While stories like this abound and the recovery is moving frustratingly slow, the staffing industry has a tremendous opportunity to make significant inroads into staffing the trucking, manufacturing, food services, business services, education, and health care industries, all of which are having difficulty filling positions. In fact there are a whole lot more job openings in these areas than actual hires. Staffing firms can make a strong case that they’re equipped to dig up the qualified applicants for these “difficult to fill positions.”

During 2008 and 2009 companies slashed middle-skill middle-wage jobs creating a surplus of people who can’t qualify for highly skilled jobs and don’t want to work for low-unskilled-wages. So, middle-skill jobs are easy to fill, specialized jobs aren’t, and that’s where staffing firms should be focusing on.

Also, the Yahoo! Finance article noted that the extension of unemployment benefits to 99 weeks and a less willingness to move due to uncertainty and credit and mortgage problems also accounts for this trend in more openings and less actual hires.

Anyway, what do you think? What types of positions are you experiencing feast/famine in? Also are you having a hard time getting people off of unemployment?

Email me to share your thoughts, and contact us to learn more about how we’re helping staffing firms make and save money through the implementation of our staffing software and technology.

Everett Reiss
Director of Marketing and Communications
Applied Systems Technology
845-534-7100 X1102
ev@astusa.com
Connect with me on:

• Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/everettreiss
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/everettreiss

 

Here are the news sources that I’m currently pulling from:

• United States Department of Labor
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• NY Times
• The Wall Street Journal
• CareerBuilder’s The Hiring Site
• The Washington Post
• The L.A. Times
• American Staffing Association

If you use Google Reader or someother RSS subscription service, here is the Staffing Industry Employment/Unemployment News RSS feed.  Or you can just bookmark Mad Staffing Blog’s Staffing Industry Employment/Unemployment News page.

Email me ev@astusa.com to let me know if there are some other employment/unemployment news sources that you think I should try to tap into.  Also, email me some other staffing industry news feeds you’d like me to make and I’d be happy to accomodate!

While I can’t say we had an emergency “snowicane” protocol established, we had progressively put things in place that helped us act quickly to:
#1 Notify our clients in the staffing industry of our situation.
#2 And offer an alternate way to get support for our staffing software.

Here are three things our staffing software firm had in place that you can easily do to prepare your staffing company for some type of natural disaster or act of God that renders your office temporarily inoperable. �

1. Record your staff’s cell phone #s: At the very least, two or three of your office’s top decision-makers should have everyone’s cell phone numbers programmed into their phones and on hard copy hanging up at their homes. If the phone lines go down, cell phones are typically the best way to get in touch with the staff and tell them what’s going on and what the plan is.
2. Keep your client email database in an online email application: If the power goes out at your main office where your servers are housed, then you’ll have no access to your company email or to any contacts that are on those servers. Therefore, having a company Gmail account or other free online email service is a simple way to give your clients an alternative way to get in touch with your staffing company. However, if you send out a mass email to your client database notifying them of your situation through your free email account, your email may be flagged as spam. Therefore, I suggest you have your client email database loaded into an online email service like Constant Contact or Mail Chimp, through which you can send out mass emails that are spam compliant. Make sure two to three people know how to access and use the mail service and it would be a good idea to have an “emergency” email notification template setup and ready to be modified and sent out.
3. Make sure there’s a clear distribution of responsibility: This makes things a whole lot simpler once the unexpected strikes. Here are the main responsibilities that should be doled out ahead of time:

• Decision-making regarding how your staffing company is going to react to the current situation.
• Phone calls to staff letting them know what is going on.
• Email to clients and candidates notifying them of your situation and how to best get in contact with your company.
• Monitoring and responding the available support-channels for your clients and candidates to get help.

Being able to support your candidates and clients through extenuating circumstances goes a long way in their eyes. After sending an email through Constant Contact to our client-base notifying them our office was down and to email our Gmail account as an alternate way to get support, I received numerous emails (once my power came back on and our servers were restored) of appreciation for our commitment to keep support going. Also, Frank Salustro, owner of a temporary staffing firm in Jamaica, NY, was extremely grateful that he was able to get a hold of Chantel, the manager of our support department and one of the few people who had power in our county. She helped him print payroll checks from our staffing software after he had run into a snag.

To help other staffing firms prepare to support their clients and candidates through the unexpected, email me, ev@astusa.com, some other ideas you have and may have put into practice.  If you are interested in talking to us about our staffing software, go to our Contact Us page.

 Remember that taking these simple steps ahead of time will go along way with your clients and candidates and make your company stand out in the staffing industry when it matters.

Everett Reiss
Project & Account Management and Internet Marketing
Applied Systems Technology
845-534-7100 X1102
ev@astusa.com
Connect with me on: 

The town dump is also the public works garage. While emptying the leaves out of my Toyota 4Runner, a long line of the town employees’ pick-up trucks caught my eye and reminded me of the power of culture on human behavior. It taught me a powerful lesson.

Here are the three things grabbed my attention:

• All of the public works employees drove trucks.
• Almost all of them seem to be excited about Dodge trucks.
• And they all seemed to enjoy backing their trucks into their parking spots.

Interesting behavior- either they all discussed the fastest way to get out of dodge as the clock hits 4:00 pm, or there is some other less conspicuous agent at work.

This is a simple but powerful picture of the effect that peers have on our behavior in the workplace – the power of culture.

The funny thing is that if their employer insisted they buy Dodge trucks and park them as shown in the picture…the bossman might end up in the leaf pile (I’ve seen these guys; they’re no sissies). If there wasn’t a physical reaction, there would certainly be complaints of micro management and “Who the [blank] are you to tell me what to drive and how to park!”

