challenge

Despite preexisting partnerships with three other staffing agencies, the client, a large national distribution and fulfillment center, was struggling to keep positions filled in a highly competitive market. The result? Logistical challenges, soaring overtime costs — and more. With 50 crucial positions to fill on an expedited timeline, the client turned to the onsite solution experts at Randstad for support.

solution

The client’s previous talent partners all assumed that baseline English reading proficiency was a “must-have” competency for the open roles, most of which involved reading and matching numbers and words using a radio frequency (RF) scanner. But given the area’s large Spanish-speaking population, we thought otherwise — and a few strategic adjustments soon proved us right. In addition to the innovative approach, keys to our success included:

  • providing onsite managers who were fluent in both English and Spanish
  • hiring bilingual performance coaches to work onsite and serve as hands-on trainers, troubleshooting issues on the fly and answering questions in real time
  • translating key safety instructions and onboarding documents into Spanish, which helped mitigate safety and compliance risks

outcome

The advantages of partnering with the onsite experts at Randstad were almost immediately apparent. They included:

  • trimming the client’s sky-high weekly turnover rate of 15.9 percent down to just 7.7 percent within three months
  • reducing weekly turnover to 2.8 percent in the first year, which translated to cost savings north of $350,000
  • successfully making high-volume placements — 140-plus candidates in all — on extremely tight timelines
  • converting temp placements to full-time hires at a rate of approximately 10 per month, a testimony to the strength of our candidates

Thanks to Randstad, the client was also able to significantly simplify their operations, nearly halving the number of partners they worked with by year-end. To find out how we can deliver similar value for your organization, get in touch with Randstad today.