Empower Your Staffing Agency: Revolutionizing Sales Strategies and Partnerships with SimpleVMS

SimpleVMS

As a staffing professional, are you under the impression that employers only care about results, not the methods used to achieve them? If so, you’re not alone; many staffing providers are. But times have changed. In today’s technologically driven world, companies have evolved in how they manage talent, and they expect their staffing agencies to keep pace. 

Thus, staffing agencies face a tough challenge in standing out amidst competitors. Simply offering white glove service is no longer sufficient, especially when it seems like every agency offers the same level of service. To add to this challenge, many employers are consolidating their bulky staffing programs, lowering the number of vendor relationships to enhance efficiency. 

To survive, agencies need to evolve into strategic partners. This requires transforming your operations by being equipped with versatile solutions tailored to client – and talent – needs. Consider it like having a Swiss Army knife in your back pocket. With the right set of tools, your agency can offer a range of solutions for any situation. Whether it’s advanced reporting, mobile capabilities, or streamlined timekeeping, agencies must demonstrate technological prowess to meet evolving demands.  

“Employers are raising the bar for their staffing vendors. They’re no longer just looking for talent providers; they want strategic partners. Contingent workers play a crucial role, aiding businesses in managing labor costs and offering flexibility in workforce size according to demand. And companies want more than just bodies—they want innovative solutions and better transparency to meet their evolving needs.”  

~ Rob Geist, VP of Growth, SimpleVMS

Indeed, as more employers ask, “What tools do you have to meet our needs?” It’s clear that exceptional service isn’t enough; agencies must deliver innovative solutions to stay ahead. Today’s employers demand tangible evidence of reliable talent pools, enhanced metrics, and streamlined invoicing processes. Without the right technology, meeting these expectations becomes a cumbersome, manual ordeal that doesn’t just fail to generate revenue—it risks alienating both agencies and recruiters.  

But with the right solutions in hand, agencies can possess an arsenal of tools designed to address the specific needs and challenges of their clients. By leveraging advanced capabilities like timekeeping systems, scheduling software, and mobile outreach tools, staffing agencies can deliver a seamless staffing experience. They can also anticipate and address labor demands in real-time, ensuring a reliable and responsive supply of talent.  

Think about it: if you can offer innovative solutions that not only meet but exceed your clients’ growing needs, while helping your recruiters place and manage talent more efficiently, you will not only differentiate, but elevate, your agency, solidifying your position as a trusted business partner. 

Navigating the VMS Landscape: Empowering Staffing Agencies to Thrive

VMS solutions have historically faced skepticism among staffing professionals. They are often seen as costly, user-unfriendly, and prone to creating unnecessary barriers between the agency and its clients. Moreover, even the most widely used VMS solutions often fall short of meeting client’s needs to manage their workforce effectively. 

But not all VMSs are created equal. And as employers increasingly turn to VMSs and MSPs to oversee their contingent work programs, it’s crucial for agencies to assert control by selecting the right VMS solution that aligns with both their own needs and those of their clients.  

“Every day, I’m contacted by a staffing client complaining that they’re getting implemented by yet another expensive VMS. They need a tool to combat this. When this happens, I always ask: ‘Do you want to take charge of the implementation process or risk being stuck with an inefficient system that could end up costing you more?’ VMSs don’t have to be seen as a necessary evil. Instead, they offer a chance to provide your clients with a superior tool that empowers your agency and enhances your services.” 

~ Rob Geist

It’s clear that staffing professionals must reconsider their perspective on working with a VMS. For employers, VMSs provide the convenience of managing multiple vendors as easily as working with just one. This streamlined approach is particularly beneficial for staffing agencies, especially when employers want to simplify managing their staffing programs by using fewer vendors. So, there are clear advantages for your agency when a client adopts a VMS solution.  

But with so many VMS options available, how can you determine which one works best for your agency and clients? 

Why SimpleVMS? Unveiling the Benefits of the Right Solution for Staffing Agencies and Clients

Fortunately, staffing agencies now have a solution that resonates with both agencies and their clients – SimpleVMS. It stands out as one of the few VMS solutions ardently appreciated by recruiters and agencies alike. Why the praise? SimpleVMS is uniquely designed by staffing professionals for staffing professionals, offering the transparency, reporting, consolidated invoicing, and timekeeping features that employers and their vendors desperately need. 

