Posts

Part-time hiring increases

/0 Comments/in /by

Staffing and recruiting professionals who are examining the job market may want to consider the various factors impacting the nation’s economy before becoming disheartened.

There has been a lot of news lately about the negative or lackluster jobs report that was released just last week. Yet, it’s important to consider the various conditions that are slowing the hiring market. After all, simply paying attention to the symptoms and ignoring the causes will hardly allow a staffing professional to remain ahead of the curve, invest in proper systems like staffing software and recruiting software and stay aware of the factors that could impact their job.

Part-time work increases

Many people are unaware that businesses are hiring at a robust rate. Unfortunately, 75 percent of the nearly 1 million hires made this year are for part-time jobs and many of these jobs are low paying, reported NBS News. This lack of robust hiring often makes workers question whether the market will ever recover or if this is the new market they will have to traverse to find work.

Industries that traditionally pay their workers less or rely on part-time employees, like retail and food services, are driving most of the hiring. Some employers, regardless of industry, believe that the reliance on part-time workers is the new trend because it offers greater flexibility. If the economy picks up, then employers are able to increase the number of full-time workers on the payroll. However, if the economy remains sluggish, then keeping a staff comprised of mostly part-time workers will decrease operational costs.

“Us and other people are hiring part-time because we don’t know what the costs are going to be to hire full-time,” said Steven Raz, founder of Cornerstone Search Group, a staffing firm in Parsippany, New Jersey, according to the news source. “We are being cautious.”

One of the major operational costs that has employers concerned is healthcare. The Affordable Healthcare Act has many employers waiting to see what costs are going to be added to their budgets before hiring anymore employees. Many staffing firms serving a wide range of industries have seen this trend. Raz told NBC News that his company started seeing a rise in the number of part-time positions it was filling in late 2012. Over the past year, his firm has seen an increase between 10 and 15 percent in a year-over-year comparison.

“They have put some of the full-time positions on hold and are hiring part-time employees so they won’t have to pay out the benefits,” said Client Staffing Solutions’ Darin Hovendick, according to the news source. “There is so much uncertainty. It’s really tough to design a budget when you don’t know the final cost involved.”

Employers use caution in hiring

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of people working part-time involuntarily – because their hours were cut or they can’t find full-time jobs – is 7.9 million. That is an increase of 75 percent from 4.5 million in August of 2007. Employers are cautious about increasing the number of full-time workers they have on staff. Recent research suggests that by creatively using a combination of full-time and part-time staff, a business can thrive and even the part-time workers may be able to succeed. The difference between successful part-time worker implementation and an unhappy staff is the creation of flexible scheduling that allows for the hours on the clock to work within a person’s other jobs. The Daily Beast reported that capacity is still required to conduct business, which is why many offices are relying on a patchwork of part-time workers.

“As organizations and companies reduce the hours of part-time workers, they still have to replace the capacity, so they go out and hire additional part-time workers,” said Philip Noftsinger, president of CBIZ Payroll in Roanoke, Virginia, which manages payroll for more than 5,000 small businesses, according to NBC News.

Employers who have been focused on supporting employee financial health, yet are not hiring full-time workers, are often using creative scheduling to allow individuals the ability to hold second jobs. After all, it’s difficult to support a family on a single part-time paycheck.

“The difference between 30 and 40 hours can be the difference between being able to make ends meet month-to-month,” Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, told the news source. “That contributes to reduced living standards for American families and translates into having less income to spend on goods and services, which holds back the economy.”

Weak economy hinders hiring

Many employers report that when the nation’s economy returns to pre-recession levels they will increase hiring and switch back to a greater full-time staff, according to The Daily Beast. But until that happens, staffing professionals will be increasingly working to fill part-time or contract work roles. To manage the different scheduling and placement of part-time workers, the right recruiting software will need to be utilized while uncertainty remains.

Business owners like Jason Holstine, who owns a building supply store in Baltimore, Maryland, are reluctant to take on full-time staff when the economy is so uncertain.

“We are still working in an environment that is very hard to forecast the near future and remains very cash-constrained,” said Holstine, according to the news source. “We were always nimble, but we had to become more reactive. Using part-timers gives us more flexibility.”

Employers learned during the recession that those companies with lean operations were the ones that were better able to withstand the perils of a weak economy. By creating a workforce comprised of part-time workers, companies are better able to increase and decrease staff numbers depending on their needs during a given quarter. A nimble staffing and recruiting software solution will allow recruiters to adjust to client needs.

