Well that might be a little bit of an overreaction since they do have some use like leaving funny notes for your co-workers.  They are pretty good for brainstorming new ideas too.  However, they have lost their place at the table when it comes to tracking job orders.

It doesn’t surprise or even amaze me to hear that very successful staffing and recruiting companies are still using whiteboards to monitor jobs, candidates and statuses.  What does surprise me is the inability to even think about letting it go!  A few months back I was onsite with a company and spotted the whiteboard.  I had to fight the urge to walk over and erase the board with all of its detailed information.  Each of the staffing specialists and recruiters could find the exact same information on their computer screen.  So why is it so hard to let go?

Staffing, as any other industry has processes, procedures or even tools that have worked well in the past.  If something is working why change it?  Well how about productivity and profitability?  Yes I have touted both of these in many of my ramblings, but how productive is it for you or your staff to write or change information about a job order or a candidate on a board?    And how profitable is it for you to not know exactly what is going on with each order?  Can you track time to fill or sources methods from a board?  How about the dollars lost on duplication of work?  Unless you have an amazing white board that is linked to your staffing software, the information is going nowhere.  Just because it used to work does not mean there is a better way to do something.  Companies that have the ability to quickly change and adapt to new technology are generally the ones still standing during tough times because they have learned how to do more with less.

Cons of using a whiteboard:

• Double work.  Writing it on a board and then entering it into your staffing software.
• Time for someone to write it all out. (If you are still using this method, do a time study for one week how much time is being spent writing, erasing, adding, etc.)
• Who else can see this information?  I certainly would not want my name being broadcast to everyone who walked into the office (most of the whiteboards I have seen are in plain view)
• Divulging who your job orders are for.  I’ve mentioned before that applicants are smart, if they think they can go directly to the source, they will.
• Difficult to get metrics and reports from a whiteboard.
• No audit trail.

I could go on and on with the cons of using a whiteboard, but I think you get my point.  It’s a lot of work for something that really isn’t going to offer much in return.

Pros of using a whiteboard:

• Everyone can see what orders you have, and I mean everyone.

I’m sure there are a few more pros, but I think our time will be better served talking about making the switch.

The biggest opposition that I have heard about letting go of the whiteboard is the motivation factor.  Many of the supporters state the whiteboard motivates them and it’s fun to get up and erase a job order that has been filled.  Or it’s exciting to see how many orders have come in during the day.  My response – dashboard.  With Avionté each user has counters to see new orders that have come in, new applicants or even applicants who are available today.  Want a little more information?  An integration with Qlikview offers a higher level dashboard to see in real time what is happening in each location.  Even better, reports can be generated in real time to fully understand what is going on with a specific branch or even customer.  Can your whiteboard do that?

Although I would like to see everyone who is reading this article jump up and remove their whiteboard, that simply is not going to happen.  When it comes to change management, baby steps are always best.  Talk with your staff as to why they are continuing to duplicate work.  You will then need to address their need to see a visual on the wall of this information.  Often times it is a lack of understanding of their software.  In the case of Avionté

it is very easy to see all the open job orders and who is available to fill them.  When a job order is filled, it simply drops off the list.  No need to get up and erase it (and risk getting marker on the side of your hand!)

One of the biggest hurdles will be the level of comfort.  Very few people embrace change quickly.  If they have worked in staffing for many years, this is comfortable to them.  Offer to have a push report created so each day at 4pm everyone in the branch or company receives an email with the key metrics for the day ie: new orders, new fills, resumes sent, interviews scheduled, etc.

Good luck to all in making the change! As always, I like to hear what is going on in your world.  Feel free to add a comment as to how you make the change over.

-Angela

By Laura Schmitz

As many of you know, I travel a lot.  I almost always rent a car and have come to some conclusions:

1.       Best City with no traffic any time of any day: Reno, NV

2.       Worst City for traffic:  Atlanta, GA by far worse than NYC or LA or Paris or London (it once took me 3 hours to go 8 miles in Atlanta on a Tuesday; I’m renting a ten-speed from now on.)

3.       Weirdest highway entrances/exits: Toss-up between NH, Milwaukee, WI and TX

4.       Nicest and most Courteous drivers: AR & OH

5.       Best Drivers (in as far as they know the rules of the road like how to merge, etc.): WA

6.       Worst Drivers possibly in the world:  My home state of MN, it doesn’t matter where you go; the Twin Cities or in the most northern rural cities, they can’t drive!

