Ryan Alternative Staffing: The Corner Stool

Tip of the Month: Sometimes What You Don't Know Can Hurt You

2012-01-16T18:15:00.000-05:00

It is that time of year when the words IRS start to become a concern for most of us. Whether it is your own personal tax return or tax issues for the corporation at which you work, the iron fist of the Internal Revenue Service is ready to "make you pay" one way or the other.

A big topic of discussion around this time of year is the classification of independent contractors.

According to the folks at SI Review over 25% of their recent survey respondents had no idea at all if all their workers were properly classified. Another 62% were confident that at least some of their workers were probably misclassified. Only 13% were confident that they nailed it and had everyone in compliance with the law.

So why worry? Well, a whopping 40% of buyers reported that their independent contractor pools have been audited by an outside agency....usually you guessed, the IRS. And, these audits took place within the past six months. This translates in to high risk!

Consider this as well. If the IRS doesn't get you, the individual just might. How you say? Most often it starts when the "independent" goes to file for unemployment benefits or a worker's compensation claim and is denied. Or a claim is made for overtime pay or other benefits paid to your full time staff. Can anyone say Microsoft?

What do we suggest you do if you think this may be an issue? The first thing to do is visit the IRS.gov website and take a look at the qualifications needed for an individual to be properly classified as an independent contractor.

If you think you have a problem, contact Ryan Staffing and we can help you establish the individual as a payroll employee of Ryan Staffing at a rate that is very affordable. This provides continuity of the employee's services and compliance with the law so that you can rest easy. And one less thing to worry about can't ever be bad right?

Tim's Talking About Business Tax Hike, Manpower in Vietnam and Whistleblowers

2012-01-16T18:12:00.000-05:00

THE BUSINESS TAX HIKE NOBODY IS TALKING ABOUT

As many of you know, the Federal unemployment tax rate is 6.0% of the first $7,000 of an employee's wages which was reduced from 6.2% in the second half of 2011. Employers have normally received a credit of 5.4% from the payment of their state unemployment taxes making the net FUTA rate .6%.

What you might not know is that because Ohio is one of 20 states that have not paid back borrowed funds from the Federal government that 5.4% credit will be reduced to 5.1% in 2012. This .3% reduction in the credit will continue to take place every year the money is not paid back by the State of Ohio.

It could be worse. Michigan is now in its third year of "default" and their credit deduction for employers is down to 4.5%. This in effect represents a tax hike for all Ohio employers that nobody is talking about!

ATTENTION ALL YOU MANPOWER USERS

I suppose this should not bother me as much anymore. But growing up in the 60's and knowing about all the tragedies of the Vietnam War, I still said ouch when I came across this announcement.

Manpower Group signs new deal with Vietnam

It seems that Manpower recently signed a new three year deal to partner with Vietnam to continue working to develop that country's local labor market. They are now the first 100% foreign owned employment services company with a license to operate in Vietnam.

So aside from the war issue, Manpower is now working hard to exploit the low skilled, low wage labor force of Vietnam that continues to take jobs away from the United States.

Something to think about.

TEMP OR NOW TEMP YOU JUST CAN'T DO IT!

This is the message sent out by OSHA recently in a case involving the termination of an employee for filing a worker's compensation claim. That message sent out by the Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA stated, "This case sends a clear message that OSHA will not tolerate retaliation against workers for reporting a work-related injury."

The case involved a Nebraska based Union Pacific Railroad Company employee and was filed as a whistleblower complaint. The company was ordered to pay back wages, compensatory damages, attorney fees and punitive damages.

You can find detailed employee whistleblower rights information under OSHA at www.whistleblower.gov.

IF YOU THINK TEMP COMPLAINTS ARE NOT YOUR RESPONSIBILITY...Think again!

Blockbuster recently settled a discrimination lawsuit brought by the EEOC to the tune of $2 million that involved alleged sexual harassment and racial discrimination against female temps by male supervisors at one of its distribution centers.

The incidents took place in 2004 and 2005 and involved seven female temporary employees, four of whom were Hispanic. The alleged acts included sexual favors, offensive racial remarks, yelling and forced resignations among other things.

The EEOC attorney pointed out that "Employers who are customers of staffing agencies have a responsibility to protect their temporary workers from unlawful discrimination".

