Avionté Staffing Software will be attending and exhibiting at the INA Annual Conference in San Francisco, CA.

Avionte is now hiring additional software professionals to work in our local office in Kathmandu, Nepal. This opportunity provides huge career potential with high pay and a lot of career advancing opportunities.

The following programming skills are required. All applicants without the following skills will be automatically disqualified.
No. of open positions: 5

• Strong understanding of the .NET platform
• Minimum 2 years of C# programming experience.
• Windows/Web Application Development
• Object Oriented Programming knowledge
• Visual Studio 2005 /2008
• MS SQL 2005 /2008
• Ability to communicate clearly in both oral and written form in English.
• Must have strong skills as a team player and as an independent contributor.

Experience with full life cycle and end to end application development, testing and debugging will be a plus. Previous experience gathering business requirements and ability to translate technical terms to non-technical personnel a plus. All successful candidates should have the ability to work as part of a team or on own, and the ability to carry tasks through to completion with minimal supervision.

Please email you CV/Resume with cover letter to nepaljobs@avionte.com

A cover letter outlining why you should be hired will help. Only short listed candidates will be contacted.

As a member of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) I had the chance to meet Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty on Wednesday morning.   During the morning session we visited with State Senate Republican (David Hahn,Eden Prairie) and then State House Democrat (Julie Bunn, Woodbury),  both were very informative.  Then we went over to the Governor’s office and twenty of us met with him for a half an hour or so.

Despite your political affiliation, I think it is really cool to meet your elected officials.  Last year, Brenda and I met with Senator Amy Klobuchar in Washington.  With the Governor, though, I was very impressed with his viewpoints and approach.  I do lean on the Conservative side of things, especially fiscally; so the Governor’s thoughts already lined up with mine.  Here are some examples, and since I didn’t take notes from the sessions some of the statistics might be a little off – sorry!

• We talked about Streamlining Environmental Permitting.  At this time, the three main Government agencies (DNR, Pollution Control Agency and Department of Agriculture) have no real pressure to approve anything.  Private sector companies that are run like the government are soon out of business.   And frankly, we all know most government programs are bankrupt.  The new legislation being proposed (HF 3079, SF 2761) wants to force the agencies to approve or disapprove the permit within 150 days.  To me that seems like a long time anyway!  One of the members has had an active permit being reviewed now for 26 years.  LITERALLY!  The Governor was shocked by this information and is having a staff member follow up on that particular permit.  In general the delays are monstrous.  One problem is that without any penalties or consequence (like the department’s budget can’t be approved without full compliance of 150 days) these agencies will just blow this off.
• An interesting side point was a major development in Northern Minnesota (I didn’t write down the name) was having significant issues getting permits for development.  There are a bunch of Minnesota investors involved and this had been in the news, condemning the slowness of our government.  The Governor calmly told us what was really happening.  The developers had not filed the correct permits, missed deadlines and basically didn’t follow any procedures.  The Governor called the CEO himself and told him that he needs to back off or the Governor will hold a press conference and tell the world that this developer hadn’t filed the right permits, missed deadlines, etc.  Everything has been quite for the last three months…..  Not only did this story make me smile, but it also showed me the Governor isn’t just about bashing the government agencies in general and will find out what is reasonable.  AND he didn’t pass the buck to someone else.  This story also reminded me there is ALWAYS two sides to every story and issue.  Without question, there is logic on the liberal viewpoint of things.
• Healthcare Mandates.  There are a lot of specialized mandates being presented.  One of these is Expanded Autism Coverage.   The issue here is that if one of my employees has an autistic child and then our insurance company is forced to cover additional services; our rates skyrocket.  Blue Cross has a similar coverage already which reports a $40,000 per year average cost and some claims go as high as $100,000.  So, this one situation can force me out of providing coverage to all my employees, as we simply wouldn’t be able to afford it anymore.  The point, would it be hard to have an Autistic child?  Of course.  But, in any of these situations, along with some of the provisions in the new Federal Healthcare bill the money comes from somewhere.  By adding new services, covering more people, eliminating pre-existing conditions, etc.  those fees will come from somewhere.  I’ll give you a bit of time to figure out where they might come from.  OK, I’ll give you two places; increased premiums or taxes.
• Some of the legislation is getting crazy.  Did you know there is a bill (HF 2810, SF 2408) that requires mandatory bathroom breaks??  The term “Nanny-state” is relevant.
• Some of the members wanted to reduce Corporate Income Tax and expand consumption taxes, such as sales tax.  The Governor replied that while this sounds like a really good idea, once you start peeling back the layers, it just won’t work.  According to him, the three main places to increase sales tax is a) clothes  b) healthcare and c) business to business services.  With clothes, this would generate only $190MM in revenue- – which it is a lot and would be enough to significantly reduce corporate income taxes.  Healthcare – we are having issues with increasing costs of healthcare and taxing on top of that is a tough deal.  Business to Business taxing?  This hurts business, the very thing we should be trying to promote.  I liked his reasoning and difference between the Pundit/Theory world of what should be done, to the practical – what can be done world.
• If I can assign one basic principle to the Governor now, it would be controlling costs.  The simple fact is that all of us deal with balancing a budget.  To do that, we can either raise income or cut expenses.  PERIOD.  It is that simple.  So, we can raise taxes to generate revenue.  I am not a believer that raising taxes generates better economic activity.   Minnesota is already among the highest in most taxing categories.  We are looking at potentially losing a US Congress seat due to the fact that we aren’t growing near as fast as other states.  Businesses do not want to come here because of the current tax structure.  So, we have to cut costs.  To cut costs, as in your own budget there are some really tough decisions to make, but they need to be made.  Face it, if you have only $300 left in your household budget and are looking at a $300 car payment, $100 Cable bill, $100 healthclub membership and $100 Buck Hill skiing pass – well, you have to cut something out.  You don’t want to, but you have to.  What is the right thing to cut?  Well, it depends on each person and what they value.  I don’t believe there is a clear cut answer, though I’m sure some answers would float to the top as better.  The point is, there are a lot of things we, as citizens of MN, want to spend our money on but if the money isn’t there, it just isn’t there.
• Did you know that 42% of the entire MN budget is spent on K-12 expenses?  Of that 80 some percent is related to employee wages and benefits.  It is by far, the largest expense.  Did you also know the most powerful lobbying group, BY FAR, is Education Minnesota, which has 55 lobbyists on staff.  The next closest??  11.  They pay millions on every election.  Everyone is afraid of Big Labor, but the simple fact is they are controlling the biggest part of the budget.  All of us in the private sector would love the entitlements, pensions, benefits, salaries, job security, etc that our teachers are receiving.  Both of my parents were teachers.  My birth mom is a teacher.  Teaching is one of the hardest and most important jobs we have.  But, I think we have to control costs, especially with these retirement packages.  Our government spending is bankrupting not only our generation, but our kids generation as well.

