News & Events

By Patty Hampton, CSP, Managing Director Staffing Services/Executive Search Consultant

 After reading 10 Things Employment Recruiters Won’t Say by Will Swarts, I want to set the record straight on a few points from my perspective and how I run a staffing firm.  I appreciate Swarts calling out staffing firms on their deficiencies, but he’s wrong on a few points. My background on this topic is thus; I have been a candidate with a staffing firm and unemployed in my professional career. I also have managed the staffing firm, Nonprofit Staffing Solutions, for almost a decade.

I want to begin by stating that not all agencies are the same. I personally do not use the term headhunter because it has evolved into an ugly and negative connotation. I prefer to use the term staffing consultant. Also, I was disappointed by the author’s choice of facts, but then we do have to sell and increase readership by any means necessary.

There is no such thing as a “better” way to find a job in today’s market.  I believe all job seekers should have a staffing consultant working on their behalf while looking for opportunities on their own. Staffing consultants not only serve as another pair of ears and eyes for a job seeker, but are a viable resource that can also skill market, secure interviews and create bridges where none may have existed.

Swarts did miss a few statistics in his opening point (There are better ways to find a job). According to the American Staffing Association, U.S. staffing companies employ more than two million temporary and contract employees each day—and 11 million over the course of a year. Also, if you look into the stats provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, you will also find that the staffing industry will add more new jobs in the next six years than any other industry. So, if I were a job seeker, I would have to validate my own experiences with a staffing firm, before I take his advice. Staffing agencies are not only putting people back to work and serving as a bridge to permanent employment, but we have proven on a daily basis that we are a viable employment resource now and in the future.

My heart goes out to the media advertising executive that Swarts mentioned in his second point (We don’t work for you). Again, not all agencies are the same. I can tell you that when a candidate is fully vetted, salary should never be treated as an afterthought. Candidates deserve to know up-front the relationship a staffing firm has with a client and the negotiable salary range for a position if they were retained or conducting a contingency search.

Swarts also wrote about how recruiters work for the hiring company and their allegiance lies with the client and not with the candidate. Again, not all agencies are the same. Most staffing consultants look for a win-win solution for the client and the candidate. This is what I term as a balanced approach. Meeting the client’s expectations and facilitating a negotiated salary that both candidate and client can work with not only makes sense, it is a matter of integrity and client loyalty. When you are in compensation discussions with the client at the kickoff of the hiring process most staffing consultants that I know do not use the “client-centered” approach. This business is about building and leveraging relationships. The candidate and the client experience will be different, but in the end, the staffing consultant’s main goal should always be focused on the integrity of the process and never compromising one deal for another.

I tend to agree with Swarts’s third point (Until a year ago, I was a car salesman) with the exception of one caveat. Through a little research he will find that today quite a few programs require staffing and HR professionals to purchase coursework materials prior to being qualified to take the exam for a certification designation. In the staffing world, we take certifications seriously. Certifications are about dealing with the federal and state laws that impact a firms business, protecting rights of candidates, employees and providing guidance to clients on co-employment obligations and responsibilities. A staffing firm that cares deeply about its clients and the candidates that are recommended to those clients is engaging in best practices to set themselves apart. Certification is one way to accomplish this separation.

After calling a few people, I can confirm that his fourth point (The job we advertised may not exist) still exists today with some agencies and this truly saddens me. I see no point for this madness. Like he said, this is misleading and hurts anyone engaged in a career search that is desperately trying to secure an opportunity. 

Swarts’s fifth point (We already know quite a bit about you) actually scares me! My goodness, yes, there’s probably quite a few agencies engaged in this type of recruiting and pre-employment practice. My best advice – BEWARE. There are a variety of state laws concerning what information can be used during the pre-employment process. I’ve witnessed hiring managers using Google and Facebook, as well as other social media sites, to investigate applicants. There is already some case law that one can refer to, but I believe it is just a matter of time before we see federal employment laws about this practice.

