Since starting this e-letter back in the beginning of 2008 I've shared with you over 30 tips that I know would save you both time and money in your utilization of temporary staffing.
If they have helped you impress your boss great. If they have saved your company money, I hope you got a piece. But most importantly I hope that they have helped make your business more competitive and productive. And while coming up with new "tips" every month can be a challenge, I hope to continue offering useful information about the practices of our industry because let's face it.....temporary staffing is here to stay.
So, the last tip of 2010 isn't going to come from me but rather from some famous people sharing a few of their own words of wisdom. Enjoy!
Be nice to your children for they will choose your rest home. (Phyllis Diller)
Buy land, they ain't making it any more. (Will Rogers)
By the time you're 80 years old you've learned everything. You only have to remember it..(George Burns)
If it doesn't fit you must acquit. (Johnnie Cochran Jr.)
If you can't convince them, confuse them. (Harry Truman)
If you cannot beat them arrange to have them beaten. (George Carlin)
If you want to sacrifice the admiration of many men for the criticism of one, go ahead and get married. (Katherine Hepburn)
It ain't what they call you, it's what you answer to. (Bill Clinton)
No problem is so large that it cannot be run away from. (Charles Schultz/Peanuts)
Never purchase beauty products in a hardware store. (Miss Piggy)
The significant problems we face in life cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. (Al Einstein)
If you can make a girl laugh you can make her do anything. (Marilyn Monroe)
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. (Mark Twain)
Don't cry because it is over. Smile because it happened. (Dr. Suess)
And last but not least it was the great Hut Landon that advised "If a Pit Bull romances your leg, fake an orgasm". Happy Holidays!
According to a recent ruling by the National Labor Relations Board, it is protected concerted
activity if an employee posts on Facebook a derogatory comment about a company's supervisor. A
Connecticut ambulance company terminated an employee for posting a comment that read "love how
the company allows a 17 to become a supervisor". A 17 is code for psychiatric patient. This was
construed to be protected concerted activity.
IMAGINE...
UPS announced recently that they will be hiring 50,000 temps to deal with the holiday season which runs between Thanksgiving through Christmas.
The company expects to deliver 24 million packages alone on December 22, its busiest day. This is about a 60% increase over its daily delivery
volume.
COULD IT HAPPEN HERE?
The largest auto plant in the world operated by Hyundai in Ulsan, South Korea experienced a sit
in strike by 400 temps. The job action has caused lost production of 4300 vehicles through the first four
days. The 400 workers called "irregulars" by the Korean Herald are demanding equality with the full time
employees.
It's interesting to note that the company has filed civil and criminal suits against the striking
workers (not the staffing company) and seeks 42 billion won ($40 million or so) in damages. It the job
action drags on to long it may shut down the entire operation.
EEOC IS BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!
The EEOC said it received 99922 charges of employment discrimination in its last fiscal year...the
highest level in its 45 year history. It also reported collecting $319 million in benefits for workers.
We were recently hit with one of these charges involving a temporary that alleged not being
called for a job assignment because of he was black. Having had my share of these over the years to deal
with, I decided to do something different. For the first time I tried the EEOC mediation process.
I just did not have the time or energy to deal with the avalanche of paper required to fight the charge outright. We did end up paying some money to resolve the matter after about four hours of back and forth at the EEOC office in downtown Cleveland.
I'm not sure if I would take the same approach again. It would probably depend on the circumstances. If
you're interested in my experience, should you face the same situation, give me a holler and I'll be glad to
share.
TEMP USE UP LAST QUARTER
According to the ASA staffing firms employed an average of 2.6 million temporary workers per
day in the 3rd quarter and 8.1% increase over the prior quarter. At the same time, the staffing index
remained steady in November but up 18% from last year at the same time.
According to CareerBuilder.com thirty two percent of companies with 500 or fewer employees plan to hire in the second half of 2010. Twenty-one percent will hire full time while 11% will hire part-time and 6% will hire temps.
At Ryan Staffing we have seen strong use of temp help throughout 2010. Our client volume has increased over 80% from 2009. While that may not be a totally fair comparison because of the recession it still represents a return to our volume levels during the pre-recession years of 2007 and 2008.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
HEALTHCARE REFORM UGH!
According to a poll taken by Strategic Benefits Solutions eighty-eight percent of high level corporate big wigs are expecting higher health care costs post reform and 65% view the legislation unfavorably.
KIDS SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS
Those of us a bit on the north side of 50 remember Art Linkletter and the segment of his afternoon show where he conducted interviews with children under the age of 8 years or so. Out of the mouths of babes often came some very funny talk. Well, it turns out interviewees say the darndest, nay dumbest things too when looking for employment. Consider these:
One interviewer asked a candidate recently how she handled heavy workloads. Her answer included running in to the bathroom and crying. Didn’t land the job.
An interview for a secretary inquired about the important parts of a job for her. Working close to a Bloomingdale’s didn’t get her a job offer.
Then there was the phone interview scheduled for 3:00 p.m. When the applicant answered he asked for time to leave the bar he was at and ultimately begged off the interview for being a little drunker than he anticipated. Not good.
One recent mother brought her baby too the interview and proceeded to breast feed the child.
And then there was the candidate that showed up late for the interview complaining about the long commute and how he was glad not to have to do that everyday.
Those of us that have been around the HR blocks a few times I’m sure have a few new stories to share. If you have a good one, e-mail us at info@ryanstaffing.com and we’ll share them next month.
DO YOU USE INTERNS?
Those private for-profit organizations that utilize unpaid student interns need to be knowledgeable of the circumstances that allow these positions to legally be compensation free. For example:
* Training received must be similar to training that would be given in an educational setting
* The internship experience must be for the benefit of the intern not the organization.
* The employer providing the training receives no benefit from the activities of the intern and in
And may actually impede the operation at times.
* No job is promised or entitlement to a position assumed at the end of the internship.
