Human Resources Industry Focus

 Dramatic changes in the way we work have brought about many innovations in the personnel and human resources industry, including the advent of flexible and temporary staffing agencies and the emergence of professional employer organizations.

With the downsizing and outsourcing from many large employers, highly qualified professionals often find themselves out of work, seeking assistance from employment services and staffing agencies. In fact, in recent decades, the traditional employment agency has really transformed into the flexible staffing agency, with benefits for employers and employees alike

Business can benefit from the experience of others, particularly well-educated professionals who are willing to trade off steady salaries and solid benefits for the ability to spend more time with their families and choose when and where they want to work. Companies prefer flexible staffing as well, which allows them to take more time to make permanent hiring decisions, at the same time giving them an excellent pool of workers from which to recruit on a temporary — or even permanent basis.

As businesses have expanded their staffing needs, employment agencies have had to expand the types of workers available. The staffing industry now provides a wide variety of services to clients, including light industrial and clerical staffing, information technology staffing, healthcare staffing, executive staffing and financial management staffing.

Flexible staffing has gained in popularity for a number of reasons. With the advent of technology that enhances productivity and creates more intense competition, businesses are forced to become more frugal and profit-motivated. Flexible staffing is cost-effective.

Secondly, temporary staffing allows management to change its employment levels as it sees fit to respond to peak times and special projects. The savings enables firms to increase the benefits and compensation offered to permanent staff in order to attract the most highly skilled and qualified individuals.

In addition, the days of employees working for the same company for their entire career are past. Today's workers are exploratory, trying out one career and then another before settling on a permanent path. Many appreciate the freedom to change positions that flexible staffing allows.

The high cost of hiring, training and transitioning full-time, permanent employees has forced businesses to examine flexible staffing to accommodate part-time and seasonal work demands while maintaining a minimal permanent employee core.

Finally, flexible staffing allows businesses to shift some of the cost of employee benefits to the staffing company, which can gain the advantage of volume purchasing.

As human resource and employment law has become more complex and the associated paperwork more time-consuming, many business owners have turned to professional employer organizations, or PEOs, for assistance in everything from payroll to workers' compensation to tracking vacation hours. Other services often provided by PEOs include the preparation of W-2 forms, healthcare benefit plans, certificates of insurance, retirement plans, insurance options, college savings plans and employee assistance programs.