“Private employers are either able to make more money with fewer employees or have been able to make more money without hiring additional employees,” said Sageworks analyst Libby Bierman. “The lesson learned for businesses during the recession was to have lean operations.”

Weak Jobs Report Not the End of the World for Motivated Staffing and Recruiting Professionals

/0 Comments/in /by

For motivated staffing and recruiting professionals, a weak job market may make the hiring and candidate sourcing process a bit more bumpy, but hardly impossible.

Those professionals who are outfitted with the latest in efficient staffing software and recruiting software solutions will be able to leverage traditional skills and digital tools to locate and promote the best candidates for clients.

After three weeks, the federal government’s shutdown finally ended. Now, reports and data that were stalled due to furloughed employees and decreased operations are out. The latest jobs report from the U.S. Department of Labor paints a less than stellar picture of the current economy. However, market experts believe that all this should turn around now that the confusion and worries revolving around the threat of a government shutdown dissipate.

Employment numbers still moving forward

According to September’s jobs report, which was delayed two weeks because of the government shutdown, total nonfarm employment increased by 148,000 for the month and the unemployment rate remained relatively unchanged at 7.2 percent. The industries with the greatest growth for the month of September were construction, wholesale trade, and transportation and warehousing.

Despite grumblings about disappointing employment growth by many, it’s important to note that jobs are being added each month. This is positive news, while the number of jobs available is not growing by leaps and bounds, it is still moving in a positive direction. The unemployment rate may have changed little in a month-over-month comparison, but it has decreased 0.4 percentage points since June of this year.

Most of the disappointment from the jobs report seems to stem from greater expectations, as economists surveyed by Bloomberg News believed that 180,000 jobs would have been added during September.

“The employment report released this morning showed that the economic recovery continued its moderate pace during September,” said Robert Murphy, associate professor of economics, Boston College, according to ABC News. “Of course, the latest report is based on data from before the government shutdown and debt-crisis brinkmanship, and so to gauge any possible fallout from those events we must await the October numbers.”

Sectors with the greatest increases in employment included construction, which added 20,000 jobs, wholesale trade, which rose by 16,000 and transportation and warehousing, which added 23,000 jobs during the month of September, according to the jobs report. Both the civilian labor force participation rate, at 63.2 percent, and the employment-population ratio at 58.6 percent, were unchanged in September. Over the course of the year, the labor force participation rate has declined by 0.4 percentage points, while the employment-population ratio has changed very little overall.

Employment in professional and business services also improved. The jobs report shows that positions that fit within this sector rose by 32,000 in September. This is a slight decrease from its average monthly growth of 52,000 over the previous 12 months.

Lindsey Piegza, chief economist for Sterne Agee, believes that the delayed release date of the jobs report makes the information a lot less meaningful, reported ABC News.

“Of course, an outsized decline will almost certainly be blamed on the government shutdown, but the jobs market has been losing steam since the start of the year, well before the government shutdown was even being considered,” Piegza said.

Jobs data may impact feds stimulus

The weakness seen in the September hiring figures and the complications from the federal government shutdown are expected to further delay the Federal Reserve’s decision to adjust the stimulus programs, reported The New York Times.

“The labor market lost, rather than gained, momentum over the summer, leaving us with less than a desirable cushion just as the government was shuttered in response to political shenanigans,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial, according to the news source.

The Fed has been attempting to stimulate the economy the past few years with a variety of tactics. The New York Times reported that most of the fiscal policies have had little positive effect, which is why the agency was waiting for a positive jobs report.

“The Fed’s core criteria to change policy is clear evidence of a sustained improvement in the labor market outlook,” Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, wrote in a note to clients, according to the news source. “Such evidence will not be available this year because the shutdown depressed employment in October and then probably caused a corresponding bounce back in November.”

What does this mean for staffing and recruiting professionals?

With the pace of employment growth in September slower than the average rate experienced over the course of the previous year, which was 185,000 jobs per month, staffing and recruiting professionals may find themselves being inundated with resumes from workers and clients looking to use contract employees or temps to fill roles. The job market has hardly demonstrated stability, yet the slight and steady growth does provide some hope. Recruiting professionals must use this time to demonstrate to clients that they understand the market pressures and can use creative staffing solutions to meet needs. Recruiters may find themselves working hard to demonstrate the operational efficiency of their services and how professional staffing solutions are cost effective than in-house hiring.

By leveraging the use of staffing and recruiting software with traditional industry skills, a staffing professional will be better able to demonstrate to clients that he or she is the answer to many hiring problems. As the federal government works to create new stimulus programs and increase jobs with its tools, staffing professionals can boost the economy as well by promoting the use of creative staffing solutions to meet clients’ needs. After all, happy clients that are showing positive growth will require more workers in the future.