Bottom line – is well, the bottom line.  I hope Americans understand basic fiscal prudence and the long term consequence of spending.  I want a profitable country, even if it means having to cut good programs.

John Long is the founding Partner and CEO of Avionté, a customer-focused provider of staffing software solutions.  He has extensive knowledge of the staffing industry that began with four years at Paychex, where he developed an in-depth understanding of back-office functions, specifically with payroll software processes.  Over the next several years, John worked for established staffing software firms in advanced roles that included President, Vice President of Sales and Chief Revenue Officer.   John’s ability to empathize with staffing software users and fully comprehend their needs is a direct result of his hands-on involvement at every level. John holds degrees from St. Olaf College in Math, Computer Science, and Statistics.  John Long can be contacted at 651.556.2121, or by email at jlong@avionte.com.  Visit Avionté online at www.avionte.com.

Check back every week for our new tip of the week.  We would be happy to add you to our e-mail list.. send a message to angela@avionte.com and request to be added.

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There are so many ways to relieve stress.  Go for a walk, take a deep breath, listen to soothing music and the list goes on and on.  I prefer to disco.  Yes, disco.  I especially liked to disco on a Friday afternoon with my staff.  I can’t remember how it all started but I do remember WHO started it.  Two infamous staffers I will refer to as J and T.  J and T were the masters of disco; there was not a move they couldn’t do with grace and ease.  They knew everyone of them; deal the cards, drive the big rig, wash the dog, if it was a disco move they knew it!  From time to time in the back of the office after a long day you could hear the Bee Gees blaring and knew they were dancing.   It didn’t matter what was going on, when you heard the music it was almost impossible not to get up and go check out these two disco divas.   As we gathered and watched, we smiled and laughed.    At some point it developed into a full blown office activity.  On Friday afternoon we would all gather in my office, turn on the Bee Gees “Staying Alive” and disco dance around the office.  We had a block of cubes that made a great path for us to follow.   We could make a couple full laps before the music ended; picking up staffers on the way!  Everyone enjoyed the brief moment of reprieve from the client who needed their twenty temps (they needed them yesterday but didn’t call until 4pm today!), applicants who had not yet been placed (and assured you they were the best for the job!) and the stinky guy that just showed up for the fifth time again this week (we will call you when we have an assignment).