I’m not sure how long it actually took for this fleet of vehicles to fall into line, but I am certain that it was voluntary, and that each of the participants came to what they thought were strong individualistic conclusions about the best dang vehicle to drive, and the best direction to park them in. The fact is that our peers in the staffing industry have a profound influence and can change how we behave for better or worse – changes we are barely conscious of. This is the awesome power of culture.

What type of culture is driving the undercurrents of behavior in your staffing firm?

Contact us about how we can help you develop the most efficient processes and support you in creating a more high performing culture within your staffing firm with your staffing software and technology.

• Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dave-reiss/4/37b/218
• Twitter: appliedsystech
• Email: dave@astusa.com

Edison, NJ February 4, 2010 – Last week Everett Reiss, project and account manager for AST, was the main speaker for the first of six seminars that NJSA is presenting at the Sheraton Edison Hotel, in the Raritan Center. Reiss spoke on “Social Media Success Stories in the Staffing Industry” and gave the 70 plus attendees three action points to use in formulating a social media strategy for their staffing firms. To engage the attending staffing executives and professionals, Reiss used a video interview with Tracy Tillapaugh, technical recruiter for Contemporary Personnel Staffing in Liverpool, NY; and a panel consisting of Elaine Balady, Co-Owner of The Assurance Group, Robert Derbabian, Vice President at Wells Fargo Capital Finance, and Steve Isenberg, President and Founder of ASJ Partners. Find highlights of the interview with Tracy Tillapaugh at AST’s Mad Staffing Blog.

NJSA’s next “Web 2.0 and the Staffing Industry” seminar is going to be presented by a Northeast Account Executive, John Hassett, on “How To Use Linkedin for Staffing Firms” on February 23, 2010 from 5:00-7:30pm at the Sheraton Edison Hotel. You can register for this evening forum on the ten easy steps recruiters and sales staff can use to build community on Linkedin on the NJSA website.

NJSA’s remaining four forums, all of which are at the Sheraton Edison Hotel are:

• “How to Use Social Media to Bolster Your Recruiting Efforts” presented by Everett Reiss, project manager for the staffing software firm, AST on March 23, 2010 at 8:00-10:00am.
• “How to Twitter and Source Candidates” presented by Rob Tyson, CPC, President and CEO, Bonifield Associates on April 20, 2010 at 5:00-7:30pm.
• “Building Awareness, Influence, Reputation, and Authority Using Facebook for Staffing and Recruiting Professionals” presented by Tracey Madden, CPC, CTS, President of McIntosh Staffing Resources, LLC on May 18, 2010 at 5:00-7:30pm.
• “Building Profitable Web 2.0 Activities Into Your Daily Work Lives” presented by Everett Reiss, project manager for the staffing software firm, AST on June 22, 2010 at 8:00-10:00am.

For more details on the “Web 2.0 and the Staffing Industry” seminar check out NJSA’s 2010 Business Issues Expert Resources Forums e-brochure that Patricia Koziol, Executive Director & Recording Secretary of NJSA put together.

About New Jersey Staffing Alliance (NJSA):
The New Jersey Staffing Alliance (NJSA) is an industry trade association of direct hire,
contract and temporary staffing firms. NJSA represents members professionally engaged in all areas of personnel services including search, recruitment, placement and temporary help services. All levels of employment and vocational disciplines (from warehouse and distribution staff to scientific and medical personnel) are served by specialists among the members. We are an affiliated chapter of the American Staffing Association and the National Association of Personnel Services, the national organizations representing direct hire and temporary staffing firms in all fifty states.

About Applied Systems Technology (AST):
Applied Systems Technology provides fully integrated staffing agency software to mid market staffing agencies throughout the United States. Its unique ‘outcomes’ approach to automation starts with helping senior management align the projects around very specific measureable goals relating to the operations of their business. By fusing their business processes to automated tools, the client companies are able to grow their businesses with significantly improved operating ratios. The ability to script business rules around desired outcomes in the staffing software itself provides staffing operators significantly greater control over the business.

After 25 years of helping staffing companies use staffing software and other technologies to make and save money, we’ve partnered with the New Jersey Staffing Alliance to help staffing companies use social media to increase sales, recruit, and fill orders.

I’m going to be facilitating the first of six breakfast/evening forums on how staffing agencies can use web 2.0 and social media tactics to increase sales and improve recruiting.  The free breakfast session on “Social Media Success Stories in the Staffing Industry” is at 7:30a Tuesday, Jan 26, 2010 at the Edison, NJ Sheraton.

I will be showing an interview I did with Tracy Tillapaugh, a lead technical recruiter for Contemporary Personnel Staffing based out of Liverpool, NY.  Click on the video below for highlights from my interview with Tracy, which will be used as the basis for our discussion.

During the forum Tracy will be available on Twitter to answer any questions, so if you have a Twitter ID and are able to send tweets through your laptop or mobile phone; as you are participating in the forum you can actually tweet your questions to http://twitter.com/tracytilly or @tracytilly.

We will also have a panel of staffing industry professionals answering additional questions and sharing how they are using social media to expand their businesses:

• Elaine Balady, Co-Owner of The Assurance Group
• Robert Derbabian, Vice President at Wells Fargo Capital Finance
• Steve Isenberg, President and Founder of ASJ Partners

Don’t delay, register now at the New Jersey Staffing Alliance website.  

Big thanks to those mentioned above who are helping make this happen, but in addition Jack Wellman, President and COO of Joule Inc., Patricia Koziol, Executive Director & Recording Secretary of NJSA, and Christina Grenga, VP of Business Development for AST are largely responsible for making this series happen on the Staffing Industry and Web 2.0.

Feel free to connect with me on Linkedin, Twitter, or email if you have any questions.

Hope to see you there!

Everett Reiss
Account Manager and Internet Marketer
Applied Systems Technology
ev@astusa.com