SimpleVMS offers: 

• Integrated Timekeeping System: Managers no longer need to juggle multiple systems for approvals and management. With SimpleVMS, they have a single timeclock option to streamline their operations and better manage workforce attendance.
• Transparent Invoicing: SimpleVMS provides a single, transparent invoice for the entire contingent workforce, meeting the demand for greater visibility into staffing program costs.
• Enhanced Metrics: In today’s metrics-driven world, clients seek comprehensive data on their staffing programs. SimpleVMS delivers detailed metrics on time-to-fill, tenure, and more, empowering clients to make informed decisions.
• Streamlined Operations: SimpleVMS helps agencies overcome decentralization and lack of cost-management by automating non-revenue generating activities like report generation. This frees up time for recruiters to focus on what matters most – recruiting top talent. 

And by partnering with Avionté, a leading enterprise staffing technology provider serving over 1,800 agencies across North America, SimpleVMS now offers recruiters the industry’s first fully integrated ATS/VMS solution to create a true end-to-end staffing platform. No more toggling between platforms; recruiters can now enjoy faster placements and differentiate themselves from the competition. 

With recruiters no longer having to manage multiple systems, they receive automatic updates on job openings and show-up rates, enabling them to respond instantaneously. Moreover, Avionté’s integrated mobile staffing solution further enhances this efficiency by allowing recruiters to quickly notify a larger pool of loyal talent about any opportunities, resulting in faster placements. 

Ultimately, when employers can accurately measure the value provided by their vendors, price becomes less of a sticking point. While companies often negotiate to lower costs in a market where expenses are rising, research indicates that price isn’t the sole determining factor in their agency selection process. Instead, they prioritize superior service and are willing to invest more accordingly.  

Demonstrating your agency’s value through metrics redirects the focus away from price during negotiations, making SimpleVMS a transformative force in an increasingly cost-conscious market. 

Elevating Staffing Agency Success with SimpleVMS: Transforming Sales Conversations and Fostering Strategic Partnerships

As contingent workers continue to play an increasingly vital role in today’s workforce, the significance of staffing agencies likewise grows. However, despite their importance, staffing agencies still face challenges in achieving substantial growth, capturing only 2-3 percent of the market share. Even with the staffing industry projected to grow by a modest 4% in 2024, it has remained relatively stagnant at around 2% of total U.S. employment for nearly three decades. 

To stand out in this competitive landscape, staffing agencies must differentiate themselves. SimpleVMS offers a solution tailored to the needs of both agencies and their clients, providing the transparency, reporting, and streamlined operations necessary for success. By leveraging SimpleVMS, agencies can position themselves as strategic partners, offering innovative solutions to labor issues and providing a stable pipeline of talent. 

And by adopting SimpleVMS, staffing agencies can now transform their sales approach. Instead of introducing themselves as just another staffing provider, they can begin conversations by asking key questions, such as: How are you measuring your labor costs? Are you struggling to manage multiple vendors who are using disparate systems? Do you have true transparency into your staffing program?  

With SimpleVMS in hand, your agency can now offer innovative solutions to clients, shifting the conversation away from issues such as price, and instead positioning yourself as a valued partner by demonstrating your commitment to solving client challenges and driving mutual success. And if you think employers wouldn’t pay more for that kind of service, think again! 

“Employers are seeking more than just service providers from staffing agencies – they want genuine partners who will go above and beyond to bring creative solutions and technology to tackle challenges and meet their business needs. What’s remarkable is that with the right VMS in place, even smaller agencies can rise to the occasion and compete shoulder-to-shoulder with industry giants, delivering exceptional value to their clients.” 

~ Rob Geist 

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Total Workforce Accounting: Using a VMS Solution to Track Contingent Workforce Costs

SimpleVMS

Do you have visibility into your total labor costs? If your business uses freelancers, consultants, or temporary staff on a regular basis, it’s crucial to use tools that let you manage these costs with the same rigor you use for your full-time employees.  Unchecked expenses can lead to inaccurate data, making it challenging to evaluate performance and impeding growth. 

What’s more, businesses are increasingly relying on contingent workers to quickly scale based on market needs. Oxford Economics reports that 83% of executives are planning to expand their use of contingent workers over the next three years. What’s more, Gartner projects that by 2025, contingent labor will compose a staggering 35 to 40% of the global workforce. 

For many organizations, outdated technologies fail to offer a complete picture of your total labor expenses. So, how do you know if your current systems fall short?

Consider the following:

• How many temporary employees and contractors are working for you this week?
• How much are you paying them?
• Are they delivering as expected?
• Are there performance issues?
• Who’s in your building right now? 

You should be able to answer these questions in near real-time. But for many companies, disconnected systems make it hard to access this data quickly. And without these answers, you’re most likely running an inefficient staffing program and wasting money.