* Regular employees are not replaced by the intern.
* Both parties understand that the intern will not be compensated for the internship.
Basically, you can’t use internship programs as a method for getting free labor. Internships should be a way for companies to provide “real world” experience to potential job seekers while at the same time showcasing their organization to the community and future recruits.
TIME MARCHES ON
As we all get older you start to catch yourself getting a touch nostalgic as well. And when you are in the jobs business like we are at Ryan Staffing you catch yourself thinking about all the occupations that you no longer place people.
I can still remember the Fuller Brush man visiting my mom and selling her a broom that I swear we used for forty years. The elevator operators fascinated me as a young kid at downtown Higbees…what a cool job I thought at the time. And the milkman that came every morning and who my mom swore was not my father (kidding). Think about some of these and at the same time put them in perspective with our current unemployment problems:
*Inspectors, testers, samplers, sorters and weighers
*File Clerks
*Elevator Operators
*Gas Station Attendants
*Iceman
*Milkman
*Switchboard Operators
*Typists
*Machine Feeders
*Shorthand/Dictation Clericals
I guess it all comes down to progress but it was still neat to meet the Good Humor man every afternoon on a hot summer day.
COMING TO AMERICA?
Get this one. In Brazil a court recently ruled that McDonalds must pay a former Manager $17,500 because he gained 65 pounds while working there for 12 years. The 32 year old man felt forced to sample the food every day to monitor quality. The company also offered its employees free lunches which added to his problem.
McDonalds in Brazil was reported to being “weighing” its options (honest I did not make that up). Can you imagine the impact on the folks at Budweiser?
I-9 FORM COMING HOME TO ROOST
The Obama administration has plans to increase the number of I-9 audits as part of the great immigration reform debate. This process which has the government auditors checking social security numbers on I-9 forms to see if they are real is an attempt to manage the whereabouts of the over 7 million or so illegal aliens in the USA. George Bush apparently relied on worksite raids as his method of enforcement.
In the second half of 2009 ICE agents found 22000 suspect documents out of 86000 received. Fine collection is up six fold and Abercrombie and Fitch got touched up for a $1,000,000 fine for violations at its Michigan stores.
The message here is that you may want to make sure your staffing supplier is performing these checks in the proper fashion.
As I was browsing through my recent edition of SI Review (Staffing Industry) I hit upon a survey taken of benefits staffing firms offer temps. Benefits for temps has always intrigued me because it is a classic case of paying for something that sounds good but really isn't. First for the survey. It found that staffing firms offer the following benefits to temps:
Paid Vacation 57%
Dental Insurance 51%
Unsubsidized medical coverage 51%
Life Insurance 45%
401(k) employee only contributions 42%
Subsidized medical coverage 40%
401(k)match 30%
Paid sick days 26%
What we have here is a lot of feel good fluff with little meat to it. Let's look at paid vacation/holidays. These are a great benefit to retaining long term temps and reducing turnover if they ever meet the qualifications to earn them.
Most staffing companies require the temp to work anywhere between 1200-1500 hours in the prior 12 months to get paid vacation/holidays. The problem is that most never make it. And because the staffing company has to factor the cost potential for having to "possibly" pay out these benefits, in the end the customer pays for something the temp never sees.
Most of these other "benefits" are mostly paid for by the temp. Unfortunately the temp either cannot afford his/her cost of the benefit or the coverage is so weak as to not be worth the trouble it goes unused. I mean really, how can an $8.50/hour pay rate support the cost of medical coverage? Once again the customer may be picking up the tab for something that sounds better than it really is.
So what is the answer? We suggest that you pay for the benefits you want temps to earn only as they earn them. Vacation pay is the easiest example of this strategy. Rather than have your supplier build this cost in to their markup, only pay for vacation that is actually earned and paid to the temp working at your facility. This way you don't pay for something that you in theory don't use.
Many of the staffing suppliers that advertise great benefit packages for temps do so knowing that they can bill you upfront for these programs touting reduced turnover and higher quality temps as the real benefit. Unfortunately for you, all they really benefit is your suppliers pocketbook.
I will admit that the value of benefit packages is better served for those of you utilizing professional staffing/contracting personnel (i.e. engineers, accountants, IT, etc.) where packages are needed to recruit top talent. Not so for much of the unskilled labor and most of the office clerical world.
Congratulations to Bill Rohan from Simon Roofing. Bill is the proud winner of the Dec. 26 tickets to Browns/Ravens, as part of his Browns Prize Package.
Have a great time at the game Bill!
As for everyone else. Here are the answers to the Trivia contest. I retyped the questions below.
--
1.What year was the start of the Cleveland Browns in the All-American Football Conference (AAFC)?
a.1944
b.1948
c.1952
d.1946
2.The Browns entered the NFL in 1950 and made the championship game seven of the their first eight seasons. What was their record in those seven games?
a.3 wins, 4 losses
b.6wins, 1 loss
c.4 wins, 3 losses
d.2 wins, 5 losses
3.Which of these players was on the Browns roster in the 1950's?
a.Doak Walker
b.Joe Schmidt
c.Chuck Noll
d.Jack Christiansen
4.In the Browns first ten seasons who was their main quarterback?
a.Otto Graham
b.Milt Plum
c.Frank Ryan
d.Bill Nelson
5.Which position did kick returner Joshua Cribbs play at Kent State University?
a.Wide Receiver
b.Cornerback
c.Quarterback
d.Running Back
6.How many playoff games did the Browns win during the 1970's?
a. 3
b. 0
c. 1
d. 6
7.What team did the Browns defeat for their final playoff victory of the 20th century?
a. New York Jets
b .Houston Oilers
c. New England Patriots
d. Pittsburgh Steelers
8. What was the Browns record in their first season back in 1999?
a. 2-14
b. 4-12
c. 3-13
d. 7-9
9. How many NFL Championships did the Browns win while HOF running back Jim Brown was a member?
a. 0
b. 3
c. 4
d. 2
10. The Browns finished with a winning record during the regular season every year of Jim Brown's career?
a. False
b. True
Congratulations to the following winners from our Buckeye trivia contest:
Grand Prize OSU Tickets for the Oct. 23 game vs. Purdue -- Hillary Johnston of Terry's Tire Town
BW3 Gift Cards:
Debbie Tefs of Hubbel
Joyce Keslar of A Plus Powder Coaters
Ray Sbardella of McCann Plastics
Roy Albright of Taylor Coil Processing
Maureen Marginian of M&M Manufacturing Company Inc.
