Significant change and uncertainty are the new norm in our business environment. Is your company equipped to thrive?

Everything from a volatile global economy to proposed employment legislation changes make it more challenging than ever to predict what’s in store for the coming year (let alone the coming month).  Constantly changing workloads, talent availability and local economic conditions only complicate matters.  As a result, staffing strategies that worked for you in the past may not prove as effective this year.

This doesn’t mean you’re out of luck; it just means that you may need to re-examine your staffing strategy to thrive.  So start 2012 off right.  Consider these staffing best practices which have proven effective for corporate human resources executives across the country, courtesy of workforce.com:

• Make sure the staffing partner has an adequate balance sheet. Given the relatively low barriers to entry, it is too common to see staffing companies struggle financially.
• Be sure the staffing partner has sufficient size and financial resources to manage the contract. Sourcing 100 or more contract workers on an ongoing basis requires a very different type of staffing organization than providing two or three temps at a time.
• Visit the local office of the staffing company as part of the due-diligence process, especially for large projects, to make sure the operation meets expectations.
• Give your staffing partner feedback on all candidates that you review to help refine the recruiting strategy, and make it easier to find the best candidates.
• Be open-minded about “teachable” candidates, especially for hard-to-fill skill sets. Candidates who are a strong cultural fit and possess transferable skills are likely to succeed and thrive with some training and support.
• Provide enough training, rewards and feedback to keep temps engaged and motivated. One employer notes that small rewards—a free lunch for good performance, for example—go a long way toward winning the loyalty of temps.
• Beware of unfair negative stereotypes about the quality of temp workers. Temps can be—and often are—as qualified as full-time employees, and their skills can be equally useful.

Wood Personnel – Your Best Staffing Strategy for 2012

Comprised of highly trained human resource professionals with over 100 years of combined experience, Wood Personnel has grown to become a staffing industry leader in middle Tennessee.  Through the years, we’ve developed specialties in Professional Staffing, IT Placement & Contract Staffing and Executive Search.  Rest assured, we are a stable, successful partner you can trust with your all your workforce management needs – no matter how large or small.

Call Wood Personnel to schedule a 2012 workforce consultation. Together, we can identify your upcoming needs and develop a proactive, cost-effective staffing strategy that will deliver real bottom-line results.

The best way to keep workers’ compensation claims down is to avoid workplace injuries in the first place.

This is not news, of course, but the concept occasionally bears repeating. If you’re just learning about workplace safety, or would like to refresh your knowledge, take a few minutes to read this brief but valuable post outlining tips to create a safer work environment.

1. Keep the work space as clean as possible.  Poor housekeeping can cause frequent workplace accidents.  As such, cleaning should be an ongoing effort by all employees.
2. Properly plan jobs.  When expectations, time schedules and equipment lists are clearly communicated, each team member knows what is required to complete a job safely and on time.  As part of your planning, identify potential safety hazards, so you can avoid them.  All too often, “rush” jobs lead to shortcuts, lack of/improper use of safety equipment, accidents and injuries.
3. Remind employees to:  lift with their legs and knees; never twist while lifting something heavy; take hourly breaks to stretch when required to sit for long periods; use the right tools for the job.  Post these reminders in areas where your employees will frequently see them.
4. Encourage staff to report dangerous conditions.  You can’t be everywhere at once, so train your employees to proactively identify situations which could be potentially dangerous.  Evenly a seemingly innocuous burned-out light bulb or beverage spill could lead to a slip, trip or fall.  Make sure everyone on your staff knows to whom dangers should be reported.
5. Properly train and require employees to wear OSHA mandated Personal Protective Equipment when necessary, including: goggles and face protection, hard hats, safety shoes, gloves, ear muffs and ear plugs.  Proper protective equipment is a critical part of preventing workplace injuries.
6. Establish and enforce formal workplace safety policies and procedures.  Your company’s management team should create and carry out an accident prevention program that encourages employees to take safety measures seriously and to report any dangerous situations.  Make resources available to your staff with contacts and phone numbers in case of an emergency.

Creating a safe work environment should be a top priority for every employer.  Not only can a culture of safety reduce injuries and workers’ compensation claims; it can also improve morale and increase productivity.  So make workplace safety everyone’s responsibility.  Work with your staff in implementing these common-sense tips and everybody will benefit.