I have a few words of caution for Swarts when he quotes independent career consultants in this sixth point (Our jobs aren’t so hot either), validate what you write before it goes to print. There are a few small niche market staffing firms that actually don’t have to compete with the bigger, national and international firms. Being the managing director of a small staffing firm myself, I can tell you that sometimes great things including career opportunities come in small packages! Our niche market is the nonprofit sector. When you have a portfolio of business that can make a difference in a big world, suddenly you don’t look or feel so small. Plus, 2010 is turning out to be the biggest year in our firm’s history.

Concerning point seven (You’re at the mercy of a computer), there are still some staffing consultants that are old school and know how to source and network in the Internet age. Our firm uses a variety of methods; however our practice is one where we network 80 percent of the time and source 20 percent via resume boards. Staffing firms can no longer afford to identify and vet the same candidates that clients can find on their own. Again, not all staffing firms are the same and I will validate that we DO read cover letters and resumes. This may be a dying art for some, but not for us. As a staffing consultant, I’ve learned alot about a candidate in a cover letter before I decide to schedule a phone screen. We also counsel our candidates about writing good cover letters. We teach how to pepper a resume with key words to make it standout.  

The “temp-to-hire” carrot as Swarts puts it is NOT rotten (point eight). It is a bridge to permanent employment for many of our candidates. I was a temp-to-hire employee through a large staffing firm back in my corporate days. It was the best experience I could have imagined and one that I still recall today. I also picked up a few tips and built a relationship with my then staffing consultant. I see his point, but I believe it is just a matter of some organizations reluctance to add permanent staff to their payroll given the economic environment. The temp-to-hire approach is positive rather than the negative picture that has been painted in the article.

As for point number nine (If you have a job, I could get you fired), I agree – not all recruiters are careful. As a staffing consultant, you have to obtain permission to share the resume of a candidate with another organization. If staffing firms have a standard practice not to engage in this type of recruiting/sourcing activity, then hooray for them. Skill marketing a candidate or pulling resumes down from LinkedIn without express permission from a candidate is a practice I like to call “recruiters gone wild.” Again, not all firms are the same, and it should be a general practice for all firms to fully vet a candidate which includes an in-person interview before their background is shared.

Swarts’s number ten (If I’m in Virginia, I probably won’t help you find a job in Nebraska) is correct. I can recall every friendly referral I’ve received or given to colleagues in other staffing firms or organizations. When staffing firms are passionate about impacting the life of another person, only then will we see more and more friendly referrals. I love candidate and client referrals.

At the end of the day when your conscious is clear and your integrity is in tact, for some of us, it’s about the lives you’ve touched and the relationships you’ve built that we remember. Swarts’s article is a great buyer beware piece, but for the thousands of jobs our firm fills the work we do is often greatly appreciated by our clients and our temporary workers.

By Patty Hampton, CSP, Managing Director, Staffing Services/Executive Search Consultant

I’ve been away all this week at the 2010 American Staffing Association Staffing World Conference in Las Vegas, NV. The first take-away I’ve gained from this conference is how the staffing industry is more than just a bridge to permanent employment for temporary and contract workers. More importantly, the industry is consistently used by economists as a barometer of sorts to understand and evaluate the economy with respect to temporary staffing services. Richard Wahlquist, president and chief executive officer of the American Staffing Association put things in perspective when he announced to a packed room of conference attendees that the staffing industry added over 400,000 temporary staffing jobs in 2009. How much more proof does one need to validate that staffing industry professionals are not just filling orders, but we are without a doubt building capacity and strategic relationships with our clients where the end goal is about talent management and impacting the lives of millions of unemployed people.

One of the keynote speakers, Bruce Tulgan, founder of Rainmaker Thinking Inc, woke up the sleeping giant inside me when he talked about how staffing professionals are in the business of helping organizations shape staffing strategies. Tulgan also shared best practices on talent management. He explained how staffing firms can partner with clients to help HR professionals develop their workforce and their internal teams. These teams can create an environment where attrition is not all bad as long as systems and practices are created that align with new breakthrough solutions.

