The 20-Minute Performance Review for Your Temporary Staffing Vendor
by Bob Corlett Tuesday, January 27, 2004
Bob Corlett is the founder and President of Staffing Advisors. He developed The Results-Based Hiring Process® and is one of Washington’s best known thought leaders on staffing and recruiting. Thousands of HR executives and business leaders receive Staffing Advisors’ popular newsletters and read his blog – The Staffing Advisor. In his volunteer work, Bob runs the Staffing Alliance of Maryland Employers.
Full Bio
One of your highest paid employees – your temporary staffing vendor – rarely receives a performance review. External staffing resources are a six-figure budget item for many organizations, and proper vendor management is fundamental to controlling costs. Unfortunately, few organizations are comfortable evaluating their staffing vendors. This performance review provides a starting point for ongoing discussion about important trends in your staffing vendor’s performance -- trends that often go undetected until it is too late.
Take just a moment to review your temporary staffing vendor’s job performance this year. Is their service to you continuously improving? Does your vendor know substantially more about your business today than they did a year ago? How does your vendor compare to their competition? Although many employers report being dissatisfied with some aspects of their staffing vendor’s performance, very few are comfortable setting performance standards. A review establishes a standard of performance that your staffing service provider is expected to achieve. A review also helps you decide if your current staffing vendor merits further investment, or if your time and money might be better spent with a new vendor.
As an independent staffing broker, Staffing Advisors continuously evaluates hundreds of staffing vendors. Our research shows that the best temporary staffing firms share specific distinguishing characteristics. This free assessment introduces some of the more easily observed attributes of a top vendor. In Staffing Advisors’ more comprehensive vendor appraisals, we take into account other less obvious factors such as the organizational culture of the vendor, the depth and experience of their staff, and how the staff is trained, evaluated, and compensated.
Improved vendor management has the potential to lower employee turnover, improve staffing efficiency, raise productivity, and increase profitability – an excellent return on a twenty minute investment.
The Staffing Advisors Twenty-Minute Vendor Performance Review
Subjective Question Section
For questions 1 – 14, circle the answer that best reflects your opinion of your current staffing vendor. If you have multiple vendors, complete the survey for each vendor individually.
Answer Key
For the Subjective Question Section (questions 1 through 14), tally the number of eachresponse you selected.
For each “a” response add 2 points to your vendor’s score
Vendor Score __________
For each “b” response add 1 point to your vendor’s score
Vendor Score __________
For each “c” response subtract 1 point from your vendor’s score
Vendor Score__________
For each “d” response subtract 2 points from your vendor’s score
Vendor Score__________
Total vendor score in the Subjective Section (questions 1-14)=__________
For the Objective Question Section (questions 15-25:
Add 2 points for each occurrence in questions 15-18. __________
Subtract 2 points for each occurrence in questions 19-25. __________
Total vendor score in the Objective Section (questions 15-25):__________
Combined vendor score from both sections (all questions)=__________
What Your Score Means
Total Score: 20+
What it Means:
If this score is evenly balanced between the Objective and Subjective categories, it indicates that your vendor is among the best in the market. Further time invested with this vendor is probably time well spent, unless you observe a significant decline in service.
Suggested Course of Action:
Total Score: 10-19
What it Means:
This score indicates a mediocre vendor. Further time invested with this vendor is warranted only if you are already observing a steady trend toward improved service.
Tying to improve a vendor in this category is often not a wise use of your time, but if you do choose to give them a second chance, set a timetable for immediate improvement.
Suggested Course of Action:
Total Score: 0-9
What it Means:
This score indicates a vendor with significant flaws. This performance level is often quite frustrating to operational areas and likely to be costing your organization substantial time and money. Move quickly to replace this vendor before the situation deteriorates further.
Suggested Course of Action:
Total Score: Below Zero
What it Means:
Has your vendor’s performance recently declined significantly? Did your vendor recently experience significant staff turnover? If so, consider taking the actions in the “10 - 19” category. If several successive vendors have scored this poorly, there may be a problem in your internal vendor procurement practices. Regardless of cause, there is no reason to accept this poor level of service.
Suggested Course of Action:
Take just a moment to review your temporary staffing vendor’s job performance this year. Is their service to you continuously improving? Does your vendor know substantially more about your business today than they did a year ago? How does your vendor compare to their competition? Although many employers report being dissatisfied with some aspects of their staffing vendor’s performance, very few are comfortable setting performance standards. A review establishes a standard of performance that your staffing service provider is expected to achieve. A review also helps you decide if your current staffing vendor merits further investment, or if your time and money might be better spent with a new vendor.
