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Jobs report points toward improving economy 

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The news is out – the latest jobs report showed that the pace of job creation last month reached levels not seen since November. And that’s not all. Hiring was seen across multiple sectors – allowing for people in all industries to rejoice with new job prospects.

According to the Department of Labor, the biggest increase in hiring was seen in professional services – with 73,000 jobs added in February. Construction added an additional 48,000 jobs, healthcare rose by 32,000 and retail added 24,000. Overall, the unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent – a welcome sight for all.

The number of people added who found jobs in February easily topped estimates made by economists. The Wall Street Journal reported that economists predicted that 160,000 jobs would be created during the month, and the unemployment rate was forecast to remain the same.

So, what does this mean for us in the staffing world? It means that the percentage of people who have a job or are looking for one fell to 63.5 percent – the lowest it has been in 32 years (not an exaggeration). While fewer people are looking for work, companies are still looking to hire skilled professionals.

However, it’s not too uncommon for employers to report that they are disappointed by the lack of skilled labor they are seeing in the marketplace. Jobs are left open all the time because companies can’t seem to find the workers who know the right systems or have expertise – and the experience to back it up.

The improving economy also means that many professionals that might fit a client’s needs are not on the unemployment line. Often they are working for another company and so are part of the passive job-seeking force. Recruiting and staffing firms often have to work hard to attract these professionals to new opportunities with the offer that most resonates with the candidate. In addition, you know your clients are going to feel better being presented with candidates who can have a positive impact on their business in a short period of time.

Recruiters like you know this well. After all, it’s your job to pinpoint the needs of clients and then, using your resources, find the right candidates from your candidate pool for a position or even multiple positions. That’s where your recruiting software comes into play. When your software enables you to effectively grow, track, and manage your candidate pool, it allows you to better find and select the candidates that clients want to see.

Networking quick tips

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Regardless of what position you hold, whether you have a job and you’re happy, employed and looking for a job, unemployed or a business owner looking to hire people, networking is crucial. Professional networking is more than just getting someone’s business card or connecting on LinkedIn though, it’s an entire exchange between you and another person and could impact your future.

Now, as a staffing professional, you may thing to yourself, “I know the importance of networking” or are even asking yourself “Why do I need to network?” It’s simple – the more people you know, as job candidates, potential clients or just other industry professionals – the more prepared you are to serve your purpose – making connections.

Recruiting software will help you keep those connections fresh, organized and detailed so that you can pull information at a moment’s notice. However, it won’t help you make that initial contact – that’s all on you.

Here are a few quick tips for professional networking:

1) Take your time. If you’re at an event and are constantly looking over your shoulder to find the next “important” person to talk to, the people you are conversing with are going to be insulted. Take the time to build a quality connection with an individual that goes beyond the “Hi, how are you and what can you do for me” mold.

2. Show confidence. People typically gravitate toward others who are confident. Take charge in a conversation if the discussion is muted and faltering. Direct it to topics that you feel everyone can get excited about – or at the very least participate in.

3. Learn to research. Once you’ve left an event with business cards in hand, remember to go home and schedule a time to reconnect with people. A quick message and connection on LinkedIn or Twitter may be appropriate depending on the business and how close you felt the connection was.

Should you encourage employees to try and fail?

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In today’s competitive marketplace, failure is often feared. After all, no one likes to lose at something – especially in the dog-eat-dog world of business, regardless of the industry. However, does the fear of failure mean that your employees are unwilling to think outside the box?

A fear of failure can bring upon any number of negative consequences. For example, Kim Kovacs, founder and CEO of the software company OptionEase, claims that failure is her favorite word at her company and that sometimes an employee’s fear of failure can actually be detrimental to the organization.

“People are so concerned about being successful all the time that sometimes they take shortcuts to be successful. I had a salesperson who would basically do anything with the client to get the deal. It was killing our company…she always had to sell something that didn’t exist. She couldn’t sell what we had. [I told her] you’ve got to fail. You are going to lose deals. You’re going to fail and you’re going to learn how to overcome those failures with the next deal and sell what we have, not what we’re going to have in six months… It’s OK to fail. If you can recognize the failure before it becomes epic, that’s a really good thing. You’re going to learn way more every time you fail at something than when you are succeeding,” Kovacs told Inc. magazine.