After that session, it was clear to me that I not only needed to attend the Define and Retool Your Future workshop, but that my thought leadership skills were in full swing and rechanneling my energy. Not! This workshop pushed my thinking to the limit. I had to engage my left brain in an exercise to figure out the economic indicators and trends that I follow for our firm where our niche market is the nonprofit sector. I also found myself jotting down how staffing professionals can become “workforce planning specialists.” We can continue to educate clients on how we can be used as strategic partners to help HR practitioners get the “right people on the bus and in the right seats.”

Of course this conference would have definitely disappointed attendees if it didn’t cover social media/ networking. This social media workshop presented staffing professionals with a montage of social networking sites that are popular with recruiters and applicants and their effects on employment screening and the hiring process. The cons seem to far outweigh the pros and it is just a matter of time before we see legislation on this issue. For now, the best advice I got from this session was that employers need to develop best practices and policies now to successfully navigate risks and legal liabilities of using social networking as part of business processes. Attendees walked away with a new slogan: “What goes on in Vegas may end up on Facebook!”

My day ended with workshops on employment law and health care reform. The employment law workshop titled Staffing Feud was my favorite! It was presented in a creative and fun question/answer and jeopardy game show format. As we all know, navigating through complex and confusing legalese is not only a responsibility, but it is a requirement for all HR and staffing professionals. The health care reform workshop was daunting and depressing, but necessary and important for staffing firm owners and managers, HR, tax, and benefit professionals. Although there are several requirements we need to be aware of as of March 2010, a good chunk of the law that will impact most businesses has a 2014 date stamp that will be here before we know it.

By Mac Smith, Manager, Marketing & Special Events

One hot Internet topic this week centers on an incident that recently took place in the New York Jets’ locker-room. Ines Sainz, a Mexican television reporter for TV Azteca, evidently was verbally harassed while trying to conduct an interview with the New York Jets Quarterback Mark Sanchez.  The whole circus is now under investigation by the NFL and Sainz has received an apology from Woody Johnson - owner of the New York Jets. The details surrounding the alleged harassment are still, and will probably remain, fuzzy. Basically it all amounts to a pretty lady dressed to impress in a room with 53 twenty year old men. (I know; how strange anything would go wrong.)

Sainz’s harassment has been a conversation piece at home and in the office, especially by the ladies I know. My wife, an accounting executive in charge of a department of professional women, and my co-workers, mostly female Human Resources  professionals, all have an opinion on the matter that follows the same line of thinking:

“Sainz should have been better prepared, concerning her attire, for the environment she was entering. She has the right to dress how she wants, but everyone needs to be cognoscente of how they appear to others. She needs to weigh the possibilities of her dress undermining her professional/public persona against her desire to present herself in a manner she feels is attractive.”

No one I have spoken to, personally or professionally, believes that any comments or actions made towards Sainz were appropriate. Everyone stated that the reporter has the right to dress however she wants, but most seem to feel she did not help herself.

All this leads me to my central question about personal branding and comportment. How hard should we work to hit that moving target between presenting ourselves in a manner we feel is attractive and altering our appearance to try and insure we are not mistreated? Personally, I don’t have much trouble with this issue. I’m a white middle class 30-something male. Provided I don’t dress like I’m attending a Lady Gaga concert, most people treat me with an ample amount of respect and rarely jump to negative conclusions. This is an advantage I have in our society. But women still are having issues, especially women of foreign ethnicities. Sainz is from Mexico. Mexican TV personalities dress far more risqué than their American counterparts.

