In the fast-paced staffing industry, agencies face a unique set of risks both on the client side and on the employee side of the business. On the one hand, you’re responsible for ensuring the employees you hire are qualified for the potential risks they can face in the work environments where they are placed. But you also must partner with clients who provide safe working conditions and fair wages.
Insurance can help protect your business from lawsuits and associated costs, but only to an extent. This is why you need a robust risk management strategy in place. With the right mix of strategy and technology, you can actively mitigate risk and avoid more extensive legal and financial repercussions.
As a staffing firm, your organization is liable for an employee’s mistakes on the job and the misrepresentation of their credentials. You’re also responsible for ensuring the clients you work with won’t pose a threat to your employees, not to mention ensuring your business operations are compliant and fair.
In the staffing industry, there are four particularly notable categories of risk — fraud, credit, financial, and, liability risks:
Each type of risk opens the door to legal, reputational, and financial repercussions that can impact your bottom line. With the countless moving parts in a staffing agency, it’s crucial to proactively identify, understand, and mitigate these threats to keep your business operations running smoothly.
To keep up with the myriad risks in staffing, it is critical to conduct employee and client risk assessments. With a thorough screening process, including background checks and past employment verification, you can minimize risks before it’s too late.
While screening employees and clients may incur a higher cost upfront, it reduces the likelihood of risk occurring. The legal and reputational damage that can stem from staffing agency risks rack up a much higher bill than any screening costs will.
As the scope of staffing risk management continues to increase, outdated tools and spreadsheets are no longer adequate to help effectively manage risk, especially with so many employees in the field. This is why many companies turn to a risk management platform to take their mitigation strategies to the next level.
As risk management needs in the staffing industry continue growing more complex, consider integrating a risk management platform into your existing strategy. With a risk management platform, you can access digitized safety reporting, claims management, and incident intake — all in a centralized repository.
Interested in how you can proactively manage risk at your organization? Learn more about Aclaimant’s insight-driven workflow solution by checking out our Staffing page or booking an introductory demo with one of our experts.