Strategic Staffing: the New Paradigm of Hiring

Setting up a steel distribution and warehouse business is not walk in the park. Aside from going through the rigors of initial expenditure and finding the right location, appropriate manpower is also called for. For this type of business, as mentioned earlier, around 300 to 500 people will need to be employed. These consist of industrial truck operators, electricians, machine assemblers and builders, machine maintenance staff, hand packagers and word processors. Special attention should also be given to people who will be in charge of conducting inventory and regular floor checks, as well as safety inspectors, engineers and cleaning crew.
Most warehouse offices operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so you also must be prepared to give them orderly shift schedules, ample wages and benefits. Several managers will need to be placed in every department because just one simply cannot oversee all the work being done in a single unit, particularly in a steel distribution and warehouse operation. The basic goal of hiring is the same today as it has always been. One way or another, businesses and other organizations need to find cost-effective ways to attract, hire and retain quality employees—people who can help a company achieve its strategic goals.
What’s changing, however, is the mind-set that is now driving the hiring process, as well as the strategies that companies are adopting to fill their staffing needs. Savvy managers and business owners now recognize that the traditional model of hiring—finding individuals who meet the requirements of a “position”—is out of step with the challenges of today’s business environment. It’s too rigid. It severely limits a company’s ability to respond pragmatically to the changing dynamics of both the market and the workplace.

The need today is for staffing strategies that are fluid and flexible. The new thinking that underlies the staffing practices of enlightened companies at present is commonly referred to as strategic staffing or flexible staffing. Whatever the designation, the core idea is the same: to bring staffing policies and decisions into closer alignment with the direct needs of the business as those needs arise. The rationale, in other words, is not to “fill desks” but to “fill needs. ” The old hiring approach was driven by the question, “What individual is best to fill this position?
” The new paradigm on the other hand, is driven by the question, “What combination of resources will best enable the company to meet its short-term and long-term business needs? ” To sum it all up, companies today are looking at new and creative ways to carry out their hiring procedures, and address the growing use of temporary workers as a fundamental staffing strategy. Remember what has been said about your company’s mission and vision. Customer Satisfaction They say a business thrives depending on how strongly its target market responds to it.
Thus, if you want your warehouse distribution business to trump others in the industry, you want to give something extra. Often, this ‘extra’ is determined by the kind of customer care you give to clients. Of course, nobody in his right mind would want to do business with a company that does not know how to take care of customer needs. Why, sometimes you even have to cater to customer whims in order to maintain a good working relationship. This does not mean, however, that you should compromise what your company believes in and scrimp on your end of the bargain just to please a customer. Read about components of staffing
Customer satisfaction simply means your client feels like a king without getting the impression that you are profiting from his interest. All businessmen know that for transactions to be healthy, everything should be a win-win situation. While this is the outer norm, in reality, it’s really every man for himself. The key to succeeding, therefore, is being discreet about it.
A. Rewarding Customers Every buyer wants a free item or an incentive for a product bought. Buyers want to have a feeling of spending wisely.
Having another product in hand or some special incentives awaiting them bring to them the feeling of making the best out of their money. And you can expect a repeat buy or a referral from them. Rewarding customers is not expensive as you might think. You are just converting your mediocre marketing strategy to rewarding marketing. And since you as a good merchant have already allotted a considerable amount of money, you can use this same money for rewarding customers It is just like any other marketing only that it is specifically for first-time buyers or repeat customers.
First-timers or not, they are still buyers. And your money is just directed to those who are willing to buy, not to some by-passers and uninterested customers.
B. Privilege to Affiliates/ Partners Rewards to customers needn’t should come from your pockets all the time. You can reward customers, gain sales, and promote other products without a single penny on your part to spend! You can do this by partnering with products and services to compliment your own. Since we’re talking about a warehouse distribution business here, your options are endless!
If you’re distributing steel products, you can partner with small and large machine makers and restaurant counter builders, or the like. Merchants do a tie-up with other businesses to distribute their free product samples instead of distributing it in their own network. Package with this tie-up is a free advertisement of their product to the business partner. This way, their business contacts will widen with no extra cost on their part, only the regular marketing expenses incurred in producing product samples. Also, instead of product samples, most merchants offer their own discount coupons or cards for distribution.