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.
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I love the opportunity of visiting with other staffing professionals. I enjoy hearing about what they are doing, how they have overcome obstacles, new lines of business they are pursuing and overall what is working for them. In addition, I like to share my experience. Prior to joining Avionté I spent over ten years in staffing and recruiting. Although not an expert, I saw my far share of action and learned a lot along the way.
I had just been promoted to Assistant Manager when the company I worked for decided to start a direct hire division. They had looked at several options, such as training internal staff to recruit for high level positions or bringing on a team that already had experience in recruiting and acquiring new orders. This division would operate separately from the temp division, but we would share customers.
One of our customers that used us often for temporary positions contacted us about helping them fill a VP position. This was one of the first big orders for our new direct hire division to work on. The account manager and one of our owners went over to meet with the president and gather some information. Upon returning to the office they shared the specs with me. I had about one year in staffing and had mostly worked in light industrial at the time, although I had placed a couple of entry level engineers; which means that I really didn’t have much experience with this type of placement. I scanned the information, and told them I had the perfect candidate. My boss smiled at me, and explained that I probably didn’t completely understand what they were looking for. I assured her that I did and I wanted to contact him and talk about the position.
At this point I should probably tell you a not so little secret about myself. I am competitive, not just a little competitive, ultra competitive. In high school my swim coach told me that I probably had the worst form he ever saw, but I did well because I wanted it more than anyone else in the pool. If there is something I want, I’m relentless. One of the greatest compliments I received while working an account was that I was a “bulldog”.
Since I knew this person well already, the initial part of the prescreen was pretty easy. When we got to the technical portion of the interview, I was in a bit over my head. I gathered up the information that I thought would do the best job in selling him to our client and e-mailed it to my boss. She reviewed it, and agreed that I just might have found someone that would be a good match. She cautioned me that most of the time clients need to see several candidates before they will even think about making an offer. Just because that’s the way it normally happens, doesn’t mean it always happens that way. They interviewed my candidate and made an offer within a couple of days.
There are a couple of morals to this story. First, don’t under estimate someone who is passionate and motivated. I figured I couldn’t lose. We didn’t have anyone else in the pipeline, so why not take a look at my candidate? Just because they didn’t come from one of our experienced recruiters didn’t mean they wouldn’t be a good match.
Good recruiters are simply good networkers. Anyone can post an ad, dig through a database or ask for referrals. Being well connected with others is what to look for in a recruiter. It doesn’t matter if this person is filling six figure positions or entry level. They have to know people, like people and remember people in order to be effective. Of course you have to use all the tools available, such as the above, but having that network is the most effective.
When you find that person who shows an interest, encourage them! After my placement I was given all sorts of tools to help hone my recruiting skills.
Who on your staff might be the next big thing in your company? What are you currently doing to train, motivate and cultivate their talent? You might be letting $$ slip away because you haven’t taken the opportunity to see what hidden talents your staff may possess.
Check out our FREE webinars for April. To register simply send us an email.
Wednesday April 20 11am CDT – Advanced Search
Monday April 25 11am CDT – Admin Tools
Tuesday Arpil 26 11am CDT – Candidates
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 Jason Ortner
Recently, I had the opportunity to take part in the 2010 CSP Owner’s Only Retreat (OOR). The event was held in a beautiful location tucked away from the hustle and bustle of city life in Southern California. I was told the weather in southern California is typically warm and dry, well this year brought more rain and cooler weather than anyone expected. Perhaps the weather flew in with me from Minnesota. . .
The theme at this year’s retreat was The Dawning of CSP’s Age of Aquarius. . . And yes there was even a 60s themed party mixed in with all the other activities.
While preparing for my first ever OOR, I received many tips and expectations from Lynn Ebro and Judy Lawton, who are wonderful to work with. The OOR environment is very relaxing and laid back but was filled with experienced speakers and knowledge sharing among participants. Each Owner has the opportunity to contribute ideas and learn from fellow California staffing agency owners.
This year’s retreat featured two “pre-retreat” activities where members could either enjoy a day shopping at a local outlet center or prepare their poker face for an evening of Texas Hold’em hosted by Joe Mackey. I tried my luck at the poker table with Joe and several other Owners; needless to say I didn’t walk away with the money. I did however, come away with a night of great conversation and the opportunity to be around friends. The retreat environment is truly about being with friends and banding together to make the CSP stronger in this challenging economic setting. I would encourage all members to attend these events and other networking opportunities to informally mingle with fellow California Owners while learning from industry experts.
I enjoyed the entire weekend as it gave me the opportunity to reconnect with individuals I met during the CSP Conference earlier this year in addition to meeting many new people. During the presentations, I learned a great deal of about the current California market and how they’re focused on making improvements for the good of the industry. Since the OOR is such an intimate setting, as a vendor I was able to participate in all of activities allowing me to speak with many people and learn more about the local industry.
