But if your company uses large numbers of temporary employees, it’s easy for your direct staff to fall into an “Us vs. Them” mentality.  And although treating temporary workers as an entirely separate workforce may seem innocuous, the practice can have unintended consequences for your direct employees – and your company as a whole. 

For example, research from the University of Arizona has found that direct employees (particularly at lower levels) are less satisfied with co-workers and bosses when working with a higher proportion of temporary employees.  Why?  The responsibility of training and socializing temporary workers on company-specific processes is often assigned to direct employees.  As a result, having more temporaries can complicate full-time workers’ jobs.

Here are a few suggestions for improving the working relationship between temporary and direct employees to achieve even better staffing results:

• Make temporary employees feel included.  While temporaries are, in fact, a separate part of your workforce (and must be treated differently because of co-employment laws), you and your staff can still make them feel welcome in your organization.  By encouraging social interaction (e.g., formal or informal introductions) among all workers, you can foster social ties that are essential to a cohesive workforce.
• Educate your direct staff.  Take the time to clearly explain the role and value of temporary workers.  The better your direct employees understand the benefits temporary employees provide, the more likely they’ll be to work productively with them.
• Take advantage of training.  If you use large numbers of temporaries, many staffing services will develop customized orientation and training programs for specific positions.  This shifts the time-consuming burden of getting new temporary employees up-to-speed off your direct employees’ shoulders.
• Consider strategic staffing options.  If your direct staff is burdened with the administration, training and management of temporary employees, consider implementing a strategic staffing option.  From primary partner staffing to VOP to planned staffing services, these solutions can optimize the relationship between your direct and temporary employees - saving you time and money while improving worker performance.

Bottom line, there are a number of steps you can take to keep relations between temporary and direct employees positive.  And the more positive their working relationship, the better your results will be.  Contact ABR Employment Services today to learn more about our strategic staffing solutions for Wisconsin employers.

Qualifications Screens
These simple questionnaires determine if an applicant has the minimum requirements to perform a job (availability, minimum age, years of related experience, etc.).

Interviews
This is probably the most commonly used assessment tool, and may range from totally unstructured (unplanned) to completely structured (carefully designed beforehand).  Regardless of which type you choose, the skill of the interviewer is critical to the effectiveness of this tool.

Job Simulations / Work-Sample Tests
These require the candidate to actually demonstrate or perform job tasks.  Simulations may be conducted:  as written tests, as role-playing exercises, on a computer, or even in real-life conditions.  By design, they generally show a high degree of job-relatedness.

General Abilities Tests
These are used for entry-level jobs.  They measure broad mental abilities such as reasoning, quantitative, verbal, and spatial abilities – skills fundamental to success in jobs where reading, computing and communicating are required. 

Specific Ability Tests
These test for distinct mental and physical abilities, such as typing speed, reading comprehension, strength, and mechanical aptitude.  For example, physical endurance tests may be used for firefighting or life guarding jobs.

Knowledge and Skills Tests
These determine how much an individual knows about a very specific, advanced subject area such as software programming or mortgage laws.  As a category, these tests are generally highly valid.

Talent Measures / Personality Inventories
Talent and personality assessments measure a candidate’s natural personal characteristics associated with success in certain positions.  These assessment tools are used to predict what a person can do (e.g., delegate effectively, handle stress well) and what a person will do (e.g., step-up as a leader, get along well with fellow workers).

Culture Fit Inventories
Questionnaires like these assess how well an applicant will fit into your corporate culture and work environment, to help ensure organizational commitment.  Culture fit inventories focus on making the right match between company and candidate.

Biodata Inventories
Standardized questionnaires such as these gather job-related biographical information (e.g., education, years of experience and even hobbies). 

Background Investigations
These inquiries gather information from outside sources, such as former employers and police records.  Employment, criminal-record and reference checks all help employers avoid potentially catastrophic hires.

Integrity Tests
Overt integrity tests gauge a candidate’s attitudes toward, and involvement in, delinquent activities – namely theft.

Drug Screens
These tests use a physical specimen from the candidate (hair, urine, etc.) to determine past drug or alcohol use.  Drug screens are frequently used by companies where legal and safety requirements necessitate that employees be drug-free. 

Medical Exams
These tests determine if a person can safely and sufficiently carry out all the requirements of a specific job.  Employers using medical exams must comply with all provisions of The Americans with Disabilities Act.

Online Skills Assessment Helps ABR Deliver the Best Candidates

E-AssessAbility, ABR’s powerful on-line assessment solution, automates the evaluation process – delivering convenience, customization and flexibility.  E-AssessAbility allows us to identify the best talent and validate their skills online, giving you greater confidence in every placement we make at your company.  With over 700 evaluations in 9 specific categories, you won’t find a more diversified evaluation tool.