At Wood Personnel, we work diligently with our clients to ensure workplace safety.   We thoroughly orient and train our temporary workers, to make sure they stay productive and efficient on the job.

If you’re like most Middle Tennessee business owners and managers, you are using more contingent workers this time of year.  But as you bring these temporary and short-term employees in, how can you ensure you get the best return on your staffing investment?

While you certainly don’t have to go out of your way to reward and motivate temporary employees, it may be in your best interest.  Why?  Doing so may help you improve the results you get from them – translating into better customer service, lower turnover, higher productivity and improved quality.

Simply put, rewarding your contingent staff makes good business sense.  To show each temporary employee that he’s a valued part of your organization, use this quick list of tips:

Create a formal job description. Doing so sends the message that the employee and the work he does are important.

Orient and introduce. When a new short-term worker shows up, introduce him to the people with whom he’ll be working.  Give him a formal tour of your location, pointing out the lunchroom, restroom, etc.  Do what you can to make him feel like a part of your team.

Treat him with respect. Introduce the worker to his colleagues by giving his full name.  Explain to everyone involved the role he will play.  This presents your temporary in a much more respectable light to his new co-workers – and presents you as a professional in the temporary employee’s eyes.

Provide a challenging environment. Encourage contingent workers to beat the performance or quality standards set for your direct staff.  Take the time to learn about each temporary worker’s skill set – you may uncover additional capabilities that could benefit your company.  Finally, challenge each short-term worker to use his talents to their fullest potential.  This increases the likelihood that he’ll stay working for you.

Keep him in the loop. Without sharing proprietary information, include your temporary as a recipient of memos, company announcements, etc.  When appropriate, invite him to company meetings and share information regarding your organization’s goals and challenges.  The more involved he feels, the more invested in your success he’ll be.

Consider a cash completion incentive. If you have no plans to hire a contingent worker onto your own payroll, consider offering a completion bonus.  A cash incentive can be very helpful in keeping a highly skilled individual working on a long-term project to its completion.

Need short-term, project-based or temporary staff?

If your company is located in Middle Tennessee, give Wood Personnel a call.  We can provide immediate access to thoroughly screened and highly trained administrative, light industrial, IT and management personnel who are ready to perform for you.

Do you check candidates’ credit as part of your screening process?  If so, you may want to read this.

Although no current legislation is in process in the state of Tennessee, the National Conference of State Legislature’s (NCSL) website indicates that changes in credit screening legislation are occurring from coast to coast.  Seven states now limit employers’ use of credit information in employment: California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Oregon and Washington.  To date, 58 bills in 28 states and the District of Columbia were introduced or pending in the 2011 legislative session.

Connecticut’s new credit screening law went into effect just a few days ago, on October 1, 2011.  Their law bars mandatory consent to credit checks by employees and applicants for all but a few types of employers.  Since then, California has also banned most employers from running credit checks on job applicants, and at least five more states are also considering similar bans.

Although the legislation varies in scope from state to state, most prohibit some or all employers from using credit reports in making hiring and employment decisions.  Major exceptions include:

• financial institutions as defined under law;
• credit reports required to be obtained by employers by law;
• credit reports that are substantially related to an individual’s current or potential job, such as: those who make substantial financial decisions, law/peace officers, those who handle large sums of money as part of their jobs, etc.

To learn more about credit screening legislation in progress across the county, visit the NCLS website.

As an employer in Middle Tennessee, you still have the right to check a job candidate’s credit.  Before you do so, however, you should consider:

• how relevant the information you’re collecting is to the available position;
• the cost involved versus the benefit to be gained;
• whether or not your internal staff is trained in how to interpret the complex information contained in today’s credit reports;
• whether or not there may be potential adverse effects to checking an applicant’s credit.

While the use of credit checks as an employment screening tool has grown over the past several years (with some 60 percent of U.S. employers using credit reports for some or all of their background checks), this practice is now becoming illegal for many employers.  In the future, it will be interesting to see if and how this ban will help people with financial problems find employment.

What is your take on the new credit screening laws?  Will it affect the way you screen and hire candidates?  We at Wood Personnel would like to know.  Please leave your comments below.

“The purpose of the American Jobs Act is simple: to put more people back to work and more money in the pockets of those who are working.”

—President Barack Obama, September 8, 2011

In a time when some workers are living week to week, paycheck to paycheck or day to day, President Obama claims he can help our ailing economy by: introducing new tax cuts to help small businesses hire and grow; putting workers back on the job while rebuilding and modernizing America; creating pathways back to work for the unemployed.