In the HR world there are uncomfortable conversations that border on legality everyday concerning the style of dress of staff. Here at Nonprofit Staffing Solutions, we have a very honest conversation about dress with our temporary staff. (All this talk reminds me of a fight that was had at a previous employer between female office staff and the HR Department on what equaled a mule and if mules were appropriate in the office. As a marketing department staffer, I was brought in to provide an objective opinion and definition of mules. I still have nightmares.) We make it very clear that it is our opinion that matters on acceptable dress in the workplace not the temp’s and not even the client’s. (Some of our clients have more casual dress policies. As a firm, we lean away from casual dress in most cases.) This absolute rule may not be the most tactful strategy, but it eliminates any confusion about appropriate workplace dress. It is also taught that any comments outside “nice shoes” should be avoided. Conversations surrounding a person’s appearance can be the most misconstrued types of conversations.

I’m certain that this would have been the conversation our firm would have had with Ms. Sainz had we sent her to the Jets for an interview. We would have provided these pre-appointment instructions already knowing that Ms. Sainz has a very modern Latin look and style of dress.

“Okay Ines, we are all set. You need to report to the practice field about 2:00 pm to touch base with Jets leadership about the interview. You should be able to catch Mark Sanchez after practice about 3:00 pm. I’d recommend that you try to conduct the interview before he reaches the locker-room. Your ability to video a good interview might be hindered by doing so in the locker-room. Also, please remember to dress appropriately. I know this is a field assignment and professional attire is not expected, but we would like you to not dress as casual as you would for a night on the town. Try something more appropriate for a church picnic.”

By Dawn Taylor, Director of Business Development

Across the nation, various organizations are finding themselves spread thin after bidding farewell to the interns who brought valuable ideas not to mention an extra pair of hands. What is left are mountains of work that other employees must now tackle.

To cope with departures, organizations are looking at other alternatives to aid in tackling the loss of their interns. Temporary employees enable your organization to adjust more easily and quickly to workload fluctuations. Temporary staffing firms can quickly provide your organization with qualified staff. Here are just some of reasons why temporary help can be a solution:

Temporary help can maintain staffing flexibility. With the popularity and staying power of flexible work arrangements, employers need to stay current with the needs of today’s work force. Temporary work is just one of the ways that organizations can offer flexibility and at the same time better meet their missions.

Temporary help can save time and money. The cost of hiring temporary workers is often cheaper than the cost of hiring full-time employees especially when budgets are smaller than ever and funding can be limited.

Temporary employees can provide specialized skills. Today temporary workers increasingly include highly skilled individuals with a wide range of educational backgrounds and work experience. Mission driven temporaries are not only highly skilled; they also aid in enhancing the values of the organization.

You decide the length of employment. An organization has the ability to hire a temporary for a day, a week, a month, or even years. Some organizations employ temporary workers as an excellent cost-efficient way to test the abilities of the temporary employee before extending a full-time position. Hiring a temporary worker can also be a good way to continue getting work done while you search for the perfect candidate for a particular position.

As you can see, using a temporary employee can be a very viable option when your interns have bid you farewell.

By Dawn Taylor, Director, Business Development

Over the many years that I have consulted to organizations regarding their hiring initiatives, the contingent worker has always been considered a very important organization resource. Contingent workers can help provide and avenue to insure goals are reached not only on a departmental level but on an organizational level as well.

When considering a contingent worker recruitment is just as important as it is for a full-time employee. A contingent worker should be a good match not only for the task at hand, but also for the team. Often I have heard a contingent worker remark, “I feel out of place,” or “I don’t feel welcome,” regardless of the time they have spent at an organization.

Full assimilation into a part of the team can go a long way in the productivity of your contingent worker. Listed below are a few small things you can do to make your contingent worker feel welcome.

Set out the welcome mat. Although your contingent worker is with the organization temporarily, introduce them to coworkers. Give them a tour of the office. Point out the important areas like the break room and bathrooms.

Prepare a workspace. Make sure your contingent worker has everything he/she needs to perform the assigned duties.

Make their responsibilities clear. Know what the tasks are before the worker arrives, not after. Make sure the worker is clear as to who their direct supervisor is and where they can direct any questions.