Bobblehead:
Mark King of Saint Gobain
Pam Bissell of Vindicator Printing
Jeniffer Sutton of MPI Labels
Bob Nypaver of RTI International Metals
Kelly of Miles Rubber
Susan Ryan and our sales staff will be in touch with all of you later this week to get you your prizes. Thanks for playing!
In a world where it’s sometimes easier to take shortcuts or look the other way to save time, energy or a buck, it’s important to work with professionals that know the importance of putting your best interests first. Sometimes this can rub you the wrong way because you expect your staffing supplier to have that “customer is always right” or “do whatever it takes to make you happy” mentality.
But sometimes it is just as important to have a supplier that shoots straight and isn’t afraid to lose your business if it means doing business the right way. Consider these “semi-hypothetical” examples:
1. A food processing company that processes chickens for consumption wants to bring on 50 temporaries for their busy season. They have a need for conventional staffing, but they also have a group of workers that they want to payroll. They are in a hurry, and they put people to work before their staffing supplier has had the chance to process the paperwork.
As it turns out the people to be payrolled are in the country with less than the required documentation to work legally.
Do you want your supplier to:
A. Tell you it is ok and guarantee that those employees with be signed up within a week without the required I-9 document.
B. Suggest that you start off by using conventional temporaries that have been properly oriented with all the proper documentation. That way, we both avoid the I-9 police down the road.
2. A steel processing company requests the services of an individual to do production work that involves working around dangerous machinery. The person that starts the job is placed on the job with little training and no safety orientation.
Personal protective equipment that includes wearing safety glasses, hearing protection and gloves with long sleeve shirts are required by the company’s full time staff, but the requirements are not enforced for the temps.
Sure enough, the temp experiences a serious laceration to the hand and is to be off work for a month. The company has a bonus program that includes penalties for people that get hurt on the job and is anxious to keep the temps injury off its record. To this end they have asked their staffing supplier to “work” with them to make this happen.
What approach would you want your supplier to take?
A. Suggest that you end the temporary’s assignment right away for lack of work or poor job performance so that in theory the accident won’t be lost time and impact the bonus program.
B. Tell you that injuries involving temporaries really should not go on your record because they are not your employees and therefore do not need to be recorded on your OSHA log.
C. Explain to you that the injury should be investigated in detail to avoid problems down the road with OSHA and other workers compensation co-employment issues. Then, you’re suppliers works with you to develop a “return to work” strategy that includes providing restricted duty work to avoid the injury becoming lost time and gets the injured worker released to full duty in a timely manner. The supplier then strongly encourages you to return the temp to work and not end the assignment for any reason to avoid this discriminatory practice and the potential legal problems it brings.
3. A HR rep in a large manufacturing company has been assigned the task of calling the staffing supplier to place orders for help. The individual uses more than one service so as to not put all the company’s eggs in one basket. It would seem that most of the business has started to shift to one supplier in particular that has a reputation for “wining and dining” clients to get their business.
Who do you want to get most of your staffing business?
A. The supplier that puts together the best package of goodies but provides lousy service and higher bill rates.
B. The staffing company that does everything it can to provide superior service at the lowest possible cost without trying to buy your love yet shows appreciation with an occasional working business lunch or hand delivered pumpkin roll at Thanksgiving time for your staff to share….whew!
4. Consider the company that processes medical records and billings. Due to ObamaCare, they have an immediate need for skilled clerical help that have all the latest bells and whistles when it comes to office technology….and they need the person yesterday!
The order is placed with two staffing companies at the same time. Which staffing supplier would you prefer to work with on this request:
A. The first one responds by filling the order within an hour with a person that has a questionable work history and educational skills that really only match about half of what you need. The staffing company knew that this person will not cut it, but they want to get the order filled to buy time for them to find the qualified candidate which could take a week or so. You will end up ending the assignment and all the time training this temp after a few days and requesting a replacement.
B. The other staffing supplier checks its database and informs you that they don’t currently have a qualified person to fill the position and that they will have to utilize all their recruiting sources to find a person that will do a great job but that it might take a week or so. They give you the option of accepting a lesser skilled person or waiting for the ideal candidate as well as providing resumes for you to review and getting you involved in the selection process. They even go so far as to offer free training time for an applicant that has potential.
Do you want a staffing supplier that looks out for their own best interest first or one that is willing to sacrifice your business by refusing to take shortcuts and is always looking out for your best interests….no matter how painful?
What motivates temps?
While it is not unusual for temps to be active with more than one staffing company, they do have their reasons for their ultimate choice.
So what matters most?
Rate of Pay-73%
Availability/Quality of Assignments-56%
Honesty of Agency-56%
Communication about Jobs-25%
Location of Agency-16%
Reputation-13%
Healthcare Insurance-9%
Non-Healthcare Benefits-3%
Think about this...
If swimming is good for the figure please explain the whale?
FBI database has shortfalls
The point has been made here over the years that criminal background checks have their purpose in the hiring process but they are not foolproof. Consider the following example:
An Arizona fugitive disappeared 30 years ago while on probation for beating a man to death. The man, John Whiting, had been charged 14 times and convicted 8 times while living in Ohio while he was a fugitive. The FBI database failed to make the connection.
How many times do you suppose Whiting was hired by unsuspecting employers over the years?
Staffing employment on the rise!
