As a client, I’ve often wondered why staffing agencies don’t work more in partnership with each other in this day and age. Isn’t everything evolving? Certainly any one agency can’t possibly be all things to all clients all the time, no matter how much they try. In an $86 billion dollar industry, isn’t there still enough business to go around? Entrepreneurially speaking, a piece of business brought about by a partnership is much better than none at all.

I wrote about this in one of my books and use the example of what’s happened over the last few decades with the airlines. They’ve pulled together and formed alliances. Their new model co-shares customers and gets travelers across the miles with more choices and conveniences than before, through this cooperative effort. Everyone wins! Let’s not forget about strength in numbers as well. The clout an alliance brings opens up more doors and provides much broader exposure than solo efforts.

A more partnered path of working in business today also clearly demonstrates an organization’s confidence in its own distinction and showcases its ability to be a great industry associate. It brings more value than being fear driven over the competition and scrambling for every dollar to be had. In the long run, everyone benefits when partnerships exist. They offer more options, better service and create a large pool of collaborated talent. These attributes are very attractive to clients.

Last Thursday night, I saw the partnership concept take shape where staffing is concerned. I attended an event hosted by the New York Staffing Association entitled Make Money on Your Unused Candidate Pool. When I received the invitation, it had sounded intriguing, plus I’m always eager to discover something new about staffing, so RSVP’d with a “Yes”.

The evening started with some mixing and mingling followed by a brief presentation and animated film about what can be done with great candidates who interview with an agency and then can’t be placed because “We don’t have anything for you right now, but we’ll keep you in mind should anything come up.” Historically, this has been opportunity walking out the door for agencies, not to mention what it does to a candidate and the clients who exist out there looking for this exact same person. Well, the haystack is starting to reveal the needles with a new product on the market that basically matches up candidates and jobs through an exclusive agency-wide database called DORS (Dynamic Online Recruiting Software).

Whether a client needs a candidate across town or across the country, a staffing agency will be able to go beyond their own resources and tap into a system that lists all the other great candidates seen by other agencies just waiting to be tapped. Both agencies then work in cooperation to bring candidate and job together in order to fill this client need and they split the fee.

So instead of sitting on the side lines with an “all or nothing” approach, this provides a win for two agencies, the client and the candidate. I was very impressed and excited from the client perspective about this because it means increasing the chances for faster fulfillment of jobs and being presented with even more qualified candidates than before. This is dramatic! It’s suddenly making current recruiting methods look as old and inconvenient as payphones.

Here are some other thoughts on why clients are going to really like this product and why it will provide advantages to agencies:

• Higher client confidence in candidate quality since it’s now a two agency system, where both have contributed to the due diligence process
• Time and effort saved by clients not having to list jobs “all over town” with multiple agencies. Each agency now has reach “all over town”, so it facilitates a client’s reach more effectively.
• Builds agency/client partnership as they work together on placements and no more multiple listings with other agencies. Keeps clients from going “all over town”.
• Demonstrates agency empowerment by keeping up with technology that will benefit clients
• Builds more client loyalty and value with knowledge that an agency’s primary focus is on finding the right candidate and not spent competing with other agencies over placements.

Before leaving the presentation, I had a few moments to talk to one of the key people behind the DORS system, Sylvie Hyndman to learn a bit more and exchange thoughts. I left the event thinking “Wow! This is a win on so many levels.” The vision of this product is completely on target and it’s time has come. Everyone wins! To learn more, visit www.3dors.com or contact Sylvie at sylvieh@3dors.com.

Catherine Pistole, is the Director of Human Resources at a private equity firm in New York City and author of “The Temp Factor”® book series. To receive important updates, tips and articles, please send your email address to thetempfactor@aol.com.
www.catherinepistole.com