Lessons Learned

My first six months working in the staffing industry were humbling ones. I had crossed the desk - moved from being one of the coveted HR contacts to coveting those contacts. I was immediately *appalled* at the way that companies treated my agency when we made contacts, or even when they were calling to place an order with us! And then I was even MORE appalled when I realized that, when working behind the desk, my company had done exactly the same thing.

I'll pause for a moment to clarify that it was not necessarily *I* who was acting so horribly as it was my supervisor. You see, I was only the gatekeeper and information gatherer. When it came to deciding on who we would use or not use I was an advisor but not the final decision-maker. My boss would sit back in her office at the end of the hall and refuse any visits or phone calls from any staffing agency. I would do what I could, talking to sales reps and accepting gifts on her behalf. When the time came to call an agency, my boss would take the information I offered, possibly some advice, and direct me to call someone.

Invariably, I would call an agency to request some help and we would go through the revolving-door process of filling the position or positions. When we would get too aggrivated with one company's disappointing results we might call another. And another. And another.

What was wrong with this picture? And what was the lesson that I learned, and hoped to pass on to others?

STAFFING IS A RELATIONSHIP BUSINESS!

Because of my supervisor's disdain for speaking with the sales reps that came into our office day in and day out, none of these companies really KNEW anything about our company. Sure, they had the basics - name, address, phone, product or service - but WHAT about any of this information will really tell you what you need to know to make a good fit with an office? In fact, what a sales rep might glean from our behavior is that our office is filled with a bunch of hermits with major social interaction issues! Of course, the kind of person we were usually looking for was completely the opposite. No wonder there was a problem.

There were a slew of other lessons that I learned during that first six month period - tons of instances where I could see that hindsight was, indeed, 20/20. My first objective as a staffing professional today is to talk with clients and coach them on how to get the most out of my service. I'd love to sit down and talk with anyone at their office about these issues in depth. But in the end it all comes down to that famous line from Jerry Maguire:


"Help ME....help YOOOOOOOOOU!"