Frankie Vali and the Four Seasons contest winners from October 2011 newsletter

2011-11-29T21:23:00.000-05:00

The winner of last month's contest for the tickets to see Frankie Vali and the Four Seasons was Stephanie from Fastener Tool in Solon. As an added bonus, we also gave away twelve Frankie Vali CDs to go along with the tickets to the following readers:

Charlotte Rowe - Mantaline, Stow
Cindy Craver - American Way, Lordstown
Dorothy Mitchell - Xaloy, Boardman
Debbie Tefs - Hubbell, Wadsworth
Pam Kochman - Radix Wire, Cleveland
Ron Serich - Goodwill, Youngstown
Linda Barron - Toys R Us
Brandon Lands - Hygenic, Akron
Christine Zaletel - Swagelok, Solon
John Angelilli - John Zidian Company, Youngstown
Don Snyder - Aqua America, Canton

Tim's Talking About Ohio's Minimum Wage, a Lesson Against Payroll Scheming and Small Business Hiring Prediction

2011-11-29T20:37:00.000-05:00

Ohio Minimum Wage Rate Rising

While you probably have heard by now that the Ohio minimum wage rate for most will increase to $7.70 per hour January 1, 2012 did you know that Ohio has only had its own rate since 2007? That's right, Ohio voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2006 creating our own rate with an annual CPI review.

Perhaps no coincidence, state unemployment figures have been higher every year since. Since 2007 the Ohio rate has now increased from $6.85 to the upcoming $7.70 per hour and is $.45 higher than the current Federal rate.

And did you know that the Federal Minimum Wage Act created in 1938 set the first minimum wage at $.25 per hour. Currently 30 states have a rate that mirrors the Federal rate. The highest state rate is the State of Washington at $8.67 per hour. Several southern states have no state minimum wage and Georgia has the lowest rate at $5.15/hour.

Know Who You Are Doing Business With!

A former owner of a Massachusetts based staffing company was sentenced to seven years in prison for running a $30 million under the table payroll scheme. Apparently Michael Powers paid the money under the table to workers over a five year period to workers to avoid paying the payroll taxes on the funds. The IRS will also get $9 million in past due taxes as part of the sentence.

Take A Lesson From The CAT

If you are a stock watcher you may have noticed that heavy industrial equipment maker Caterpillar has been on a roll lately having beat earnings estimates for the third quarter by about 25%.

What you may not know is that Caterpillar has increased its "flexible" workforce 35.1% in that same quarter. The company's flexible workforce totaled 27,385 up 7,117 from the third quarter of 2010. Full time traditional employment was up 18.7%.

TD Bank Reports 16% Of Small Firms Hire

According to the survey 16% of all small businesses plan to create at least one new position during the fourth quarter of 2011. Another 69% reported they plan to keep staffing levels the same.

Another 66% expect to meet or exceed revenue projections during the current quarter. The survey serves to point out the importance of small business in getting things turned around in this economy.

Tip of the Month: Give A Small Business A Chance...If You Can

2011-11-29T20:18:00.000-05:00

With all the talk about "Small Business Saturday" coming up after "Black Friday" and before "Cyber Monday" it should be no surprise that we support using "locals" whenever we can here at Ryan Alternative Staffing.

When you are a small business owner (like us) and you've gone down that path of starting something from scratch, taking all the risks associated with being a start-up along with the daily grind of worrying whether you're going to make it you appreciate others in that same boat. But it is more than that...

Consider that 99% of businesses with payrolls in this country are small businesses and that they employ more than half of all workers and create 80% of all new jobs. This means that there is a good chance that a friend, neighbor or family member depends on those that support small business.

Small business accounts for about 60% of U.S. GDP and has created 93% or 21.9 million of the new jobs created in America since 1989.

Some say that if you want to get this country moving again small business is the engine to do this. You want to lower unemployment....create an environment to help start-ups. You want to increase the tax base....turn the creative juices of entrepreneurship loose.

The Clinton Administration created 20 million new jobs....many came from start-ups. Think about Amazon starting in a garage and now employing 30,000 people.

Ronald Reagan said in a 1988 speech to students at Moscow University of all places that, "The explorers of the modern era are the entrepreneurs, men with vision, with the courage to take risks and faith enough to brave the unknown. These entrepreneurs and their small business enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States."

The most important thing you (personally) or your company can do is obviously to support small business owners with your business. Supporting political candidates that support small business initiatives is another way. If you need a few more reasons consider these:

*Keeping Dollars In The Local Economy

*Local Job Creation

*Local Decision Making

*Local Prosperity and Community Well Being

*Product Diversity*

All that small business owners ask for is a chance to provide you or your place of business their product or service. We don't expect special treatment and we know that we have to deliver the goods so to speak.