But those who can readily answer these questions have a strong competitive advantage, able to swiftly enact tactical adjustments that make a meaningful impact on productivity and quality, resulting in tangible cost savings. Without the right systems in place, your organization won’t have full visibility into its labor expenses, which, as these costs grow, can give rise to additional risks and result in unfavorable outcomes.    

No matter the conditions, having the tools that allow you to manage total labor costs is essential. In a strong economy, scalability is your ally; in a downturn, precise control of labor costs is your shield.

Selecting the Right VMS Tool for Your Business

Early VMS (Vendor Management System) solutions, initially intended as procurement tools, are increasingly being used to maintain labor cost control, boost productivity, and streamline operations. However, not all VMSs are created equal. These early systems often disappoint because they lack essential features needed for efficient labor cost management and ongoing supervision of contingent workforce operations. 

However, modern VMS solutions have evolved to serve as highly efficient tools for managing contingent workers. These systems offer comprehensive capabilities for centralizing the tracking, management, and analysis of temporary and contract employees within a single platform. 

Now, more than ever, companies are realizing the vital importance of using advanced tools to efficiently manage their contingent workforce, exploring versatile VMS solutions that offer thorough insights into workforce expenses, providing comprehensive labor cost data down to the last penny. These tools empower companies to achieve complete visibility into their labor costs and operations and gain precise knowledge on how much was spent, and where.

And when these VMS systems seamlessly integrate with your HR solution, they allow for the accurate attachment of labor costs to your general ledger. This helps companies easily drill down labor costs by categories like cost center, department, vendor, or project, allowing for detailed analysis to enhance workforce planning and streamline operations. With the right tools in place, you can oversee and monitor your contingent workforce expenses with the same precision as you do your permanent employees.  

What Sets SimpleVMS Apart? A Unified Solution for Contingent Workforce Cost Management

To address the challenges of efficient contingent labor accounting, companies should opt for a modern VMS with seamless integration, a unified timekeeping system, and enhanced data access. This data should be available in a single location, featuring user-friendly dashboards for easy breakdown of labor expenses as required. 

SimpleVMS stands out as the solution tailored to these needs. With its user-friendly, secure, web-based system, SimpleVMS empowers organizations of all sizes to consolidate their contingent vendor pools, ensure HR policy compliance, and streamline operations. 
 
A few key benefits offered by SimpleVMS include:

• A single, integrated timekeeping system that allows distribution and logistics partners to track costs in real-time, making quick adjustments when needed. Managers can see timesheets and expenses across different departments and cost centers, simplifying worker tracking, and allowing finance teams to analyze specific expenses.
• Real-time dashboards that make it easy to track critical performance measures, predict labor costs, and effortlessly access recruiting and spending data for accurate billing and invoicing.
• A common portal for staffing requests and vendor communication to help streamline the distribution of job orders to multiple agencies, serve as a document management tool, and allow easy tracking of important vendor metrics, such as turnover and order distribution.

How One Company Streamlined Vendor Management and Achieved Cost Savings with SimpleVMS

To illustrate the advantages associated with adopting SimpleVMS, a large warehousing and logistics company located in Northern Kentucky faced significant challenges managing their contingent workforce program reporting. In fact, they had to hire a full-time worker just for this job, which resulted in higher labor costs and left them in a difficult spot if that person couldn’t work. 
 
Initially, they considered developing their own tool or integrating their disparate systems, but both choices proved to be expensive and ineffective. However, after evaluating various options and service providers, the company recognized that a VMS was the ideal solution they had been searching for. 

Thanks to SimpleVMS, a task that once required the full-time commitment of one employee can now be completed in less than five hours. In fact, the company managed to cut down its administrative reporting workload by a remarkable 87%, saving both time and money while making their workforce operations smoother. What’s more, it ensured that data wouldn’t be lost in the event of this employee’s absence or departure.  

Notably, the client also avoided any added expenses associated with the development of their own reporting tool. SimpleVMS was able to seamlessly integrate with their current systems, providing a user-friendly dashboard for efficient oversight and management of their entire contingent workforce, in near real-time, without the need to start from scratch, which underscores the powerful impact of SimpleVMS on operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness. 

In today’s dynamic business environment, where temporary, freelance, and contract workers are vital to daily operations, a solid understanding of your temporary labor costs is not an option but a fundamental necessity for achieving your strategic workforce goals. Choosing the right management tool for this labor force segment is pivotal for success. SimpleVMS offers a modern VMS platform tailored to address the complex requirements of effective contingent labor supply chain management with one simple goal: to save clients time and money in overseeing their contingent labor costs. 

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