Staffing Insights: Bruce Steinberg, Employment and Staffing Industry Analyst, Sees Dramatic Changes Ahead Particularly With The ACA

/0 Comments/in /by

A number of trends are impacting the staffing sector, so much so that industry experts are using data and observations from previous years to try and predict what employment is going to look like next year and in the next 10 years. Some trends are making technology adoptions like recruiting software necessary, while others are changing the face of the staffing sector and how it interacts with clients.

To weigh in on the evolution of the staffing industry, we have Bruce Steinberg, Employment & Economic Consultant. With more than 20 years of corporate communications experience specializing in the staffing industry, Steinberg has worked with Staffing Industry Analysts and the American Staffing Association as a director of research.

Let’s take a look into how he views the current state of the industry and what direction it may take to remain competitive.

The aging population and how it is impacting staffing
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the elderly population is expected to more than double between now and 2050. As a result, the number of people over the age of 65, the typical age of retirement, will reach about 80 million or approximately one out of five adults in the nation.

Steinberg believes that this will have a drastic impact on the nation’s economy, the employment sector and the staffing industry.

“I think that one of the key trends that is impacting employment and jobs in general – and ultimately affecting staffing – is how the bell curve of the demographic profile is shifting to older people,” Steinberg said. “The high point of the bell curve indicating the population’s age is getting older, which is changing the nature of jobs and services needed for the economy. The recession may have slowed the percentage of people [leaving jobs] by delaying many people’s retirement, but that is soon going to change.”

Steinberg added that “the number of new workers coming down the pipeline is not as many [as previous decades], which means there will continue to be a shortage of workers, but at the same time, productivity has increased very fast because of computerization. In addition, business models in manufacturing and service industries have changed, and now people can produce a lot more products and services aided by technology… it will be interesting to see how it all unfolds, if the increase in productivity will manage with less workers.”

The state of the economy is impacting employment trends
Recently released employment numbers have everyone talking because according to one report, 77 percent of the jobs created in 2013 were part-time positions, reported The Boston Globe. For some, this figure was highly worrisome, and for others, it indicated a growing trend toward hiring contingent or part-time workers instead of full-time, salaried professionals.

“[Businesses could be using contingent and part-time workers as] a strategy to cope with the ACA. If that’s true or not, we don’t know. It’s what everyone has been saying, and I am certain that some businesses are using that as a strategy, but others are just finding that part-time workers are more efficient,” Steinberg said. “We are in a recovery, and the work and economy has not come back with any great magnitude – businesses at this stage may only need or can only create part-time employees, because of the relative weakness of the economic growth.”

The importance of staffing professionals using recruiting software to help keep desirable, comprehensive services
The changing face of the industry is resulting in a number of trends that professionals will have to learn to adapt to in order to remain current. The creation and implementation of the Affordable Care Act is just one way that staffing professionals can remain current and a vital part of the employment process for clients. Of course, the right recruiting software is also vital.

“Staffing companies have to be very aware of what the job trends are in the markets they serve and look to diversify in the sector they serve as well the variety of the services they offer to employers and businesses,” Steinberg said.

While some people are against the implementation of the ACA and the increasing presence of federal regulations in business, it could lead to a positive situation developing for staffing professionals.

“There are a lot of folks who disdain from heavy regulation on the employer/employee relationship – it’s an additional burden that they have to learn and it can gum up the works. That’s a very strong mindset within the staffing industry and with staffing industry executives. I have a very contrarian view that the more regulation and the more complicated the relationship is, the more reason there is to use a staffing agency,” Steinberg said.

He went on to say that the ACA and other regulations being implemented in the business world, especially concerning employment, could boost the desirability of hiring a staffing firm for many organizations.

“Small, medium and even large businesses are in business, not in the world of employment. For example, if a business is in the business of making widgets, they are experts in that. They are not necessarily experts at being employers. The ACA and regulations could be good for the staffing industry and increase organizations’ reliance on staffing firms because we are the experts in employment.”

How staffing professionals can benefit from the ACA
The ACA might just be a blessing in disguise for some staffing agencies if they can become experts in the act and market a consultation service as part of their brand.

“[While it may be very hard to become an expert in the ACA], it is very important for those in the staffing industry, to become very well versed in it and know how to implement it. Somewhere along the line the ACA will create a variety of new types of jobs and professions for staffing companies to fill,” Steinberg said. “If a staffing company can develop ACA experts, then they can provide those services to businesses, possibly creating a whole new service line.”