Staffing employment in September is up 25% from a year ago. The index for September is at 96 or about 39% higher than at the start of the year (69).
This trend seems to be holding up locally as companies expand their workforces but are still slow to make permanent hires. Nationwide the conversion of temps to permanent status is apparently gaining steam according to Fidelity Investments.
Pay card update
As most of our loyal followers, readers and clients know by now, Ryan Staffing converted from paper paychecks to a Paycard (debit card) method for paying all of its employees. This was no small task because we had to do it on the fly, including new employees and those already working.
Compounding the difficulty of this task is the physical dispersion of our workforce over a seven county area.
With the help of our clients, the task has been accomplished and we have been up and running about two months now.
Of significant note, the number of paycheck problems has nearly been eliminated. Checks lost in the mail are now a thing of the past and everyone has their net pay at the same time on Friday mornings. The adjustments for those not familiar with debit card usage were conquered through a very detailed communication program as well as the customer service experts of our vendor Skylight Financial.
Since the programs start we have issued over 2000 cards and we are paying nearly 800 people a week on average with the program. Our thanks to all that helped make this conversion a success.
According to statistics substance abusers are: (source: American Council for Drug Education’s)
Ten times more likely to miss work.
3.6 times more likely to be involved in on the job accidents.
Five times more likely to file a Workers Compensation Claim.
33% less productive.
Responsible for Health Care costs that are three times higher than non-abusers.
What should you be looking for?:
Frequent, prolonged and often unexplained absences.
Involvement in accidents both on and off the job.
Erratic work patterns and reduced productivity.
Indifference to personal hygiene.
Over reaction to real or imagined criticism.
Such overt physical signs as exhaustion, or hyperactivity, dilated pupils, slurred speech, or an unsteady walk.
Marijuana users may have bloodshot or glassy eyes or a persistent cough.
Cocaine users display increased energy and enthusiasm early in their drug involvement. Later they may be subject to extreme mood swings and can become paranoid or delusional.
Alcohol abusers find it hard to conceal morning after hangovers. Their productivity declines and they may show sign of physical deterioration. Stay tuned!
Just when you think you’ve see everything a Pennsylvania woman was recently accused of illegally accepting Workers Compensation Payments.What makes this interesting is that Christina Gamble, 43 works as a stripper.She said she hurt her back working as a waitress but was later caught dancing at the Fanny’s Gentlemen Club on tape by the insurance carrier.
I bet there was no shortage of volunteers to conduct the surveillance.
Be careful about ending a temps assignment after an injury occurs
“No employer shall discharge, demote, reassign, or take any punitive action against any employee because the employee filed a claim or instituted, pursued or testified in any proceeding under the Workers Compensation Act for an injury or Occupational Disease which occurred in the course of and arising out of his employment with that employer.”
This is how this scenario sometimes plays out in the Staffing Industry.A temp gets hurt while working an assignment and is either given work restrictions which the client cannot accommodate or is totally disabled.When the temp is given a full duty release to return to work the staffing service contacts the client about returning the temp to work and is told they want to end the assignment.In the meantime, the client keeps ordering new temps to perform the same job as the injured temp.
If this sounds like you, a review of section 4123.90 of the Ohio Workers Compensation Law may be in order.Reinstatement with back pay and attorney costs are your incentive.
What does this have to do with health care reform?
Did you know under the new Health Care Bill all real estate transactions will be subject to a 3.8% sales tax?This doesn’t kick in until 2013.On a $200,000 home there will be a $7,600 tax just in time to stick it to the retiring generation who often downsizes their homes.
Now that's staffing!
It is estimated by the Seattle Times that Microsoft outsources about half their workforce.That is somewhere between 70,000 and 80,000 employees.
The average company these days is estimated to have 13% of its workforce in a contingent mode.
So significant is the Microsoft number their Senior Procurement Manager was recently included as one of the 25 most powerful people in Staffing.
In case you were curious, Ryan Staffing was once again left off this list.
The cost of alcohol and drug abuse in our society is $237 billion annually
About 75% of all illicit drug users in the U.S. are employed
These two points alone form a basis for you and your staffing supplier to support Drug Free Workplace initiatives.
As part of our Drug Free Workplace Policy we require post accident drug testing. Several times each year we experience positive post accident test results. This will form the grounds in most of these cases for our rejection of the claim.
Some of the hoops we must go through to successfully defend a positive drug test claim are the result of the Ohio Supreme Court ruling involving the burden of proof and probable cause. Because we have no presence at the work site, as a third party labor supplier it is not in our reach to claim probable cause for the purpose of forcing the post accident drug test. As a result we must accept the burden of proof.
As part of this process we first need to make sure the test is done in a timely manner. Those employees with test concerns will use all sorts of tricks to avoid a timely test. They will tell the hospital that our client is their employer not Ryan Staffing so our protocol is not administered. They will not report the injury as work related or they will put off treatment for 48 hours or longer.
Once we have a timely test result we analyze the mechanism injury and the likelihood the drug test result caused the accident. In rare cases the accident could have occurred regardless of the employee’s intoxication.
We make certain that an MRO (Medical Review Officer) has reviewed the results with the claimant and are satisfied that prescription drugs or other legitimate reasons are not the cause of the positive test.
When we have all of our ducks lined up we enforce our zero tolerance policy and terminate the employee. Every step of this process is thoroughly documented for the inevitable need at the legal proceedings to come. We have pending claims where the individual has already filed for unemployment and welfare before the Workers Compensation hearing has even been held, so the need for documentation extends beyond the WC claim.
Because the burden of proof is on us for the reasons already discussed we next have the entire file reviewed by our Medical Expert to determine if the positive drug test was the direct and proximate cause of the accident.
If our suspicions are confirmed the claim is rejected and the matter is turned over to our attorney to present our legal argument at hearing before the Industrial Commission and beyond.