So the next time you get ready to call for temporary staffing services look past those "giants" and give us little guys a chance. It just may be the best move you've ever made.

TIP OF THE MONTH: GETTING INSIDE THE AVERGE TEMP'S HEAD

2011-10-26T12:15:00.000-04:00

Last month we took a brief survey of our active temps and applicants for temporary employment to gain some insight on their thought process about issues temps face every day. While the results was not all that shocking to us it may serve some use to those using temporary staffing services to get the most bang for your buck.

For example, the number reason why a temp quits an assignment before it is over is because it became apparent that there was no chance for permanent hire. Next was inadequate job training ahead of the pay rate being too low.

When it came to deciding to accept a temp assignment permanent hire opportunity was again the most important factor followed closely by pay rate and somewhat surprising, job location.

A combined total of 55% of those responding rated the quality of job training received at the start of the assignment as either excellent or very good. Those less satisfied felt they were just handed over to another worker, sometimes another temp to teach them the ropes. Similarly, 38% thought the safety training received was very thorough while 24% said they received no real safety training beyond using their own common sense.

We all know that the "first day" on the job comes with some anxiety. We found 48% reported having a client rep waiting for them and spending a fair amount of time orienting them on expectations and helping them get off to a good start. The negative was the 34% that arrived with nobody to greet them and not being sure where to go. Another 10% reported being turned over to another production worker upon arrival and told to do whatever that person tells you to do....not a great start. Imagine, not one of our survey participants said the first day was the greatest time of their life because they were put in an air conditioned conference room with unlimited coffee and donuts to devour while watching videos about the client for four hours.

Given a choice 41% described their last temp experience as one where they were given the impression that they were nothing more than cheap labor without any future working for the client and that they could be replaced tomorrow....OUCH! On the plus side, 21% felt as though they were an important part of the process by the way they were treated by others and that there was some potential future at the client. About 31% put their impression somewhere in the middle.

We also directed a few questions towards how our staff was perceived. About 45% said that our staff did an excellent or very good job in the overall placement process from start to finish. Nearly 14% seemed to think that we did not present the job accurately or that the placement was a complete waste of time and that they would not be returning. On a similar note 59% graded the Ryan Staffing experience positively with 24% not being happy campers at all mostly due to never being placed on assignment.

One of the biggest problems in the staffing industry is the temp that accepts an assignment and then fails to show up for the first day of work without calling anyone. This is the dreaded NCNS..no call/no show in industry lingo. The number one reason why this happens according to our survey is that the temp after the fact gets home and decides that the job is to far away for the pay rate and that the staffing company will have no problem finding someone else to take their place (35%). A close second is that they receive a better off from another service and they know they will never return to the original service anyway so "what the heck" (31%). It's funny but 14% used payback for not being placed quicker s the reason.

It would seem from both the perspective of the supplier and the user that some easy opportunity exists to make the temp experience more productive by putting ourselves in the temps shoes and asking how we would like to be treated.....is that not true about a lot of things in life?

Tim's Talking About Ohio's Minimum Wage, Election Season and Canada's Job Push

2011-10-26T12:08:00.001-04:00

Ohio Minimum Wage To Go Up

In case you have not heard, the Ohio minimum wage will increase by 30 cents from $7.40 per hour to $7.70 per hour on January 1, 2012. This impacts all Ohio employers with annual gross receipts of $283,000 or more. Those with less can pay the Federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Sometimes I think I should own stock in those companies that make all the bulletin board legal posters.

Staffing Employment Up

Staffing employment went up 3 percent in September from August according to the ASA. The index stands at 90 for the first time this year but is still 1.2 percent lower than the year ago reading.

World Series OF Wine Winner

Renee Seitz, Wellman Products is last month's lucky winner of a pair of tickets to the 2011 World Series Of Wine at the Terrace Club in Progressive Field. The 16th annual event provides a spectacular wine weekend with a variety of 400 wines from over 150 fine wineries. Proceeds from this charity event all go to support local public television programs.

Election Day Fast Approaching

With election day fast approaching on November 8th keep in mind that Ohio election law can impact the rights of your employees.

Specifically, you cannot threaten to discharge or discharge an employee for taking a reasonable amount of time to vote (reasonable of course is not defined).

It against the law to refuse to permit an employee to serve as an election official.