Get on your boss’s A-List.  If you consistently show your boss that you’re doing a great job, you’ll progress further, faster.  Here are a few quick tips to get you noticed, separate yourself from the pack and create a lasting positive impression:

1. Communicate clearly.  When in doubt, err on the side of clarity and ask questions when things are unclear.  Provide your boss with regular updates about your projects and plans.  But be careful not to go overboard – ask him directly if you’re providing enough information or too much.
2. Honor your commitments.  Underpromise and overdeliver.  Don’t shy away from new challenges, but make reasonably sure you can hit an objective before taking on the additional responsibility.
3. Know what makes your boss tick.  Learn your boss’s pet peeves – and avoid them.  Find out what his priorities are – and incorporate them into your own (e.g., if your boss is a “numbers guy,” quantify all your results).  Anticipate his needs, by providing what you know he’ll want before he asks.  Show him you understand the issues he faces and you’re sure to make your mark.
4. Provide solutions – not just problems.  Everyone makes mistakes.  So if something does go wrong, view it as an opportunity to set yourself apart from chronic excuse-makers.  Own up to the problem and come to the table with potential solutions.  Your boss will appreciate your ability to think for yourself and manage a difficult situation.
5. Be positive.  When you celebrate a departmental success, send a congratulatory e-mail to those involved and copy your boss.  The gesture will draw attention to your success as well as your leadership skills.  During more stressful times, strive to maintain a positive attitude.  For every two complaints or suggested improvements, point out eight positive things.
6. Take a calculated risk.  A boss will notice a talented employee who demonstrates his desire for excellence by occasionally sticking his neck out.  So when the time is right, volunteer for a difficult assignment or challenge the status quo to improve a work process.  Your courage and enthusiasm will increase your visibility and earn the respect of your boss and co-workers alike.

ABR Employment Services:  Another Great Way to Further Your Career

ABR Employment Services provides challenging assignments and direct placement opportunities in the office/clerical, technical, professional and light industrial sectors.  Contact us today to find out how we can help you further your career, faster.

The American Staffing Association recommends the following steps for converting your cover letter and résumé from Word or WordPerfect documents into electronic ones:

1. Remove all formatting.  This includes lines, rules, boxes, bold, italics, and underlining. 
2. Standardize your font.  Change the font to Courier, size 12.
3. Change your margins.  Convert your page margins to 1 inch on the left and 3 inches on the right.
4. Save as a .txt file.  When you save the cover letter or résumé, choose “Save As” and change the type to “Text only with Line Breaks.”  A warning box may come up informing you that you might lose some formatting.  Click “OK” or “Yes.”
5. Reformat your résumé.  Launch Notepad (PC) or SimpleText (Mac) to reformat and clean up your résumé and cover letter. Move all centered items to the left margin, and make sure all text is flush left.  As you scroll through your documents, remove all Tabs, replace all bullets with asterisks (*), and change bolded words to all caps.  Increase white space by hitting Return twice between sections.
6. Make sure your cover letter and résumé are e-friendly.  Do not send them as attachments, but, rather, pasted in the body of the e-mail whenever possible.
7. Check before sending.  Practice sending them via e-mail to yourself as well as a friend who uses a different Internet service provider—to ensure the documents are clean and professional-looking.  Once you’ve made any required adjustments, your cover letter and résumé are ready for a prospective employer’s inspection.
8. Include keywords in your résumé.  Recruiters use keywords to search for résumés.  So choose some of the basic, important keywords in your field and pepper them throughout your résumé.  For example: web designer, account manager, communications specialist, to name some.

Need More Job Seeking Advice?

Since 1987, we at ABR Employment Services have provided employment guidance and opportunities to thousands of Wisconsin job seekers.  We are always available to answer your employment-related questions.

Sound familiar?

These days, getting an honest and reliable reference can be a real challenge.  HR is cautious.  Supervisors are too busy.  And often, the references provided are afraid or unwilling to give honest feedback.  So how do you get a good reference check?

Beyond the standard length of employment/position/job responsibilities questions, here are a few unexpected ones you can try asking.  Designed to start conversations, these open-ended questions may entice a reference to ”drop his guard,” and help you solicit more candid feedback:

1. Did the candidate ask your permission to be a reference for him?
2. What was his greatest strength?  Weakness?
3. What circumstances frustrated him the most?
4. How well did the candidate manage time?  Pressure?  Crises?
5. What did he learn during his time with your company?
6. If you could give him a single career suggestion, what would it be?
7. What was his biggest accomplishment while working for your company?
8. Would you rehire this person?  Why or why not?
9. Is there anything else I haven’t asked that you would like to share with me?

Thankfully, you don’t need to ask questions like these when you work with ABR Employment Services.  You can rest assured that every candidate we refer has been carefully screened, tested and reference-checked for you.  To learn more about the measures we take to ensure candidate quality, please visit our website.