Whether you look at the passive aggressive speed monitors who hang out in the left lane at 54 mph staying right next to the guy in the right lane or the ever annoying who speed up just as they’re supposed to yield to the merge or those that simply don’t pay attention to the Road construction signs (all 10 of them in ever increasing size, blinking patterns and neon indicating a closed lane); they still wait until they’re going to run over a cone before they get over.   Keep in mind that there are 2 seasons in MN: Winter and Road Construction; so this is a good 5-6 months each year.  But what’s really got me going is a new phenomenon:  NEVER using a blinker.  I mean all of a sudden, you’re driving along and out of the corner of your eye you see a car drifting your way and lo and behold they’re in your lane about 2 inches from your bumper.  It’s maddening!  Do Minnesotans not know about this great, timeless piece of technology called a blinker that allows them to alert other drivers as to their intentions to switch lanes or take an exit or turn?  Do they think that like headlights this has gone automatic and the car just KNOWS to signal for them?  Every day I experience my heart skip a beat as I envision the 10 car pile-up that was just miraculously avoided because some moron didn’t use a blinker and without looking just veered into the next lane.

So, I do have a business parallel to talk about (thanks for letting me get all of that inner road rage off my chest).

Just like the blinker in your car, the signals you send when utilizing the technology you have invested in can be used to indicate to all the other drivers in the business where you’re going.  Software is great, I happen to think that Avionté is some of the best software out there, but if it isn’t paired with a solid base of process and procedure, it’s just like the MN driver weaving in and out of traffic like an out of control race car driver.  Without process, users don’t know how to be most efficient or effective; they become aimless drivers on the highway, nearly avoiding collision all day long.  From applicant to candidate to placement, do you have a process that everyone is following?  From prospect to customer to placing an order, do you have a process that everyone uses? Avionté has great functionality to base these processes around, and we continue to improve upon it.   Are you up to speed on everything that Avionté has to offer to enhance your everyday processes? Are there things that you’re doing that are kind of a nuisance but you have just gotten used to doing it that way or didn’t have the time to see if it could be done better?  Now is the time.   I’ve had the pleasure of visiting and working with clients in the past couple of months to do consultations and refresher training and with even just a few tweaks to process have seen companies increase their productivity and retention by utilizing what had always been there for them to use.  Please contact me today if you’d like to talk about your process, workflow and procedure to ensure you’re getting the most out of your investment but also signaling to your staff the best route to take to reach the ultimate destination: Success.

By Laura Schmitz

Business process directly affects customer service, employee satisfaction and the bottom line.  Even slight changes in process can increase revenue and productivity, allowing you to do more with less.  Here’s a quick check list to see if you have some processes that you can adjust today to advance and enhance all of the above.

1.      How often is the recruiting staff touching paper applications or paperwork from applicants in general?

a.      If your answer is more than once, you could improve your process.  Consider the on-line job board and application that includes automatic candidate management functions to take away the pile of paperwork and attach it electronically to your applicant and soon to be employee files.

2.      Do you have written, simple procedures for each area your business?  Is it updated and available to your staff?  If questioned, would every staff member be able to tell you the process?  If you answered no to one or all of these questions, you need to improve your process.

3.      Does your back office staff require more than a day to process payroll and billing? If your answer is yes, you could improve your process.

a.      How many people are involved in these processes?

b.      How much paper is being used? If your toner bill has increased or stayed the same, the process could be adjusted.

c.      Could the front office do time entry, avoiding time needed to inquire about rates, hours and even whether or not someone is on assignment?  Only the front office knows this, why not have them put in the hours and have the back office take it from there?

d.      Does everyone have access to the reports they need?  Do an audit of all of your reports and ask your staff what would be helpful for them to have.

4.      When was the last time your business processes were reviewed? If it’s been more than a year, you should take a look.  Technology, your clients’ processes and your employees are changing at lightening fast speed, your process needs to be ahead of the game.

5.       Is the technology available being used appropriately or even at all by your staff?  Have you shadowed various departments to see how they use the system, offered any refresher training or asked them to assess their own processes?

6.      How many screens does your staff have to open on a daily basis to perform their job(s)?  If your answer is more than three, your staff might need some refresher training to increase their productivity.