And of course you cannot beat an employee up for not voting the way you want....I simplified it.

The point is employees have election day rights and before you get in trouble for trampling all over them you might want to check out the basics.

One Way To Cut Our Unemployment Rate-Canada's Hiring

According to the federal immigration minister of CANADA of all places, it is looking into ways to tap the U.S. labor force for anticipated shortages in parts of our northern neighbor. While our rate remains stuck over 9% the rate in Alberta is 5.6% mainly from a renewal in oilsands development.

According to the minister, "a lot of skilled tradespeople in the U.S. could walk straight into productive jobs here". Canada imported some 185,000 of these workers from around the world last year.

Lookout Independent Contractor's

Last month the U.S. Department of Labor held a "ceremony" where that department signed an agreement with the IRS to coordinate efforts to nab those posing as independent contractors to avoid paying taxes. Amnesty is being offered to companies that may be violation of the provisions related to this misclassification" issue.

Changes In Background Checking Coming?

As expected Governor Jerry Brown of California signed Assembly Bill 22 in to law which greatly restricts an employer's ability to use credit reports in the hiring process. While it excludes most positions that have confidential access or financial/proprietary information duties it does start a trend that has led to the "Ban the Box" movement across the country.

Staffing on the rise, hot start for Browns and background check reform in this edition of Tim's Talkin

2011-09-28T11:33:00.000-04:00

STAFFING INDUSTRY GROWING JOBS...DOING ITS PART!

Despite the recent dismal August jobs report nationally that produced a net zero for new jobs, staffing employment rose 5.4% in the second quarter fm the first quarter and 8.6% from the second quarter last year. According to the American Staffing Association this is the six straight quarter of temporary and contract growth since industry began its recovery from the recession in 2009. This has amounted to 200,000 new jobs in the past twelve months.

ANOTHER HIRING OBSTACLE TO WORRY ABOUT

Do you have to hire an applicant in drug treatment on methadone? According to the EEOC you cannot automatically rule out hiring a person that tests positive for methadone which is a medication prescribed in drug treatment programs for recovering opiate addicts.

Under the American with Disabilities Act (ADA)" recovering addictions" are considered disabilities. United Insurance Company of America is finding this out the hard way as did Hussey Copper in Leetsdala, PA which paid out $85,000 to settle a similar case before hiring the addict to a mason utility laborer position.

Makes you wonder what the EEOC would do in hiring to fill a position within its ranks with a recovery addict? My guess is that they are exempt!

BIG SEASON AHEAD FOR THE BROWNS!

According to the experts that participated in our survey of how the Browns season will go it will be a very good year on the shores of Lake Erie. Our pundits have the orange and brown finishing the season at 10-5-1 but not doing well within the tough AFC North. Optimism always runs wild on the Browns this time of year.

And congrats goes out to Eric Spradling of Power Direct Energy for his participation in the survey. He will be going to the Browns-Miami game on September 25th as last month's winner of a Browns prize package.

BACKGROUND CHECKING REFORM PICKS UP STEAM

We have reported in this column recently about meetings conducted by the EEOC concerning the use of criminal background checks in the hiring process.

Well, according to recent reports the EEOC is definitely leaning towards revising their 20 year old background check guidelines. Frustrations over inaccurate and incomplete background checks have gotten them to this point.

In short, the view of the EEOC is that criminal background checks should not come in to play in the pre-employment.

10 Mistakes Users of Temporary Staffing Make

2011-09-28T11:13:00.000-04:00

While the premise of giving the customer what they want certainly applies to all of us in the very competitive staffing industry sometime you have to take a step back and make sure you're truly getting the most bang for your buck.

Now I know some of you are saying to yourselves why would I believe every sales pitch thrown at me by the greedy commission based sales rep that my staffing supplier throws at me. After all, are they not in to make the most money they can? Perhaps, but if you trust your supplier to be looking at your best interests first (like we do at Ryan Staffing) you may want to give this list some consideration. So here we go...

1. PICKING THE SUPPLIER WITH THE LOWEST RATE

This usually means the supplier with the lowest pay rate as well and as we all know you get what you pay for these days. The "savings" you gain is more than eaten away by quality issues such as turnover, absenteeism , training and skill level.

2. TREATING TEMPS MORE LIKE A COMMODITY THAN A VALUABLE EMPLOYEE

In some organizations temps are viewed as a necessary evil rather that a valuable asset, one that can be easily replaced. Those that get the most out of the labor being purchased treat temps pretty much like they treat their own employees realizing that a happy worker is a productive worker.