Brief them on corporate culture. Even if they’re only with your organization for a few days, contingent workers need to know proper organization protocol. This is often the most overlooked training of contingent workers. Supervisors spend most of their time outlining the duties, responsibilities and goals and fail to outline dress codes, break rules, etc.

Don’t take contingent workers for granted. Keep in mind that you may need a contingent worker’s services again in the future. If they’ve done a great job, tell them. Likewise, if their work needs improvement, be sure to offer constructive feedback.

Think of a contingent worker just like you would any other employee. These workers aren’t a permanent part of your team, but they do work with your group to achieve results.

By Dawn Taylor, director of business development

I have had the pleasure to interview hundreds of temporary workers. Temps, like full time employees, fall into two categories; those who love doing temporary work and those who are not a huge fan. Interestingly enough, as I think about their interview comments over the years, the good outweighed the bad.

Most temporary workers are grateful to the organizations they worked for, even for a day, because that is experience that they did not have the day before. One comment I recall came from a temp in regards to a one day assignment. As I was telling her about the job, she noticed that I was hesitant to tell her the length of the assignment. Before I could give her what I thought was bad news, she informed me that she was happy to have anything. It would give her a chance, even if for a few hours, to network and to get her foot in the door of an organization that she would not otherwise have gotten access.

Work-life flexibility is another positive temps sight when asked about their employment status. If you are like me, you come from a background that teaches if you do not have a “full time” job then you are not really working. Once after placing a temp on a long term three days a week assignment, I was worried that my candidate was going to seek a better assignment when he got the chance. But in speaking with him, I learned he was thrilled that a position with that kind of flexibility existed. At the time he was taking care of an ailing parent and needed this type of position. The assignment fit perfectly with his personal situation.

Most often my surprise about a temp’s opinion of their employment status is when they finally get full time employment if they are seeking it. Recently, I was having coffee with a former temporary who has been in a full time position now for over five years. As we sipped on our skinny mochas, we started to reminisce about her temping days. She said that she had the time of her life! She loved the variety of the assignments, the people she was able to meet and connect with and being in different organizations gave her a depth that she didn’t think she would get any other way.

So on behalf of all of the temporaries that I have connected with along my staffing journey, I would like to say thank you client organizations. You have given variety, hope, experience and jobs to so many. Good job.

By Dawn Taylor

A few years ago, I visited a prospect that had never had the pleasure of using temporary workers to augment the organization’s workforce. After speaking with the prospect, it was clear that he had an interesting bias against temporary workers. This organization felt that if a person was “professional” then he or she would not lower him/herself to do temporary work. Recently, this attitude has shifted in large part due to changes in the job market caused by extreme economic instability. However, there are still a great number of organizations that I meet that still look at temporary workers as subpar professionals that cannot get a real job.

For those of you who have had the pleasure and the experience to see first-hand how the temporary worker can assist with the growth, morale, and even the overall mission of an organization, than this blog will reinforce your sound decision to use this valuable workforce resource. For those of you who are still on the fence, I have listed some of the characteristics of today’s temporary employee.

Motivated

According to the American Staffing Association (ASA), eight out of ten temporary employees worked full-time earlier in their careers (same ratio as the traditional work force) and nine out of ten are satisfied with their current positions (compared to 60 percent of those in traditional work arrangements).

Educated

Seventy-four percent of temporary employees have at least some college education, compared with only 62 percent of the traditional workforce (in both cases, one in three of those with some college earned at least a bachelor’s degree).

Well Trained

The ASA has also found that nearly 90 percent of staffing employees say their temporary or contract work experience made them more employable; mostly by developing new or improved skills and by receiving additional on-the-job experience. Twenty percent attributed their enhanced skill levels to specific training provided by their staffing firm. A majority said temporary work strengthened their resumes and four out of ten said the experience helped them gain self-confidence.

