5 things to consider before getting a Staffing Firm in the Philippines

Staffing Firms can be a small hole in the wall business operation or a large multinational corporation with different branch offices. In the Philippines, there a plenty staffing companies who offer different value propositions.

Let me list down few important factors you may need to consider in looking for a Staffing Firm:

1. Mass Hiring vs Specialized Search. Staffing firms can be known for their headhunting style search or by their ability to cast a very wide net in the markets. Both strategies work. If they’re using a headhunting style approach, then you have to check how well they can understand your requisitions. If they’re using the wide net approach, then you have to be ready in giving out quick feedbacks in narrowing down candidates. In addition, casting a wide net is ideal if you want to get a “feel of what’s out there.” Most firms utilize a mix of both strategies wherein one is more favored than the other.
2. Skill Set Specialization. Staffing firms have their own specialization when it comes to skills sets to which they develop and maintain their credentials. The important thing to note is how the skill sets they specialize on fit into your company needs now and in the future.
3. Technology Partnerships. Try looking for staffing firms who share the same technology partnerships with your company. If you have been using a particular brand of technology for quite some time, it makes sense to narrow your search to those who have the same affinity to the technologies that you use. This is especially important when it comes to IT related job requisitions.
4. Organization Structure. Staffing firms divide their teams per industry, per skill or per location. It’s good to have an idea as to how your prospective staffing firm delegate the workload you give to them to their teams to ensure efficiency in delivery.
5. Turnover Rate. Staffing is a service oriented industry and their ability to deliver results depends on the cumulative expertise of their recruiters. High attrition rate will affect how well they maintain their intellectual capital and performance.

HRIS and Company Culture

About 10 years ago, there was a conference promoting a particular brand of HRIS. In the conference, prospect client asked the speaker as to how they can avoid automated HR programs destroying their company culture since they are used to face-to-face collaboration. The speaker was froze dead. She cannot answer the question coherently and instead resorted to emphasizing that automation reduces turn-around-time.

The question became one of those hush-hush small talk during the break. It gave some valid insight as to how important it is for technology to synchronize with company culture. 

Its not that most of the participants in the conference were against their HRIS. Its just that their bosses who were business owners are more concerned with the tangible and measurable advantages of automation (reporting, faster turn-around-time and paperless documentation) instead of engineering technology to fit the existing culture (or perhaps improve it). 

Maybe the business owners were not overt in communicating the company culture they want to have? Maybe the company culture promoted by their own companies is just lip service? Maybe HRIS provider failed in explaining how they can engineer technology to go well with company culture?

A year passed after that conference and I haven't heard of the HRIS provider anymore. I suspect they closed down.

Factors that Affect the Cost of Tech Skills in the Philippines

 The cost of technology skills oscillates a lot. This is the common knowledge among recruiters and headhunters in the Philippines. And it is the demand of skills usually pumps up the price. On top of that, most of the time, 2 or more company looking for the same people end up in a bidding war just to get the talent.

In the field of Outsourcing and Recruitment, having predictive insight is very important specially when we do forecasting and reporting aimed at maximizing profits.To help out fellow professionals, let me list down the common factors that affect the cost of technology skills in the Philippines:

1. New Technology. When companies adopt a new technology, it follows that they are also adopting a new set of skills. These skills sets may be similar to the old technology or it may require a new set of skills. The learning curve is the determinant as to how it will affect the increase in demand.
2. Economy of Trade Partners. The Philippine IT and BPO industry is highly dependent on economy of trade partners. These trade partners include USA, Australia, UK and Japan. Based from my experience in the recruitment sector, the interaction is more complex, however, when it comes to its effect on the demand of IT and IT-enabled skills. Growing economy of trade partners will almost certainly increase demand. However, will yield skewed results when their economy is on a downturn which I will explain in #3.
3. Laws and Attitudes towards Outsourcing. There are positive and negative views of outsourcing. On one hand, it significantly reduces the cost of manpower by tapping to new job markets that offer lower wages thus saving cost and gaining competitive advantage over those who do not outsource. On the other hand, it is viewed as “stealing jobs” and importing it to developing economies. These attitudes change overtime and become friendlier towards outsourcing. However, when economies experience recession legislature and elected leaders tend to put outsourcing in the spotlight and use it as a platform of “bringing home the jobs.” The effect of which are policies that are not friendly towards outsourcing IT and IT enabled skills.
4. Currency Exchange Rate. Like any imported or exported commodities, IT and IT enabled skills are affected by sudden changes of exchange rates. The success of outsourcing in the Philippines is partly the job of Central Bank which maintains a steady rise and drop of exchange rates. So far, they are doing a good job based from the latest customer rating survey. Companies maintain an “ideal exchange rate range.” If the Philippines Peso jumps to high, the cost of companies increases and the demand for IT skills drops. High fluctuations of exchange rates also decreases the demand because it shows uncertainty to new comers.

Welcome to my Blog

Dear Reader!

Although this blog lists just one author, in reality the ideas and insights it contains were inspired by many friends and colleagues who suggested that I make a repository of knowledge and best practices I gathered for years of experience in the areas of staffing and outsourcing.

There are many Philippine blogs about recruitment and staffing but most of the time, the objective of these blogs is to indirectly promote a particular company or product.

In this blog, I intend to write about anything related to the Philippine Talent Market with any bias for or against a particular company who offers professional staffing services. Nor am I going to market a particular product in this blog. I do however reserve the right to give my honest and personal opinion on these services should I decide to write about them.

My goal is to reach out and provide my personal insights for professionals in the areas of staffing and outsourcing and provide various tips, guides and best practices that outsourcing professionals, recruiters and business owners encounter in dealing with the Philippine Job Market.

Should you have any questions or suggested topics that you want me to blog about, feel free to leave a comment.

Best Regards,

Chris