3. NOT TAKING THE TIME TO "KNOW" YOUR SUPPLIER

Much like you would not buy a new car without kicking the tires or taking a test drive companies will select a staffing service without really performing due diligence on the suppliers ability to service their needs. Knowing how your service recruits employees, guarantees its result, manages its finances, protects its reputation etc. are too often ignored .

4. GIVING THE KEYS TO THE OFFICE/SHOPTO THE TEMP

It might be hard to believe but over the years we have seen temps elevated in to positions of authority ahead of permanent staff that involved giving access to confidential information, negotiable financial instruments and supervision. Much like we don't pick up hitchhikers or let strangers in to our homes after dark why would you give so much to someone you know so little?

5. ENDING TEMP ASSIGNMENT FOR ALL THE WRONG REASONS.

This goes back to the commodity issue which temps are not...they are employees with rights that are shared through co-employment laws involving both the client and the supplier. Ending temps after they get hurt on the job or make a complaint about being harassed because you think you have no dog in the fight is the wrong approach and can/has been costly to both the client and the supplier.

6. THINKING THE TEMP ARRIVES AS A FINISHED PRODUCT THAT REQUIRES NO TRAINING

It is not realistic to think that any new employee temp or other can show up to that first day at work and know how everything is done. Hopefully a temp shows up full of potential, with a good attitude and the basic physical skills to perform. It is up to you to maximize all this good that comes through the door by providing the training and motivation to achieve your expectations.

7. LACK OF COMMUNICATION WITH YOUR SUPPLIER

Starting with the initial job order providing your supplier with enough detail so that they can perform up to your expectations is sometimes lacking between the parties. Think about buying a new car and all the specs you give the dealer before you purchase. Your staffing supplier needs the same support from you in the form of a job description to make certain you get a great fit. Communicating injuries, incidents, hours and performance issues are other examples of the need for dialogue.

8. THINKING SIZE MATTERS

Locally owned and operated independent suppliers of staffing services often times have all the capabilities and more to fill your needs than the big boys. We might not have all the pretty bells and whistles of the national suppliers but we do have a vested interest in your needs and the flexibility to perform customized solutions without all the levels of bureaucracy in the way. Think about this. Over the years Ryan Staffing has had several "national" suppliers contact us to partner with them to service clients they could not. The shoe has never been on the other foot...funny huh?

9. BEING REALISTIC

Let's face the facts....you can't buy a Rolex for $50 right? So why would you think a staffing company can provide a temp with 20 years of CNC experience and pay him/her $9.25 per hour with no chance for permanent hire? In some regards it boils down to two things. Some jobs are not meant to be temp jobs. And, you get what you pay for in this business.

10. THINKING TEMP SUPPLIERS ARE LIKE FAST FOOD RESTAURANTS

It is no secret that you have a lot of choices out there when it comes to picking temp suppliers. While we all perform the same basic service some of us like to think we do it better than others. The reason is that while we are all the same we are different...if that makes sense. We all provide the burger and the bun but some of us know you don't want pickles without asking....if that makes sense. What it all boils down to is having a comfort zone and seeing value in maintaining long ter

TIP OF THE MONTH: TRY AS YOU MIGHT, YOU CAN'T IGNORE COST

2011-08-14T20:09:00.000-04:00

In most any service business, the one that charges the most will almost always try to justify their existence by pushing value. In our business this usually includes such things as saying they supply better temps or that they guarantee no turnover or that their temps have benefits. It's most always fluff. The truth is, we all draw from the same labor pool, temps almost never qualify for the benefits and they are not always the most reliable bunch by nature.

This being said, the bottom line is that the staffing industry is built around saving you money. We do this by accepting many of the insurance risks for you, by providing "on-time" contingent labor built around your work schedule, and by reducing your hiring costs. One report has shown that 80% of all temp users do so because of variable or unpredictable workloads.

Consider this, a recent Staffing Industry Analysts survey indicated that a third of contingent labor buyers said that their expenses would increase 25% if they did not use temps. The same survey cites buyers claims of cutting labor costs by 10 percent, 20 percent or more by using contingent labor. Imagine the impact on your business if your hourly labor cost went from $20/hour to $25/hour overnight?

