What Should Good Staffing Management Do?

1. Provide leadership. Everything starts with strong leadership. People need direction, focus, controls and a fair system of rewards. Although they don't require a charismatic leader, they do need someone they respect, who can follow and lead by example, who is open to input from staff, and who has a strong ethical compass.

2. Make sound decisions. Good managers use both their gut instinct along with an analysis of the facts to make good decisions. The gut is really their analog computer that tells them, based on their experience, if something either makes sense on the face of it or doesn't. When things are not obvious, they have to run the numbers and ask questions to figure things out.

3. Create teamwork. A company should be a team effort and is only as strong as its individual members. If you have a great sales rep who brings in the orders, but your recruiters are not filling them, or vice versa, you can't succeed. Providing team-based incentives leads to the identification of weak links. Get close to your staff socially, but always remember who the boss is, and don't let friendship cloud your judgment.

4. Streamline your company. Don't have more people than you need. Streamlining the organization not only saves money, but also people who are fully utilized are happier campers. And in today's increasingly fast-paced world you can't wait until critical information works its way up the food chain before you know about it and can act upon it. Streamlining maximizes your span of control so that you can get as close to the action as possible, and reduces the likelihood that information will be filtered before reaching you.

5. Be connected. Our rate of change makes it incumbent on you to utilize electronic communications (e-mail, pagers, etc.) to stay connected, as long as you don't become overloaded. Don't operate in a vacuum of your company information alone. Be connected to the world around you and integrate that information with your internal data in order to make sound decisions. Join industry as well as eclectic associations. Be on the Internet and be well read. Seek advice from others including outside experts. One of our clients used his social connections to entertain the movers and shakers in his community for both seeking advice from successful people as well as opening up doors for his staff. Never stop learning, and if you are doing great, don't think that now you have all the answers.

6. Retain control. Always remember that it is your equity that is at stake in your own business and that even if you have a bank loan, it is your house that may be held as collateral. Having a good staff is critical, but it is only the owner who will do anything to ensure the success of the enterprise. So stay in control, have adequate checks on the decisions that affect the financial viability of the company and make sure that you sign off on all key decisions (see Case I, above).

7. Be analytical. Most staffing company owners and managers are not as comfortable with numbers as they are with people. That is understandable given that we are in a people business. But you don't have to be an accountant to understand the meaning of not making a profit or not having sufficient cash flow to cover payroll. You need to be able to understand which numbers are important and how to fix things if they are flashing red. You can always hire people to do the number crunching, as long as the numbers are being crunched competently and are then translated into something that you use to run your business. As noted above, your gut alone is not usually enough.

8. Think "boundaryless." You don't need to be large to extend your staffing business boundaries. This also helps when your margins are thin or your market share is low. A good way to do that is to create value-added services. Some of our clients have done this via training workshops, performance guarantees, employee retention programs, profit improvement programs, alternative billing methods, career counseling, customized reports and proprietary screening methods. They first created, branded and copyrighted the services. They then promoted and bundled the services, which increased their margins as well as their market share. Project solutions offer a similar way to extend traditional boundaries, but this does involve greater risks as you are now responsible for deliverables, not just staff augmentation. The results can be impressive with an increase in profits of up to 60% higher for those who are able to perform in this arena.

9. Communicate well. You need to clearly communicate whatever your concepts are to others, unless you want to do everything yourself. Good communications start with explaining why you are requesting that things be done in a certain way and then what the benefits are to those parties involved. If you come up with a new compensation program for your staff, for example, you will need to explain how that plan (if it is designed well) will make the employee, as well as the company, more money. You should be prepared to provide examples and answer whatever questions arise.

10. Be creative. GE had its 4Es, QMI, six sigma program, its unique grids and charts. Create your own tools and convert them into your own buzz words and mystique to energize your staff and stand out from the competition. Last March we wrote about some of the creative concepts from Blink, The Tipping Point, etc., such as viral marketing, thin slicing problems and connectors. Build on those concepts and be better than your competition by staying one step ahead in the creativity arms race.

Exerpt. Issue Date: SI Review - March 2007, Posted On: 3/9/2007