Employees need to be able to accept their failures and know that going back to the figurative drawing board is not a bad thing – sometimes it can even result in an even better solution.

“If (Roger Bannister) had run a four-minute mile the first time out of the gate, would he have run for nine years? Probably not. He might not have recognized that it was the wind behind his back, that it was the training he was on, the shoes he was in, he may not have had an opportunity to test all those failure points,” Kovacs told the news source.

Interestingly enough, new reports from Google and advice from Kovacs all support a new trend of hiring people who were once either fired from a job or who failed to get a perfect grade. It seems that the ability to take a punch and keep on rolling and the courage it requires to throw out an idea, make an employee a stronger candidate for future success. Recruiting software helps allow a staffing professional find these qualities in a potential job candidate and determine whether the person is the right fit for a company.

New jobs report indicates strengthening employment growth

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The latest U.S. Department of Labor jobs report is out and with it comes some positive news. American employers added 157,000 jobs in January 2013, and hiring at the end of 2012 was stronger  than previously thought – even as companies struggled with the uncertainty of the fiscal cliff.

In addition, the nation’s overall unemployment rate remained relatively the same from December 2012 to January 2013, according to the Department of Labor.

The hiring picture is gaining in complexity as experts look toward the hiring sputters that did occur in various industries. However, the overall hiring picture is looking stronger as payrolls increased and relatively significant changes in hiring trends. According to the Department of Labor, construction companies added 28,000 jobs in January 2013 and 100,000 over the past four months. Retailers also featured strong hiring, adding 33,000 positions in January, healthcare added 23,000 in the first month of the year and manufacturers increased by 4,000.

“The strong and steady job gains from retail trade and construction look a lot more like a normal economic expansion,” Scott Anderson, chief economist at Bank of the West, told KTUL News. “This is a sign that consumer spending is playing a far more important role in this expansion than it has so far.”

The slow and continued growth in employment indicates a return toward a healthy national economy. An interesting development is the slight decrease of the number of U.S. temp jobs in January – down 8,100. This is the first time that temporary hiring has seen a decline sine September 2012, according to Staffing Industry Analysts. In December 2012 the number of temporary workers increased by 9,100, in November it rose by 26,500 and in October the number increased by 9,000.

Despite the decline in January 2013, experts are still predicting that corporations will continue to depend on contingent employees as the economy continues to waiver. Staffing and recruitment firms are still filling their customers’ needs for long-term contract workers at a steady rate, which is expected to continue its previous trend – increasing a staffing agency’s need for an integrated system that can streamline internal workflow processes.

In the potentially convoluted staffing industry, where many variables combine and can create information overload, recruiting software can offer the right solutions and ensure superior customer service. By investing in a system that offers extensive tracking and reporting, a staffing firm can better ensure compliance with relevant governmental immigration, EEOC, tax and health-care laws as well.

 

Why James Bond Villains Need Better Recruiting Software

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In honor of 50 years of 007 James Bond, and the 23rd movie, ‘Skyfall’, in the franchise; a look at why his many opponents need better recruiting software.

Over the five decades that James Bond has been thwarting the plans of various would-be world-dominating megalomaniacs, one clear fact has remained unassailable. James Bond is the ultimate type ‘A’ employee that MI6 has been all too happy to recruit, train, equip, and deploy to ensure their continued success. Conversely, while Bond has faced innumerable villains, many of whom would seem to be smarter and have lots of henchmen to help, they have all failed miserably in their attempts to dispatch Bond.

Therefore, I would suggest that the leadership of the villains suffers from one glaring fault besides their obvious megalomania – lousy recruiting software.

After all, these villains, from Auric Goldfinger to Ernst Stavro Blofeld, apparently had pretty good recruiting processes within their sometimes vast international criminal organizations. They found many capable scoundrels to help them, like Oddjob and Jaws. Yet, if their recruiting processes had the software to back them up, surely they could have found a few type ‘A’ heavies of their own with the skills, brains, and focus needed to take out James Bond.

