transportation for employees

Only a few quarters ago, ensuring transportation as part of the Inhouse service covered temporary workers employed through Randstad Polska only if there were more than 40 in one facility. Since employees are facing increasing difficulties in acquiring employees, recently some clients have decided to provide this kind of support also to their permanent workers.This is because companies realized that it is a valuable benefit for employees that provides clearly visible material value (e.g. an equivalent of PLN 200 per month the employee would otherwise spend on transportation) and first and foremost the comfort (employees do not have to worry what type of transportation to choose, how they would get to work and how would they return – the only thing they have to do is report on time at a specified place).

The current interest in such services stems mainly from the situation in the job market. In some parts of the country, employees with no significant qualifications have become a “luxury asset” that is not readily available. For example, near Poznań, where unemployment is virtually non-existent (in August 2016 the unemployment rate in Poznań was 2.1%, and in the entire Wielkopolskie voivodeship – 5.2%), employers have been searching for candidates without effects and have been forced to extend their searches further and further away from their facilities. One of the popular incentives to find such candidates is offering transportation.

When accepting the task of planning transportation for employees, Randstad Process Managers have to accommodate many variables in the schedule: team work schedules, team members’ place of residence, type of positions (the abovementioned key positions). A great deal of flexibility is required here and the same should be expected from the carrier – obviously, if you do not have to transport many people to the facility, a passenger van is enough, but if you have to transport a bigger group for their shift back home, you will need a coach. On particular days, depending on the schedule, these numbers may differ, and the difference in prices between a 20-person passenger van and 50-person coach is huge (from 70 to 85%). After all, nobody wants to overpay.

Selection of a carrier depends on such elements as, for example, the standard of vehicles offered. Companies often require not only seating for everyone and passenger vans with heating in the winter, but also air conditioning in the summer. Especially when the journey takes an hour or more, the physical condition of employees arriving to work is important. This is however not such an important factor for some companies or some routes.

Consultants may fortunately rely on specialized software facilitating the management of transport routes already in operation. An enormous amount of work has to be done earlier by the Process Managers, who are responsible for transport planning – from route planning, selection of proper vehicle size to meet the needs according to the schedule and the number of employees covered by the service in a particular shift, up to establishing cooperation and negotiating the best conditions with the carriers. All this is to provide employees with as much convenience as possible on the one hand, and on the other to maximize the cost-effectiveness of the entire project.

The efficiency criterion is best evidenced by the fact that, when planning new recruitment, our Process Managers immediately take into account towns that are already on the routes of current shuttle services (or on their extensions) and whether or not there are still vacant places in the passenger vans or coaches.