how an HR partner can help you optimize workforce planning.

Emerging technologies and advancements in automation and robotics combined have created an ideal environment for business growth and innovation. Unfortunately, ongoing challenges, including the global labour shortage, and the widening skills gap, are overshadowing this possibility for growth and holding companies back from implementing new technologies in the workplace.

After all, if your organisation doesn’t have the skill sets needed to operate and manage this technology, it will do little to help boost business outcomes. If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Organisations across the globe are struggling to acquire the skills and talent needed to grow their businesses and remain competitive in today’s fast-paced economies. 

To secure the skills needed today and in the future, it’s crucial for organisations to focus on workforce  planning. The good news is that you don’t have to handle this process alone. Partnering with a HR solutions company, such as Randstad, can help your company meet its current and future talent demands. 

Learn more about how partnering with a HR solutions company can help your organisation build a workforce for tomorrow.

next-level workforce planning 

Workforce planning is always important, regardless of the external conditions or internal priorities that are dictating how your company functions at any given time. When you're facing challenges such as frequent shifts in customer demands, disruptions in the supply chain or the ongoing labour shortage, strategic workforce planning becomes imperative.

It can help you:

• reduce labour costs
• ensure available talent is optimally deployed to generate value for the business
• make sure people aren't overworked, which supports staff satisfaction and retention
• recognise opportunities for upskilling, reskilling and professional development
• identify current and future skills gaps within the company

Partnering with a HR solutions company can provide the resources and technology your company needs to create effective workforce planning strategies that drive real results. For instance, Randstad provides in-depth worker insights to help employers better understand worker expectations today. These insights allow employers to build robust recruitment strategies and competitive compensation packages to attract, engage and acquire top talent. 

the need for flexible staffing

Another concept that has taken on more importance in recent years — and is now a crucial consideration for all employers — is temporary staffing. The use of contingent workers, in particular, has become extremely popular around the world. In 2021, the contingent workers industry earned more than $171 trillion and this number is expected to more than double by 2031. According to a Deloitte study, larger companies are spending up to 30% of their procurement spend on contingent workers. 

A strong strategy to acquire and deploy flexible workers where they're most needed will lead to positive outcomes such as:

• cost savings, since you're only paying for the resources you need when you need them
• acquiring particular skills for certain projects or short-term needs
• the ability to scale your workforce up or down as needed to meet fluctuating production demands
• workforce agility and adaptability

While flexible staffing offers numerous benefits, this type of workforce can also be hard to manage and recruitment can be extremely cumbersome and time-consuming. With an expert HR solutions partner on your side, you can feel confident that you're taking the right approach to workforce planning and fully leveraging the benefits of flexibility.

With Randstad, you have immediate access to our vast network of pre-vetted candidates, which can speed up the recruitment and placement of contingent workers.

redeployment and career development

As the skills gap continues to widen, redeployment and career development within your current company remain key components of any strategic workforce planning strategy. In fact, as competition to acquire top skills intensifies, the only way to secure the right skills for your company may be through career shifts and advancements within your workforce. 

The good news is that career development programs can help to improve workforce engagement and productivity. Our latest Randstad Workmonitor 2023 reveals that more than half of today’s workers are concerned about job security. Developing a clear path to career development within the company can help to subdue some of these fears.

When creating a redeployment and career development strategy, there are a few best practices to keep in mind, including:

• create a clear and transparent process
• reward managers for identifying top talent
• give employees the power and responsibility to manage their own careers
• provide employees with multiple options and resources

Workforce redeployment and career development opportunities are a win-win for employees and employers. It allows employees to advance their skills and secure their future employability, and it allows employers to future-proof their workforce by acquiring much-needed skills. Ultimately, this type of workforce optimisation strategy can help your business build a productive, agile workforce while simultaneously improving workplace morale and reducing recruitment costs. 

