirement while still attracting the talent of tomorrow to take the lead? You’ll see HR organizations taking a look at benefits plans and programs, specifically vacation and paid time off, including parental and adoption leave and paid volunteer time. Companies that may have once had more of an “in-the-office” culture will need to assess how to roll out telecommute and work from home policies that are fair. You will see more HR teams scrambling to make life easier by adopting what many west coast companies already have.
WF: What are some things that you value most about your career?
Murray: I love my career as I truly think I have a job that fuses the best of both worlds — working with a company’s most valuable asset, the employee population and also having the opportunity to implement and leverage some cutting edge technology to make processes simpler. Adding this type of value does have a bottom line impact for a business, whether it’s decreasing cost per hire or identifying ways to train employees real time, thus making them more productive to sell or provide services to customers more effectively and efficiently while increasing revenue.
WF: What have you learned over the course of your career in HR?
Murray: I have learned that HR is almost always looked at as the least valuable part of the business. Despite working across a myriad of industries, this has been the same. In every HR department, we have had to work hard to prove our value and worth to the business. I almost expect this now in any new role. I do think that over the past decade the climb has become less steep, but it’s still a climb.
Emotions in the workplace can range from outbursts among coworkers due to daily stressors but can also include mental health conditions and outside factors that people bring to work with them. These struggles can make it difficult or uncomfortable to ask for help due to the stigma surrounding mental health issues. While breaking the stigma encourages people to seek help and discourage discrimination against them when they do, sometimes the implementation of these efforts cross too many lines. Mark Kluger, founding partner of employment law firm Kluger Healey, spoke to Workforce about what is and is not appropriate when it comes to developing workplace policies that address emotions at work.
Workforce: To what extent does an outburst at work due to negative emotions end up resulting in discipline or determination?
Kluger: I look at it as three different levels. Human emotions, or workplace emotions, can include anything as simple as an argument at work. What I would look at as a potential disciplinary issue could involve an outburst from an employee to another coworker or somebody losing their temper. From a policy standpoint, this can justify discipline or termination, depending on how bad it is. Sexual assault or sexual harassment can also obviously create conflict at work and result in discipline.
The next level are issues that border on mental health problems that manifest themselves at work, and those two things can bleed into each other. Obviously, somebody with a mental health problem at work can also have outbursts that can result in there being discipline. So, that’s one set of policies that revolves around how people just behave at work toward one another — essentially a civility code — and that kind of civility code, from an employer’s standpoint, can result in people losing their jobs or being disciplined or counseled.
Another level is the mental health aspect. Employers have to be careful about having policies that specifically address mental health issues because the Americans with Disabilities Act protects employees from being discriminated against on the basis of mental health issues. So, employers have to be very careful not to have policies that delve into people’s medical conditions. There is protection against discrimination for employees who have mental health problems at work where employers do cross over into having to meddle in people’s mental health problems, where those mental health problems cause a disruption at work or cause an employee to not be able to perform their job effectively. There are also times when employers are obligated to engage in what’s called an interactive process under the Americans with Disabilities Act where they essentially ask employees what’s going on and whether there is something the employer can do to accommodate them.
Workforce: How do organizations ensure that their policies are respecting and accommodating employees’ needs and privacy while also being effective and not crossing any lines?
Kluger: Employers have to be really careful not to intrude into areas of potential mental health problems or even just people having a bad day. But of course things like anxiety and depression are associated with mood, so when an employer starts asking questions like, “Why are you in a bad mood today?” or, “What’s troubling you?” employers may be crossing that line into areas not only that they shouldn’t be but that they don’t want to be because it can lead to actions by the employer, while maybe unintended, that could appear to be discriminatory.
Workforce: Does the nature of the workplace culture determine what is deemed appropriate or inappropriate behavior?
Kluger: It depends on the environment, of course, but from an employer’s perspective, it almost doesn’t matter because you can’t have people who are being insubordinate or screaming at their bosses in front of everybody else because it totally breaks down the respect for the authority figures. I mean, in an advertising agency you can maybe have a little more leeway with people being argumentative with one another, but in a police department or a fire department you can’t. There are those kinds of environmental factors to take into consideration, but when people express their emotions at work, it can lead to legitimate reasons for terminating them regardless of what the origin of the emotion is, so I think it’s important to keep that in mind.
Workforce: What role do EAPs play in these situations?
Kluger: EAPs are very common these days, usually as part of a health insurance plan and they’re conducted by outside mental health professionals. I think they are an excellent resource for employers to make available to their employees. The privacy is protected with EAPs because although someone in HR may know that an employee is taking advantage of it, they ultimately don’t know why or what it’s about. So, it is private in a sense that the professionals are outside of the organization and it is a great way for an employer to provide a benefit for employees who need some counseling or guidance. Since so many people need those kinds of resources today, the fact that employers are able to make it available is a real asset to most workplaces.
Workforce: How can workplaces start breaking the stigma against mental illness/coping with that in the workplace?
Kluger: I think it’s probably as much a societal problem as it is a workplace problem. The stigma has been there for a long time, but I think the definition of what a mental health problem is has broadened so much today that I think that most areas of society are starting to loosen up on that stigma, including in the workplace. Because so many people report issues of anxiety and depression and are far more open about it than ever before, I think that stigma is slowly melting away.