Try it!  Your staff or co-workers may think you are little nuts, but they will eventually cave and join in the disco conga line.

What is your relationship with paper?  I personally could do without it, and I do…now.  My office is almost completely paper free; with the exception of a binder with a few of my notes and must have documents.  Everything else is kept electronically. This hasn’t always been the case.  Years ago my staffing office was filled with a large three drawer filing cabinet, each drawer packed full.  I used the top drawer on a regular basis, but didn’t look at anything else on a monthly or even bi-yearly basis.  I remember looking at it one day thinking about why I kept it all?  I had fallen into the trap of needing to keep every last thing on the off chance one day I needed to look at it.  In fact, my whole office had fallen prey to the same thinking.  Each of my staffing specialists had a filing cabinet in their offices filled with various forms of paperwork.  How many times had my staff spent a Friday afternoon cleaning out their office, which basically meant organizing their mountains of paper!  We needed to make a change.

I wanted to go completely paperless, but knew this was far too ambitious for our current situation.  I settled with starting on applications; our biggest offender.

• Get the staff on board. From my past experiences I knew that change was difficult for the staff to handle, even good change.  We had a meeting to talk about the pros and cons of getting our paper application situation under control.  One staff member tightly grasped her paper applications, a sure sign that she wasn’t willing to give them up without a fight.  I knew she was going to be my personal challenge on this project.
• Put together a step by step plan. People deal better with change when they understand it and know what is going to happen.  I’m not saying everyone was excited (especially not my paper lover) but they were able to understand how the process was going to work.  As a group we talked about how to process applications via our software (too bad we didn’t have Avionté Staffing Software); how they would share information with our clients, how they would keep them in their “hot” files and not let anyone slip through.  The group came to the conclusion that if they used the search feature in our staffing software it was faster and more efficient than keeping them in piles on their desk.  We had a feature in our software that allowed them to e-mail the client a copy of their application or resume.  It wasn’t the ideal solution as it e-mailed in fairly small print, but it worked and our clients enjoyed the reduction of paper faxes.
• Put the plan in motion and become a cheerleader!
  • Steer applicants to our online application or use the kiosks in our lobby.  Our receptionist loved this one.  During our peak she was entering over 20 (on a slow day) applications a day, not leaving her time for any other projects.  We were able to cut down the number of paper applications by half!  Not only did this save on time, but printing costs as well.
  • No printing the online applications or resumes.  Properly update the skills, experience and test results so they will come up on a search.  This led to a reduction in staff time filing and finding lost applications and of course wasted paper!
  • E-mail clients the basic application (personal info not included).  Through e-mail we had documentation every time information was sent to a client and what applicant it was sent on.
  • Scan any additional information and add it to their electronic file.  Following the rule of touch a piece of paper only once, scan it, save it, shred it.
  • Find any and all opportunities to recognize staff following the plan!  Like any change, motivation is the key factor.  Although they found plenty of positives with the paperless initiative, they also wanted to go back to the familiar at times.
• Give it time. As with any change, time is needed for people to feel comfortable.  I knew that from time to time the staff would revert back to old habits.  During one of my visits with the paper lover I noticed the piles of applications in her upper cabinet.  She had kept all of hers that were to be shredded, she wasn’t ready to let go.  As one of my top producers I didn’t want to disturb her groove.  We talked about a timeline to start letting go.  It took her a little longer than some of the others, but she was able to do it.
• Take one step at a time. After all, the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.

The project went well and we moved on to other sources of paper hogs.  Although we were not able to go completely paperless, we did make a dent in our use of paper and found more ways to make our technology to work for us.

Has your office gone through a similar process?  Let us know what you did?  Would you do it the same way again or make a change?

Welcome to my blog about all things staffing and recruiting.  My goal is to provide you with some new (and not so new) perspective to help you recruit, increase productivity, improve processes, motivate your staff and keep you a little entertained along the way.

Like so many, I just happened into staffing.   I had never thought about a career in staffing, nor did I have much experience with staffing companies.  After working for several years in the health and fitness industry I decided to return home to Montana.  Although Montana is a beautiful place, a mecca for the health and fitness industry it is not.  I needed to find a new career.. and fast!  I visited a local staffing company to see what they might have available and how they could help me.  During my interview I was asked about my experience with hiring and managing.  I guess they liked my answer, because I was offered an in house position as a staffing specialist.  After working a desk for a year, I was promoted to branch manager.  Our little staffing company grew and grew over the years.  We had multiple full time staffing specialists for industrial and clerical divisions.  Some of our clients were large enough to have their own dedicated staffing specialist.   We were able to grow a direct hire division large enough to have two full time recruiters on staff as well.  I often tell people that I was surprised how much I loved the industry!  I had no idea the day I walked in the door I would want to make this my career.  No one leaves high school or college saying “I want to work in staffing”.   For me it was the perfect blend of sales, operations and management.   I loved that it was ever changing and not only could you make a difference in the business’s bottom line, but truly make a difference in people’s lives.

