Finding the right job candidate can be tough, even in times of high unemployment.
The national unemployment rate in September was estimated at 7.8 percent. The U.S. Labor Department says a little more than 12 million Americans are without jobs. In reality, there could be millions more out of work who have stopped collecting unemployment and dropped off the books.
So with this massive pool of potential workers out there to tap, staffing companies should be having no trouble finding perfect candidates for each job opening, right?
Wrong.
The challenges facing the staffing industry today are enormous, from worldwide industry giants like Man- powerGroup right down to freelance recruiters earning a fee here and there for helping a client find the best job applicants.
“Even though there are a lot more people than there are jobs right now, it’s still difficult to find the right people for those jobs,” explained Lyle Hanna, owner of Hanna Resource Group, a Lexington-based firm providing human resource services to companies.
“Many companies have become more specific about experience, attitude and responsibility. They won’t take just anybody. They know how important it is to get the right person. They say they can’t afford to get it wrong,” said Hanna.
Hanna says many firms are disappointed with the candidates they research or interview. They may get 200 resumes for a single job opening only to find just two of the people are qualified to fill it. Some of that can be attributed to jobless people applying for almost any kind of work — even the jobs that only vaguely match up with their skill sets. Some are clueless about the application process; others think it never hurts to apply.
What many staffing companies and recruiters do today, said Hanna, is help their clients sift through that maze of resumes to settle on a respectable pool of candidates.
Hanna agreed that many job applicants need to be more realistic about their skills or to “train up.”
Temporary work is becoming more common. Staffing companies may recruit temps for a manufacturing plant or a call center. ManpowerGroup is a world leader in that field. CEO Jeff Joerres said his niche industry’s four greatest challenges are: the aforementioned demographics/talent mismatch; heightened expectations of clients who want more value; the need to eliminate the one-size-fits-all approach; and finally, the tech revolution, which has clients using Facebook and LinkedIn to search for job candidates.
The latter trend concerns Hanna.
“Absolutely; some employers, if they’re savvy enough and know how to use social media, do a lot of recruiting that way,” he said. “Or they’ll just ask you to submit your resume online, which is a simple way of doing it. Or there are systems that can search many databases for candidates.”
With fewer jobs out there, some staffing companies have disappeared altogether. BJM Staffing, based in Lexington, has been around since 1971 and is surviving. At one time, owner Janey Moores operated five offices in central Kentucky.
“Now I have one. When you don’t have the market to support them, you can’t afford to have five different sets of overhead, staff and bills,” she said.
When she began 41 years ago, there were many permanent employment agencies that placed people after they paid a one-time fee. “Now, only companies pay the fees and have been doing it that way almost exclusively the past 30 years or so,” said Moores.
Back then, there were a few temporary employment agencies that placed people in very short-term assignments, usually a few days or a week or two. Then the temporary field began seeing longer assignments that could last months.
“Maybe a facility would say, ‘We’re into this new plant start-up and need a couple of engineers to do certain things, but after about 12 months, we won’t need them anymore,’” said Moores.
As those work assignments grew longer, companies warmed to the idea of temp-to-hire. The advantage seems clearly to be with the employer, who is never committed to hiring the employee on a permanent basis. The firm can react better to its industry’s trend.
“The company is letting you audition, so to speak. They’re watching you at arm’s length so that if things don’t work out, they don’t have to hire you,” noted Moores.
Temporary work has given staffing agencies a bad reputation, according to ManpowerGroup’s Joerres. His industry must counter many complaints like the ones he’s heard recently: “Companies use you just to pay their people less,” or “If the ‘temp’ industry were gone, everyone would have a real job.”
As for the economy improving, thus creating more jobs and more opportunities for employers and staffing agencies, Moores believes unemployment may be twice as steep as what is being reported.
“The American workforce of 10 years ago is not the same group today. Large chunks of it have fallen off,” Moores said. “The government wants a smaller unemployment figure so it appears more people are working and things are better.”