Working with an HR solutions company can help. RiseSmart, a Randstad company, provides people with  coaching, resume, skilling and role-search capabilities to make sure they are properly prepared to find and move into their next ideal positions within your company 

saving time and money

The majority of businesses — particularly smaller firms — operate on a tight budget and need to think very carefully about their HR spend. This factor is even more important today with growing inflation and recession concerns. This includes the amount of time and money you're dedicating to key business processes, including recruitment.

For example, if you advertise a vacancy and suddenly find yourself inundated with applications, a lot of your time is taken up by sorting through resumes and finding the most appropriate individuals to progress to the next stage. This is before you even get to the interview and assessment phases, which can prove equally time-consuming. Working with an HR company can help you streamline the recruitment process.

In fact, working with a specialist recruitment company is one of the most reliable ways to optimise your spend and reduce inefficiencies in your hiring and other key HR functions. You'll be supported by professionals who have been through these processes many times before and can tell you how to make them more efficient.

An HR solutions partner can also keep you up to date with cutting-edge trends and technologies that could revolutionise your hiring. Chatbots, for example, have been shown to offer a reduction of up to 90% in cost-per-hire, compared with traditional outreach methods.

At Randstad, the first thing we do when we start a relationship with a new client is ensure we have an in-depth understanding of your business and your key goals, priorities and pain points. This helps us identify where you have opportunities to optimise your recruitment practices, thereby saving time and reducing costs.

experience and expertise

If you're a small business, the prospect of navigating the labour market, identifying the talent you need, vetting candidates and bringing the right people on board can be daunting — especially in today’s tight labour market. But it's important to get this right, as making a bad hire can have significant consequences for your business.

In fact, the U.S. Department of Labour estimates that the cost of a bad hire can be as high as 30% of the new hire’s annual salary. At a time when businesses are working to cut costs and maximise resources, just one bad hire can significantly impact the company budget, especially for small to midsize businesses. 

Outsourcing your hiring to a recruitment company is a wise move if you don't feel confident taking on the job yourself. An experienced partner takes the time to understand your needs and can demonstrate how they've delivered results for companies similar to yours in the past. 

It can be reassuring to work with partners that have a strong background in your industry and knowledge of the most important trends in the sector right now. Randstad has over 60 years of experience helping employers in various industries fulfil their recruitment and talent needs. 

sourcing hard-to-find talent

Plugging skills gaps is a major challenge for many businesses right now, with some estimates suggesting that talent shortages could lead to 85 million jobs going unfilled and $8.5 trillion in unrealised annual revenues by 2030.

This can be particularly problematic for smaller businesses that don't have the financial resources to compete with larger organisations. According to LinkedIn research, 84% of firms with fewer than 200 employees cite finding enough quality candidates as their top hiring challenge.

Without the right talent and skill sets in place, businesses may struggle to grow their companies and implement new technologies. According to a recent study, more than half of the companies surveyed admitted that the skills gap is preventing them from implementing new technologies in the workplace. Additionally, 31% of these companies were unsure of what leading skills they should be looking for in new hires. 

Teaming up with a well-established recruitment company can give you access to a large and diverse talent network, which will put you in a stronger position to find the people you need at speed. At Randstad, we provide employers with valuable insights pertaining to emerging trends and in-demand skills. These insights can provide the workforce management solutions you need to improve your recruitment efforts and acquire the right skills for your company.

For instance, according to our research, the most in-demand skills include:

1. artificial intelligence & machine learning
2. cloud computing
3. big data
4. business intelligence & data visualisation
5. user interface & user experience
6. mobile app development
7. cybersecurity
8. customer service
9. sales & business development
10. financial management

Partnering with a recruitment company with a long history of success will be crucial for organisations that want to prepare for the future. An HR Solutions partner can help identify potential  challenges and opportunities in your workforce management and facilitate ways to acquire niche, in-demand skills for your business and industry.

Specific roles that will grow in importance in the coming years include:

• cyber security specialist
• cloud solutions engineer
• UX designer
• AI/natural language processing engineer

If you're looking for talented people to boost your chances of succeeding in 2023 and beyond, download our FAQ sheet to learn more about our comprehensive staffing and HR solutions.

This is an updated version of an article originally published on 27 January 2021.