The audience I am speaking to today are executives and managers that question the value of being involved in industry associations.  There are times when I would have been a member of that audience through my years as a staffing executive.  However, associations have not only done a better job of providing measurable value to staffing organizations they also play a critical role in protecting our industry from potentially devastating regulatory changes the most recent of which was the Nuefield Memo released in January of 2010.

Understanding the importance of addressing short term needs, associations have added services that provide more immediate value to their members.   In the case of TechServe Alliance they have three distinct value propositions that speak to address more immediate operational issues.  Including:

Networking & Educational Opportunities
Unparalleled Access to Industry Best Practices
Business Tools that Reduce Costs & Extend Market Reach
Tapping into the Extraordinary Efficiencies of Scale
Insurance & Financial Services
Tailored to the Specific Needs of the Industry, Cost-Conscious Products from a Trusted Source
Staffing companies can also benefit from industry benchmarking information that allows them to compare their performance to the industry as a whole.  Benchmarking is critical in determining your company’s competitiveness, as well as determining adjustments to your company’s overall strategy.

However, the most valuable service associations provide is not easily measurable but critical in ensuring the health of the industry.  Simply put, associations provide a collective voice against national regulatory efforts that could change the landscape of our industry.  The latest of these threats was not legislation, but a change in enforcement policies of the H1B visa.  The Nuefield Memo threatens the use of H1Bs by staffing organizations.  Both TechServe Alliance and American Staffing Association filed a lawsuit challenging the memo’s authority to make such sweeping changes.

While the impact of the Nuefield memo has yet to be determined it is clear that the staffing industry benefits greatly from organizations that provide a collective voice and monitor government regulation for potential threats.  Without those associations we would not only be unable to fight harmful regulation, we may not even know it exists until it’s too late. That alone justifies our support.