I view it as a generational issue as well. I think that the baby boomer generation may be the last of the generations that attach that stigma. As millennials and Generation Z become more ingrained in management among employers the stigma will all but disappear. I think millennials and Generation Z are far more comfortable and open about anxiety and depression being part of most people’s lives, unfortunately, and less of a problem. So, I do think over time the stigma will disappear and people will feel more comfortable revealing that they’re having mental health problems.
Workforce: What is some advice that you give when counseling HR managers or developing these types of policies?
Kluger: I tell HR professionals to listen and be careful what you ask because you may not want to know. Ultimately, the employer’s job is to get the job done right and if somebody can’t come to work, whether it’s because they’ve got a substance abuse problem or a mental health problem, is sort of irrelevant to the employer. So, while many employers are generous about providing people with time to heal and to get better — obviously there are laws that protect them as well — policies need to be geared to comply with the law but to also be cognizant of the fact that too much information is a dangerous thing for the employer.
Since its founding in the early 2000s, recruitment process outsourcing companies have expanded their services and are now used as less of a tactical approach for ready staffing and more strategically for company growth.
With that in mind, organizations with ready staffing needs have a choice as RPOs have evolved to become much more agile.
The Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association defines RPO as “a form of business process outsourcing where an employer transfers all or part of its recruitment processes to an external provider.” RPOs essentially serve as an extension of the human resources department with solutions that organizations can customize based on their ready staffing needs and resources.
However, RPOs should not be confused with staffing agencies. Unlike staffing agencies, RPOs take ownership of the management and design of recruiting processes, are responsible for the results and they promote the client’s brand instead of their own.
Jesse Silkoff, co-founder and president of MyRoofingPal, an online marketplace for residential and commercial roofers across the United States, said that his company switched from a staffing agency to an RPO because of the lack of results.
“They filled positions, but in a way I couldn’t engage with. And once the position was filled, they collected their payment and disappeared into the ether until we needed them again,” Silkoff said in an email statement. “They offered no help beyond the things we could have honestly done ourselves.”
After switching to an RPO, Silkoff said that he felt like the company had hired their best talent. “It took about twice as long to fill positions before, and now they’re filled at a lightning fast pace by quality professionals who are interested in the future of the company,” Silkoff said. “While there might come a point where I no longer need that partnership, right now it’s been invaluable.”
The RPOindustry looked much different 10 years ago as using virtual assistance to fill positions was only an emerging market. Daniel Ramsey, founder and chief executive officer of real estate virtual assistant company MyOutDesk, LLC, highlighted the evolution of RPOs as he said that today, the applicant pool is almost limitless.
“This has allowed for true global businesses and an ever increasing workforce,” Ramsey said in an email statement.
Ready staffing not only has been serving an increasing amount of small and large businesses, but has also proven to be beneficial to small businesses in particular, according to Ramsey.
“A good RPO can find the right person for every business, regardless of the position or the size of the business,” Ramsey said. “This ability has opened up so many possibilities for small businesses to afford growth they might otherwise not be able to afford due to lack of time and money to interview and research potential new hires.”
Companies should also consider the size of the RPO firm, their service structure, cultural fit and cost before deciding which RPO to partner with. Courtney Cook, vice president of RPO strategic development at management consulting company Korn Ferry, said that establishing cultural alignment and trust is critical for mutual success for both the RPO and the buyer.
“Your RPO program and the overall talent acquisition process, from high-volume recruiting to professional hires and executive search, should fit together seamlessly,” Cook said in an email statement. “Instill a rigorous and regular meeting rhythm to measure performance, bottlenecks, best practices and market insights to drive continuous improvement.”
According to Joseph Quan, co-founder and CEO of HR software company Twine Labs, RPOs are not a one-size-fits-all solution. While RPOs can bring expertise around how to set up a recruitment process, help define a plan for how to analyze recruitment efficiency, and implement technology solutions that increase efficiency, Quan also said that they cannot change the culture of the organization.
“Lack of institutional support around the importance of recruiting, lack of executive buy-in or unclear internal expectations around hiring aren’t things an RPO can solve,” Quan said in an email statement. “We often see RPOs fail due to this mismatch in expectations.”
The companies that Quan sees getting recruitment right are the ones that have “true alignment from the CEO on down that hiring is a core competitive advantage,” he said. “Hiring managers are bought in to the importance of hiring and spend a substantial amount of time on it. HR teams are forced to be data-driven, not only looking at metrics like cost per hire but analyzing every element of their recruiting funnel, optimizing for efficiency and assessing true impact metrics.”
However, for those companies that find outsourcing their ready staffing to be the most beneficial option, there must be an understanding of each others’ core values, mission and vision, said Cook. “It really depends on the unique needs of a specific company, their culture, openness to partnership and their level of talent maturity,” Cook said.
“RPOs can be a viable long-term solution for organizations if you partner with the right one,” Ramsey said. “After all, if an RPO is sending you quality employees, saving you money and understands the needs of your business, why do it yourself anymore?”
gnment and trust is critical for mutual success for both the RPO and the buyer.