With most of these cases, the individual involved does a disappearing act and is never heard from again. We have had a few of these claims appealed to court only to get settled for nuisance value. The one positive drug test claim that we lost was due to the fact that the Hearing Officer determined that the accident/injury would have happened regardless of the drug influence. (another person dropped a bar on the claimants foot)
Supporting your staffing supplier challenge to positive drug test Workers Compensation claims is very important to your bottom line. The most important reason for doing this is that you do not want these people working in your facility along side your own employees.
What you can do to assist your supplier is make sure the injured person is drug tested when they receive treatment. Always notify the supplier immediately about the injury… time is of the essence. Support their Drug Free Workplace Policies and encourage random drug testing at your workplace.
It has been our experience that random drug testing is a much more effective deterrent than pre employment drug testing alone to weed out the users. Often times the users apply “clean” and resume abuse after they start working. With random testing they are always aware of the possibility of getting caught. And along with getting caught comes getting fired and the possibility of losing their welfare and unemployment benefits.
The cost of substance and alcohol abuse in the workplace can be staggering. Over the next few months the “Corner Stool” will show you how.
AREA TEMPS FINDS IT COSTLY TO DISCRIMINATE FOR CLIENTS
If you follow our e-letter at all over the months you know we encourage all of our clients to not lose sight of co-employments issues.
Recently Area Temps, a Cleveland based staffing supplier settled a discrimination lawsuit to the tune of $650,000.
Area Temps was accused by the EEOC of complying with client request for workers based on such things as race, gender, national origin etc. They also fired two of their internal staff for not going along with the discriminatory practices and one individual for cooperating with the EEOC.
While the settlement involving Area Temps has obviously been made public, we can only assume their clients involved were probably impacted by the case as well.
The bottom line is that you should never believe that just because a “temp” is not your employee that you are exempt from those employment laws that cover everyone in the workplace.
WHY WE SUPPORT THE DRUG FREE WORKPLACE – PART 1
Consider these facts:
One worker in four between the ages of 18 to 34 used drugs in the past year.
One worker in three knows about drug sales in the workplace.
In the workplace these problems obviously become your problems whether they are your employees or that of a third party supplier. They increase the risk of accidents, lower productivity, raise insurance costs and lower profits.
Substance abusers are responsible for 40% of all industrial fatalities.
And think about this one:
23 million use marijuana at least four times a week; 18 million abuse alcohol; 6 million regularly use cocaine and 2 million use heroin.
Next issue we’ll talk about what to look for in suspecting drug or alcohol abuse in the workplace.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
For those of you that think your staffing supplier has it easy when it comes to Workers Compensation, here is where Ryan Staffing is at through July 31, 2010:
First report of injury filed:
Claims allowed - 32
Claims dis-allowed - 6
Claims withdrawn - 3
Claims rejected - 4
_______________
45
Due to our internal transitional work program only one claim has resulted in lost time away from work.
We are still operating without a TPA, and while this might seem challenging enough, in 1999 we had 235 claims including 18 with compensable lost time.
WE’RE NOT BAD PEOPLE
Last month we ran our contest around the LeBron escape from Cleveland and we took a bit of flack for it.
We surely did not mean to offend anyone with our anti-LeBron survey and we really aren’t hate mongers. That being said, we haven’t changed our mind about his leaving.
As one who has been going to Cavs games since 1970 and the Cincinnati Royals before that, my loyalties run deep. That along with the fun others had with survey made us all feel better here at Ryan Staffing. Some of the results/ comments from the survey included:
THIS MONTH IT’S TIME TO MOVE ON TO THE BROWNS
Our survey question involves your best guess on how many games the Brownies win this season. Take the test and win a chance to see the Browns home opener against the KC Chiefs on September 19, 2010.
YOU KNOW LIFE ISN’T GETTING EASIER WHEN. . . .
The Department of Labor recently decided that employers under the FLSA must pay employees for time spent putting on and taking off personal protective equipment. This interpretation also includes time spent putting on and taking off work clothes. While this ruling was made in the context of collective bargaining agreements, its implications extend to non –union situations as well.
I, for one, am elated that my spouse is in “management” at Ryan Staffing because if we had to pay her to get dressed and undressed to come to work we’d be broke, just kidding!
MIA NLRB NOT MISSED
The US Supreme Court recently said that 600 decisions made by the National Labor Relations Board that was operating with only 2 members (3unfilled seats) for over two years are without statutory authority.
Is it just me or don’t you find it amazing that life went on just fine without anyone really missing 60% of the board? Can we take from this that about 60% of all Government Bureaucrats really wouldn’t be missed – interesting.
We hear a lot these days about the possibility of a “Double Dip” Recession. The other big cloud hanging over our heads is “Jobless” Recovery. After living through the past two crummy years what business isn’t wary of hiring, investing or being positive about the future.
You throw the unknown cost of Healthcare Reform and all the other tax increases coming down the pike and it’s no wonder we’re talking about Double Dips and Jobless Recoveries.
The staffing industry is positioned to be a bridge for those companies experiencing increasing volume but are not comfortable making permanent hiring commitments. We are seeing this at Ryan Staffing as our own volume is approaching pre-recession levels.
Ok, by now I’m sure you’re asking yourself what exactly does all this have to do with job fairs? It’s simple, despite the circumstances of the current economy, especially in Northeast Ohio, we are still experiencing challenges in finding quality personnel willing to accept un-skilled manufacturing positions.
How can this be you ask? Unemployment is at double digits right? While logic is on your side, reality may not be.
What we are finding is that those collecting unemployment (and all the extensions that go with it) are not willing to give it up for Temp jobs, particularly at pay rates under $9.00 to $10.00 dollars per hour. Added to this problem are transportation issues for those that rely on public transportation.
You throw in the legitimate need for experienced personnel that can pass both drug and background checks and the un-skilled local labor poll becomes tight, especially with demand increasing.
We have found is that “help wanted ads” in newspapers and posting jobs with Government Services cannot be solely be relied on anymore. Social media sources and job boards yield better results.