Based on these and other trends in employment and staffing, it is increasingly important that staffing and recruiting agencies update their staffing software to enable them to effectively handle changing demographics, job requisitions, and government regulations and reporting.

###
Bruce Steinberg offers a range of products, services, and analysis of economic and employment data and can be reached at http://www.brucesteinberg.net

Three Ways to Build Staffing and Recruiting Agency Value by Doing More with Less

/0 Comments/in /by

You feel like a one-man band.

It’s time to take stock. Right now. It doesn’t matter if you’re a front-line recruiter, a sales representative, a staffing manager or the owner of a recruitment agency — it seems like you have too much to do and not enough time to do it in. All of which contributes to a level of anxiety and pressure to ‘get it done’ that you know has a negative impact on the quality of your work. Despite the many external pressures you face, the truth is that your attitude, preparation and actions will determine your ability to succeed.

While attitude arguably plays the most important role in your success, here I’ll focus on three areas you can take action on that should enable you to do more with less. They are almost sure to help your recuiting and staffing business regardless of what direction the economy takes. In Bond’s forty years of providing the staffing and recruiting industry with software tools, we have seen these axioms – consistently applied – lead to exceptional profitability.

ONE: Build Efficiency into Your Operations

When times are good it’s easy to tolerate business practices and workflows that deliver only marginal profitability. But when job orders slow, you must reduce or eliminate those practices so that you can get more done with less effort. Building efficiency into your staffing and recruitment organization is an ongoing process. A regular re-appraisal of your operations focused on how you might be able to tighten up your practices can help wring more profit out of every transaction.

You should make it a practice to get your team together on a recurring basis to review the steps of successful sales and order transactions.

Believe it or not, your sales process is probably the first place to look for inefficiencies. Dave Stein, CEO and Founder, ES Research Group, Inc., which specializes in sales training selection, says that his research indicates that many firms have as many sales methodologies in place as the number of sales people in their organization. If your staffing and recruiting firm has similar inefficiencies, figure out how to streamline the process in such a way that it is consistently followed. That means you will close more deals.

Another area where saving time equals profits is in your recruitment processes. For example, Tom Porter, CEO and Founder of Marquee Staffing was able to reduce the time it took his recruiters to qualify candidates by 75 percent by having every candidate apply through a Web portal integrated to their staffing and recruitment software. The time saved goes to revenue generation, not data entry.

Similarly, a staffing-specific integrated payroll/billing system will reduce or eliminate back office workflow inefficiencies saving you both time and money. John Porrello, CEO of Priority Business Services, found such a system would; “…enable us to double our growth without having to hire a new back office employee.”

Finally, run your business ‘by the numbers.’ Your key performance indicators for your operations and your staff members should be measurable and actionable. This is the difference between so-so and stellar performance. As one CEO of a multi-office staffing firm once told me, “Instead of seeing a report of the business metrics which are a week old due to a manual, time-intensive process, we see what is happening right now.”

TWO: Build Long-Term Value

Building a staffing or recruiting company is somewhat like building a well-performing stock portfolio for your retirement. Strategically, you don’t focus on next month; you focus on consistent performance over a long period. By making your portfolio choices based on that, odds are that you can rest easy in its long-term performance.

Likewise, your staffing and recruiting “portfolio” should focus on delivering similar long-term performance and value. Jim Childs, Partner of Childs Company, a long-term veteran of the staffing industry as a CEO and investment banker, has five strategies for value building:

  1. Develop niche leadership. “Niche staffing and recruiting companies are always more valuable than generalist companies,” Childs says. Niche leadership means that your business is the “go-to” business in its service area or specialty.
  2. Focus on specialties and higher gross margins. Childs points out that, “The specialty players can have gross margins well over 30 percent due to their specialty focus and their mix of permanent placement revenue.”
  3. Avoid customer concentration. Childs notes that having a big account can be “a high-class problem to have. The trick is to create urgency in the organization to build around this anchor account.”
  4. Build a deep management team. Drive customer decisions as far down the chain-of-command as possible. Childs says, “It’s vital to build a deep management team that can drive the business so that it is not overly dependent on one or two people, including the owner.”
  5. Keep building real client relationships. Childs suggests that you avoid indirect business such as being a second-source supplier. “Over time, your model needs to have deep, long-term client relationships to really get a premium in the marketplace.”

THREE: Stick to Your Business and Invest in Your Staff

What, exactly, is your business? Nothing is more important than how you clearly define the very specific core competencies that are at the heart of why you are in the staffing and recruiting business. Yes, you can say with pride that your core business is ‘finding and putting people to work.’ But there should be more specificity to it.

