Have Telephone?

Are there still telephones in use in the business world?  Are people still talking or is this a keyboard society?  An article in the news today spoke ever increasing number of young people that prefer posting over talking and it makes you wonder just where our social skills are going. 

There are a few of us that still remember doing business before faxes, mobile phones, pagers and even computers came into play.  Business was built on relationships and conversations that were fostered by telephone and in person visits.  Even within the office people would get up and walk to the work area of a peer to ask a question.  Discussion often ensued and relationships were established.  People acted with urgency in that communications were not always quick and in order to meet goals and production standards it was essential to manage time wisely.

 Today we are blessed with time saving tools such as email and IM.  Calls can be made from just about anywhere and at any time.  Faxes can be done from your computer, documents can be scanned and emailed and messages are received on both your phone or computer.  Through the progress of tools we now have more time to accomplish more……or do we?  Is it possible that while we have more time that we are still doing the same amount of work as before?  Could it be that technology has afforded us a more liesurely work pace?  We are all busy but doing what.

Perhaps what is lost is the relationship aspect of our day.  For example, I received an emailed notice that a client is lowering the rates of their suppliers.  It was sent to an out dated corporate name and was done by an individual that we don’t know.  Could this have been prevented by a stronger visit and telephone campaign with this client?  I think so.  The electronic communications have become faceless and it is all to easy for someone to send a notice of rate change via email.  It certainly is harder to explain let alone defend by telephone or in person.  Could this have been prevented or at the least negotiated if we had that stronger relationship?  I think so.

My thought is for people to work the phones on a more aggressive level.  Start talking to your contacts.  Network new contacts.  Set a lunch.  Make a visit.  Start the process by picking up the phone.  I can offer a bunch of reasons for not calling when IM or email is easier but none of them can justify not having the conversational relationship that comes from talking with another person.  Visibility is not a bad thing and the phone is the first step in becoming more visible.

Contract Employee Ownership

Just a thought.  As previously discussed, the staffing industry has attempted to institute structure to the sale of contract labor through the use of various tools including contracts.  Suppliers have their own as do the clients and time is spent trying to amend the verbage of each.  To that end, even with a contract do we really own or have rights on what we sell?

Certainly we represent people and would like exclusivity to submit them for an appropriate period of time and attempt to hold agreements such as this.  Realistcally, it’s hard to enforce such an arrangement.  Candidates look for multiple agencies to increase their potential.  Clients do the same.  Large companies have different buying mechanisims and our right to a candidate might be good in one department but not another.  Without the benefit of the knowledge that a staffing firm is getting all orders from their client and in turn can submit a candidate to all appropriate requisitions, it is hard to say that that firm owns the rights to any candidate.

Small to mid-size clients allow staffing firms to rely on relationships to protect their interests but not so in a larger environment.  At best, a staffing firm can submit a candidate on the openings that they currently hold and if that same candidate turns up on another requisition in another department through a competitor, take it for what it is worth and look for ways to penetrate that account further.  It appears that this is not an issue of ownership but rather of relationship (both with the client as well as with the contract employee) as well as an ability to fully develop an account.

At the end of the day a staffing firm will win some as well as lose some and it is how the loses are managed that will dictate the further development of relationships and account penetration!