I often joked with my staff that I was going to write a book about all our staffing adventures.  Although I haven’t got around to my book yet, I do want to share many of those with you.  Some of my favorites have been the excuses temporaries came up with why they couldn’t go to their assignment, or stories about strange interviews!  I will also be sharing some of my experiences that helped the business grow, and some lessons learned that didn’t help at all.  I hope you will visit often and share some of your experiences as well.

Avionté Staffing Software will be exhibiting at the upcoming California Staffing Professionals Annual Staffing and Recruiting Conference. The Conference will be held April 22-24, 2010 in Industry Hills, CA.

Avionté will be showcasing its Staffing Software at the Executive Forum 2010.  March 17-19, Avionté Staffing Software will be sponsoring the Staffing Industry Executive Forum which will be held at the Red Rock Casino Resort in Las Vegas.   More SI Executive Forum Details

Avionté Staffing Software integrates paycard solution allowing staffing clients to provide employees greater payroll convenience and flexibility.

ST. PAUL, Minn., February 23, 2010 -Avionté Staffing Software, a leading provider of software for staffing and recruiting firms, announced today a new partnership and integration with Global Cash Card, the proven specialist in paycard solutions.  Headquartered in Irvine, California, Global Cash Card is a wholly owned subsidiary of World Processing, LTD, and has been specializing in customized paycard solutions since 2003.

Avionté clients will now have a seamless solution that enables them to pay employees using a secure and simple paycard solution.  The entire process is administered within the Avionté System allowing for two-way, instant data transfer between Global Cash Card and Avionté.  This eliminates any need to access another system or manually feed information back and forth, resulting in greater efficiency and costs saving for staffing firms.  All of the banking and paycard information is setup within Avionté, allowing employees to have payroll loaded directly onto their personal paycard at any point in time.

LaborWorks is the first of many Avionté Staffing Software clients to implement the Global Cash Card solution. ”The Global Cash Card integration with Avionté went very smoothly; even the small glitches that we’ve encountered have been handled quickly and professionally by both Avionté and Global Cash Card. In comparison to our prior card and software system, working with Global Cash Card and Avionté is a vast improvement both in terms of system improvement and the overall benefit a paycard should provide. We are so pleased with the process that we are transitioning all of our pay process to the Global Cash Card,” said Al Bacon, CFO of LaborWorks Industrial Staffing.

The integration provides staffing firms a way to service their employees more effectively by providing them the convenience of instant access to their money.  In addition, employees will save money by eliminating check cashing and overdraft fees, be able to use their card for online purchases and enjoy the security that goes with carrying a card, rather than cash.

John Long, CEO of Avionté remarked, “Partnering with Global Cash Card was yet another way we could offer our clients a true paperless solution, reducing both expenses and administrative time.   By eliminating the need for paper checks and providing an attractive solution for employees who may not have or simply can’t manage a bank account, we were able to create a win for everyone involved.”

About Avionté Staffing Software
Avionté Staffing Software began with the uniting of four of the staffing industry’s proven software sales and technology experts. Avionté Staffing Software offers the industry a complete front-and back-office software solution. Creating simplicity and a strong user experience without sacrificing functionality, Avionté includes resume parsing, Dashboard, Outlook® integration and a full suite of applicant, client and employee Web Portals. For more information, please visit www.avionte.com or call 1-651-556-2121.

About Global Cash Card
Global Cash Card^TM is THE proven specialist in customized paycard solutions that are simple to implement and easy to use.  The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of World Processing, Ltd, a leader in electronic financial transaction technology.  Global Cash Card is a direct processor that offers Debit MasterCard cards, Visa Prepaid cards and PIN-based ATM cards.  The company develops and owns the proprietary software, which enables the products and services it offers.

The platform provides payroll cards, travel, gift, FSA, HSA, and many other types of applications.  Global Cash Card also offers branded and customized programs.  Global Cash Card’s cutting edge technology continues to improve, offering more value and greater flexibility to meet the particular requirements of its customers.  For more information visit http://www.globalcashcard.com/ or call (888) 220-4477 ext. 202.

Staffing Software Integrates with Global Cash Card