If you haven’t done so already, write down your business purpose – your mission. Analyze what it means and what it takes to support your staffing and recruitment mission successfully. Let’s say that your mission statement is “We find and place financially trained and skilled employees into temporary contract assignments and direct-hire placements with Fortune 1000-level businesses.”

You would then list everything you must do to support your mission. Things like recruiting financial talent through the best college and university accounting programs and networking with local financial associations. Then make a second list that includes everything else you have to do that doesn’t really support the mission; like cleaning the office or doing data backups.

The point is that you must focus yourself and your team on your core competencies. That means that everything not central to the success of your business – that second list – are things that you should eliminate, streamline or outsource.

For example, you can outsource areas of your business operations such as your information technology infrastructure — your staffing or recruiting software. This is gaining growing acceptance with Software as a Service (SaaS) subscription-based services or Managed Services Programs (MSP). Pam Plasky, Vice President of Operations for Ryan Alternative Staffing, observed that, “Traditionally, we’re ‘old school’ in that we wanted complete control over our data. Now, in retrospect, I’d say that MSP is the only way to go. It cuts IT costs and many of the headaches of IT management for us – while handing over accountability for our bread-and-butter software and servers to a trusted partner, Bond. Most importantly, MSP gives us more freedom to do what we do best, helping our customers and putting people to work.”

Similarly, you could also outsource staffing operational activities such as payroll and W2 forms processing. While not every such strategic initiative may be right for your business, it pays to look at the potential opportunities to reduce your operating costs while maintaining or improving service delivery.

Finally, recognize that your own staff members are looking to you for leadership.

That’s right, your staffing and recruiting team is looking to YOU for reasons to out-perform the competition. According to surveys by the American Staffing Association, the average turnover of staffing firm staff personnel is nearly 50 percent. Yet reducing your own internal staff turnover and increasing their level of satisfaction can generate big returns.

How much of a return? One survey conducted by the Gallup organization found that business organizations where employees have high satisfaction rates delivered 38% higher customer satisfaction scores, 22% higher productivity, and 27% higher profits.

What can you do to improve your own staff’s satisfaction-based performance?

First, develop a strong staff employee retention program around continuous training and other tactics that generate one response from your employees, “The pay ain’t bad, and they treat me great!”

In many workplace surveys done the past several decades, it was shown that employees placed a higher value on appreciation for their work and feeling that their work and role was important than on real wages. Thus, the training and retention program you put into practice reveals the value you place on your own staff. Your investment in their careers and development creates a sense of appreciation, motivation, loyalty, and understanding of their importance to the success of the firm that delivers huge paybacks.

CONCLUSION

Continuous improvement at both the organizational and personal level is the key to efficient profitability in your staffing and recruitment businss. To building value by doing more with less. So that you and your team members aren’t each feeling like a one man band.

W. Edwards Deming, the statistician credited for helping Japanese businesses become world leaders in quality, performance and profitability, once said, “Long-term commitment to new learning and new philosophy is required of any management that seeks transformation. The timid and the fainthearted, and the people that expect quick results, are doomed to disappointment.” (READ MORE>)

Perceptive staffing and recruiting agency business owners and managers will take those words to heart and reap both financial and satisfaction rewards.

END

If you would like to talk to Bond about how our solutions can improve your business value, CLICK or give us a call at 800-318-4983 today. We’re here to help you succeed.

10 Tips to Writing Powerful Blog Posts

/0 Comments/in /by

Susan Young on blogging for staffing and recruiting companiesBy Guest Blogger: Susan Young

According to Numberof.net, there are 133 million blogs. I’ll take their word on that. In fact, the number has probably jumped since you read this!

It’s amazing to think so many people have so much to say. One of the greatest challenges I hear from professionals in recruiting, staffing, and HR is that they don’t know what to write, so they do nothing. It’s not much fun being stuck or afraid.

Blogs are vital to growing your name recognition, brand, and revenues online.

Merely having a blog is very different than proactively using it as a key marketing vehicle that drives traffic to your website. Share relevant and timely content and people will begin to pay attention.

Here are 10 tips to writing powerful blog posts:

  1. Stick to what you know.

    When you write about topics and issues that you are interested in and enjoy, the task becomes less burdensome. It also helps to stay focused. Readers will come to know that your blog is about staffing and recruiting. They won’t find cooking tips or vacation ideas from you. This is essential as you build your brand.

  2. Be transparent.

    Avoid hidden agendas and negativity. Your name is on every post. Be proud of what you share.