Here is what President Obama says his American Jobs Act will do, if it is passed in its current form:

• Lead to new jobs for construction workers, teachers, veterans, first responders, young people and the long-term unemployed.
• Provide a tax break for companies who hire new workers or raise workers’ wages.
• Cut payroll taxes in half for every working American and every small business.
• Repair and modernize at least 35,000 schools.
• Give companies extra tax credits if they hire veterans.
• Give companies a $4,000 tax credit if they hire anyone who has spent more than six months looking for a job.
• Extend unemployment insurance for another year.
• Jolt our stalled economy and give companies the confidence that if they invest and hire, there will be customers for their products and services.

Follow this link to read the full text of the American Jobs Act.

Follow this link to read the short fact sheet for the American Jobs Act.

Follow this link to watch President Obama’s American Jobs Act speech on September 8, 2011.

What will the American Jobs Act mean for your business?  That depends upon whom you ask.  Here are two differing perspectives:

From Mokoto Rich (New York Times):

“The dismal state of the economy is the main reason many companies are reluctant to hire workers, and few executives are saying that President Obama’s jobs plan – while welcome – will change their minds any time soon…The plan failed to generate any optimism on Wall Street as the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index and the Dow Jones industrial average each fell about 2.7 percent.”

From Dan Pfeiffer (The White House Blog):

“Today, we’ve seen reports from economic analysts and statements from CEOs.  All of their statements underscore the same message: the American Jobs Act will create jobs and is good for the American people.  It will grow the economy, help middle class families and strengthen communities across the nation.”

As you can see, opinions about the potential effectiveness of the American Jobs Act vary greatly.  The fact is, Middle Tennessee employers won’t know for sure how it will impact business until Congress passes it (and there’s a chance it may not even pass).

In the meantime, Wood Personnel continues to help drive the local recovery.  We deliver customized staffing solutions to help Middle Tennessee employers achieve sustained business success in a volatile economy.  What can we do for you? Contact Wood Personnel today.

Want to create top caliber performance in your organization?

Who doesn’t?!

Use these 10 tips to get people to stop making excuses and start delivering exceptional results:

1. Stop accepting excuses. Are you too tolerant of excuses?  Don’t be.  An excuse means the job didn’t get done and accepting excuses allows failure to persist.  When you stop tolerating excuses, you force people to develop solutions.
2. Think in terms of priorities. The next time you hear, “I didn’t have enough time,” require the person to instead say, “I’m sorry, it was not a high enough priority.”  By simply changing perspective, you will force employees to better manage their time and responsibilities and eliminate the number one excuse in business.
3. Make mistakes acceptable. As a rule, employees don’t like to report bad news because they fear the repercussions.  To get excuse-free behavior, make mistakes acceptable and treat them as opportunities for learning.  Instead of placing blame, focus problem discussions on “what” and “why” issues, as opposed to “who.”  Praise and recognize risk-takers, even when the outcome fails to achieve desired results.
4. Establish mutually defined expectations for job performance. Explore what success and failure look like for each position in your company.  Ensure that every job and project has specific, measurable goals.
5. Share the big picture with employees. People are more motivated to succeed when they understand why they need to do something.  As a leader, show them how their actions have a direct impact on the company’s success.
6. Acknowledge responsibility. Require employees to commit to their responsibilities in writing.  More importantly, follow-up to ensure commitments are met and to establish accountability.
7. Plan contingencies. Things can and will go wrong.  Take time to anticipate potential problems and set contingency plans.  A proactive approach to problem solving greatly reduces opportunities for future excuses while maximizing the probability of success.
8. Pay for performance. While it’s fine to recognize people for hard work, it’s important to reward them for results.  Structure reward systems to only provide tangible compensation based on achieving measurable results.  Ideally, offer rewards on an “all or nothing” basis.  Simply put, if the goal is not fully met, no reward is earned.
9. Create support systems. Let employees know where to get help when problems arise.  Failure most often occurs when employees don’t know how or where to get assistance, so make sure your staff has access to training, mentoring, internal “help desks” and/or any other resources they may need to do their jobs correctly.
10. Conduct post-mortems. At the end of every project, debrief employees.  If they succeeded, praise them and discuss why the project was a success.  If the employees didn’t succeed, turn the failure into a positive learning experience.