Conducting job fairs along with plant tours has become a key recruiting tool for us particularly at our clients that are defiantly off the bus line and in need of lots of help.
The on-site job fair allows applicants to learn first and foremost exactly where the jobs are physically located and what the travel requirements would be. The tours display the actual job opening and the physical job skills need to be successful along with the actual work environment.
Conducting interviews and applicant processing on-site adds legitimacy to those seeking employment. Our experience is that more and better applicants apply under these circumstances because they know the opening is real and that their application is not just being banked for future openings.
So, if your service is having trouble keeping up with the needs and you don’t want to compromise quality, consider the job fair approach.
We all know that everyone is sick and tired of the LeBron James soap opera, right?
But like any good soap opera we’re still tuning in to see what happens next.
I know that a good many of you probably have little or no interest in the on-going saga of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
But I also know that we have a core group of clients and other followers of this newsletter that enjoy a night out watching a Cavs game and for this reason we plan to continue to give away Cavs tickets throughout the 2010 – 11 season.
As a kid, I’ll admit I had a bit of the devil in me. I won’t go into my list of “pranks” here but I have put some creative thinking into how we can make LBJ’s return shall we say memorable.
So, this month we’re going to give away a pair of tickets to the first Cavs vs. Heat match up of the coming season. To be eligible all you have to do is help me out by participating in the “stick it to LeBron” survey. Of course your comments or ideas are welcome as well.
While we are in this “teams we love to hate” mood, we’ll throw in two additional runner-up prizes that include a pair of tickets to the July 29th Indians game against the Yankees and the Jan 2, 2011 Browns/Steelers match-up in Cleveland.
Health Care Reform is marching forward and its impact will start to be felt sooner (as early as September 23, 2010) rather than later. From what we know for sure, the following are applicable to all plans:
Raise dependent age to 26
Ban on lifetime limits (dollar value)
Restrictions on annual limits
Elimination of pre-existing condition exclusion for those younger than 19
Ban on coverage rescission
This list applies to “Grandfathered” plans as well.
Fixing W-2s Got Easier
Did you know that you can fix your employees’ W-2s online?
Visit www.socialsecurity.gov/employer and learn how you can complete up to five forms W-2c on the computer, submit them and print copies for your employees and your records.
More Bulletin Board Material
Just when you thought there could not possibly be anything more to post on your wall, President Obama signed executive order 13496 that took effect June 21, 2010.
What’s 13496 you say? . . . It requires certain federal contractors and subcontractors to post detailed notices informing employees of their rights under the NLRA about collective bargaining and joining/forming unions.
Minimum Length of Service Ruled ‘Ok’ for Maternity Leave
By a 5 – 1 vote the Ohio Supreme Court said that a company can impose a minimum length of service requirement before any employee is eligible for leave. This does not violate anti-discrimination laws in Ohio according to the court.
Imagine the logic used . . . pregnant women must be treated the same as non pregnant women.
Editor's Note: The following excerpt comes from June 04, 2010 Mainstreet.com story.
Coffee fiends may want to scale back on the caffeine. A new study published by the Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology shows that your habitual cup of morning Joe isn’t exactly helping you wake up. You just think it is.
“With frequent consumption, substantial tolerance develops to the anxiogenic effect of caffeine,” the study, published in its entirety online, says. Frequent coffee drinkers may feel more alert after their first cup, but it’s only because their caffeine withdrawal symptoms are being alleviated.
The study, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council in the U.K., asked 379 individuals to abstain from coffee for 16 hours. Participants were then given either a caffeine or placebo pill and asked to rate their level of alertness. They also played computer games to quantitatively establish memory, attentiveness and vigilance levels. Half of the study’s participants were heavy to medium caffeine drinkers; half were low to non-caffeine users.
I don't know any person who prefers high cost versus low cost. It would make no sense. So when your staffing company embraces technology to lower its cost structure to keep your bill rate low this should be viewed as a good thing. . . right?
In our March 2009 “Tip of the Month" we touched on the overall advantages to working with your supplier to keep costs down. The “win-win” mentality for the success of both supplier and client was addressed and included such things as safety, workers comp claims, UC claims, payment of invoices, etc.
Getting attention this month is the trend throughout the staffing industry to eliminate paper paychecks. The process to do this is called “electronic pay distribution” and its purpose is twofold.
We're throwing out the paper, and switching to electronic pay cards. Click here to read about the program.
The first is to increase the productivity of your staffing service as they desperately try to keep their costs (and your rates) down.
The other is to provide a more effective, efficient and timely method to deliver a temps wages in to their hands. Let’s face it; temps are not at the high end of the pay scale.
I’m not sure, but the term “living paycheck to paycheck” may have been first coined by a temp. They need their money and they need it yesterday.
ELECTRONIC PAYCHECK DISTRIBUTION ACCOMPLISHES BOTH.
Ryan Staffing is in the process of establishing an EPDS using a payroll debit card or “pay card” which works just like a bank debit card.
We have decided not to establish direct deposit as part of our system for several reasons. The diversity of our workforce by being both physically disbursed and transient in nature would eliminate the desired cost saving goals.
Can you imagine the cost of establishing (and maintaining) direct deposit accounts of about 6000 employees per year residing in multiple states involving hundreds of different banks? In fact, about 11% of the US workforce do not have bank accounts and that number in our industry probably exceeds 50%. This defeats the purpose of moving to a paperless system.
Our method relies on the payroll debit card. Instead of receiving a company issued paper check our employees will receive wages earned on their “pay card." Employees can make purchases using the card just like any other debit card or withdraw cash from the cards balance at ATM’s.
If using the card is too scary for a temp to use they can simply authorize a “convenience check” which is a paper paycheck that is self-issued by the employee, not Ryan Staffing.
Let’s face it, the post office is becoming obsolete for many purposes these days. The internet has become to the dismay of the USPS what the telegraph was over 150 years ago.
