Benjamin Enterprises Launches BE Learning Systems, Offering Expanded Training and Development Solutions to Both Employees and Employers
Learn more about BE Learning Systems
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We Are Ready to Engage in 2012!
In this last post for 2011, I wanted to bring you the great news that we will be ever more relevant to our customers as we start 2012.
We will offer four primary services that build upon our core competency in Workforce Solutions:
- Continued growth in Managed Labor Solutions, where we are the prime or sole contractor, fully responsible to the customer for the function(s) outsourced to us. Simply put, we do it, so that you don’t have to.
- Staffing Augmentation, particularly in our Government market, will expand. We will provide the qualified people to support customer-directed work.
- Our workforce training and development institute’s curriculum is expanding to offer coursework in vital new areas such as “green” facilities maintenance. With its new eLearning capabilities, it will extend its reach to companies and students in new markets. Geography is no longer a limitation.
- We are introducing consulting services. Using the broad experience of Benjamin Enterprises in markets such as Utilities and Logistics, our executive team has defined consultative programs in key practice areas including vendor performance management and supplier diversity.
The holidays are upon us, so I want to take this opportunity as I close out 2011’s CEO Perspective to wish you a happy and safe holiday season, and a prosperous New Year.
Read MoreWhat We Have Accomplished in 2011
As the end of 2011 approaches, I have been thinking about our accomplishments. In retrospect, what strikes me most is how we accelerated the changes necessary to refine our message and transform ideas into actions.
This was the year that, despite dismal economic conditions, we made the strategic investments in people, processes and technology to begin 2012 with a laser-like focus on the needs of our customers – current and new.
Read MoreThe 5th Question You Should Be Asking: How Will a Workforce Solutions Engagement Reduce My Operational Costs?
My answer to the fifth question addresses the cost benefit to your business. Reducing costs has always been important. In an uncertain economy, it is essential. And while cost reduction matters, it should never come at the expense of sound operational performance.
I think that, at this point, the rationale for outsourcing as a means to improve on the performance of non-core functions makes for a sound strategy. You have heard me repeatedly say that asking an expert to do these functions better than you can make good business sense.
Read MoreThe 4th Question You Should Be Asking: How Will a Workforce Solutions Engagement Impact My Current and Future Enterprise Performance and Most Importantly, Meet My Future Needs?
A Workforce Solutions engagement starts with your decision to outsource the responsibility for business functions that are not your core competencies. Your decision rests upon the recognition that the functions you are outsourcing to us are our core competencies. From the moment the transition begins, your expectation should be that the performance of these functions will improve, better reporting will commence and cost savings will ensue. The reason why you should expect these things to happen is that they are clearly defined in the Service Level Agreement between us.
The Service Level Agreement not only defines expected performance. It can include contingency performance arising from circumstances that may occur, such as snowstorms. It can also address how service levels can be modified if your business conditions change. This is one definition of a “future need.”
Read MoreThe 3rd Question You Should Be Asking: What Is the Level of Service Performance Transparency?
As a Workforce Solutions provider, we need to deliver the functionality that you have outsourced to us, yet still give you visibility into your operating environment and to all actions taken to resolve operational issues. You should have ready access to a self-service management portal that provides operational visibility to our performance of work.
The portal should offer:
- Performance reporting (KPI’s)
- Real time alerts, event information and resolution
- Notifications and updates
- Ability to submit change requests
The Second Question You Should Be Asking: Does the Customer Experience Include Managed Startup Implementation and Post-Startup Service Assurance?
The short answer is: It should.
A well-crafted Service Level Agreement (SLA) defines the processes and responsibilities that we – you the customer and us as the provider – have from the moment the contract is signed. These will include how we will transition the operations from your team to ours, how we will manage the startup process, and how we will keep you informed at every step of the implementation.
Once the operation is fully transitioned, post-startup reporting commences in accordance with the requirements established in the SLA. These reporting requirements spell out reporting frequency, Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s), issues management, and other operational characteristics that you define as important to your understanding of how the business is performing.
Read MoreThe 1st Question You Should Be Asking: How Will a Workforce Solutions Engagement Help My Organization Do Its Job Better?
Every business sells products or services. That is the reason for its existence. Whatever these may be for your business, everything that you do to provide them to your customers are your “core functions”. Collectively, doing them constitutes your “core competency”.
Businesses that are successful are good at their core competency.
There are other functions that you do that, while not directly related to the production of a product or provision of a service, do have an effect on the performance of the business and impacts your profitability. These indirect, “non-core functions” are typically outside your core competency. You may be performing them adequately, but not necessarily optimally.
Read MoreThe Five Questions You Should Be Asking About a Workforce Solutions Engagement
Over the past two months, you have heard me speak about Workforce Solutions in very broad terms. I have described the “fundamentals”, what they are designed to do for you, the essential tools we use such as the Service Level Agreement and Key Performance Indicators, and have explained why workforce solutions is a better business model than the traditional “staffing augmentation” model.
I realize that I am not the only one talking to you about Workforce Solutions. There are many voices competing for your attention. How do you make sense of competing messages and claims? Simply ask the right questions and see what the responses are.
Read MoreDo You See the Forest or Just the Trees?
There is an old saying that I am fond of because it captures the essence of the fundamental business issue we have helped our customers resolve: “You can’t see the forest because of the trees.” In this metaphor, the “forest” is the business in the totality of its systems, and the “trees” are the core and non-core functions that must be performed to yield the desired results.
Let me put this into perspective (and when looking at a complex problem, it is all about perspective!)
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