According to Alexi Zelenev in research done for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, it's about flexibility. Flexible temporary labor smoothes out unpredictable demand. "The presence of temporary help services in a region reduces job search costs and informational asymmetries by helping to match the workers who are looking for a temporary work opportunity with the firms that need the temporary help" according to Zelenev. Survey participants said that "unpredictable workload levels" encouraged them to use contingent labor which produced a 44% savings over those that said flexibility was not a factor. Rapid growth and difficulty finding qualified applicants were the two most common factors after flexibility cited by buyers for using contingent labor at 68% and 51% respectively.

A Staffing Industry Analyst survey taken in 2004 found that the attitude of buyers toward using contingent labor was that 31% of the organizations participating discouraged its use and only 10% encouraged its use. The same question asked in 2010 produced almost the exact opposite with 30% encouraging the use of contingent labor and 18% discouraging its use.

The bottom line to be learned out of all this is that the staffing industry was created to lower your cost of labor....and it does. How you maximize its potential will determine how much of a savings your organization will receive.

Tim's Talking About Criminal Records in Background Checks, the Australian Sex Injury and IRS vs. Independent Contractors

2011-08-14T19:42:00.001-04:00

CHANGES IN BACKGROUND CHECKING POLICIES INEVITABLE

Awhile back, we told you about an upcoming EEOC hearing on the use of conviction records in the hiring process. About 250-300 people attended including many interested third party organizations. While statistical data was missing for the most part, the tone of the meeting has been reported to support the position that criminal checks have become a barrier to employment.

It seems certain that existing EEOC guidelines on the subject are sure to be revisited with an emphasis put on responsible use of criminal checking. This means employers giving more attention to the nature of the job, seriousness of the crime and length of time since it occurred in using criminal checks in hiring decisions.

For those that want first hand information, a webcast of the meeting can be found by clicking here. Along similar lines the city of San Francisco is seeking legislation that would prohibit employers from asking criminal history related questions as part of the hiring process. They cite an unemployment rate of 25-30% for ex-cons as the rationale." Ban The Box" laws are on the rise throughout the country.

BE CAREFUL WHO YOU WORK WITH ON STAFFING!

A jury recently convicted the owners of Commonwealth Temporary Services Inc. of Westport Massachusetts of paying more than $25 million in wages under the table to temps between 2000 and 2004.

It would appear that the IRS frowns on this practice as well as the folks at Workers Compensation, Social Security and Medicare. They face up to 20 years each in the slammer and a $250,000 fine on the mail fraud charges alone.

In a related case another Massachusetts staffing firm owner was recently indicted on workers compensation fraud for underreporting the size and scope of his business to avoid paying $110,000 in premiums. This involved not reporting wages as well as misclassifying wages in to lower premium positions.

The possibility that the Feds could go after the users of these temp services for back tax payments and workers compensation premiums is a distinct possibility....so beware!

PROTECTED CONCERTED ACTIVITY AMONG TEMPS UPHELD

The First Circuit has upheld a ruling that the NLRA prohibits a staffing firm from preventing temporary employees from discussing their compensation with others. Enough said here.

THIS WOULD BE AN INTERESTING HEARING TO ATTEND

An Australian woman who was injured while having sex on a business trip is suing for workers compensation benefits. It seems she suffered multiple head injuries and psychiatric issues when a wall-mounted lamp over the bed fell on her during the deed

The victims argument is that she was required to travel as part of the job and stay overnight in the hotel room so she should be entitled to benefits....a "during the course of employment" argument. The woman's lawyer equates the injury to falling in the shower at the motel.

We could have more fun with this but we'll leave it go for now.

IRS CRACKING DOWN OF INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR ABUSE

The federal government is predicting it will reap $7 billion in revenue over the next ten years by cracking down on employee misclassification of "independent contractors".

If you need more information on compliance issues on this subject we suggest that you Google "Darden Factors" and "Economic Realities-Independent Contractors" to read up on the subject.

Tim's Talkin' about Drug Tests with the Unemployed, Social Media Labor Issues and the E-Verify Program

2011-07-20T13:41:00.000-04:00

ONE BIG TEMP ORDER!

As a result of the earthquake related troubles in Japan Toyota has announced that it will hire between 3000 and 4000 temporary workers. Also, Honda will hire about 1000.

Toyota suffered a nearly 75% loss in production following the quake.

DRUG TESTING AND UNEMPLOYMENT
You would think that with unemployment levels at such a high rate, finding qualified workers would be a breeze. The problem is more and more applicants are failing pre-employment drug tests. What make this more amazing is that most applicants in this job market know they will be drug tested and still can't pass.