  3. Write in short, punchy and easy-to understand sentences.

    My theory is that we should write to express, not to impress. This is a “crazy busy” world we live in. People appreciate concise and succinct communication.

  4. Weave in your personality.

    Blogs are not typically written in a dry and formal business style. A more casual approach allows you to inject your personality into your writing. This helps connect with your reader.

  5. Avoid “JAR”

    – Jargon, Adjectives, and Rhetoric. Your readers are not looking for a stuffy sales pitch. They want something that’s compelling and thoughtful. Deliver it and you’ll develop a loyal following.

  6. Connect your posts with timely news stories.

    The news provides us with plenty to blog about. By mentioning current events (and reacting to them as you desire), you show people that you’re interested in what’s happening in our world. You can also tie in the news to your business, customers, and prospects. This helps to create attention-grabbing and timely posts. Using fresh information helps drive traffic to your website and shows you’re paying attention.

  7. Speak directly to the reader.

    Use active verbs and first-person language. Ask them a question or write a statement such as, “Consider this”, or “How about you?” By keeping people engaged, you can build rapport through your writing.

  8. Solve their problem.

    Providing useful tips to help ease a pain is important. Think of it this way: Your reader has a pain (challenge) and you have the pill to ease their discomfort. This tip sheet-style approach is effective because it’s reader-friendly. The bullet points allow readers to skim the content and glean nuggets and key information.

  9. Forget about the length.

    There is no right or wrong when it comes to writing blogs. Some people post only a few lines a day while others have several paragraphs or a tip sheet. Longer doesn’t mean better, it just means longer (see No. 3)

  10. Use interesting visuals.

    Grab a free image from sites like Flikr.com and insert it into your post. It breaks up the text and shows your creative side. Video is also extremely powerful and engaging. Remember, just as you may not love to write, a lot of people don’t like to read. Video blogs, or vlogs, allow people to get to know you by seeing your body language, and hearing your voice. It’s building rapport on a deeper level.

The bottom line: Your presence affects your prosperity.

To learn more, I invite you to this upcoming webinar, “The Nuts and Bolts of Blogging to Grow Your Staffing Company” on Wednesday, December 12, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EST. I’ll share a special discounted offer that will only be available to participants! A fabulous way to begin 2013!

Webinar Attendees will learn:

• The #1 benefit a blog brings to your business
• 5 ways to get started…and keep going
• Secrets of successful content and blog writing
• Tips on developing your online voice and persona
• How to market your blog and generate new leads

Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/372676638

Susan Young is an award-winning news, social media, PR, and communications professional with 26 years of experience. Her company, Get in Front Communications, works with businesses and associations to increase their visibility, credibility, and revenues. Susan has worked as Managing Editor of HR Communication, a daily e-newsletter for HR and recruiting executives. She currently works with NAPS and blogs on Monster.com. Her latest accomplishment: Being named one of the ‘75 Badass Women on Twitter.’

Moving Past The Cons Of Onboarding Millennials With Recruiting Software

/0 Comments/in /by

Recruiting software – pros and cons graphLike it or not – your clients are going to need to onboard Millennials. And if you remain in the recruiting or staffing industry, you will have to be the one to help. Fortunately, although Millennials often receive a bad rap, they bring a number of strengths to the workforce.

Ultimately, every generation has its strengths and weaknesses. With Millennials, too many of us have become accustomed to focusing only on the cons. To help level your thinking – while at the same time avoiding any sugar coating – I’ve provided the biggest con – coupled with two big pros below to keep in mind when considering a Millennial candidate.

Thanks in advance to Jiwire for creating the infographic to the left that helps demonstrate these pros and Brandon Russell at WebLinkBlog for sharing. See the full infographic.)

Con – Self-centeredness. Yes, many individuals in this generation have been raised with the notion that everything they do is wonderful. Feeding into the self-centeredness, to a certain extent, is technology’s ability to put any one person at the center of any group. That said, there is a positive side effect of this first big con. The Millennials’ habit of constantly using social media, smartphones, and tablet PCs makes them infinitely more trackable – especially by the right staffing software and recruiting software.

Pro – The ability to adapt to change. That constant usage of technology throughout their young lives has also positioned Millennials with another strength – the ability to adapt to change more rapidly than any previous generation. And, you know the future business world will continue to change faster than ever before, so why not get the right individuals in place now?

