Staffing Companies Enhance Diversity Initiatives
We know that promoting and fostering Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) in the workforce is good for business on a variety of levels, so it stands to reason that those same benefits would accrue from our staffing industry partnerships and the contingent work force that they provide. While diversity has been a stated objective for a long time, DE&I is now becoming a higher one due to the COVID-19 pandemic, high impact societal events, enhanced embracement by senior management, changes in talent needs, and an increasingly distributed workforce.
We are experiencing a dramatic confluence of business challenges and significant cultural and economic shifts in the workplace. This, in turn, is elevating the importance, necessity and advantages of baking diversity into our business plans and corporate cultures. These challenges include:
The coronavirus pandemic which has changed the way we work and shed light on systemic economic and racial inequities. This has led to numerous corporations releasing statements acknowledging the need for greater diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the workplace. COVID-19 has driven the workplace to be, by necessity, a much more distributed one, which has in turn catalyzed more interest in the use of a contingent workforce which offers a much more agile staffing capability in a virtual working world.
Social unrest in wake of George Floyd’s death has elevated the need for DE&I in the workforce, including using contingent workforce to assist with the diversity efforts. Two thirds of business leaders surveyed believe that diversity requires greater emphasis given current social landscape. It certainly true that diversity is the right thing to do regardless of employment status. Given what we know about the myriad advantages of DE&I, staffing companies that embrace diversity have become an important partner in maintaining a competitive business advantage.
Peter Drucker said, “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” If you embrace DE&I and hire a like-minded staffing company, it makes sense that this relationship will foster culture building synergies whose benefits will accrue to both businesses.
The national median of large businesses employs one in five workers on a contingent basis. If there are benefits from DE&I, including ROI, it makes sense to emphasize those advantages across all types of employees, full-time, temp-to-hire, contract and temporary. With chronic talent shortages on the horizon, as the economy recovers from the pandemic-induced recession, the contingent workforce will expand first as it always has during economic recoveries.
Contingent workers are now sitting more firmly in the driver’s seat of their careers and are being selective in where they share their talent. While pay is still a significant driver, the culture and work environment of a business are also becoming important factors, just as it is for those seeking full-time employment. Contingent workers need to feel part of the organization. Capturing their hearts and minds by promoting diversity builds cohesiveness among the workforce, helps keep them in play for temp-to-hire arrangements, better engages direct hires, and helps recruit and retain them.
Staffing companies are recruiting experts that keep their fingers on the pulse of the world of work. The variety of positions and companies for which staffing agencies recruit assures a well-resourced and well-vetted stream of diverse candidates available for hire or placement – a proven way to assist a company’s own internal diversity hiring program.
Well-equipped with tools and mechanisms for candidate/applicant outreach, they enhance DE&I effectiveness and benefits because of this specialized knowledge, thus helping create, promote and sustain the positive aspects of a DE&I culture.