So, let’s see how good recruiting software could have helped the villains achieve their own nefarious goals.

First up, your recruiting software really needs to be able to handle a lot potential candidates, er, henchmen, then, when you search for the right person for the job, you should be able to rank them according to their skills, experience, job history, and training. One example where good recruiting software might have helped the villain is that of henchperson Tiffany Case, played by Jill St. John, in Diamonds are Forever, which would seem to work well with Bond’s well-known weakness for beautiful women.

Unfortunately, if the villain’s recruiting software had noted her job history, it might have clued the recruiter that Tiffany was a ‘job hopper’, as she switched sides to join Bond in his fight against her employer (start the video below at 5:30 to see Tiffany’s ‘conversion’).

http://youtu.be/oC1016Gu2R8?t=5m30s

Lesson: Make sure your recruiting software can pull in all relevant henchperson data from their resume and populate the database for future searches.

Second, another example is Red Grant, the highly-trained psychopathic assassin in the 1963 Bond movie, From Russia with Love. Grant seemed to be a perfect fit for his assignment, emotionless and completely focused on killing James Bond. Alas, he failed in his task when distracted by the potential offer of more cash – Bond was thus able to overcome him.

Lesson: It’s not enough to be able to recruit henchmen based on skills. Your recruiting and staffing software, with a great, fully integrated payroll system, will enable you to make your offer and payroll that should be able to keep them happy enough that they don’t actively seek more pay at inconvenient times.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b10MvNfvoWM

Third, recruiting software is a great enabling tool, with its ability to automate the dull and mundane tasks that should leave your recruiters with more time to call, interview and select the right henchmen for the assignment. This is vital when you have a lot of job openings to fill. And it usually seems that there are a lot of bad guy job openings after James Bond has killed off the henchmen and thwarted the villain’s evil plans in some spectacular fashion.

http://youtu.be/QaQp_qKC5RA

Lesson: Your recruiting and staffing software needs to be able to scale up to your needs, whether you’re a boutique recruiting business specializing in assassins with unique skills like Xenia Onatopp, or a global terror organization such as SPECTRE.

In the final analysis, it would seem that the only person with a reasonable chance of killing off James Bond is…James Bond.

http://youtu.be/O9C7yYomVuo

Finally, if you are in the market for really great recruiting software or staffing software to help you find type ‘A’ agents – and are NOT part of some organization led by a megalomaniac bent on world domination, please click or call us today. We’re ready to help!

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Lock Down Your Staffing Software Budget With A Demo At TechServe

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TechServe 2012The 2012 TechServe Alliance Conference & Tradeshow, held this November 8-10 in Miami, promises to be an information-rich event engineered to inspire and energize members of the IT staffing and professional services industry.  Conference attendees will have the opportunity to network with top executives and thought leaders in the industry and discover technologies that help organizations execute critical strategic initiatives.

My company, Bond International Software, will also be on hand sharing how our staffing software provides a competitive advantage to agencies servicing the IT and professional services industry.

Via personalized demos, which I invite you to register for in advance, you will see how your agency’s organizational goals can be met with our cost-effective and feature rich solutions. As your 2013 budget plans wrap up, now is the perfect time to discover how Bond recruiting and staffing software will help you efficiently facilitate the discovery, placement and management of talent by:

  • Alleviating the administrative burden associated with onboarding talent
  • Streamlining all documentation and related onboarding forms. In other words, go paperless!
  • Improve metrics ranging from order-to-fill ratios to new hire retention rates

Make sure that your 2013 budget includes a comprehensive staffing and recruiting software solution that is optimized for candidate discovery and employment quickly, accurately, and efficiently.  Register for a demo of Bond recruiting and staffing software, during or after this week’s TechServe Alliance.

Event Details:

What:     TechServe Alliance 2012
When:     November 8th-10th, 2012
Where:    Loews Miami Beach Hotel, Miami, FL

How Will The Election Impact The Staffing & Recruiting Industry?

