Chennai: Even as flexi staffing companies are trying to solve the issue of twin identity of their consultants who, though on its rolls are working elsewhere, their consulting staff have found a simple solution — identifying themselves with the client company and not with the staffing company that is their primary employer.

However, this has thrown up new challenge of building internal brand equity for flexi staffing companies.

According to an employee of a flexi staffing company "outsourced" to a Chennai-based software solutions company, "When asked by my relatives and friends, I say that I am working in the software company where I have been assigned. Unless somebody specifically asks whether I am a direct or outsourced employee I will not reveal the name of the staffing company on whose rolls I am."

According to her, for all practical purposes her daily interactions are with the officials of the software company and contact with her original employer has been minimal, there was no need to bring in the staffing company''s name to confuse matters.

Often temporary staff or "temps", as they are called, prefer not to display their identity cards, which usually have a different colour scheme than the cards of permanent employees of the client company.

Very few reveal that they are posted at a particular company but employed by a staffing company. "This may be due to the stipulation laid by the companies who employ temps to avoid future problems," says an HR executive of a leading software company.

Though junior and senior level professionals favour temporary assignments, they are reluctant to admit that they were the employees of an IT human resource provider.

The challenge for pure play flexi staffing companies is in transforming a person who is proud to be associated with a client company to an actual employee of a growing IT human resource company.

Further with overseas staffing companies setting up base through acquisitions, building brand equity has become important for domestic flexi staffing companies. More so for companies that service the IT sector.

Not wanting to be quoted, a senior executive of a leading Indian staffing solutions company remarks, "The internal branding problem for companies like ours is serious now. This could be partly resolved when the companies go up in the value chain rather than focussing on pay roll processing services." Going up the value chain implies offering consulting services for clients.

Says M V Subramanian, director and COO, Future Focus Infotech Pvt Ltd, "Flexi staffing companies have to align with the objectives of their clients and provide consulting services. In two years the industry will demand it."

According to him Future Focus is a pure play flexi staffing company that provides people for temporary positions at middle and senior levels. Given this business focus, building brand equity internally is not a short-term exercise. The process is slow and long drawn.

Talking about Future Focus'' brand building strategy he says, "We provide orientation programmes to our consultants, conduct regular counselling and discussion sessions to chart out their career options and other work related issues." Such exercises he hopes would help in creating unique brand equity for Future Focus amongst the flexi staffing community.

The other aspect is to increase the interactions between the HR manager of the staffing company with that of the consultants. Today there interactions are minimal and confined to problems that crop up at the client site.

A study conducted by Future Focus among its consultants to gauge the effectiveness of these measures surprisingly revealed that almost 50 per cent of them felt that the complete career management services provided by the company put it on par with many IT companies, in terms of performance appraisal, bonus, salary benefits, leave and others.