7.      Does your staff have the ability to see current employees with unemployment claims to get them back to work? If not, consider turning on this counter for them and making a process for this.

Did you know the answers to all of the questions above?  This is an indication of how well your process is as well, if you don’t know, are you sure someone else does?  Make every dollar count without sacrificing customer service or employee satisfaction and increase revenue by investing time into process improvement.  If you need to change or adjust your processes but aren’t sure where to start or just want some outside perspective, give me a call or drop me an email at laura@avionte.com.  You bought a program with all the bells and whistles; you might as well use it!

by Laura Schmitz

Many of you know by now that I am a loud and proud proponent for paperless processes and functionality.  Do I have some deep-rooted resentment for the post-it note?  A debilitating allergy to envelope glue?  A fateful and traumatizing fax incident in my past?   No, no and maybe.  In fact I have great respect for all of these things and think that each has an honored place in good ole Americana, like the Disco ball and the 8 track.  Unfortunately, just like the Walkman, they have been quickly replaced by ever-changing technologies faster than any of us who began life prior to 1995 ever thought they could be.  In fact, many of us cling to post-it notes like they offer life saving oxygen.  It’s time to move on.  Paperless is here to stay and offers the best way yet to increase productivity, improve customer service inside and out and hold our workforce accountable.  No longer should we have file drawers full of papers that you may or may not have access to or that may or may not need to be shredded.  In a paperless environment, everyone can have access to the same information, simultaneously, without the cost of toner, paper or time spent trying to un-jam a copy machine.   Decisions can be made with all the facts, bills can be paid faster, orders and assignments can matched up better and there are overall less chance for errors or wrong practices.

Usually around this point, somebody pipes up and says “That’s all great Laura, but OUR workers don’t know how to use the internet or email, our people HAVE to have their files and our candidates NEED to fill out our 100 page application”.  Really?  When was the last time you or anyone you know looked something up in the actual white pages book?  Bought and wrestled with a road map?  Filled out with a pen, your whole tax return?   Received an actual paper party invitation (I recently got an Evite to a wedding for Pete’s sake!)?

Is it that the workforce can’t or won’t go paperless or is it because you’re holding on to some shred of the past so YOU can keep the paper security blanket and what you’re familiar with?  It’s time to look in the mirror.  Paperless is a done deal and in the case of the new generation coming into the workforce the only thing they know.  If we want to sustain productive, growing businesses and industry, we have to accept that we can do pretty much everything without a scrap of paper or a pen or a highlighter.

The question is who can do it better?  At Avionté, we have developed many features and functions that eliminate and/or reduce paperwork to increase knowledge sharing, efficiency and ultimately the bottom line.  Just some examples are automated messaging, on-line billing and payroll, electronic document storage and many, many more.  So, I ask you, do you want to be the next exhibit at the Smithsonian; or do you want to be at the on-line table electronically signing the next big deal?  Let us know if you’d like to join the next generation in staffing; paperless counselors are standing by to help you. Send us an e-mail.

In the last couple of weeks I have talked with several companies that are hiring for their internal staff.  This is great news for so many reasons!  First and foremost, it’s exciting to hear that our customers are doing well!  Second, it reminds us that things are on the rebound and they will turn around; slowly maybe, but surely.

Hiring for internal staff can be one of the toughest orders you have to fill.  I remember my days as a branch manager and all the applications I would go through before I found one or two people that I wanted to bring in to interview.

The process is much like filling a temp order.  The branch manager usually pushes the order out to the Staffing Specialist, who in return submits resumes of those they feel are the most qualified (or who they really want to work with).  It’s tough to tell a staffer the person they picked out is not who you are looking for.  Unlike their dealings with a client, they will really push for a good reason why you are choosing not to interview them.  I will admit, I have caved a few times and have been happy with the results.  My lesson; trust the people you have hired to do their job.  If I trusted them with filling orders for my clients, why wouldn’t I trust them with my own staff?!  I learned they are the ones that are on the front lines and are probably not going to choose someone that will make them look bad or leave them with all the work.

After you have carefully selected the perfect person to work in your office, you must train them.  I think there are more than a few managers out there that forget this important step in the process.  Think about on-boarding the new person.  Would you skip doing their I-9?  Hopefully the answer is no.  But training IS part of the on-boarding process.  I attended a conference once that talked about how new employees perceived their new work environment.  Those who did not receive proper training start to doubt if this was the right choice and may start looking for another position.  Although the market is not as tight as it was a few years ago, it still is not easy to find great talent.