According to the agency CSS Workforce NY, a study they performed involving southern tier New York State, somewhere between 30 to 50 percent of job applicants in that area could not pass a drug test.

We see this problem in the staffing industry as well. You combine the drug test issue along with the background check required by many companies and the employable pool of labor shrinks dramatically.

RETALIATION AND WORKERS COMPENSATION CLAIMS
We've discussed the ramifications before about terminating an employee or even ending the assignment of a temporary because they filed a worker's compensation claim.

One aspect of the statute became clearer recently when the Ohio Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that the protection of this law does not extend to employees who are terminated BEFORE they file, institute or pursue a claim.

I'm not sure what this ruling accomplishes for employers that don't violate this part of the law but if you do it promotes speedier termination.

BAN THE BOX PICKS UP STEAM
If you don't know what this movement is all about be aware. It is designed to eliminate the "box" on employment applications that inquires about an applicant's criminal history.

Checking the "have you ever been convicted of a felony" box often times eliminates otherwise qualified individuals from employment. This, many say, makes the problem of returning convicted criminals to society even more difficult by denying those that have paid their debt the opportunity to move forward.

A group called All of Us or None has mobilized to pass laws eliminating this practice and has some success in selected cities across the country and in the public sector. Those private sector companies that have government contracts are also in their sights. The belief here is that these type of questions immediately discriminate against individuals convicted of crimes that really have relevance to the job being applied to perform. In some ways they have a point. We are a people of giving second chances....it's the third, fourth, etc. that cause the problem.

E-VERIFY COMING TO A HUMAN RESOURCE DEPARTMENT NEAR YOU
The U.S. House Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement is starting the process that would ultimately require all U.S. companies to use E-Verify before hiring any employee.
For those that don't know, E-Verify is the governments verification required primarily of those doing work for the government.

On the plus side by fully establishing an electronic system the current Form I-9 process would be eliminated. It would also protect employers using the system from prosecution for having an illegal slip through the hiring process.
On the down side, the law may require re-verification of existing employees within certain time limits.

SOCIAL MEDIA--PART TWO
We discussed the impact of social media and employees being protected via the concerted activity defense. A couple of more cases are making their way through NLRB complaint filings. One involved employees complaining about a company's handling of a sales event that offered customers hot dogs and bottled water. The implied violation here is that the company was being cheap and as a result it impacted on the earnings of sales people. This was a Facebook posting. The other was a termination of five employees that were alleged to have harassed a co-worker via Facebook as well as complaining about working conditions.

The bottom line is tread carefully before you take disciplinary action based on social media communications. Nothing is easy anymore!

BACKGROUND CHECKS AND THE EEOC
According to sources the EEOC will hold a meeting on July 26, 2011 to investigate the use of criminal background checks in the hiring process. The concern is that use of these records may create unfair barriers to those trying to re-enter the workplace.

TIP OF THE MONTH GIVE SMALL BUSINESS A CHANCE

2011-07-20T13:14:00.003-04:00

As more and more large companies shy away from using regional staffing services in favor of VMS operators I can't help but wonder why. The VMS (Vendor Management System) is one of centralized planning that sounds good on paper but at what expense? What it really comes down to is service. And do you really want someone hundreds of miles away, who don’t know you or your special requirements brokering your staffing needs?

Think about this. There is a reason that small regional staffing companies earn 81-85 percent of their business from companies with less than 1000 employees. And that number grows to 90% for those servicing industrial accounts. It all comes down to service. In the light industrial sector of the staffing business there is no such thing anymore as the standard order. It has become very specialized and the national services just are not as proficient in filling these orders as the smaller staffing firms.

So, before you place that next order with that large national supplier take our small business test in this month's RESOURCE and pause to think about where this country would be without small business. The numbers are truly staggering.

WHERE WOULD WE BE WITHOUT THEM?

Small business is defined as those businesses that employ 500 or fewer employees.

