Randstad: Enabling tech use to attract workplace talent

Few have the expertise and experience to drive in-company innovation through technology and digitalisation, but Randstad Sourceright leverages a whole team specialising in this area: the Randstad Sourceright division.

Sourceright’s global team is dedicated to pinpointing and onboarding the latest, most relevant emerging technologies on the market. It consists of account, sales and delivery teams and has the highest-quality technology at its disposal to best serve its clients.

A Dutch multinational human resources consulting firm, the goal of Randstad Enterprise’s Sourceright division is to deliver talent to its clients through HR outsourcing. 

Sourceright consults with customers to analyse ways in which it can improve product delivery, including the benefits of automation and AI to enhance the company’s programmes and the delivery of its services. 

One critical responsibility sees the company complete client consultations to produce better efficiencies and processes that are managed internally – the outcome of which ensures its continued evolution.

Randstad: At the pinnacle of innovation

Allowing its workforce to thrive and drive technology and digital enablement forward, Randstad is the first firm in HR outsourcing to provide a rapid innovation fund. This has been replicated by the company’s competitors – something Randstad takes great pride in.

It is in this way Randstad sits at the pinnacle of technological enablement, helping drive original change and growth for the betterment of the entire industry. 

Of course, leading the line in technological innovation doesn’t come without its challenges, as only through continued innovation can Randstad stay at the top. 

Within the firm’s Sourceright division, the key to overcoming any daily challenge is awareness. It can be difficult to know which technologies – when used in the perfect way – one should integrate internally and introduce to customers, particularly when employees are trying to get their day jobs done. 

This is why, for Randstad, change management is a far more difficult challenge than most would initially envisage. Within the Sourceright division, the goal is to understand how technological change is impacting resources and processes, and ask: is it delivering what you expect? 

At Randstad, success does not exclusively mean quick talent acquisition, better quality and improved experiences. Success can also mean the organisation has learned something from its efforts and has acquired a better understanding of the tools it needs.

Randstad: Driving digital enablement

Consulting with businesses on the tools and technology innovations required is a key component of Randstad’s digital enablement process, as is delivering the tools themselves.

This is why, for Randstad, one of the key traits to successfully enabling digitalisation is agility. For the HR outsourcing firm, the key is to understand that clients, as well as the company itself, are in a constant state of flux. As such, the ability to be agile and adapt to market changes is a key issue for which solutions must be found.

After all, adaptation – or the need to adapt – has been felt by almost every business across the globe in recent times, with the COVID-19 pandemic altering how and where people work, while resulting in significant financial implications. 

As such, adapting to a new normal has been crucial to the survival of many businesses, particularly when it comes to acquiring new talent and meeting heightened work-life expectations. 

Sourceright has recognised the agility it needs, effectively adapting to the market and needs of its clients in the last two years by altering delivery and making critical changes to the structure of its team. 

From this perspective, digital enablement is as crucial for Randstad as it is for its clients. For the company, it is just as important to deliver for clients as it is to enable its teams by providing an efficient, technology-driven solution that empowers them to do more. 

Leveraging the right solutions means Randstad's recruiters and sourcers can effectively automate requests and have them automatically organised on a computer dashboard, with the right talent for a particular role made immediately available to them.

This is just one of the ways technology can streamline what could otherwise be an onerous and manual process, ensuring Randstad’s recruiters and sourcers are much more efficient.

Randstad: Balancing AI and human relationships

Of course, while automation and AI can help drastically streamline certain processes and drive efficiencies, Randstad is all too aware of the dangers borne from an over-reliance on technology and the detrimental impact it can have on human professional relationships. 

For the HR outsourcing firm, it’s important to remember it exists in the people business, and people have a tendency to still want some level of relationships. So being an agile and flexible organisation allows it to meet its customers’ talents and suppliers wherever they are.

It’s also about finding the right balance and ensuring generative AI is used in the right way. This includes a concerted data privacy effort and understanding one's organisational AI principles.

Randstad: At the forefront of digitalisation

As technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace, it may seem an impossible task to stay at the forefront of technological implementation and digital enablement, particularly in the HR industry.

This is something Randstad has carefully considered. In fact, it is already heading into the next phase of digital enablement – streamlining its processes. By actively seeking to evolve technologically, the company hopes to stay one step ahead.

As it looks at the automation of what its teams are doing or the data and insights that can be provided to customers, the Sourceright division is excited by all the ways it can deliver talent on a day-to-day basis. 

No longer relying on legacy systems that require multiple log-ins, Randstad is excited by modern suites – whether it’s Slack, Teams or Google – to manage every daily task using a single system. 

Not content with its progress in digital enablement thus far, the firm is looking forward to seeing how streamlining technology can speed up day-to-day processes even more.  

For Randstad, streamlining technology is a means of self-service, removing the complexity of workers having to master multiple systems. This, in turn, helps the firm  attract talent by providing a streamlined platform from which to work.

Of course, attracting the right talent is key for many businesses today, and a part of this is tapping into standard communication channels of emerging generations, while also being sympathetic to more experienced employees.

Not everyone hired by Randstad communicates through TikTok, so it is important the company keeps a series of communication streams open when it comes to hiring talent.

The question it must answer as an organisation is how it is enabling the communications experience and making it easy for any talent looking to find work.

For Randstad, it is important that talent acquisition is not omitted from its digital enablement process, making it accessible to members of all age demographics who are looking for work. 

With this in mind, what is the key to digital enablement today? 

As far as Randstad is concerned, digital enablement today is about leveraging insights data, and applying that enabled technology to make the right adjustments to how people really want to work, maximising workplace efficiency in the process.

By continuing to do this, Randstad is confident it can fulfil its mission of becoming the world’s most equitable and specialised talent company. 

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