Overall, the OOR was a success for me (Avionté) as we were able to share our staffing software experiences with many great people. Thank you to everyone who I had the pleasure of meeting with. The Poker game, 60s party, and a night out at the casino will be memories never forgotten.
If I wasn’t able to meet or speak with you during the retreat and you are interested in learning more about our dynamic software, please contact me. It would be my pleasure to share how Avionté can assist your business by increasing productivity and lowering operating costs.
When I first started in staffing I worked exclusively for one account. At the time we had anywhere from 50-100 employees working. Just keeping up with entering in orders and closing assignments took up most of my day. Not to mention the software I was working with was old and not very functional. I had to switch from screen to screen to see my information; not very efficient. Looking back there are two things that I wish I had, Quick Place and a Customer Web Portal. These two items would have saved me a great deal of time, not to mention help me be more productive.
Quick Place is a new feature (v2010) that allows for assigning large groups of employees to open orders in one place. Quick Place shows all open and partially filled orders with the list of Available (unassigned) Employees as well as current assignments. Quick Place is accessed through the Start Page in the Actions menu or short cut button and will open in a new window.
One page that will show the user all the information that is important to them regarding the Order, Employee and Assignment. Quickly look through Available candidates, see who is currently a Candidate and do an Auto Match from the same screen. You even have the ability to see who is currently Assigned and close the assignment from that same screen. Want more? How about easily “jumping” to an Employee, Customer or Order? You can log a message and send an e-mail right from Quick Place. I have done several demos on our webinars, each time to hear great excitement about this feature. Quick Place, why weren’t you in my life 10 years ago??!!
When I wasn’t entering and ending assignments I was sending candidates to my client to review. I can’t tell you how many hours I wasted standing at the fax machine watching applications go through, then waiting for the phone call of who they wanted me to assign. The Customer Web Portal would have allowed me to give them access to all the candidates and let me know (electronically) who they would like me to assign. It would have saved both of us a ton of paper and toner in the fax machine too! Did I mention that I picked up time cards every week too? All of those timecards could have been entered online and sent directly to our back office for processing. These two features would have probably saved at least two hours every day; what else could I have been doing with my time? How about you? Could you be saving more time by leveraging the technology that is available to you?
As always, I enjoy hearing from you. Feel free to give me a call or send me an e-mail to chat about a current bottleneck you have.
If you could…
Wouldn’t you?
Providing professional training for your new hires will accomplish all this and more! Great care and thought was taken selecting your new staff member, now give them the tools to succeed!
Avionte is offering group classes two times a month, allowing you to help your new hire understand their staffing software right away.
Front Office training (2 hours)
Back Office training (2 hours)
Each session is only $50 per user! E-mail us today with the session you would like to attend.
Upcoming Sessions:
Front Office – Tuesday November 9, 2010 10am CST-12pm CST
Back Office – Tuesday November 16, 2010 10am CST -12pm CST
Avionté staffing software client creates a new Avionté theme song and gets his groove on at the 2010 Avionté Client Connection Forum. Maybe another verse will be added at ASA 2010 in Las Vegas!
I had a great discussion with a prospective user last week about searching for employee’s availability. He wanted to be able to quickly see who was available to work specific days of the week or for specific shifts. That part was easy enough; only he wanted to be able to do it out of each order and have the system automatically retrieve it for him. But wait, one more thing.. every week (sometimes every day) the orders change (days and shifts) and the employee’s availability changed as well.
Does this sound familiar? I’m sure that many of you have run into this same scenario. How do you quickly gather information from your staffing software on an employee’s availability for specific orders several times a day without running a seperate search each time?
You could set up a couple of saved searches that allow you to run the information quickly and add those particular candidates to the order. From the search you can also e-mail all of those candidates letting them know a new job is available and asking them to contact you if they are interested/available to work that specific day or shift. Remember that your saved searches can also be shared with other users so they too can help you fill those orders.
I also suggested using the Skill section to keep track of when someone was available. I know this is not a true “skill” but it will work quickly with Auto Match when you want to search on a specific order. By making a skill category such as Availability, you can ask your applicants to check off the days/shifts they are available to work. Then when you create the order to you can add the “skills” of the days/shifts to the order. By clicking the Auto Match button you will return those who are available. Even better, if you have an Employee Portal you can ask them to log in every so often and update their own availability under the Skills section.
The second solution seemed to be the one that would work best for this particular company since their employees call in every week to update their availability with the staff. Currently they have approximately 200 employees calling in every week! How much time do you think that will save for them to have their own temps update their availability “skills” online? By my calculation I figure each employee probably takes roughly 3 minutes on the phone, multiplied by 200 that’s 600 minutes or 10 hours of someone’s time each week that can be allocated to something else!
Do you have a bottleneck you are currently dealing with? Send me an e-mail or give me a call, I would love to help you find a solution that could potentially save you a few hours each week too!