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I’m not going to get into the debate over which presidential candidate is better for the country – or even which is better for the staffing and recruiting industry.  But, I will discuss some ways in which political forces have been impacting the jobs market – and the likelihood that the effects of these forces will continue well beyond November 6th.

A Strong Temporary Workforce

With so much uncertainty in how the election might impact the economy, companies are seemingly even more cautious about bringing on full-time employees.  Astonishingly, this trend is climbing up the ranks of executives, too.

The simple fact is that contingent and temporary employees have become a prevalent norm in the hiring industry. Since September 2008, in fact, 88% of companies have hired temporary workers. Temporary and contract employment has grown 26.6%, since the beginning of 2012 according to the ASA’s September Staffing Index Monthly Report.

Another political force impacting the staffing and recruiting industries is the Affordable Care Act.  Some experts believe this could reduce fraudulent worker’s compensation claims because workers would have better healthcare coverage.  The savings experienced from the Affordable Care Act would be passed on to the companies hiring temp workers because they would have less reason to use workers’ compensation.  Aside from payroll, worker’s compensation is the biggest expense facing companies.

Finally, there is the election itself directly impacting the temporary workforce. Contingent workers in cities all over the country have been hired to test the ballot machines and man the polls on Election Day. Second the campaigns themselves are huge employers of hundreds, even thousands of contingent workers. Once the election is done, most will probably have to find new temporary work, regardless of whether their candidate won.

Will the Trend Continue?

Staffing Industry Analysts suggest that temporary employee demand in certain segments will reach historic highs in 2013.  Additionally, with the sluggish growth the economy has been experiencing and the holiday hiring season ramping up, I think it’s safe to say temporary workers will be in high demand for companies of all shapes and sizes through the end of the year.  And this is all rather independent of who wins the election.

Regardless of who wins the election – the truth is this.  As the economy recovers, contingent and temporary employees are those that are brought on first – prior to the recovery in full time hiring.  And whether we have four more years of Obama, or the first four of Romney, our economy will likely be perpetually recovering – at least for the next several years.  How long the staffing and recruiting industry remains such a fertile field depends solely on how quickly either candidate moves our economy from ‘recovery’ to ‘recovered.’

Our recruiting software solutions can help you recruiting or staffing agency regardless of our economic state.  To learn how, request a demo.

7 Ways We See Your Competitors Beating You

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Voice and text broadcast integration to your recruiting and staffing software can automate routine tasks and improve your competitive advantage.

Guest blog by Adam Arnold

By now most light industrial and clerical staffing firms have at least considered using automated voice broadcast to fill open positions with a single call.  Staffing firms are eliminating mind-numbingly boring processes and proactively communicating with associates in many other situations, too.  Some call it efficiency, and others just call it making life easier.  I prefer to look at it as another way to beat your competition.  Here are my seven favorite non-job fill uses of Call-Em-All by staffing clients:

  1. Chasing Down Missing Timesheets

    “Before you leave today, please make sure your timecard has been submitted.  If you have questions, please contact us at…..”

  2. Sending W-2s to the Right Address the 1st Time

    “If you have moved or your information has changed since we sent your 2011 W-2, please contact payroll at……”

  3. Changing Shifts

    “This is ABC Staffing calling to let you know of a cancellation (or recall) of third shift.”

  4. Weather Closings

    “This is ABC Staffing calling to let you know that due to this evening’s snow storm, third shift has been cancelled.  We will keep you up to date as weather conditions evolve.”

  5. Open Enrollment

    “Don’t forget that Friday is the last day to submit your changes during open enrollment.  Please contact HR with questions at…….”

  6. Wakeup Calls

    “This is ABC staffing calling to remind you that you begin work at XYZ company today.  Your shift starts at 8:00am sharp!  If you have questions, please contact me at…..”

  7. Dress Code

    “Don’t forget that your work assignment requires steel toe boots, a black jacket, and hairnet.”

  8. Unemployment Hearings

    “Your honor, we offered him 3 jobs and included him on 12 job opportunity broadcasts, but she is seeking unemployment compensation.  See these offers and call results?”  (OK, so this is not a broadcast, but it IS great result of good data!)