Paper paychecks are routinely lost in the mail or stolen. They are fraudulently modified and they can impose unnecessary expenses on temps depending on how they cast them.
And, I’ll be the first to admit to being more “lime” than green but paper paychecks do kill a lot of trees and pose environmental issues. According to the Electronic Payments Association producing and delivering paper checks uses 674 million gallons of fuel each year producing 3.6 million tons of green house gases.
It’s no wonder Al and Tipper are splitting!
It costs the U.S. Government 98 cents to issue a paper check versus 10 cents for electronic distribution.
The U.S. Treasury Department has reported that 85% of all those receiving Federal Benefits receive them electronically. If you don’t believe that I double dare you to hit a Wal-mart store at midnight on the first of the month and watch the cards fly.
What about pay stubs you ask? Well, a few years back Ryan Staffing invested in on-line technology that not only lets applicants apply on-line but also allows access to weekly paycheck data for all of our employees. Providing this info is mandatory for those establishing EPDS. And, I might add that the Obama administration recently stopped issuing paper pay stubs to some Federal employees so it can’t be bad right?
So, what are the “Tips” in all this?
Support your staffing company as they implement an electronic paycheck distribution system. These are their employees and policies.
Review the materials provided by your Staffing service about the program and if they don’t provide them request them.
Don’t attempt to answer question you may be asked by temps about the program. Your service and their card provider have the knowledge to answer questions with 100% accuracy; also, it will take up a significant amount of your time.
Remember what while change can be difficult for some, technology is good and serves to improve the quality of life.
It was interesting to learn that only 20% of all Social Security payments are issued via paper checks yet they accounted for 90% of the reported 1.4 million annual inquires SSA receives pertaining to mis-placed, damaged, stolen, mis-directed and missing paper checks.
Full Steam Ahead for Pay Cards
The process of converting all of our employees from paper checks to pay cards is in full swing and is for the most part being well received.
We anticipate full implementation by August 1st. As you can imagine change is not easy for everyone, but we are working hard to make the process as pain free as possible for all of our valued employees.
Just as we all survived the Government’s conversion to digital television with the converter boxes, this upgrade will greatly improve our ability to get money into people’s hands quickly and safely.
Staffing Firms Provide 76% of Private Sector Job Growth
The American Staffing Association reports temp employment was up 19% in May 2010 from the prior year and 3% from April
Based on National Unemployment rates remaining high (9.7%) this suggests employers are using temps due to uncertainty about the economy’s future.
Making It Up...Tall Ships and the Phantom
Ok, if you noticed last month we didn’t have any fantastic prizes to give away to our loyal followers. So this month we’re going to make up for it.
We have five pairs of tickets to the Cleveland Tall Ships Festival taking place between July 8th and July 11th at the harbor behind the Browns Stadium.
Also, we’re giving away a pair of tickets to see the longest running show in Broadway history, The Phantom of the Opera. The show is at the Allen Theater on Friday, August 13 at 8:00 p.m.
If you are reading this column now you are eligible to win . . . it’s that simple.
Trends in Staffing Industry Technology
Technology is not passing by the staffing industry. In fact, it’s exploding as clients continue to push their providers for more services at lower costs.
The future holds the promise from suppliers providing electronic delivery of invoices, check stubs and automated matching time cards and invoices at the time of invoice creation.
Using social media and all the networking potential it holds for recruiting is hot. Integrating these applications into the flow of recruiting software will allow staffing services to fill orders with better candidates in a cost effective manner.
The use of mobile and wireless technology is also growing. The ability to communicate with applicants without them sitting by the phone at home can dramatically improve service levels. And, all of this is pushing the industry towards becoming a “paperless” industry.
It’s all good stuff that will require staffing suppliers to prioritize the needs of their client base before diving into the tech pool.
Do You Like Webinars?
Take a moment to answer this month’s survey question about webinars. We’ll let you know the results next month.
The sun will be out. The grill will be sparked. The sodas (and beers) will be cold. You will (probably) get a day off work.
Just don't forget why we celebrate every fourth Monday in May.
The first Memorial Day was celebrated in 1866 by a group in Waterloo, NY, celebrating the Civil War veterans, according to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.
View Larger Map President Johnson declared Waterloo, NY the birthplace for Memorial Day in 1966, 100 years after the initial celebration.
The holiday evolved into a day of remembrance of all military who have died in service.
Generally, people associate days like Memorial Days and Veterans Day with World War II veterans. The driving force behind the DVA has been baby boomers, so an emphasis on Vietnam will probably increase in the coming years.
But as a young man, the same age as many soldiers stationed overseas right now, I can't help but wonder about the military reputations of Generation X and Generation Y's service men and women. Neither of the two generations has had a definitive "international conflict" to deal with, on the scale of World War II. And the conflicts that these two generations have dealt with do not have the philosophical subtext like Vietnam did in regards to the Cold War and communism vs. capitalism.
I know there's religion and a West vs. East mentality out there today, but in the moment it does not feel the same.
Here's what this all boils down to at this juncture in time
I like to celebrate holidays on this blog by pulling movie clips off YouTube. So in commemoration of the men and woman who served this country, I'm going to share clips from movies dealing with the conflicts of Generations X and Y, starting with ...
The Panama Deception
I'm starting the list off with a documentary that may not commemorate the service of military vets, but it sets the stage for military conflicts to come.
It won that most prestigious award for nonfiction film by detailing the failings of mainstream media to accurately report what happened in Panama in 1989.
Media portrayed the conflict as "America Helping the Poor" while not mentioning the U.S. agenda behind its involvement. Specifically that meant the renegotiation of the Torrijos-Carter treaty, which may have not happened if the nation state was not settled.
Possibly as a result of this event (and this movie), future conflicts would be looked at with a critical eye, leaving the service men and women of that and this current serving generation to be viewed differently than the heroes of past wars.