As an independent staffing broker, Staffing Advisors continuously evaluates hundreds of staffing vendors. Our research shows that the best temporary staffing firms share specific distinguishing characteristics. This free assessment introduces some of the more easily observed attributes of a top vendor. In Staffing Advisors’ more comprehensive vendor appraisals, we take into account other less obvious factors such as the organizational culture of the vendor, the depth and experience of their staff, and how the staff is trained, evaluated, and compensated.
Improved vendor management has the potential to lower employee turnover, improve staffing efficiency, raise productivity, and increase profitability – an excellent return on a twenty minute investment.
The Staffing Advisors Twenty-Minute Vendor Performance Review
Subjective Question Section
For questions 1 – 14, circle the answer that best reflects your opinion of your current staffing vendor. If you have multiple vendors, complete the survey for each vendor individually.
- How well does your current staffing vendor match candidates to your varying needs? Is the “fit” just as good in each different department?
- How does your current vendor respond when a candidate does not “fit” in a particular role? (Think of the most recent time this occurred.)
- How completely do the candidates meet your needs?
- Within the past year, how has the vendor’s staff turnover affected you?
- How experienced is your vendor’s staff? (Leave blank if not sure)
- How hard does your vendor work to learn about your needs?
- What does your vendor ask questions about?
- When you hang up the phone after having placed an order:
- Do you have effective personal contact with your vendor’s key decision makers, or are decisions about your account made elsewhere?
- What does your vendor complain about?
- How fair is the pricing?
- Does your vendor work well as a team?
- Overall, how do you feel about your service level?
- Overall, how much trust do you have in your vendor?
- Your vendor referred you to free staffing resources, or made a pro-bono referral to you.
- Your vendor helped you recruit a more diverse staff.
- Your vendor referred a temporary employee who you wanted to hire full-time.
- You commended the outstanding performance of a temporary employee.
- You noted the poor performance of a temporary employee, by either ending a temporary assignment early or requesting a refund due to poor job performance.
- You requested a refund that was not resolved to your complete satisfaction.
- A temporary employee was late to their assignment and you were not notified.
- A temporary employee did not arrive at their assignment and you were not notified.
- You were overcharged on an invoice for any reason.
- You reported a billing problem that took more than a month to resolve.
- You discovered that a temporary employee had not been put through the proper skills testing and background checking.
- a) I am completely comfortable. They understand our varying needs.
b) Some departments are consistently staffed well, others are not.
c) I am never entirely sure about the match until I meet the candidates personally.
d) I feel I must review resumes for temp assignments and make the selection myself.
- a) The vendor took full responsibility and initiated specific steps to prevent the problem from reoccurring.
b) The vendor took responsibility but did not prevent it from happening again.
c) The vendor blamed the temporary employee.
d) The vendor tried to blame me or my organization.
- a) Candidate selection is superb. We usually hire the candidates full-time or at least request them back for future temporary assignments.
b) Candidate selection is acceptable and predictable. We request back over half of all candidates who are assigned to our organization, with only rare mismatches.
c) Candidate selection is inconsistent, sometimes terrific and sometimes bad.
d) Candidates are usually a disappointment.
- a) All my contacts are unchanged from a year ago and they understand my needs.
b) Some contacts changed, but the transition was smooth, and I was unaffected. My new contacts are experienced and understand my needs very well.
c) Some contacts changed and although it briefly lowered my service levels, things are back on track now.
d) All my contacts changed and no one is familiar with my account.
- a) The manager has more than 5 years of staffing experience and the front line staff has more than 2 years of staffing experience.
b) The manager has more than 5 years of staffing experience and the front line staff has less than 2 years of staffing experience.
c) The manager has less than 2 years of staffing experience and the front line staff has at least 2 years of staffing experience.
d) The manager and staff are all new to staffing.
- a) They know my industry well and often give me useful information.
b) They find ways to learn about my business and ask me informed questions.
c) They do no research and expect me to tell them everything.
d) I find myself repeating information I have already told them.
- a) They ask mostly about my business goals and outcomes.
b) They ask mostly about personalities and who best fits the culture of the organization.
c) They ask mostly if I have any orders to give them.
d) They do not ask questions. Mostly they chitchat about non-business issues.
- a) I am relaxed and confident that it is handled - it is off my mind.
b) I know they understood my request and will follow-up quickly even if they do not have the right candidate.
c) I feel the need to follow-up in a few hours to be sure they will come through for me.
d) I often feel the need to call a second service to “hedge my bet” and be sure the request is handled.
- a) I know the owner of the firm, and work well with him/her.
b) I regularly meet with the local decision maker.
c) I have never met the key decision maker for my account.
d) My vendor is having turnover problems with their managerial positions.
- a) They have a positive outlook and rarely complain about anything.
b) They complain about the weather, or business conditions.
c) They complain about their co-workers, boss or company.
d) They complain about their temporary staff.
