10 employees of Avionte Staffing Software are braving the obstacles in the 2012 Warrior Dash held in Minneapolis this July. The Warrior Dash is a 3 mile course scattered with 12 hurdles challenging even the most seasoned athletes.

Not only are we putting our endurance skills to the test, we are also trying to raise money for the St. Jude Children’s Hospital.

Each participant who raises $250 gets access to the St. Jude Warrior’s Tent and all the benefits of helping the children of St. Jude. Every week the Avionte Hope Foundation is holding fundraisers at our corporate offices in Eagan featuring baked goods, raffles and cocktails. In addition to fundraisers, we are also taking donations through our fundraising page. Each donation is tax deductible and we would greatly appreciate any support you can offer!

Have you missed one of the past Tips of the Week?  Here are some of my favorites that our users have found to be helpful.

Counters are Cool

Who Changed That?

Match ‘em Up Automatch

Paycheck Voids/Reversals

Save Time – Shortcuts

Generating Resumes

Do You Document?

Forgotten Timecards

I’ve Got Skills

Sometimes Basic is Best

Search Options

Too Many Tabs

Favorites v2010

Keeping Track of Candidates

Start Sheets

Do You Inspect?

Ending Assignments

Tracking Sources

Quarter End Reports

Look What I Can See

My Favorite Child

Assignment Changes

Data Requirement Message

Mass Resume Parser

QuickPlace

Mass Mail

More Than a Message

Mass Mail

New Back Office Features

Search Options in Advanced Search

New Back Office Features

Adding Transactions to Orders

Agency

New Resume Parser Feature

Web Time Entry

Employer Health Reporting

Do you have an idea for the Tip of the Week?  Send me an email.

“2012 is looking to be another great year for Avionté and I’m very thankful for all of our successes. So now feels like the right time to start sharing our success with others and helping to make a positive impact in the lives of those less fortunate than us. Starting a chartable side of Avionté has always been a vision of mine and I couldn’t be more excited to finally see this start to take form.   January 2012 was the official launch of The Avionté Hope Foundation (AHF) and I’m thrilled to see all that is already happening!” John Long, CEO of Avionté

The mission of the Avionté Hope Foundation is: To positively impact the lives of individuals by helping them achieve long term life improvement, through financial and personal support.  Providing a conduit for employees of Avionté to become involved in charitable activities and start making a difference.

We created AHF to support people in need, and to provide volunteer opportunities for Avionté employees. The financial side has an allocated budget each month to help local non-profit organizations in Minnesota and Nepal (Our Corporate office is located in MN and we also have an office in Kathmandu). Each month the funds are split into three buckets.  A portion goes to a local Minnesota organization to help provide support for an individual or group who is working toward a better future.  Another portion goes to support so many of the less fortunate in Nepal.  The final bucket is set aside for special opportunities and needs as they arise.

For the month of January and to celebrate the launch of AHF, we kicked off our Year End Party with Operation See-A-Need. This surprise mission presented each Avionté employee a $50 bill to go out and make a difference. Check out some of the inspiring stories from Avionté.

Money was also sent to our Nepal office in January to help an orphanage purchase educational supplies for children whose parents are imprisoned.

The month of February we are working with Lincoln Place in Eagan, Minnesota. Lincoln Place is an apartment complex providing supportive housing for young adults ages 18-24. The residents come from a variety of backgrounds but many are transitioning out of the foster care system, are homeless, or are at risk of becoming homeless. In addition to a financial donation, we are encouraging Avionté staff to volunteer at Lincoln Place, by teaching a class, helping refurbish computers and so on. We also created a site at our corporate headquarters highlighting household items that Lincoln Place residents need. Many times residents move into minimally furnished apartments and they are missing many of the very basic items we take for granted.

For February, the remaining funds will be used to help a local teenage boy whose parents moved out of state and left him to fend for himself. We are buying him gas cards, a high school parking permit, and putting money into a school lunch account.

Employees are also given three paid days off a year to volunteer at the charity of their choice. Many of the organizations we support financially are also in need of volunteers,  so we are working on a schedule for Avionté employees. We believe in giving back and are happy to see members of the Avionté team taking time to help others.

We look forward to working with organizations that are helping to make a difference in lives of the people around us and providing them hope for a better future. If you know of an organization, volunteer opportunities or individual circumstances, let us know!

Email us AHF@avionte.com

I experienced the best introduction to Avionté Staffing Software. I have been with Avionté for about a month, and much discussion concerned the Year End Party. “Katherine make sure you are free January 21, you do not want to miss this!”  The stories I heard about the past year’s party only added to my anticipation and excitement; hypnotists, dancing, coveted prizes, tigers (only kidding) and lots of dancing.

I am the sales and marketing assistant and part of my responsibilities include event planning and party prep. So the couple of weeks before the big event were spent covering every aspect of the Year End party in great detail. We needed prizes, games, munchies, transportation, name tags, booze (and lots of it), music (the Avionte band debut), and surprises! After all that planning and buying we pulled it off.