Pro – They work well in teams. Because of the constant electronic communication they’re used to, Millennials are well-prepared to work in teams. Just how connected to the digital world are they? As noted by the infographic above:

  • Millennials own 2.4 devices
  • 28% use location-based apps more than once per day
  • 71% use laptops and 62% use smartphones to connect on-the-go

So what conclusion should you draw from this? While Millennials may not fit what previous generations of employees view as the most desirable work skills, the truth remains they do have many valuable talents. At some point, we will all need to learn how to pick the best candidates and set them up for success at ours or our clients’ organizations. When that time comes, don’t let the con overshadow the pros.

To learn more about how staffing and recruiting software from Bond US can help your agency achieve its onboarding goals, regardless of what generation candidates you are bringing on, request a demo.

Recruiting Management Tips – Automate Staffing Efforts On Twitter

/0 Comments/in /by

Twitter tips for recruitersOf all the social media channels available for recruiting firms and staffing agencies, Twitter provides some of the best capabilities for getting the word to candidates.  The network is a recruiting software tool that more companies should leverage.

That said, the high levels of information that recruiters and staffers have to put out means that tweeting the constant flow of job opportunities could mean that you never leave your office for being chained to your Twitter accounts.  But that problem can be averted with automation software.

Check out these 3 automation tools that can make your recruiting management run more smoothly when it comes to tweeting your message:

1. Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a social media dashboard that allows recruiters and staffing agencies to manage and measure their Twitter and other social media accounts.

For busy hiring professionals Hootsuite can be an advantage.  You can draft multiple messages  — some Hootsuite plans enable you to produce 50 unique posts at a time — and schedule them to send at the optimal times your target audience is most likely to be online.

The service also allows you to monitor audience sentiment and follower growth.  You can utilize the analytic tools from Facebook and Google through the Hootsuite dashboard.  For busy professionals, the mobile apps make that information available any time via your mobile devices.

In addition, Hootsuite’s collaborative team functionality lets multiple contributors access your company’s social profiles without having to share passwords.

2. Timely

This bookmarklet also lets you schedule your tweets to get them out when they’re most likely to be seen but in contrast to Hootsuite, which asks you to specify the times you want your updates to be posted, Timely automatically distributes your messages based on your audience’s online behavior history.

So, in one sitting, you can create a queue of tweets and Facebook posts to go out automatically which saves more time for responding and retweeting.

If you combine a service like Klout, you can measure the influence and reach of your tweets and other social media updates.  Klout scores 2.7 billion pieces of content daily to understand your content’s impact and build your target audience.

3. Buffer

In order to keep the followers you’ve attracted, you need to establish a regular level of engagement.  The recruiting professionals who have the most success on social media understand this and don’t limit their updates to one type of content.

For example, let’s say you run across an article from SmartBrief on interview tips that you would like to share.  With Buffer, you can send that content via your Twitter account, with the added bonus of being able to view individual analytics for every tweet you send.

The capabilities social media automation provides mean that you can spread your recruitment and staffing influence more widely across Twitter and other channels without having to sacrifice large amounts of time in the process.

For more information how automation can help your recruitment or staffing company in other areas, check out our resource whitepaper, 15 Steps To Successful Staffing And Recruiting Software Selection.

 

6 Steps to Grow Your Staffing Agency with Content Marketing

/0 Comments/in /by

With all the competition in the staffing and recruiting industry today, it’s more important than ever to have a competitive advantage.  So how does a staffing agency rise above the crowd and noise of every other marketer in their space? One good answer is “content marketing” which refers to the development and distribution of content for the purpose of capturing the attention of your target market and positioning your company/brand as credible, authoritative, and useful.

This list of six “content marketing” methods that can help your staffing agency develop engaging and relevant content that gets found, read and shared by your target market and ultimately drives sales.

  1. Start a WordPress blog

    It’s free via WordPress, and it’s a great way to show that you’re in tune with the industry. Blog at least twice per month and each post should be between 250 – 400 words – Google likes fresh content that’s substantial.

  2. Do keyword research

    It’s free and easy via Google’s free tool. It will show you how many people are searching for words related to your product or service. You can use that information to make your website, blog posts, newsletters – in short, all of your content – more likely to be read by potential customers. Specifically, this means using priority keywords in titles (especially), subtitles, tags, and throughout your text.

  3. Give away great advice for free

    Offer relevant, useful information like “5 tips on how to find your next job” or “5 tips for finding your next great candidate.” This helps build trust and respect for your company and brand.

  4. Make your content easy to share

    Add social sharing buttons for social media venues like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+. The more your are shared, the more likely you are to be found via Google and other search engines.

  5. Share every post you write.

    Post some text and a link to the rest on your company’s Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+ accounts.

  6. Add your content to social sharing/bookmarking sites

    Add content to sites like StumbleUpon, Delicious, Digg and Reddit.