- a) My vendor’s prices compare favorably to comparable firms.
b) My vendor is expensive, but their service is worth the premium.
c) My vendor charges more than I think the service is worth
d) My vendor tries to charge as much as they think I will pay.
- a) My contact knows me well, and their co-workers are very familiar with my account.
b) My contact knows me well, and their co-workers are pleasant but not helpful.
c) Nobody seems to know me particularly well, I often have to repeat information they should have on file, such as my address and phone number.
d) The vendor seems very commission oriented and secretive, so my information is deliberately not shared among the staff.
- a) My vendor is very responsive and proactive – they often anticipate my needs and issues.
b) My vendor is responsive to my needs, and reacts very quickly to issues I identify.
c) I sometimes need to follow-up with my vendor a few times to get an issue handled.
d) My vendor has a hard time adapting to new needs and situations, they are not flexible.
- a) I genuinely like and trust my vendor without reservation.
b) I trust my vendor to be fair.
c) I feel the need to “keep them honest” by periodically auditing invoices or independently verifying what they have told me.
d) I am never entirely sure if they are telling me the whole truth.
Objective Question Section
For the questions 15 - 25, list the number of times within the past thirty days that each event occurred:
- Number of occurrences:
- Number of occurrences:
- Number of occurrences:
- Number of occurrences:
- Number of occurrences:
- Number of occurrences:
- Number of occurrences:
- Number of occurrences:
- Number of occurrences:
- Number of occurrences:
- Number of occurrences:
Answer Key
For the Subjective Question Section (questions 1 through 14), tally the number of eachresponse you selected.
- Total number of “a” responses __________
Total number of “b” responses __________
Total number of “c” responses __________
Total number of “d” responses __________
(a + b + c + d = 14)
For each “a” response add 2 points to your vendor’s score
Vendor Score __________
For each “b” response add 1 point to your vendor’s score
Vendor Score __________
For each “c” response subtract 1 point from your vendor’s score
Vendor Score__________
For each “d” response subtract 2 points from your vendor’s score
Vendor Score__________
Total vendor score in the Subjective Section (questions 1-14)=__________
For the Objective Question Section (questions 15-25:
Add 2 points for each occurrence in questions 15-18. __________
Subtract 2 points for each occurrence in questions 19-25. __________
Total vendor score in the Objective Section (questions 15-25):__________
Combined vendor score from both sections (all questions)=__________
What Your Score Means
Total Score: 20+
What it Means:
If this score is evenly balanced between the Objective and Subjective categories, it indicates that your vendor is among the best in the market. Further time invested with this vendor is probably time well spent, unless you observe a significant decline in service.
Suggested Course of Action:
- Work with this vendor to further improve performance by selecting 3 key areas for improvement. Collaborate with them on specific goals you would like to have them achieve in the next three to six months.
- Ask them to report back to you quarterly on their progress.
- Re-evaluate them in six months to a year.
Total Score: 10-19
What it Means:
This score indicates a mediocre vendor. Further time invested with this vendor is warranted only if you are already observing a steady trend toward improved service.
Tying to improve a vendor in this category is often not a wise use of your time, but if you do choose to give them a second chance, set a timetable for immediate improvement.
Suggested Course of Action:
- Meet with the vendor’s senior management to outline all of your concerns.
- If the vendor seems genuinely interested in improvement, establish 3 to 5 specific and measurable goals you expect to see achieved within 1- 3 months.
- Ask the vendor to report back to you on their progress (in writing) at least monthly.
- Monitor progress closely and re-evaluate within 3 months.
Total Score: 0-9
What it Means:
This score indicates a vendor with significant flaws. This performance level is often quite frustrating to operational areas and likely to be costing your organization substantial time and money. Move quickly to replace this vendor before the situation deteriorates further.
Suggested Course of Action:
- Don’t waste time trying to improve a vendor who scored this poorly.
- Identify several other staffing firms with stronger capabilities.
- Meet with the potential new vendor’s operational staff (not the sales staff) and use this performance review to evaluate them.
Total Score: Below Zero
What it Means:
Has your vendor’s performance recently declined significantly? Did your vendor recently experience significant staff turnover? If so, consider taking the actions in the “10 - 19” category. If several successive vendors have scored this poorly, there may be a problem in your internal vendor procurement practices. Regardless of cause, there is no reason to accept this poor level of service.
Suggested Course of Action:
- First understand how any vendor could have been selected and remain in use with such a poor level of service. Are proper controls in place to monitor performance?
- Next, review your procurement and vendor management strategy before selecting a new vendor. Do you select based solely on price?
- Finally, identify several other staffing firms with stronger capabilities. Meet with the potential new vendor’s operational staff (not the sales staff) and use this performance review to help evaluate them.