Use Staffing Technology to Focus on Customer Service
That headline has probably left you scratching your head. Staffing technology, when used well, is incredibly valuable streamlining the staffing process. That allows staffing teams the time to focus on who matters most—job seekers and clients. And there are a lot of them.
According to the American Staffing Association, about 2.4 million temporary and contract employees have worked for America’s staffing companies during an average week in 2024. During the course of 2023, America’s staffing companies hired 12.7 million temporary and contract employees.
Using technology to work smarter to fill job requests for clients means staffing company professionals have more time to communicate, make decisions, and build relationships. Here’s a roundup of how technology has reshaped the staffing industry, while keeping people the focus.
Streamline operations
In the past, staffing processes involved a lot of back-and-forth telephone calls, emails and text messages. Posts to various job boards had to be made manually. There were few options for tracking assignment success. While it felt like a efficient process, in hindsight it demanded a great deal of time to fill positions and work with clients.
Thanks to technology, these processes are streamlined, freeing up staff to focus on the most important aspect of their work – communicating directly with clients and applicants to build relationships. For example, we now have access to apps for clients to enter open positions for job seekers, who can immediately see openings and confirm work.
Focus on searches
Gone are the days of the shotgun approach to finding candidates. Today, with the advent of geo-fencing, staffing agencies can market directly to potential candidates within a self-defined area.
Want to find college students to serve at an upcoming event? Send text messages or Instagram ads to numbers in a demarcated area in and around the local campus. These tech tools bring in a larger volume of better-qualified candidates, thus giving agents the time to make better assignments. These tools don’t work in a vacuum; they still depend on humans who can use their experience and instincts to set up searches most likely to bear fruit.
Geo-fencing can also be used for tracking when applicants arrive and leave an assignment, providing real-time feedback. If a worker doesn’t show up, staffing agents can contact the client to rectify the situation even before they report it. Proactive customer service goes a long way toward building client satisfaction and trust.
Identifying best-fit candidates
Applicant tracking systems (ATS’s) have been around for years, but they’re often faulted for overlooking qualified candidates. With the addition of artificial intelligence (AI), however, it’s now possible to fine-tune the process of (semi-) automated applicant screening. With the proper prompts, AI can identify well-qualified candidates and do a better job not eliminating good prospects.
The key lies in the human component of the process: creating prompts that best identify the characteristics and experiences the client needs in their workers. It takes a human agent who has built a relationship with the client to understand what they need and how to prompt the AI system to search for candidates who fit the bill. Each search should be different and should be based on the specifics of the client’s situation. Humans are needed to continuously review the outputs from the AI system to discern if it is producing desired matches and adjust the prompts accordingly, if it’s not.
Facilitate communications
No one wants to be ghosted. Clients want to know where their staffing orders stand. Applicants want to know if they have a placement. Agents want to know how their applicants are working out on the job.
According to Bullhorn, candidate loyalty for another assignment increases to 80% if they’re contacted while still at a prior work placement, yet only half of recruiters are reaching out to candidates once a week. Tech tools make it easier than ever to communicate, and as they evolve, they will give us even better ways to share information and ideas with one another. Person-to-person communication is the heart of all good staffing. Technology just makes it easier and gives us more time to devote to it.
Being an app vs. having an app
There’s a big difference between staffing apps that exist solely on the internet and those that operate in support of a boots-on-the-ground staffing agency that provides personal, customized service. App-based companies can’t provide the in-person touch that full-service agencies do. In addition, app-based companies usually provide workers as 1099 independent contractors, a frequent misclassification that can leave their clients holding the bag for back wages, overtime costs, potential worker compensation claims, and government fines.
About the Author
George Lessmeister is CEO and founder of LGC Hospitality, a national staffing firm headquartered in Indianapolis. LGC has offices in over 40 U.S. cities. Team members work with hotel and restaurant leadership to place executives and temporary workers.