The Staffing Industry and its reach
A Staffing Company typically provides services for employing people with a view to making them available to a third party (“User Company”). In this type of employment model, people are hired by Staffing Company and then hired out to perform work at and under the supervision of the user company. The Staffing Company pays the wages along with other legal obligations to the flexi staff which is borne by the user company. Currently India employs 2.1Mn of Flexi Staff in the organized sector and it is expected to grow by 2.9Mn in 2018 making India the 3rd Largest to employ flexi staff.
How technology has changed the industry
Staffing companies were relatively slow to adopt Technology as compared to other industries in India. By the end of 2013, there were only a handful of companies employing ICT to run their business processes. Most of the companies had manual processes which involved lot of paperwork, repetitive data collection forms and no centralized data store for candidate and associate records. This led to duplication of data, lengthy processes and higher turnaround time to complete each transaction. As organizations were struggling to match pace with client requirements, the only way ahead was the move to Technology
Technology is a key enabler in the Staffing Industry today. Organizations have implemented technology solutions to not just automate their key business processes but also provide value add services to their clients and associates. This has fired up competition in the industry and has also helped few companies gain the coveted title of “Staffing service provider with a difference”
Today, staffing clients prefer a service provider that not just meets their manpower requirements but also helps them manage people resources (associates) and their entire work lifecycle through a digital platform in a seamless way. To meet this demand, most staffing companies provide access to an online HRMS portal to clients. Such offeringshave now become key selection factors that drive the client’s decision to choose a staffing partner. This shift in client thinking is rapidly changing the dynamics of staffing industry and the way business opportunities are perceived.
As Technology has taken center stage in staffing industry, even smaller staffing companies are working aggressively to engage technology providers to build and implement systems that will drive their business processes. Larger staffing companies are embracing the “power of creation” by setting up in-house technology centers and charting out aggressive plans to come up with value-add features and services which provide them with much needed advantage in the marketplace. This also gives them the flexibility to customize and fully integrate staffing solutions with their client’s ERP and thereby facilitating integrated data management.
In the last 2 years, the Industry has witnessed cutting edge value add features like GPS based Attendance logging through Mobile, GPS based associate tracking for on-the-move jobs, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) based information capture, auto voice call to candidates for interview notification and confirmation capture, QR code based Interview tracking, multi-language IVR and Automated Query Answer System (AQAS) for 24*7 Associate support and many more amazing features.
Staffing companies through their system integrations with sourcing channels (LinkedIn and other platforms) have gained the ability to quickly source the best resources from any corner of the country. Through QR code based interview status tracking, e-KYC through Aadhaar and accurate information fetch from important documents using OCR technology, they have been able to achieve faster turn-around time for their sourcing to onboarding cycle and100% statutory compliance.
Benefits of technology are not limited to staffing companies and their clients alone. The candidates and associates are also benefitting from the ease of working with staffing companies through the mobile applications offered by these companies. They use the technology platform to view their payslips, attendance, leave history, ESIC slips and raise several types of service requests to avail various HR services without personally visiting the staffing company offices.
Innovsource and other leading staffing companies in India are shaping the technology dynamics of the industry through their technology offerings like HRMS solution, GPS based attendance, QR code based interview status tracking, WhatsApp based Associate Support, multi-language IVR, 24*7 AQAS for Associate support and several other Industry first offerings. With latest technologies like AI, Machine Learning and Block Chain emerging on to the technology scene, staffing companies are getting their best minds together on the design tables to bring their ideas to life and create a true digital ecosystem for staffing industry.