We held our gathering at the Dakota Lodge in West St Paul. The Dakota Lodge was a quintessential place to host a party. The night started off with a cocktail hour and many introductions. Just to put it in perspective, Avionte hired about 25 employees in the past year. Our Year End party guest list was double that of the previous year. After some initial mingling, everyone took their seats for dinner and a short presentation by our CEO, John Long. One of the best surprises of the night was the revealing of Operation See-A-Need, which was the launch of our Charitable Arm, The Avionté Hope Foundation. That topic deserves a blog all to itself!

We catered in dinner, enjoyed cocktails, played some highly competitive yet socially awkward team games, raffled prizes, listened to the Avionté band (New Order Wizard and the Worker Comp Claims), danced and sang.  While all of that made for a great party, it was really the amazing group of people that came together to celebrate what they had accomplished as a team over the past year that really made the night special.  There was camaraderie within this company that I had never experienced before in my previous positions and it was truly amazing to be a part of it.   Here’s to an amazing 2011 and looking forward to all that 2012 has to bring!

Avionté, a rapidly growing staffing technology firm, is seeking a dynamic, high energy Customer Care Rep.  Avionté’s Customer Care department provides exceptional customer service and support of our proprietary software system to our nationwide client base.

Avionté is a firm believer that our most important asset is our customers.

Customer Care Department Responsibilities/Specializations:

The customer care team has many facets and variety allowing individual team members to focus in specific areas.

• Customer Care/Account Management: you will be in charge of managing customer relationships with our clients that utilize our proprietary software.  From providing regular check-in calls to assisting with development requests or customizations, you will be their main point of contact.
• External & Internal Training:  this position requires the aptitude to learn a comprehensive software inside and out.  This department provides training on work flow, processes, new functionality, etc. to internal employees as well as external customers.
• QA: as we are constantly developing and improving the software, new functionality is always being added or changed.  This position will be responsible for driving quality assurance and testing functionality to increase efficiency and usability with version releases.
• Documentation:  Updating and maintaining documentation for the software.
• 3rd Party Integrations:  We integrate and partner with many other industry vendors to bring further efficiencies to our clients.  Relationships with industry vendors need to be maintained as well as future endeavors and customizations with other 3rd parties.
• Overflow Implementation & Sales:  As we are experiencing tremendous growth as a company, there will often be times where other departments need additional resources.  Avionté operates as a team and it will be expected that everyone steps in to ensure the best possible experience for our clients and prospective clients.   The Customer Care department has a great depth of knowledge and will be asked to use this at times to assist with sales demonstrations and implementation support services.

Skills/Qualifications:

• Staffing Industry experience (3-5 years)
• Extremely detailed oriented and very organized
• Great multi-tasking and follow-up
• Ability to work and thrive in a fast paced environment
• Bring an enthusiastic energy, drive to create lasting relationships
• Technical aptitude and motivation to learn a comprehensive software program
• Bachelor’s degree
• Previous account management experience a bonus but not required
• Excellent customer service skills, written and verbal communication skills

Perks:

• Work for a high growth, energetic organization
• Competitive benefits including retirement plan, company paid health insurance and profit sharing
• Work with others that share your drive and commitment for excellence
• A career with extreme advancement opportunities that will take you as far as you want to go!

Avionté is based in Eagan, Minnesota.  While there are other offices nationwide, the candidate must work from the Eagan, MN office.  This position is not ideal for timid, measured, slow thinking, coasting individuals.  This position is hard, fast and intense but also very rewarding.  If you currently are employed with one of our customers, we will require approval from the company before we could officially offer you the position.

Please email your cover letter and resume along with salary requirements.

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

I used to be quite particular with my staff when it came to posting jobs on the web.  Whether they posted it on our job portal or on an external site; this could very well be a first (and possibly last) impression to a prospective applicant or even customer.  Not only does it matter how the job is presented, it matters what information you are presenting.

Go ahead, take a look at your own postings and see if you spot any of the following:

One or two sentence descriptions.  I know it’s a posting for a TIG Welder and what you really want is to find someone with previous TIG experience.  However, the reader wants to know more about what it might be like to work for this particular company.  What kind of projects will they be working on, what type of benefits (other than traditional) might they expect?  Does this position have the possibility of going long term or even a direct hire?  Think about what is going to attract the right person that you want for the job.  I hear it all too often that people just “apply” to every open position.  Maybe you aren’t giving them enough to think about before applying?

Job Descriptions that are copied word for word from the client. First of all, I used to love this – on my competitors web sites.  Why?  I would simply take the first few lines, copy and put them in Google and search to see who they were recruiting for.  Next, I would call the client and see if I could work on the order.  Your professional level applicants are smart too; don’t think they aren’t trying to figure out who you are recruiting for.  We both know that an applicant would, in most cases, rather work directly with a client than go through a recruiter.  In most cases this is an applicant who is not aware of the many benefits of working with a recruiter.  In any case, try to use your own wording for the job description.

