Using the Recession to Get It Right....A Case Study in Do-Overs

Our company is called T/A Industries and we are an OEM supplier to the auto industry.  We manufacture a variety of plastic and vinyl parts.

As you can imagine business has not been good the past 18 months.  But we are still here.  Over half of our pre-recession workforce was laid off.

Our volume is starting to pick up and we have already called back to work those laid off workers that we determined were good employees.  It would appear that we have enough work for about 25 additional workers for at least the next 3 months.  After that it’s a crap shoot.  By the way, my name is Roger Dorn and I am the Plant Manager.

Because of the uncertainty involved we are planning to utilize a staffing service to supply our needs.  We have utilized temps in the past with mixed success.  Turnover and no-shows were the biggest problems.  Our goal is to learn from our past experiences and develop a plan to make transitional employees a better fit with our permanent staff.  If we can make it work transitional staffing will become a permanent part of our business plan.

The positions to be staffed by temps aren’t glamorous. .  . but what is in our business.  They involve repetitive operation of machinery, lifting up to 50 pounds and being on your feet eight hours a day.  Our facility is clean and well organized but it does get hot in the summer.  We are close to a bus line but most of our staff drive their own cars to work.  We like to think that this is a good place to work and that there are good reasons why we’ve been around over fifty years.  Here is our list that we’ve developed to use in partnering with our soon to be staffing supplier:

1. Our provider must have prior experience supplying personnel of the type we need in the required numbers.  We plan to check two client references.
2. The staffing company will be asked to present a detailed recruiting plan to show us how they plan to recruit qualified people to staff our plant.  We will be looking for creative ideas above and beyond the typical newspaper add,  state job service, etc. approach.   Job boards, social networking sites, referral programs are the types of things that interest us.
3. Because we work multiple shifts and some Saturdays we will need a service that has staff available during non-traditional office hours.
4. Turnover and no-shows of temps has been a big problem in the past.  The supplier must be able to provide a plan that will minimize these issues.  Having a person on-site to help with certain administrative tasks and to be available to meet with the temps will be required.
5. We will be requiring that all temps have a criminal background check done.  Our goals are to keep convicted felons with drug issues and violent crimes out of our facility.
6. A six panel pre-employment drug test will be required for all temps prior to starting work.  In addition we require our service supplier to conduct monthly random drug tests of their people.  Hopefully this will make everyone safer.
7. Prior work experience in a manufacturing environment will be required.  We know that temps are not always the cream of the crop but they should have some idea of the type of work they will be asked to do.  At some point we may ask our supplier to conduct pre-employment plant tours so candidates can actually see the jobs and the facility.  At the very least we will require the staffing service operations person (not a sales rep) to visit our plant and see first hand the jobs involved and the physical requirements needed.
8. Time is valuable to us.  As a result we want to utilize the services of a staffing company that embraces technology.  Such things as utilizing electronic communications, an inter-active web site that allow us to track orders, invoices, usage etc., on-line transmission of hours worked and payment of invoices are all examples of time saving technology.
9. Cost factors are always going to be an important consideration.  Our supplier of choice must be sensitive to the bottom line.  We will look for such things as reduced overtime bill rates, discounting of long term temps, and no liquidation charges for hiring a temp.  Credits for temps that no show for work or that can’t perform the job will be expected.
10. We’re not a company that is big on meetings.  That being said, we will work to establish a feedback program with our supplier so that they know what we would like them to do better and for them to let us know how we can make things better . . . that win-win thing.

It’s not often that you get an opportunity for a do-over.  These ten objectives are our “temp staffing” do-over and hopefully as our business recovers and our need for labor increases we can make our “temp” experience more productive than before.  I’ll let you know how we do.                        

-- Roger Dorn, Plant Manger
T/A Industries