Depending on the industry, the SLA varies. It may take a company 2 months to get the right CEO, whereas it may need to fill a help desk position in hours. Once the position is open, it is best to fill the position with right candidates, with speed. Speed matters for a number of reasons, which are as follows:
1. You could possibly lose 90% of the high demand candidates very quickly. To get quality candidates in the pipeline, you have got to be fast. 2. Without some of the critical personnel, company may lose revenue, so it has got to fill positions with fast speed. For example, an airline company cannot afford to have position of pilots lying vacant for days and weeks as it has a direct impact on their revenue. 3. Sometimes, it takes long time to convince some of the passive candidates to change and join your company. And, when they do make up their mind for a change, if you do not act fast, you would have wasted all the time you took convincing them.
It is important to highlight here that the speed, with compromise in quality, could lead to wrong recruitment that may turn out to be more expensive to the organization. At times, you can afford to be slow in hiring because if you are a good brand, top candidates may be willing to wait till they get an opportunity to work for you. Recruitment tools are meant to provide speed and maintain quality of people by providing information to the recruiters.
Resource Datamine, a recruitment automation tool, provides timely alerts depending on the SLA to the recruiters so that he can close his position in time. In addition, it also provides the necessary MIS to measure the time to fill various positions.
Service level agreements are contract documents that specifies the rights and obligations of the two parties that are involved in the contract for work i.e. the client and the service provider. The SLA details the levels of services that the vendor will provide the client under the agreement and what payments they would receive for the same.
In addition, service level agreements also specifies the incentives, if any and the penalties that the service provider will have to incur if it fails to provide the expected qualities of deliverables. This ensures that the clients get compensated for the poor performance
Importance of Service Level Agreements
Service level agreements are an integral part of the business projects. It is a singular document that contains all the terms and conditions of the agreements that are agreed on by both the parties. And service level agreements offer an easy route for things and conflict resolution if in case there is any issue between the two parties. It is advisable to get your service level agreements reviewed by a legal counsel so that all the terms mentioned in it can be reviewed legally.
Creating a Service Level Agreement
Generally, service providers have a standard service level agreements that they offer as part of the complete work agreement. Use that as a starting point and get you in-house counsel and legal counsels to review it. They would make certain changes and adjustments that are favorable to your side. They may also add certain provisions that will focus on your priorities.
Basic Components of a Service Level Agreement
The size of service level agreements may differ according to the nature and complexity of the project. It can be a few pages or even a hundred pages long. The basic components of a service level agreement are:
Objective of the outsourcing project
Roles and responsibilities of the service provider as well as the client
Acceptable performance parameters and relevant metrics.
Expected duration of the project.
Description of applications and services that are involved under the agreement.
Procedure to monitor and manage the service levels.
Schedule for payment of incentives and penalties.
Procedures for conflict resolution.
Indemnification
Indemnification is the process where the service provider is liable to pay the clients for any third party litigation costs that results from a breach of warranties. This works in favor of the clients as they get a compensatory amount either in cash or in terms of additional services for the expenses incurred by the breach. Make sure this clause is mentioned explicitly in the service level agreements and if not make you legal counsel add it.
Effect of Ownership Change
Ownership changes happen when the service provider is acquired by or merged with some other company. If the new company plans to carry on the latter's business, customers usually have an expectation that the SLA will remain the same as well. However, that is often not the case. Clients will have to renegotiate the terms of the service level agreement with the new management.
Both Marcia Prera & Maneet Puri are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Marcia Prera has sinced written about articles on various topics from Recruitment, Candida Infection and Recruitment. The authoress is a business writer specializing in human resources and has written authoritative articles on human resource management. She has done her masters in Business Administration and is currently assisting Resource Datamine. Visit. Marcia Prera's top article generates over 8100 views. to your Favourites.
Maneet Puri has sinced written about articles on various topics from Internet Marketing, Legal Matters and Entrepreneurship. Maneet Puri is the director of LeXolution IT Services, a premier based in India. His company provides a range of web services like. Maneet Puri's top article generates over 33100 views. to your Favourites.