I thought about posting some samples, but then all of you would Google and see who it was, thus reveling the not so innocent.  So instead, take the time to check out your own postings.  Could they be better?  Are you attracting the right type of talent with your job postings?  What changes can you make right now?

Avionté, a staffing technology firm, is seeking a dynamic, high energy Technical Support Specialist. The Technical Support Specialist will be responsible for providing software and technical support to the existing client base. This includes researching issues, working with clients on the appropriate resolution, correcting technical issues and programming requested features.

What you will get to do:

• Maintain customer relationships through superior support and customer service
• Respond to calls and emails from current clients to prioritize, track, and resolve support issues
• Correct the issues and communicate resolution to the client
• Gain in-depth knowledge of the proprietary software system
• Assist in feature development utilizing SQL and C#
• Perform Software Upgrades to new versions
• Test new product features

Skills/Qualifications:

• SQL 2005/ T-SQL programming skill set
• Knowledge of C# programming and .Net 2.0 Framework
• 1 -2 years previous Help Desk experience
• Strong problem solving skills and attention to detail
• Ability to work in a fast paced environment
• Bachelor’s degree
• Excellent customer service skills
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Perks:

• High growth, energetic organization
• Work with others that share your same drive and commitment for excellence
• Significant opportunities for career advancement
• Competitive benefits including retirement plan and company-paid health insurance

Avionté is a fun, high-growth Technology Company based in Eagan, Minnesota. The company offers exciting opportunities for advancement and allows each employee to be intimately involved in the company’s growth and development. Utilizing the latest in Microsoft technology, Avionté offers a full suite of technology products to staffing firms across the country.

Tell us about what you have done!  Please include a quick introduction and responses to the following questions:

How many years of customer service experience do you posses?
Were your customers internal, external or both?
Tell us a little bit about your SQL and C# experience. What kind of projects have you worked on?
Rate your level of expertise with SQL and C# from 1-5 (5 being the highest).
What compelled you to apply for this position?
What are your salary requirements?

Please send us your cover letter, resume and salary expectations.

ASA Annual Convention and Expo

Staffing World 2011 is where the staffing industry’s top leaders join forces to focus on strategies for identifying and leveraging world-class business practices. It is also the world’s largest staffing industry marketplace, where you can explore the latest technologies, innovative products, and new services to help your firm keep its competitive edge.

Register today for Staffing World 2011, Oct. 11–14, at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans.

ASA Releases Advance Program

In addition to the print Advance Program for Staffing World 2011, ASA has launched a digital edition on its new interactive publications platform, ASA Digital.

The Advance Program features all the information you need—including schedules and workshop descriptions. Plus, the digital edition gives readers one-click access to exhibitor information, makes it easy to share information via e-mail or on social networks, provides print options, and much more.

ASA Digital publications are also mobile-friendly. Using your smart phone’s browser, go to americanstaffing.net/digital.

Read the Staffing World 2011 Digital Advance Program

Thank you to all that participated in the 2011 Avionté Client Connection Forum.  If you didn’t have the opportunity to attend and are thinking about joining us next year, check out what some of our attendees had to say. ?

• “To all those at Avionté who helped to make last weeks Conference so productive, oh and so FUN too, thank you so much for your efforts to make us a better Company!!” – Lynda
• “Thank you so much for inviting me to attend your Client Connection Forum.  It was wonderful to watch your clients interact and how much love and respect that they have for all of Avionté.  It was really something special to see.” – John
• “It is very refreshing  to see how interested you are in what your customers think and how important it is for you to make changes to ease the process for us.  I am certain that we have chosen a vendor that we share the same values with and that is very satisfying.  This was by far the best software session that I have ever attended.” – Annette
• “I cannot begin to express what a great job you and John and the whole crew from Avionté did this past week. It is no wonder why you have such loyal clients. Yall did an awesome job and I hope to come back next year!” – Dee
• “Another great forum.  I have quite a bit of information to bring back to the staff” – Mark
• “The Client Connection forum was put together very nicely and it presented us with opportunities to hear from others and learn more about Avionté”  prospective customer
• “The networking events were great, it was nice to hear how other users are using the Avionté”  -Katie
• “Great experience!  Thank you for all your team’s hard work in putting this forum together and providing a great experience!” -John
• “Great job, very beneficial” -James
• “Very much appreciated the one-on-one opportunities with the Avionté folks throughout the forum” – Kristen
• “It was fabulous!  Enjoyed the content, food and entertainment” -Amber
• “Your team is warm, friendly, easily approachable and very helpful” -Lauren
• “Great conference!  Really informative and should help me to implement training strategies and refine employee use!” -Sheri