[ITW] Delphine Labail, Director of Customer Relations at Troops, the digital platform for temporary workers

The temporary employment sector has not escaped the turbulence of the coronavirus health crisis in France and around the world.

While a number of 100% digital temporary employment agencies (i.e., without a physical branch) were already well equipped to ensure the continuity of their relationships with client companies and temporary workers, other more traditional players saw their activities severely impacted, particularly during the initial containment period.

Temporary employment agencies had to react quickly and ingeniously to deploy digital solutions and tools, and maintain their market share. Delphine Labail, Director of Customer Relations at Troops, takes a look back at the year 2020 and forecasts for the future.

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How would you sum up 2020 in terms of the digitalization of the temporary employment sector?

Like the rest of the economic world, the temporary employment sector has obviously seen many changes as a result of the covid-19 health crisis. The events and political decisions that punctuated the year naturally led to economic impacts for many temporary employment groups.

In France, temporary work declined by 23.6% in 2020. This corresponds to the loss of almost 185,000 full-time equivalent temporary ^jobs1.

These figures - which may seem alarming at first glance - are not linked to the dynamism of the sector as such. In my opinion, the two main causes of the slowdown in temporary work activities are :

• The logical repercussion of the standstill in certain business sectors, which have had to freeze all recruitment. This is particularly true of the catering, hotel, tourism and events sectors.
  
  
• The sudden interruption of work for certain temporary employment agencies that were not sufficiently well equipped to allow their employees to carry out their duties remotely, by telecommuting.

This second point had major repercussions on the candidate relationship. With the closure of agencies, we had to find ways of communicating with temps on a qualitative level and ensuring the continuity of administrative services. As a result, our way of working had no choice but to evolve rapidly. In this instance, we have seen a significant increase in the number of remote interviews.

It is also worth noting that for some players, opportunities have emerged from this crisis. Going digital has enabled them to gain market share without necessarily needing to extend the opening hours of physical branches. They have opted for a so-called " phygital " model, i.e. one that skilfully capitalizes on the complementarity of physical networks and the improved productivity brought about by digital.

Finally, and quite logically, demand for temporary staff in the retail and healthcare sectors has exploded.

Do you think that the changes observed during the health crisis will continue?

As far as the digitalization of the sector is concerned: yes, indisputably! The sector had already been moving in this direction for several years, but the crisis has accelerated the trend. Digital technology is boosting the image of temporary employment agencies.

At a time when 35% of temporary workers are under 25 and 28% between 25 and 34 years of ^age2it goes without saying that digital is no longer an option. Otherwise, temping groups run the risk of completely missing out on this target group of young candidates, for whom digital technology is part of everyday life.

Going digital means not only being more in tune with the expectations of temporary workers, but also with those of our customers, the user companies. In today's calls for tender, digital is almost systematically mandatory. Customers want 24/7 access to information, flawless responsiveness and maximum personalization of service. Without digital, it's impossible to meet these challenges.

The great strength of the digitalization of temporary employment agencies is that it not only responds to the constraints imposed by the market, but also reduces the costs historically associated with the management of administrative tasks.

All these factors combined explain why, in 2021, digitalization will continue and accelerate.

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What are the advantages of a digital platform for temporary employment agencies?

Today, all temporary employment agencies have begun their digital transformation. This has been accelerated by the emergence of the online temping market mentioned above.

However, despite the apparent revolution brought about by these new entrants, "we are still a long way from a platform model where all transactions take place online.grity of transactions take place online, with no human support to carry them ^out3 " recalls Kaelig Sadaune, Managing Director of Randstad Direct. So it's not a threat that traditional temporary employment agencies must perceive in the digitalization of the sector, but a real opportunity to boost their productivity.

The advantage of using an all-in-one digital platform when you have a physical network is first and foremost to put an end to the piecemeal use of software and tools that are not interconnected. Centralizing information and having access to real-time updates significantly reduces the risk of errors, and naturally increases the speed with which tasks can be carried out. This is what a SaaS platform like Troops, with which numerous third-party solutions can be synchronized (ATS, job boards, invoicing software, payroll, etc.), makes possible.

By automating a maximum number of administrative tasks, the digitization of temporary work groups puts the human element back at the heart of the agency-client-temporary relationship. Agency staff are freed from time-consuming tasks (DPAE, contract signatures, automatic reminders, etc.), and can focus instead on higher value-added missions.

In addition, Troops-type software offers a vast improvement in data collection and the monitoring of key performance indicators, with intelligent dashboards.

Finally, deploying a digital solution for a network of agencies is an ideal opportunity to refresh its image with temporary workers and offer a competitive customer experience to user companies. All of which reinforces the network's employer brand.

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