When we were first getting started we were offering other safety consulting services along with our staffing. Over and over again I would get a call from a project manager asking to help with staffing safety positions.
The Challenges of Staffing for Turnarounds
Their issues were normal, everyday project management stuff:
- They had to develop the full schedule for all of the work that needed to happen in a short turnaround time.
- They needed to make sure the budget was solidified and that they were on track.
- They needed to coordinate and solidify equipment needs and contractor schedules.
- And, they had to hurry up and find 10-20 confined space people and some temporary laborers to help out.
The problem with finding safety people, or even laborers, for a short-term turnaround is that they can’t start recruiting too early because they may not be available once the job comes up.
But, when waiting until the last minute, it collides with everything else they needed to do and there was always the fear that they wouldn’t find enough people.
When we could jump in and take care of the safety staffing piece, it was a relief to them. An added benefit that they didn’t have to put all of these temporary positions on their payroll for only a few weeks; that also saved time.
I saw this as such a benefit that we ended up changing our entire business model over to just safety staffing. We have learned a lot over the years too.
If you are a contractor or industrial plant and need short-term temporary safety staffing or laborers, here are several benefits you may want to consider in determining if you want to hire them directly or use a staffing company.
Benefits for Using an Outside Safety Staffing Company for Your Turnaround
By using an outside safety staffing company:
- They have a large database of already interviewed and selected candidates that they can pull from to fill your current needs.
- Their database of employees will more likely include any site specific credentials, training, or certification your site requires.
- They can fill your needs quickly.
- They handle the payroll administration.
- They carry the payroll for 30 days.
- They provide the workman’s compensation insurance for these employees.
- They handle any and all communication regarding logistics, hiring and termination.
- If someone isn’t working out, they will communicate for you, and also replace the position so you do not have an unfilled hole in your team.
- You can have piece of mind that the safety staffing will be filled so that you can focus on all of the other pieces of the project that need to be managed.
The Economic Decision of Using a Staffing Company
In talking to these project managers, they felt pressured to hire everyone themselves because they thought it was cheaper. But, if you really look at the details, in most cases it isn’t:
- You would have to run the employment ads
- You have to staff the job fairs
- You have to interview more people because you don’t have a database to pull from
- You have to pay for the short-term administrative costs of adding all of the people as employees
- You have to pay for the workman’s comp
- And if they don’t work out, you have to replace them…if you can for that short of a time frame
And there is opportunity cost for your internal teams time taken away from the other activities that you need to be doing to get ready for the turnaround.
Staffing companies are running an ad and building a database of candidates. It is much more cost efficient for them.
ResponsAble Safety Staffing
Once we changed our focus to full-time safety staffing, we were able to really be a resource and a help to our clients. We have been in the safety industry for a long-time. Most of the companies that are staffing safety positions are also trying to provide equipment, consulting, training and other safety services.
We wanted to be different.
We felt that if we tried to provide such a wide range of safety services, we would be in the same boat as the project managers before a turnaround. We would be scrambling try to pull everything together for our customers.
Instead, we wanted to focus fully on the staffing service. By doing this, we feel uniquely qualified to provide you with the most qualified candidates that much what you need for your job.
Why? Because it is all we do.
To improve your staffing experience, give us a call to talk about how we can provide the staff you need for your business. For more information about safety staffing, give us a call at 225-753-1909.
