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Throwing bodies at problems isn’t the only way to solve resourcing issues, says Quanta
Leading recruitment and resourcing company Quanta says that too many recruitment companies try to solve resourcing issues in the wrong way.
31 January 2008 · United Kingdom
According to Quanta’s managing director, Stephen Trigg, this means that organisations are often left with a perpetual problem of ‘people churn’.
“It’s a question of looking at the underlying reason for why there is a resourcing issue,“ says Trigg. “It’s too simplistic to throw people at every resourcing problem. It looks like you’ve fixed it, and maybe for a short time you have – but in the end the problem will come back again.”
This costs organisations dearly – recruiting isn’t cheap, and, when it has to be done again and again, the costs to the business mount up. “It’s not just the cost of hiring someone,“ says Trigg. “There is a hidden cost in terms of the initial period when a new employee isn’t effective. Depending on the job, an organisation doesn’t get 100% from a person for some weeks – sometimes longer. If those people don’t stay long, the organisation doesn’t recoup its investment in the person. Some organisations have a significant percentage of the workforce that are not at their full productivity potential – and if a good percentage of the workforce is also churning, then the organisation is continually paying more money for less productivity. The only people this benefits are the recruitment agencies.”
Quanta believes that this vicious circle exists because most recruitment agencies are one-trick ponies – all they sell is recruitment.
“Many resourcing issues are better solved in ways other than recruiting people,“ says Trigg. “Training, moving people around and changing business processes are just some examples of how companies can solve a resourcing issue without hiring.”
Because organisations assume that recruitment is the only answer, they approach recruitment agencies, who, in turn, have nothing to offer other than hiring new people.
“The reason for every resourcing issue should be questioned before it is assumed that new people are needed,“ concludes Trigg. “Sometimes they will be – and a large part of Quanta’s business is, of course, recruiting people – but often there are smarter, cheaper and faster ways to get a better result.”