What is a flexible pool?
The ‘flexible pool’ (in Dutch: flexibele schil) covers all staff who are deployed flexibly within organisations. Think, for example, of staff who work on an on-call or zero-hours contract, but also of staff who do not (yet) have a permanent contract. When these people are employed directly by an organisation, we speak of the internal flexible pool. Organisations can also choose to hire part of the desired flexible pool through one or more intermediaries. These employees or self-employed professionals are then called the external flexible pool. Here too, deployment may be on an on-call basis or on a temporary (project) basis.
Why do organisations choose a flexible pool?
Every organisation has a certain staffing need, most of which can be described as a ‘fixed need’. This does not fall under the flexible pool, but is called the ‘permanent workforce’. The other part of the staffing need is continuously subject to change. The larger the organisation, the greater the need often is to be able to deploy a good flexible pool that can scale with the number of staff needed to carry out the work. After all, it has to remain in the right proportion in order to keep guaranteeing the quality of service. This is mainly influenced by:
– Covering sickness, leave and holidays of the permanent staff;
– Scaling up (peak period) or scaling down (quiet period) the service because of changes in the number of assignments;
– A (temporary) greater need for certain expertise to deliver a specialist service.
Being able to keep adapting to these factors also means that organisations can limit organisational risks as much as possible. One scenario is preventing the permanent staff from being overloaded during peak periods, which can result in staff leaving or, for example, in a higher sickness rate. But also: limiting the financial burden on the organisation in quiet periods. For more positive scenarios, think of the further expansion and growth of an organisation, in which deploying the flexible pool makes a valuable contribution.
How do you put together a good flexible pool?
At Kiepe Safety Group we understand what organisations find important and what they are critical about: continuing to deliver the best quality for clients through sufficient staffing. Added to that are important factors such as safeguarding team spirit and collegiality among the (flexible) staff, their expertise, and continuing to innovate and renew as an organisation. Which of the above points has priority for your organisation? And what are the main reasons why organisations choose to deploy flexible staff?
We firmly believe that you cannot manage what you do not measure, and we are happy to enter into a conversation to analyse what the staffing need is, and how large, in the short and the long term. We can then advise on how best to respond to it. We will map out what the organisation needs, which serves as valuable input for putting together the external flexible pool.
Advantages of the external flexible pool.
Kiepe Safety Group acts as an intermediary and has a large pool of flexible professionals who are deployed at various organisations on a flexible or long-term basis. This makes it possible to respond quickly and efficiently to staff absences or to a temporary need for more people. Think, for example, of covering sick leave or maternity leave of key people, both long and short term. The external flexible pool is available for as long as it is needed. A good example of this was during the coronavirus pandemic. Many permanent staff were absent, sometimes even at the last minute, so that at times no replacement may have been available. Here Kiepe Safety Group’s flexible pool can offer a solution for the ad hoc need for extra people. A not insignificant additional advantage is that the workload for permanent staff is not increased even further.
Finding a suitable candidate can take a lot of time, especially if this is not the work you do every day and you may have less access to the right tools. The selection process for a professional who has to be brought in at short notice is also different from that for someone who comes to contribute on a long-term basis. In addition to having the right qualifications, of course, they simply have to meet criteria such as being a strong self-starter and being able to adapt easily to a new working environment. Above all, the flexible worker must be ‘plug and play’ and able to start without too much investment of time by the hiring party, in order to tackle any problems straight away. They are aware that they do not necessarily arrive in ‘luxury’ times, but precisely when the need is urgent or threatens to become so.
