Staffing “2020” Seeing through the Past and into the Future

By Frank Troppe

Over 15 years ago, I took my first job in the staffing industry. Today, like you, I’m interested in what this industry will look like in the future: in 2020, for example.

When I started in staffing I was in my mid-20s and had just been hired as an account manager (i.e., salesman) for a company called Adia Personnel Services (which later became Adecco). My assignment, the first day on the job: Break into the top 10 users in downtown Chicago and get them to switch to Adia!

Armed with some quick-printed business cards, a paper tablet and a handful of brochures, I cold-called each of my 10 target accounts, as well as some smaller prospects. No cell phone, no laptop – not even an e-mail address. At that time, our prospects didn’t have e-mail either. “Fax Machine Experience” was one of the skills listed in our Dictionary of Temporary Help.

The business was harder than I expected; needless to say, no one changed suppliers on my first day! But I kept at it. And when I would bring back orders, they were written by hand onto oversized index cards … which were then matched to oversize index cards with applicant information. One sign of the changing times: back then, the office supervisors might be smoking in the office while they worked to fill my orders! The sound of metal drawers sliding in and out of a filing box mounted on a lazy Susan; that was the sound of progress. The sound of people calling in sick – or not calling in – was the worst thing you could hear on a Monday morning … and that hasn’t changed, has it?

There were good times that convinced us we were the smartest people in the world. There were slower times that we thought would never end. But perseverance paid off, and we landed a lot of significant business. In 1990 the branch I opened and managed was named the Model Office – U.S. Operations for Adia. People who started as local sales or placement staff went on to become branch managers, AVPs, VPs of field operations, presidents. That’s the thing you love about this business: good people go far.

Based on what we’ve seen in the last 15 years, here are 9 changes for 2020 that are coming, ready or not:

  1. It will become even easier – and more important – to understand the customer’s business. No one wants to hear that you check references or interview your candidates. That’s no longer a selling point; it’s expected. The subject matter of sales calls will be forced toward customer issues rather than internal process discussions. Why? Because customers are more interested in their businesses than they are in yours.
  2. Service and sales will become much more integrated. According to Dan Campbell, the CEO of Hire Dynamics (one of the most innovative and fastest growing staffing companies in the United States), as customers become harder and harder to reach, each touch-point becomes more critical. That means you can’t afford to pretend service is not part of sales.
  3. Disciplined innovation will be the single most important characteristic common to future leaders in the industry. Customers today are often bored by the “differentiators” presented to them in meetings and proposals. “If you work with me, you get to work with me,” just doesn’t cut it anymore. Those who experiment and deliver new ideas, in a methodical way, will lead the pack. (For an example, revisit the BranchVirtues article on innovation in the November 2005 issue, or write to the author for a free reprint.)
  4. Local fiefdoms within large organizations will perish. The idea that, “My office is different ... so it can’t be managed as part of the organization!” is not going to be tolerated by the marketplace. Isolation of local performers and best practices reeks of inefficiency and breeds slow organizational decision making. Customers of the future will be forced to justify relationships mostly in the context of efficiency, not just local likeability (“It’s different here!”).
  5. Labor productivity will, again and again, rise in importance. Competition by businesses to attract and retain low-cost workers is not going away – it will continue to increase. Global production alternatives, coming at the same time as lower numbers of native-born Americans are entering the U.S. workforce, will fuel a next wave of automation as businesses are required to do more with fewer people. This next wave will focus less on streamlining tasks and more on efficiency through re-assignment (the field vs. corporate debate).
  6. Branchometry emerges as a specific discipline in the business community. According to Communication News (April 2005), 86% of the U.S. non-agricultural workforce works “away from corporate.” Branchometry is the study and measurement of where that 86% works: the field operations. As global markets open and close, the ability to measure and manage the performance of personnel, technology and real estate in a field setting will be a career-maker.
  7. The niche of “Management on a Contract Basis” will become a preferred method by which customers can flexibly manage costs and accountability. This will be fueled by the retirement of a generation of managers in customer organizations, coupled with the homogenization of operational systems. With fewer and fewer companies using aggressively proprietary systems, interchangeability of managers becomes more feasible and attractive.
  8. GPS chips (i.e., Global Positioning Systems) will be implanted in all employees. This will help instantly locate staff and temporaries, especially on Monday mornings … OK, this may be a stretch for 2020, but it’s probably closer than we think!
  9. If you want your business to be competitive in 2020, you must first work to make sure it is competitive in 2007 and 2008! No amount of long-term planning can resurrect a dead business. Based on this last observation, we will use this space to spotlight field operations that are succeeding today.