Quick Tips for Maximizing Temporary Employee Performance

Temporary employees can help you reduce stress on core employees, enhance productivity, control costs and manage risks.  And like your own employees, temporaries need to be held accountable for results:

• Provide clear expectations to your staffing vendor.
• Include measurable goals in each temporary’s job description.
• Provide an initial orientation, reviewing: company products/services, the department’s function, job responsibilities, performance expectations, available resources.
• Have supervisors closely monitor first day performance.  If a temporary fails to meet your expectations, replace him immediately.

Performance management is a vital component in your organization’s continued success.  Ensure that success with Wood Personnel’s full complement of staffing solutions.  Whether you need to improve productivity, increase operating efficiencies or streamline your staffing function, we can custom design a solution to fuel exceptional performance throughout your company.  Contact Wood Personnel today to learn more.

Still on the fence about using social media?  Consider these statistics from the recent Cone Business in Social Media Study:

• 93 percent of Americans believe that a company should have a presence on social media sites.
• 85 percent believe that these companies should use social media to interact with consumers.
• 60 percent of Americans regularly interact with companies on social media sites.

The truth is, social media can help expand your business network, enhance your career, recruit employees and more.

According to HR expert Susan M. Heathfield, About.com Guide, HR professionals need to participate in social media for career success – and she should know.  She is a management and organization development consultant who specializes in human resources issues and in management development to create forward-thinking workplaces.  Susan is also a professional facilitator, speaker, trainer and writer.

Heathfield’s About.com article “10 Reasons Social Media Should Rock Your World” details the rationale behind making social media time investment mandatory for every HR professional:

1. Stay in touch with colleagues and friends. Social media makes it easier than ever to re-connect with former colleagues, classmates, teachers and other professional contacts.
2. Make it easy for others to find you. Maintain both individual and company profiles to make it simple and convenient for customers, employees and candidates to reach you.
   
3. Find potential job candidates. For example, you can e-mail social media contacts with job requirements and ask them for referrals.
4. Investigate potential career opportunities. If you’re interested in finding a new job, social media sites like LinkedIn can be invaluable in your search.  You can use the site to network, garner recommendations and learn about new job openings.
5. Establish your online brand. You can use social media to promote your career progress by establishing an online presence that defines who you are professionally and what you want to be known for accomplishing.
6. Join groups that share your professional interests. As a group member you can give and get information about recommended reading, industry trade shows or other professional meetings/events.
7. Develop social connections. Sites like Facebook are rapidly gaining mature professional members.  Unlike LinkedIn, Facebook is ideally suited to having fun and developing social contacts over time.  A word of caution:  carefully manage your Privacy Settings and critically examine content – before you post or upload – to make sure it’s compatible with your professional image.
8. Provide a space in which users of your products/services can interact with you. Use social media to expand your customers’ opportunities to discuss their wants and needs – with you or with other customers.
9. Build community around your products or services. The people who are the “face” of your company should leverage social media opportunities to build relationships with consumers.  Forums and blogs on your company website (and within your HR Intranet), as well as fan pages, can help you build this sense of community.
10. Finally your company, in addition to individual employees, should establish a company presence on major social media sites to stay in step with the changing interests and needs of consumers.  The Internet has opened up worldwide communication.  Why not use its social media components to make you and your company more successful?

Wood Personnel – Leveraging Social Media for Recruiting Success

Wood Personnel leverages social media to locate the talented, experienced and hard-working individuals you need.  Contact us today to learn more about our staffing and recruiting services for Middle Tennessee employers.

Like most things in life, you’ll get out of your job search what you put into it.  Those who work harder, have a positive attitude, persevere and go the extra mile are more likely to get what they want – period.

If you have the commitment to work hard, but need direction for your efforts, here are five things you can do to take charge of your job search today:

1.  Clarify your self-knowledge and your goals. Do you know exactly what you have to offer an employer?  Do you know exactly what you are looking for in a career?  Take the time to write down your specific skills, strengths, accomplishments and career goals.  If you know what you want, and what you bring to the table, it’s infinitely easier to focus your efforts, identify potential employers and find the job you want.

2.  Establish your network. Identify individuals in companies, industry organizations and professional associations who can provide insight into their employment needs.  When possible, schedule informational interviews to learn more about potential careers, as well as skills you may need to acquire to make yourself more employable.  Identify faculty, friends, business associates and relatives who can assist you with your job search.  Tell everyone you know that you’re looking for a job and ask them to refer you to potential employers.

