Shalon Travis is the VP of talent acquisition and contingent workforce at Lendmark Financial Services, where she leads the talent acquisition (TA) team. She has over 25 years of administrative operations experience, including over 17 years of direct HR experience in varied industries and over a decade of direct TA experience. She is a member of The Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) National, the CEB/Gartner HR Leadership Council, the Career Arc Advisory Council, and Lendmark’s Corporate Social Responsibility Council. Travis has a bachelor of science degree from Strayer University in Business Management and is a certified Microsoft Office User Specialist.
Every business has its own before, during and after pandemic moments, many of which have potentially become permanent.
Before the pandemic, the financial services organization where I have worked for the past decade and a half relied on third-party contingent labor providers to help us find temporary employees. We no longer do so and are reaping the benefits of performing and owning this task internally.
During the first year or so, many contingent candidates presented to us by outside firms wanted to work remotely or were not a good fit, as this was during the height of the pandemic. This wasn’t an option since my company met prospects and customers in person and was growing exponentially by opening physical branches across the states we serve.
We were paying exorbitant fees— $5M annually for one of the world’s largest staffing agencies alone—and getting little in return as most of these candidates didn’t work out. The process took too much time as our TA team sifted through round after round of resumes, often only finding unqualified candidates. It became apparent that using thirdparty providers was no longer viable, so I crafted an in-house contingent hiring program, which is part of an overall internal recruiting (IR) model.
Today, having an in-house contingent hiring program is a highly favorable, postpandemic norm – one of our most successful ‘after,’— to extend the IR program in ways that could save the organization even more time, money and eff
Today, our TA team of seven has doubled the volume of contingent employees, eliminated or reduced thirdparty agencies that charged outrageous fees and created a thriving hiring program. Projected to save the company millions of dollars throughout the program. Here is how it came to fruition.
Taking a TA Leap of Faith
In 2021, I introduced my company’s senior leadership team to the IR Model, which would source all contingent and direct hire needs. I also projected annual savings of more than $900K in the program’s first year. With this new model, the TA team far surpassed its goal, instead saving the company over $1.2M. As a result, the team increased total hires from 385 to 565 between 2020 and 2021, including 48 corporate employees and 517 field positions for branches.
In 2022 and 2023 combined, the IR model saved the company over $2.8M, which was accomplished despite nearly double the volume of temporary requests. We filled more than 1,400 direct hires and 1,500 contingent labor positions with 310 temp-to-hire conversions during this time.
The IR program was initially intended to satisfy entry-level financial branch openings. However, as the program has grown, we have also filled middle-upper-level openings, such as several human resources, accounting and IT positions, as well as a corporate attorney position in the legal department. Expanding the program to satisfy higher-level openings has provided additional organization-wide cost savings.
Trying Before Buying Makes Sense
A key benefit of the contingent hiring model is the ability to try before you buy. It allows us to give prospects with transferable skills a chance before hiring. For instance, we have trialed people with backgrounds in customer service, collections and cash handling, rather than consumer finance experience, to see if they are a fit. If they are, we have often offered them fulltime employment.
When working with outside agencies, there was a mandatory 90-day contingency period, which barred us from converting contingent workers to full-time employees before the time was up. While this enabled outside firms to earn huge fees to our detriment, it slowed my team down when an employee was fit to move for a full-time position. Since we brought the process in-house, the contingent-to-full-time-employee process has decreased from 90 days to an average of 56 days.
Being Lean and Learning Along the Way
The IR Model, in a nutshell, has been a success. But there are a few things that I would go back and do differently if given the chance. When starting the IR model, my TA team was lean and continues to be so. However, if we had more dedicated resources earlier, the program could have been further along. We could have also hired more direct roles to reduce time to fill and provide additional cost savings for the company.
Of course, when introducing any new HR program, there are lessons to be learned. It’s helpful to remember at the program’s advent, we were living in uncertain times. During the pandemic, being conservative was being prudent. With the success of this model, I’m hoping to extend the IR program in ways that could save the organization even more time, money and efficiency.
Today, having an in-house contingent hiring program is a highly favorable, post-pandemic norm – one of our most successful ‘after.’ Our TA team has saved the company millions of dollars. We have worked vigorously to transition the company’s TA efforts from standard midsized competency to a large, best-in-class organization amidst accelerated growth. And my company continues to experience and expect even greater expansion.
I hope other TA teams can take note and find success with their own version of an internal contingent hiring program. It has made a world of difference for us.