Content marketing is the hottest marketing strategy on the planet, and there’s no reason that staffing companies shouldn’t be using it.  The most important things to keep in mind are focus your content on what is important to your target audience and develop a content calendar and stick with it.

To learn more about recruiting software, staffing software, talent management, and other HR-related topics, bookmark this blog and check out the other blogs from Bond US.

Will LinkedIn’s New Recruiting Tool Replace Job Boards?

/0 Comments/in /by

Keep that recruiting software tuned into LinkedIn. The online professional network is about to get better for recruiters, job seekers, and – yes – even employed professionals not looking for a new job.

LinkedIn’s new tool, which is scheduled to launch in just a few months, is called “Talent Pipeline.” It’s an add-on to LinkedIn Recruiter, which is already one of the best online recruiting tools out there. Supposedly, companies will also be able to use Talent Pipeline as a free-standing program, but I have a hard time imagining anyone using it that isn’t already using Recruiter.

With one of the largest databases of working professionals or passive candidates, this new tool could seriously displace job boards.  Instead of job seekers chasing jobs, LinkedIn will make it easier for recruiters and staffing professionals to find and engage the select few qualified candidates they are most interested in.  No more looking for a diamond in the rough as recruiters and staffing professional will now be able to sort through a field of diamonds and transfer the best candidates to their own staffing or recruiting software for nurturing.

Here are the Talent Pipeline highlights:

  • One Stop Shop. Leads from virtually any source will be culled, organized, and updated in one place. The recruiter, of course, gets to set the search and organizational parameters. The program will also enable you to develop one profile from many sources, so data from John Smith’s company won’t be separate from the data drawn from his LinkedIn profile.
  • Easy Sharing. Despite their penchant for competition, independent recruiters know that sharing information is the lifeblood of their work. Recruiting companies and recruiting teams also benefit from well-developed internal information networks. Talent Pipeline promises to provide easy-to-use-and-customize sharing platforms.
  • Intuitive Interface. From the demos I’ve seen, the profiles are full of crucial information but still easy to read, even at a glance. And the program as a whole seems to be fairly easy to pick up. No doubt, LinkedIn (and others) will release a bunch of free training videos when the new service comes online.

I can imagine some recruiters saying, “But I already do all that via LinkedIn and other recruiting software.” That may be true, but I’ll bet that it takes a lot of time and effort to get the important data from two, three, or more different programs. Like a lot of great software, Talent Pipeline promises nothing terribly new in terms of outcome, but a much easier way to achieve that outcome. (Need an example? Look no further than Microsoft Word. Almost everything I produce with Word could be done with a typewriter, editing pen, and some basic graphics tools – or three different programs. Word simply makes it a lot easier to get the product I want.)

Maybe I’m excited about Talent Pipeline because I’m a staffing software geek. But I’ll bet that, in just a few years, recruiters around the country (and world) will wonder how they got along without it – kind of like word processing programs today.

Can Your Back Office Staffing Software Talk To Social Media?

/0 Comments/in /by

Regular readers of this blog know that I’m big on staffing software, social media, and staffing software that maximizes social media.

So of course I want to ask, “Does your back office staffing software talk to social media?” By which I mean,

  • Does it seamlessly integrate with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn – the three most important social media outlets for staffing professionals? You need to be able to easily import search results from these social media channels into various databases. You also need to easily move text – usually, some form of marketing text – to these outlets.
  • Does it allow you to set up automatic social media tracking and reports? Do you know, for example, how many people searched for a particular kind of job? Do you know how often people are talking about a particular company and what they are saying about it? Do you know how your competition is using social media? If not, you need better staffing software.
  • Does it allow you to easily use other social media outlets? No one knows how big Google+ is going to get, and no one knows what the next short-lived or long-lived social media phenomenon will look like. But you need to be ready to jump at social media opportunities as they arise, and that requires staffing software that’s social media friendly.

I’m still surprised that a lot of staffing professionals don’t really use social media. Maybe they have a Facebook and LinkedIn account, and maybe they tweet on a regular basis. But they don’t take advantage of the tremendous information gathering, information sharing, and networking opportunities afforded by it.

Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. Old habits die hard, and some of those old habits still pay good dividends in the staffing world. And it really is just a matter of time. Staffing professionals (including the “older generation” of people like me) use the internet and email today better than they did five years ago, so they’ll catch up with the social media revolution eventually – or retire before they have to. Speaking for myself, I prefer revolution over retirement any day!

Have questions about staffing software, recruiting software, and other tools for the staffing industry? Contact us – we’d love to hear from you.