Storm Ciara reminds us that change is constant; what does it cost temp agencies to manage unpredictable availability?

We’ve had flights cancelled, trains cancelled, roads blocked, houses flooded, too wet, too cold, too dangerous; we can see before our eyes the climate is changing.  Each time these events occur there is an impact on the temp workforce, the temp agencies representing them and the demand from hirers who rely on good temporary workers.

Getting to the office for temp recruiters after a storm isn’t easy, there are inevitable mountains of emails, voicemails and text messages which take hours to address and are mostly about changing availability, requests for staff or cancellation of bookings.  It’s the same every morning for temp recruiters, the main difference is the volume.

The frequency of storms is increasing, and it isn’t going to get better (even if there are those that remain sceptical about climate change).

Recruiters in hospitality and education are familiar with people’s availability changing and have an idea what the seasons will bring. In the past, it was almost certain that during winter some supply teacher bookings would be lost to snow when schools closed. It’s not so certain today and there will be less certainty in the future as the unpredictability of the climate accelerates impacting temp workers availability and hirers demand.

The cost to temp agencies seeking and recording workers changing availability is already high because it’s so difficult to get, to record accurately and it constantly changes; but it’s a must have for any agency to remain competitive and responsive to client requests.

What does it cost?

Looking at the costs for a recruitment consultant representing 100 workers, they typically spend 75 minutes a day finding, responding and recording workers changing availability. Monday morning after a storm is going to be more time consuming.

That’s over £5,500 per year wasted on admin for a consultant on a £35,000 package unnecessarily chasing availability.

With greater unpredictability and an increasing number of temporary workers entering the flexible temp market the cost of gathering and recording availability is going to increase for agencies that don’t change their traditional way of working.

What’s the solution?

Updatedge changes the way recruiters and hirers get and use temporary workers availability, improving quality by enabling choice and control. The key to this is making it beneficial to workers to regularly share their latest availability with all their contacts.

The bottom line is that workers are busy, they don’t have the time or inclination to always keep all their contacts informed of their changing availability.

With updatedge workers benefit by letting their agencies and hirers know when they are available or not with just three clicks.

When the worker can’t make Monday and Friday, they simply click those dates in their work schedule and share with all their contacts that they are unavailable on those days – this data goes straight into all their agencies CRM systems.  This means the worker will not come up in searches on those days and the recruiter can see the worker has just updated their schedule so no need to call them again about availability because it is accurately on the CRM system going forward.

The workers reputation is improved by regularly sharing with those they like working with, resulting in more work offers, giving overt benefits from sharing with agencies and hirers.

Changing the way recruiters get and use availability is a necessity to remain competitive and increase the daily direct bookings for each recruitment consultant too.

Agencies piloting plugin solutions as early adopters are benefiting earliest and its these temp agencies in education and hospitality who are seeing returns already.

No cost, no integration pilot, to see for yourself

Updatedge provides a freemium SaaS solution for recruitment agencies to use the online portal for free with unlimited contacts and unlimited consultants and once satisfied with the pilot there is the option to use the pay as you go open API.

Temp agencies saving their consultants over an hour a day of unnecessary admin are enjoying a daily increase in direct bookings from their clients leading to significant benefits to their consultants, their temp workers and clients.

Change is coming, it is a constant, change can be a force for good just like the weather.  Agencies using the proven plugin service which complements existing CRM solutions are getting instant benefits from the easy to use online portal with zero investment.

Storm Ciara will pass, but the necessity to remain competitive, reduce costs and improve efficiencies by adopting digital solutions is with us to stay. Updatedge are pleased to be helping recruitment agencies change the way they get and use temp workers availability, will you? Call for a chat and or demo to suit.