In a recent conversation with a new staffer she told me about her training process, or lack thereof.  She was told what she needed to do, but never received an explanation as to why she should do it or how it tied in to anything else.  She felt a bit like a trained monkey, repeating over and over each day the actions she was shown.  No one had time to answer her questions or help her to better understand the processes.  Soon she moved to a different job within the company, one that came with a little more instruction.  She had several ah-ha moments and started to really understand the processes.  Although she was excited and happy about her new adventure, it did make her a little sad that she wasn’t allowed to learn any of this before.  Point of the story; let your staff in on why they are doing certain things.  Don’t keep them in the dark simply because you are too busy.

Think about your current training program for new hires.

Are you…?

• Allotting the proper time for them to receive training?
• Supplying a good trainer for them?  One that is not distracted with other work during training time?
• Committed to making sure your new hire is correctly trained?
• Helping your new hire understand why you are doing things a certain way?
• Avoiding the phrase.. “I had to learn as I went, it’s good for you!”

Properly training a new employee is one of the best ROI you can have.  Take the time to do it and do it right.

By Laura Schmitz

I recently discovered a short cut on how to put the little é on Avionté (e acute is the official character name , check out http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/Keyboard-shortcuts to find a whole host of shortcuts you may not have known about.)   I had what I thought was a shortcut, but this one saved an extra key stroke and didn’t require notes on how to do it on my laptop versus a traditional keyboard.  If only I had known that a year ago!

We all think we’re too busy or know enough to refresh ourselves on the tools we use and need to conduct our business every day.  The reality is that if we took a couple of hours a couple of times a year and dedicated it to learning more about those tools, we could not only learn something new (which is always rewarding) but we could find new productivity or relief for pesky functions that we do every day, but wish we could do easier or better.   Setting aside time to learn is something that few of us think about.  I believe that learning is one of the greatest ways to take care of yourself as it can relieve stress, improve brain function and lead to some great means to share information and collaborate with those around you.  All too often learning and training are set aside as too time consuming or too expensive in tight times.  In fact, training can be a great way to find savings, and the time spent can actually help leaders determine how processes are working, what needs to be changed or who needs some extra supervision or one-on-one training themselves.  Training doesn’t need to be a three-day seminar with professional speakers and rented conference rooms.  It can be as simple as a ½ hour webinar once a month or reading an article about a particular program or tool.

Another thing I like to do and participate in is forwarding information that I have found or materials I’ve received onto those colleagues, clients, friends or family that I think they would find useful for their careers or businesses.  At Avionté, we use our group emails to keep each other informed on a multitude of interesting topics and functions.  Technology changes at the speed of light, making time for learning is crucial to keep yourself and your business relevant and thriving.

If you’d like to learn more about setting up a refresher training program or if you’d like to schedule refresher training for your Avionté staffing software application, please contact me at laura@avionte.com.

By Laura Schmitz

Throughout my career, I’ve had the opportunity to be a part of many organizational changes, implementations and even mergers and acquisitions.  I’ve been on both sides of change, the one creating the change and the one accepting it.  What I find most interesting is how even the smallest transformation creates such a sense of fear, dread and even anger amongst those being asked to change.

Most leaders all too often forget what it’s like to accept change or what it’s like to not know or be told what the big picture will mean to the organization or to the individual. I have found that fear and resistance more often than not come from the lack of knowledge about what’s going on and not really the change itself.  The most successful change stories I’ve been a part of or seen are those where the leadership takes the time to clearly outline the change, why it’s being conducted, what it’s meant to do for the overall big picture and how it will affect each individual in the short term.  By taking the time to frame the change in terms that employees can understand, it instills a sense of trust and can eliminate fear by replacing it with confidence.  My favorite way to frame change is by asking the most resistant person if they still have the same television they did 10 years ago? Do they have the same car?  Do they have a cell phone or cable TV?  How about email or access to the Internet at home?  All of these things have radically changed in all of our lifetimes, some it seems every six months and yet we are happy to “upgrade” or get the latest and greatest, because we can see the value in doing so.  Why should businesses be any different?  More often than not, this line of questioning, paired with a clear outline of how the change will happen, work and what the expected outcomes are have changed fear, dread and even sabotage to excitement, productivity and eagerness to contribute.