The 101

So, what exactly is “planned staffing”?

Simply put, planned staffing is the strategic use of temporaries to accommodate workloads known to vary in seasons or other cycles.  Traditional planned staffing strategies typically allocate between 10 and 20 percent of the total workforce as supplemental (temporary) employees.

To implement a planned staffing solution, a company’s decision makers meet with a highly trained staffing professional to discuss how the organization’s workload changes throughout the year.  The staffing professional then analyzes the company’s workforce needs, and designs a comprehensive plan for managing the peaks and valleys with supplemental staff.

When business surges, temporaries are brought in to handle the additional business volume.  Once the peak cycle is completed, the staffing firm reassigns its employees to other companies.

Planned Staffing Benefits

For businesses with (at least somewhat) predictable surges in demand, a planned staffing option offers a number of benefits:

• Flexibility.  Bringing in supplemental staff allows you to handle surges in demand without impacting fixed expenses.  Your workforce stays lean and flexible.
• Less risk and expense.  Using temporaries during short-term peak periods is less burdensome, risky and expensive than hiring – and then laying off – direct employees.
• Instant access to the help you need.  Your staffing provider will recruit in advance of your needs, to ensure you have qualified candidates ready to work – right when you need them.  At your request, the staffing firm can even develop customized orientation materials to get temporaries up-to-speed more quickly.
• Fewer layoffs.  When business slows, it’s the temporaries who go first.  As a result, core employees enjoy increased job security.
• Less burnout and overtime.  Using supplemental staff reduces overtime and eliminates the burn-out overwork can cause.
• Hiring benefits.  When you implement a planned staffing solution, you have the luxury of hiring employees from a pool of temporaries who are already trained, and have proven their dependability and cultural fit.  Discuss your temporary-to-hire options with your staffing provider.

Is a Planned Staffing Option Right for Your Business?

If your business experiences frequent and/or predictable changes in workload, contact ABR Employment Services.  We’ll discuss your needs, help you weigh your options and determine if planned staffing is right for your organization.

According to Deborah Brown-Volkman, President of Surpass Your Dreams, Inc., these people make their own luck.  Rather than being reactive, and waiting for things to happen, they take a proactive approach to their careers.  And rather than blaming others for mistakes or missteps in their careers, these individuals are passionate about new possibilities.  They are excited about what they do and what they can contribute every day.  Their enthusiasm is infectious, making their superiors committed to keeping them around as team members.

Here are a few practical tips to help you “make your own luck” – and ensure you always have  a job:

1. Tell yourself that you will always be employed.  What you say matters.  Your words have power, meaning, and intention.  If you tell yourself that you are marketable and confident that you will always be working, your words can make this true.
2. Anticipate trends in your industry.  If your job is being eliminated or outsourced, you need to know about it before HR sits you down to let you go.  Research what’s going on in your industry.  Know what’s happening and what the experts say will happen.  Look for trends and train yourself in these areas.  Having the right skills at the right time ensures that, no matter what is happening around you, you will be needed and employable.
3. Keep your resume up-to-date.  Your resume is an invaluable selling tool that showcases your skills and abilities to the world.  So even if you’re not looking for work, keep your resume current to keep track of contributions and accomplishments you may otherwise easily forget.  When you eventually do need it, your resume will be up-to-date and ready to work for you.
4. Create a 30-second introduction.  You never know when a new career opportunity may present itself.  So, create a good first impression with anyone you meet in business by developing a concise introduction with clear details.  Include the following information: your name; type of position you seek specifically; your skills and strengths; your background and accomplishments.
5. Network regularly.  If you start networking only when you need something, you’ll have a lot of catching up to do.  So make networking a part of every day.  Don’t limit yourself to conferences, job expos, or meet-and-greets – networking opportunities are everywhere, even within your own company.  Keep in regular touch with your key contacts, even if only via e-mail, so that you will not feel like you’re “bothering” someone whe it’s time to reach out and ask for help.
6. Always be on the lookout for new opportunities.  Read trade publications.  Read memos from departments outside your own.  Think about what more you could be doing, or how you could be doing things better.  Get your creative juices flowing, and think positively.  Rather than telling yourself that “it cannot happen,” believe that what you want is possible and within your reach.  Then, make it happen.

Of course, registering with ABR Employment Services can help ensure you always have a job.  With offices throughout Wisconsin, we match talented individuals with temporary and direct placement opportunities in the office/clerical, professional, technical, and light industrial areas.  Contact us today to find out more.

About Deborah Brown-Volkman

Deborah Brown-Volkman is the President of Surpass Your Dreams, Inc., a successful career and mentor coaching company that has been delivering a message of motivation, success, and personal fulfillment since 1998.  Deborah Brown-Volkman can be reached at www.surpassyourdreams.com, or www.career-escape-program.com.