Seasonally staffing up? Balance tech with traditional staffing for the best results
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It sounds so easy. You’ve got job openings and hiring apps have applicants. Pay to place your job opening on an app and the right resumes will come rushing in, right? Wrong.
Tech, particularly AI, is trending in human resources and hiring. Yet we’ve found sometimes leadership relies too much on tech. Apps and online tools can be helpful to find workers, but they aren’t the complete answer to staffing. The human element will always be a major factor to find the best employees and part time seasonal workers
In the next couple of months, many companies will turn to staffing apps to fill part time holiday positions. Using a staffing app without the human touch has pitfalls. Buyer beware.
1. Lack of personal touch
Hiring is a people-based business. Depending on a resume to have keywords does not always yield the best results. These tech hiring tools don’t help people shine. They provide little opportunity to draw out the personal attributes of an applicant, the very qualities that make the best employees for your business. It’s why many company human resource teams are now turning to skill-based hiring. What type of experiences and skills does the job require? Is the candidate coachable to apply those skills to your open job?
2. Too much tech focus
Dig into the staffing app corporate websites and you’ll see their internal hiring is focused primarily on technical roles – software engineers, cybersecurity experts, and the like. Those roles are critical to an app-based company’s operations, but they don’t provide expertise in the areas of hiring critical to your business. When a business is a tech-first company, and a hiring company a distant second, it may not be able to offer the discernment needed to give you the best candidates.
3. No boots on the ground
To meet a client’s needs, a staffing company needs to be familiar with the local environment. Most tech-based hiring companies work out of a single office and have no local presence in the cities staff serves. Without boots on the ground and a personal client relationship, these companies can only guess about the specifics of the job market in a client’s area. They might be able to connect a client with the right number of warm bodies, but it’s questionable whether those candidates would represent the best fit for a client’s needs.
4. Inadequate customer service
Even in the best hiring situations, problems can arise. With a hiring app, there’s no one nearby to help sort out the difficulties. You either get the number of staff you need, or you don’t, and there’s no assurance that the workers you get will meet your quality expectations. With a reputable, traditional staffing company, on the other hand, you have a dedicated team member, often located in your city, who can help.
5. Misclassification of workers
App-based hiring often looks like it will save you money, but there’s a big risk in going with a bargain-basement online staffing company. Many of these companies advertise low fees but there’s a risk. If a worker gets misclassified as an independent contractor, when in fact, they meet all the criteria for being employees, it can leave the door open to lawsuits, fines, and wage violations. Recently, an on-demand hiring app company was hit with a lawsuit in San Francisco for allegedly misclassifying workers and denying them guaranteed wages and benefits. To avoid this risk, look for a staffing partner that classifies workers as employees and pays them appropriately.
Instead of relying solely on apps and online staffing tools to make hires, remember this: Your employees reflect you and your business. Finding the best candidates possible means having a hiring plan with several methods for potential hires to send resumes and complete applications.
A reputable staffing partner can help to manage the hiring process by recommending the right apps and online systems to bring in candidates with the skills and personal qualities you want in your staff.
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.