3.  Get more organized. Place all of your job search materials, including: research on potential employers; listings of job postings to which you’ve responded; resume versions and cover letters; staffing services with whom you’ve registered; network lists, etc.  Use this binder to track your progress, plan follow-up, develop daily to-do lists or record other important information.

4.  Find a mentor. If you don’t have a trusted advisor who can help guide your job search efforts, you should get one.  To select a mentor, choose someone you know who:  has earned your respect; is successful in his or her career; will provide honest and effective feedback; will take an interest in your professional development; will support you in your career progression.  Meet with this person regularly to solicit advice, share your ups and downs, and get the feedback and support you need to keep going.

5.  Register with Wood Personnel. As a leading Middle Tennessee staffing and placement service, we specialize in connecting hard-working individuals with rewarding temporary, contract and direct employment opportunities.  If you are looking to:

• open new doors and create new connections;
• earn money while conducting a full-time job search;
• gain access to unadvertised opportunities;
• keep your skills sharp and your morale high…

…contact us today.

Ever play “whisper down the lane”?

Also known as ”telephone,” this popular children’s game provides a simple, yet critical illustration of how important information can get lost in translation.

Great fun if you’re just playing around, but not so great for business.

When it comes to ordering temporary personnel, many of our clients call in their job orders.  Sure, it’s quick and convenient, but did you know that placing your order verbally is not the most effective way to work with us?

The reason is simple – verbal job descriptions can change as they’re transmitted from person to person, resulting in a “whisper down the lane” effect.  Consider, for example, how many people are potentially involved in the “lane” of communication when a job order is placed.  A department manager contacts HR with a need; HR contacts a staffing service coordinator with the order; the coordinator speaks with the staffing firm’s recruiter; the recruiter then communicates the job description to an employee.

See the potential problem?  While a verbal approach may seem easier, challenges can arise when duties get added or subtracted, or if job titles change over time.  As a result, the staffing provider may not send you the best match for the assignment.

At Wood Personnel, we highly recommend that you submit or approve a written job description to which everyone in the line (or “lane”) of communication can refer.  Doing so will eliminate miscommunications, misunderstandings and confusion, and ensure that you get the best employee for the assignment.

Improve your temporary staffing success by working with Wood Personnel, your Middle Tennessee staffing service.

In the wake of historic employment litigation (e.g., Vizcaino v. Microsoft), some companies have adopted policies limiting assignment length for temporary and contract employees from staffing firms.  Why?  These employers view assignment limits as a way to protect themselves from the kind of “retro-benefits” claims Microsoft faced back in the 1990s.

Unfortunately, these assignment limit policies have downsides.  They can cause economic harm to on-time temporary or contract employees whose assignments are terminated prematurely, and they can disrupt your company’s business operations.  To better protect your organization, you should closely examine its staffing policies to ensure that such limits are truly necessary – and not based on misinformation.

If you have questions about co-employment law, as it relates to assignment limits and associated benefits, here is a great resource with the answers you need.  The American Staffing Association’s Staffing Smarts Intelligence Report:  Assignment Limits and Concerns About Benefits Liability, by Edward A. Lenz, Esq., General Counsel, reviews the basic principles of law that apply to employee benefits plans, and then describes steps employers can take to avoid retro-benefits exposure:

Create a plan that expressly excludes staffing firm employees. The report suggests template language (that your legal counsel should review)  you can use for the purpose of excluding staffing firm employees from participation in your Erisa plan.

Use employee waivers. In addition to amending benefits plans, you may be able to achieve additional protection through agreements in which the staffing firm’s employees expressly waive their right to the company’s benefits.

Allow the staffing firm to handle employment related functions for temporary and contract staff, such as:  recruiting, screening, determining wages, hiring, firing, assigning, resolving disputes, disciplining, etc.

Keep the lines between direct staff and contingent staff clear. The report includes several other steps (such as channeling social invitations through the staffing firm) you can take to avoid blurring the distinction between your core staff and temporary employees.

Make Co-Employment Work with Wood Personnel. Read our tips for successful co-employment, or contact Wood Personnel with your staffing questions.  Our goal is to help Middle Tennessee employers like you use staffing to achieve more.