We include developments from the Staffing Industry Daily News and The Staffing Stream to help you focus on emerging movements that could shape your business for the better.


Boomerang Effect

Why you should consider rehiring retirees and other former employees.

A boomerang employee: One who returns to a company after leaving for a period of time. With the labor market shrinking and the world even more connected, many companies are more likely to hire boomerang employees now than in the past. Here are some of the benefits of doing so. Onboarding. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, the average cost of a new hire is just more than $4,000 and the average time it takes to fill a position is 42 days. By staying connected with former employees, you’ll have the chance to reduce those numbers drastically because former employees will have a working knowledge of the systems and processes of the company.

Morale. If a former employee is well-liked, their return can boost morale. Their return will show current employees that the company is a good place to work, knowing that somebody left looking for better and now wanted to come back.

Freshen up. When a former employee returns, they bring with them the new skills, experience and perspective they have picked up since they left. Whether it has been a few years or just a few months, they will have had experiences that gave them new skills and perspective.

Of course, you shouldn’t necessarily rehire just any former employee. You’ll want to make sure that they’re qualified for the position and that the relationship you had with them previously was a positive one. However, the benefits are too great to shut out all former employees — especially in the current tight labor market — just because they wanted to try something new.

Source: “3 Reasons to Rehire Former Employees,” The Staffing Stream, by Robert Hoeft, marketing assistant, QPS Employment Group.


Flextime First

US retail workers are drawn to the industry’s flexible work schedules, research finds.

Workers in the US want flexible work twice as much as those in any other industry, according to research from ManpowerGroup Solutions, a division of ManpowerGroup Inc., and the trade group Retail Industry Leaders Association. Unlike other industries where compensation is ranked as the top motivator, retail candidates rank type of work and schedule flexibility as the top two reasons they seek retail employment.


It Pays to Stay

Workers who stay put earn more per hour than those who switch jobs.

The US labor market posted slower growth in wages in the third quarter, according to the ADP Workforce Vitality Report, which tracks a set of workers to determine wage growth among those who are consistently employed. Overall, wage growth for those who stay in their jobs (job holders) was 4.4% in the third quarter; it was 3.3% for those who switched jobs. On average, job holders’ hourly wage levels are $10 more than that of job switchers.


Self-inflicted

How healthcare staffing has created its own worker shortage, and how to fix it.

The nursing talent gap is projected to grow as patient demand increases and healthcare professionals retire. Organizations’ own staffing and scheduling practices have fed their nursing shortage. But with the right tools and strategies, it is within their realm of control to fix.

FTE leakage. When feeling understaffed, the first metric to monitor is the hours lost due to core staff not meeting their FTE commitment. For example, Nurse Jane is expected to work 72 hours within a two-week period. In week one, she works 36 hours, but calls in sick for a 12-hour shift in week two without submitting for corresponding benefit time. This FTE leakage creates a unit’s nursing shortage and requires the organization to fill these shifts with contingency labor or pull staff from other units to cover the need.

Not scheduling to volume patterns. Scheduling that is not aligned with patient demand and that is typically at the root cause of staff shortages. The number of core staff scheduled for each shift should vary according to the trends in patient volume and predicted demand.

Turnover related to scheduling issues. Consistently forcing core staff into working extra hours and overtime will lead to burnout, job dissatisfaction and turnover.

Predictive analytics can accurately forecast staffing needs months in advance, allowing provider organizations to optimize their staff and schedule to demand. Technology-enabled solutions are also able to effectively monitor if staff are meeting their FTE commitments each schedule period, reducing instances of FTE leakage. Creating more accurate schedules sooner and ensuring core staff is working to their commitments will improve staff morale, ultimately having a positive impact on patient care.

Source: “Three Ways Organizations Create Their Own Staffing Shortages and Changes They Can Make,” The Staffing Stream, by Jackie Larson, president, Avantas.