Are you trudging through the same calls over and over while you could be doing something more engaging?  Think automated calling & texting can improve the efficiency in your office?

Call-Em-All is an integrated partner with Bond Adapt, eEmpACT, and StaffSuite staffing and recruiting software.  If you do not yet have an account, you can try it for free by clicking here.

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Adam Arnold is Director of Business Development at Call-Em-All.

 

See Our Recruiting Software In Action This Month At NAPS

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From September 19th to the 22nd, the National Association of Personnel Services (NAPS) will be holding its annual conference at the Westin Riverwalk hotel in San Antonio, Texas.

Attendees of NAPS will learn about a number of facets of the recruiting industry including how your psychology affects your business, creating a culture of responsibility throughout your entire organization, techniques for integrating social media into your growth strategy, and methods for overcoming agency objections, among others.

In addition, by attending you will have the opportunity to demo Bond recruiting software – live on site – to learn how our newest features can help your firm more effectively locate top talent, streamline organizational processes and reduce costs.

If you are planning to attend NAPS, or will be in San Antonio later this fall, get a head start on your competition by learning how Bond recruiting software can fit into your 2013 budget – and more importantly – help you achieve your 2013 recruiting objectives.

Register for a recruiting software demo at NAPS, or if you are not able to attend, request a free online demo.

NAPS Event Details:

When:
September 19th – 22nd, 2012

Where:
Westin Riverwalk Hotel
420 W. Market St.
San Antonio, TX 78205

Contact:
210-224-6500

Cost:
$795.00 for NAPS members/$1295.00 for non-members (Registration link).

Specify Your Mobile Staffing & Recruiting Plans Before Investing

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Just because a particular technology is new and hyped, doesn’t necessarily mean its the right immediate investment for your recruiting or staffing agency.

Despite the hype, mobile technology isn’t necessarily something that should simply be tossed into your recruiting or staffing processes.  This is not to say that mobile has no place – and is not a valuable tool – only that you must first have specific goals and objectives for what it is you are trying to accomplish by going mobile.  Otherwise, this technology may become little more than just an expensive toy.

(For a consumer oriented example, think back to the Segway.   If the company had goals that were more clearly defined than – ‘be the next evolution in human transportation’ – many of us may be riding one today.)

To ensure any decision you make involving mobile is based purely on what it can help to do for your agency, here are three specific tactics mobile can help you with almost immediately after implementation.  My advice is to determine if these tactics will be beneficial to your agency, to think of more and similar tactics like these – and to develop a plan for launching these tactics – even before you finalize a plan to fully integrate mobile technology:

1. Launch a mobile friendly website:  Since smartphones are already incredibly popular and will in all likelihood continue to gain in popularity in the future, why not capitalize on the trend?  Develop a mobile website targeted at recruiting people who own smartphones – typically the younger and more tech-savvy crowd.  Make sure you’re equipped with staffing and recruiting software with the ability to capture and organize QR codes, so you can easily create a database of contacts for follow-up.

2. Conduct automated interviews.  Some companies are going as far as to conduct interviews via smartphones and tablet PCs.  Commonly, these companies will use their recruiting software to record several questions, developed especially for high-volume recruiting efforts.  Although it may be faster in screening out who might be less desirable candidates, note that an automated process may not be a complete substitute for interviews via phone or in-person.  What if a highly qualified applicant doesn’t understand a question?  Miscommunications are easily cleared up by in-person discussions.

3. Add a candidate self-scheduling function.  Self-scheduling is undoubtedly a task which would enhance workplace productivity.  Applicants could simply browse an animated calendar and add themselves to the schedule. Remember how many e-mails and how much frustration is sometimes spent working out a mutually agreeable interview time with some candidates?  Eliminate that lost time and added stress with staffing and recruiting software that allows for candidate self-scheduling.

You may or may not choose to use mobile technology in some of the ways discussed.  But, the methodology for any tactic you choose to implement (like the tactics above) – should be based on a plan first, and technology second.