Higher Caliber

Also according to the ASA, 72 percent of companies that use temporary employees said the quality of temporary and contract employees provided by staffing firms is equal to or better than their full time employees.
As you can see, the temporary work force is not a hub for the down trodden, the displaced, or the professionally challenged. Temporary employees often go through a more rigorous employment selection process. They are vetted not only by the staffing firms (who are usually experts at vetting), but also the client organizations. This increased scrutiny and the recent changes in the job market have increased the quality of professionals available for temporary assignment. Temporary placement has created a new avenue to work for truly elite professionals.

By Dawn Taylor, Director of Business Development

I have worked in the staffing and recruiting industry for more than a decade and have had the pleasure of meeting with some of the top human resources professionals in the nonprofit sector. There are a few statements over the years that I have pondered, however one stands out. It is one of the top hurdles that I have had to overcome over the years. It is the consensus that all staffing firms are the same.

From a staffing firm’s outer appearance, believers of the above statement are somewhat correct. We all provide in some way, shape or form temporary workers. However, the processes by which an organization is introduced to a temporary worker can vary dramatically from one agency to the next.  The internal interviewing processes of a firm can often lead to the best temporary employee you have had or the worst.

Most, if not all, staffing agencies use a vetting process to choose the best candidates to meet the client organization’s overall needs. These processes often include background checks and interviews. What most customers do not know is that some agencies take as little as five minutes from the handshake to welcome aboard. While others do a “cattle call” style of interview by which they have several candidates in a room all interviewing at the same time. The “cattle call” is called speed interviewing and the entire process from start to finish takes three minutes or less.

In reference to background checks, there are many agencies that think getting a background check is not necessary if they get at least one good reference. Then there are agencies that believe a positive background check is a green light to greatness.  Neither is necessarily correct.

A premier staffing agency will do its due diligence in all of these areas and more.  Asking the right questions about a staffing agency’s vetting processes can be the difference between getting a temporary employee that will add value or one that can potentially wreak havoc.  In essence, a staffing firm’s vetting process should be very similar to yours and in the initial meeting with the firm; this particular area should be explored in depth.

So for all of you who thought all staffing agencies were the same before reading this, I hope that you are getting your questions ready for the next staffing agency that comes a knocking!

By Dawn Taylor, Director of Business Development

On any given day there are 2.66 million people on contract assignments at organizations around the country. Seventy-nine percent of these temporary employees work full-time schedules. They work virtually the same work schedule as you or me. Temporaries can often become part of the workplace family, so there is no wonder that panic is created when a temporary worker is hurt on the job. Suddenly there is a scramble to find out who is liable for any medical costs associated with an on-the-job injury.

A few years ago, I had a temporary who had been on-site at one of my clients for nearly a year working in the mailroom. The client was relocating and all of the mailroom employees were required to help move furniture and file cabinets to the new space. In the midst of moving a very large desk, the temporary worker dropped the desk on his foot and broke a few of his toes. The frenzy that ensued after was anything short of insanity.

The client immediately called their legal counsel. The injured temporary worker was whisked away to a hospital. Unfortunately, no one at the client organization thought to call either me or the agency. We received a call from the temporary worker the next day, frantic about not having personal insurance and needing to know how the hospital bill was getting paid. Conversely, we also got a call from the client asking the same thing.

Co-employment situations can be somewhat vague to both the employer and the staffing firm. There are clear laws pertaining to most situations, however there are also situations where the rules are unclear. The situation I just described is clear; any injuries that happen while a temporary worker is on a client site are covered by the worker’s compensation policy of the staffing agency. Clients have immunity under co-employment law.

There are insurance limitations around how much a temporary can lift or move. There are also restrictions, depending upon the type of insurance that a staffing agency has, with regards to the type of work that a temporary employee can participate in. If you are working with a staffing agency, they should make both you and the temporary worker aware of all limitations and insurance restrictions before the position starts. The staffing agency should also relay to both you and temporary employee, the procedures to follow should an injury occur.

So to answer the question, “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up; now what?” Call 911, and then call us!