Jarhead
This 2005 film detailing Operation Desert Storm through the eyes of one skeptical marine may not have been one of the most popular films of the past 10 years.
Jarhead was based on the 2003 best selling autobiography from Anthony Swofford, a marine serving in the early '90s. The film and book are not war movies in the sense of Patton and Full Metal Jacket. But that's because it was a different conflict.
Operation Desert Storm was the first in a slew of unpopular U.S. conflicts in Iraq, a country we still occupy today.
Dealing with an unpopular war in a different generation, the movie tackles skepticism, an evolving military culture and comparison/contrasting of different generations of service men and women.
Blackhawk Down
This was the most entertaining and most popular movie to appear on this list. Because I'm getting long winded, I'll cut to the chase.
This movie was important because it captured an evolving theme in U.S. foreign policy. That is, we pick-and-choose when we step in to help during an incident of genocide (see Rwanda). And it doesn't always work out so well for us.
Generation Kill
This HBO mini-series details the early years of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Generation Kill provided civilians with a look into the dangers of this war, specifically in terms of friendly fire. There are several scenes in the series where soldiers are killed as a result of mistakes, not combat. While World War II has its heroes, like Patton and Eisenhower, what will the conflicts in Iraq have 50 years from now? I would argue every military operation has a hero, but will these men and women struggle to find the image that defines themselves 50 years from now?
The Hurt Locker
Combine a traditional military movie character who has a "maverick" type mentality and a plot that revolves around explosions; you get a thrilling film (an Academy Award).
I recently saw the Hurt Locker for this first time this weekend and here's what I got from it.
You can find stories in the New York Times every day about a bomb going of in the Middle East, killing dozens of people. But it seems impersonal. It's just another clip from the 24-hour news cycle.
This movie does a good job of focusing in on that aspect of military conflict, road side bombs set by civilian-style militants.
This movie, more than the others on this list (arguably), depicts why we should celebrate service men and women on days like Memorial Day. It showed that there are still American citizens dying over seas and that commemorative days need to be about more than barbecue and blockbuster summer movies.
Ryan Staffing is pleased to have partnered with Skylight Financial to offer the Skylight One card to all of its employees.
The Skylight ONE card will replace paper checks. It will allow cardholders to make purchases wherever Visa debit cards are accepted in addition to more than 48,000 surcharge free ATM’s.
As we all know people’s paychecks are sacred. The Skylight One card will offer convenience, flexible, affordable and secure net pay access without having to rely on the Post Office.
Our clients will no longer be involved in paycheck distribution and using Paycards has proven to increase productivity, lower turnover and improve the morale of temps.
The program will be phased in over the next 60 days and informational packages will be sent out to all of our clients in the next few weeks.
My name is Roger Dorn and I am the Plant Manager. We make auto parts and thanks to programs like “Cash For Clunkers” and other government goodies being given away our business is growing and we needed to increase the size of our staff by 25. Not being certain that the good times here to stay we went the “temp” route to solve our staffing needs.
It's sure easy to "stay down on the ball" when you have a quality staffing service backing you up.
As part of the supplier selection process we identified ten points of concern for our potential new supplier to address as part of the competitive bidding process. The provider selected best fit our needs in the following ways. Oh, by the way, they were not the service with the lowest rates. Our new provider has a business mix that is 80% light manufacturing and 20% office and clerical. They work with a variety of industries and no single client makes up more than 10% of their total business. We checked two business references. One they provide and one from our own source.
A detailed recruiting plan was presented that met our challenges to utilize non-traditional recruitment sources. We felt it desirable to expand the pool of available workers beyond newspapers and the unemployment office.
Concerning our multiple shifts and the potential for problems on each we selected a service that had office hours around our shift start and stop times including Saturday. When their office was not physically open a contact person was available on call. This allowed us to replace call-offs and no shows quickly with less resulting down time in production
The turnover and no-show problems of the past were addressed with the submission of a retention plan. Part of the solution dedicates a member of their full time staff to be on site 6-8 hours per week.
Our new service performs a felony background check and e-verify of social security numbers. We have established a policy that eliminates job candidates with drug or theft related felony convictions.
All employees provided by our new service must pass a six panel drug test before starting work. Random drug tests are also done on a monthly basis. We like the fact our supplier is self-insured for workers compensation purposes as it gives them a vested interest in the safety of everyone working at our facility including our own employees.
Two levels of staff from the office of our staffing service physically toured our plant and observed firsthand the positions they would be filling. By mutual agreement we decided to require at least 6 solid months of manufacturing experience and applicants must have a high school diploma or equivalent. Pre-employment tours have been offered as an option should turnover or safety issues get out of hand.
Through internet access our provider has a system in place that allows us access to our account at any time to track such things as order status, invoices, usage.etc. We transmit hours worked by temps electronically by each Monday afternoon and pay our invoices by electronic bank transfers of funds. This is all part of our efforts to save time and save the trees
As was previously mentioned the service we selected did not provide us with the lowest hourly bill rate. What they did provide in addition to a very competitive rate included:
A 1.4% rate for all overtime hours
Discounted rates for long term temps
No liquidation fees for us hiring a temp
Credits for no-show or non performance
No extra charges for drug testing, background checks etc.
10. Perhaps the most impressive thing about the package presented and accepted by us from our new supplier is that we were given the home phone numbers of all the owners/officers of the company to use if needed. Try getting those from Manpower or Kelly! While our new supplier has been on the job only three months, we have noticed significant improvements in “temp” productivity over our pre-recession supplier.
Granted three months still puts us in the honeymoon stage it’s still a good start. I guess if you think about it selecting a new staffing provider is a lot like picking a wife. . . or maybe not.
Oh, by the way, our new staffing service is Ryan Alternative Staffing. No surprise there I suppose. So far, they’re major league in our book… couldn’t stop myself!
By the time you're 80 years old you've learned everything. You only have to remember it..(George Burns)
