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We are going through very uncertain times. What are the three things that will differentiate top performing staffing companies from others?
As we celebrate our 20th anniversary in business, I like to think we’ve learned a thing or two about being a standout staffing firm. Here are some insights I would share:
- We believe that people should do work they love, with people they enjoy and with the goal of making an impact that is important to them. Some are looking for career opportunities that allow them to stretch, while others want flexibility and balance or the chance to work in a new industry. We are eager to make our people feel successful doing work that aligns with their professional goals and personal values.
- We believe it is critical to focus on building relationships over simply completing transactions. As companies continue to hire at record rates, people are now the priority, the foundation of our success. We take time to get to know our consultants’ individual desires, skills and goals, and work to find projects that meet these needs.
- We believe that forward-thinking staffing companies need to be people-first workplaces. There are many pieces to this, including a focus on vision, engagement, empowerment, and community. It’s all about building an organization that focuses on the employee experience. Organizations that offer flexibility of when, where, and how people work, that empower and trust their teams will become employers of choice.
It is no secret that we have a recruiter shortage. What are the most helpful tools to make your recruiters more efficient?
Organizations need to have an authentic brand, a good reputation, and a positive overall experience that a recruiter can authentically share with job candidates. All the tools in the world cannot effectively sell a brand or firm that isn’t focused on putting its values into action. Living your values serves two purposes: driving key strategic decisions and serving as guideposts in developing an authentic employee experience.
At Salo, our values are the foundation of our decision-making and hiring. Whether you’re the most senior leader or the newest employee, we make sure our teams are aware and in alignment with our values. If, as an organization, you live by your values and they ring true in your employee experience, recruiting is much easier.
Our focus on values doesn’t stop after someone joins our team. When it comes to onboarding new team members, we do more than just talk. We put our values into action and share specific examples of how they are woven into our daily work. We make sure our team understands how what they do every day contributes to bringing our values to life.
Everyone talks about candidate experience, but what about client experience? What tools or best practices do you implement to ensure an outstanding experience for your clients when working with your firm?
At Salo, we know that providing a strong candidate experience leads to a strong client experience. Our initial focus is on finding work that matters to candidates and matches their passions. We take time to really get to know candidates, asking a variety of in-depth questions to help them uncover passions they might not even know they have. Every candidate has a broad skill set, but that doesn’t mean they enjoy focusing on everything they can do. Instead, we help people focus on a smaller fraction of skills they are passionate about. We prioritize work that really energizes people, which in turn gives them confidence when working with clients.
We also pay attention to feedback from candidates about their onboarding. Improved onboarding helps candidates to better support clients. We’ll soon be introducing an enhanced mobile-enabled onboarding experience because our candidates have told us that this is what they want. We’re excited to try it out.
When both the candidate selection and onboarding processes are strong and people are doing work that they are passionate about, they will do great work for clients. When we intentionally focus on giving our candidates what they need, it’s natural that they will share the same positive experience with clients.
