Imagine you work for a large global company in human resources. You are faced with some special staffing needs for a few of the departments that you serve. You know that the people you’re looking for must be well trained and able to do the job immediately.

So when staffing gets tough, you frequently turn to temporary staffing agencies for assistance. But today’s challenge is a bit more complex.

You need an administrative assistant who is fluent in Spanish for one of the executives visiting from Spain. You also have a project for which you are providing HRM support that will require someone who is well versed in Hindi and Hindu culture. And your manufacturing vice president is asking for your help as she’s preparing for a visit from a Korean client who doesn’t speak English. What do you do? If you’re in the New York area, the answer is simple. You contact Deborah Wainstein, founder of Priority Staffing Solutions, and ask for help.35 Priority Staffing Solutions is a temporary staffing agency in New York. Founded in 1999 by Wainstein, the organization provides multilingual temporary workers to organizations in the New York City area. Employing fifteen full-time individuals and more than five hundred part-time employees, the company places nearly seventy temporary employees daily as administrative assistants, computer graphics specialists, word processing operators, and legal office support staff. Serving the needs of approximately eighty clients—such organizations as Revlon and RCN Corporation—

Priority Staffing Solutions offers their clients “cost-effective strategies while distinguishing and responding to the ever-changing needs of each individual organization.”

For Wainstein, her service is a wonderful help to her client organizations. She’s helped them staff for peak periods, or find a particular skill needed for special projects. Through her service she’s also assisted her clients in saving some HR-related costs, such as those associated with recruiting. In return, she’s distinguished her company as a leading multilingual temporary staffing agency, resulting in the company generating several million dollars in annual revenues.

Questions:

1 What role does a temporary staffing agency such as Priority Staffing Solutions play in the recruiting efforts of an organization?

2 Does a surplus or a shortage of workers play a role in how organizations recruit? Discuss.

3 How does an organization such as Priority Staffing Solutions assist in filling “hard-to-recruit” jobs? Explain.

4 What effect, if any, does using a firm like Priority Staffing Solutions have on an organization’s image? Defend your position.

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