1.Small firms represent what percent of all employer firms?

a. 65%

b. 50%

c. 99.7%

d. 80%

2. How many self-employed individuals work in the U.S.?

a. 500,000

b. 1,250,000

c. 5,000,000

d. 15,300,000

3. What is the percent of private sector employees working for small firms?

a. 50%

b. 25%

c. 75%

d. 10%

4. True or False. Small firms produce 13 times more patents per employee than large patenting firms?

a. True

b. False

5. How much non-farm GDP is produced by small firms?

a. 52%

b. 44%

c. 68.5%

d. 12%

6. Between 1993 and 2009 small firms accounted for what percent of the 15 million net new jobs created?

a. 45%

b. 89%

c. 31%

d. 65%

7. How many new employer firms opened for business in 2009?

a. 552,600

b. 89,452

c. 215,463

d. 12

8. Most recent census data indicates what percent of small businesses fail in the first two years?

a. 96%

b. 18%

c. 31%

d. 49%

9. True or False. Small firms hire 43% of all high tech workers?

a. False

b. True

10. What percentage of total U.S. private payroll comes from small business?

a. 14.2%

b. 62.8%

c. 44.0%

d. 82%

Answers (1-a) (2-d) (3-a) (4-a) (5-a) (6-d) (7-a) (8-c) (9-b) (10-c)

Happy Mother's Day!

2011-05-06T17:12:00.000-04:00

Have a safe a Happy Mother's Day from Ryan Staffing!

Tip of the Month --- 10 Things Your Temp Supplier Should Tell You

2011-04-17T20:19:00.000-04:00

1. IT'S NOT SOMETHING WE'RE GOOD AT, SO WE PROBABLY CAN'T HELP YOU.
Most staffing companies will take your order (and your money) and promise that they can fill your need without a problem. They tell you what you want to hear, but more times than not they can't meet your expectations. As an example, Ryan Staffing excels at placing unskilled temporary on short notice and in large quantities. Don't ask us to find a Nuclear Engineer because it's outside our pay grade...and we'll tell you that.

2. SORRY, WE CAN'T SEND YOU ONLY YOUNG WHITE MALES TO FILL YOUR UNSKILLED POSITION.
We all like to think that as employers we've moved beyond out and out discrimination in the workforce. Not in all cases....it still happens. And sometimes for a multitude of reasons staffing companies will look beyond doing what is right just to get the business. In the short run they may get away with this. But in the long run by doing this they are not protecting the clients long term interests. Test your service sometime just to see how they handle this issue and if they are willing to put you and your company at risk.

3. THE DESCRIPTION OF YOUR JOB IS SOMETHING WE DON'T DO BECAUSE OF THE SAFETY RISK.
In many respects staffing companies these days must function like insurance companies when deciding what is good business and what is not. Working with companies that have poor safety records or operate in high risk industries can have a devastating impact on all but the giants of the staffing industry. One bad accident can put a temp help company out of business by driving up their workers compensation premiums to the point they can't be price competitive.

4. WE CAN RAISE THE TEMPS PAYRATE $.25/HOUR BUT IT REALLY WON'T PREVENT TURNOVER.
In the real world raising the pay rate of a light industrial temp working for $7.50/hour with no real shot at permanent employment by twenty-five or even fifty cents per hour is not going to reduce turnover by any significant amount. That's just the way it is these days. Having an opportunity for a permanent position with some hope of a future is what will motivate a temp to stay more so that a token pay increase.

5. YOU REALLY NEED TO RECORD THAT TEMPS INJURY ON YOUR OSHA 300 LOG.
A few years back a client insisted that it was not their responsibility to record temp injuries on their log. It got to the point where I was told to back off or risk losing their business. As a couple of our clients will recently attest, you do have to record these injuries based on control over the work environment. The OSHA inspector made this perfectly clear upon their visit. We wound up dropping the "know it all" client....way too many accidents!

6. PRE-EMPLOYMENT DRUG TESTING IS USEFUL......BUT?
Drug testing temps before they start an assignment certainly has its place and serves a valid screening purpose but is it the end all to beat all? Consider for a moment if you were a drug user that needed a job. You know a drug test will be required to be hired. Don't you keep yourself clean for a
week or two before applying for work in order to pass the test? And then go back to your bad habit after starting work?
Random drug testing may be a better solution than pre-employment testing because the employee never knows when the test is coming....kind of like the surprise quiz you use to get in school. Something to consider.
The pre-employment drug test may be more useful in screening out the dummies that know they won't pass but still try.

7. USING A STAFFING SERVICE THAT OFFERS BENEFITS TO ITS TEMPS IS A WASTE OF YOUR MONEY.
The idea of offering temps benefits sounds like a great idea. Things like paid holidays, vacation time, hospitalization etc. can only serve to lower turnover, reduce absenteeism and attract a higher caliber person right? Not really.
Most (not all) staffing companies that specialize in light industrial and clerical staffing that offer benefits place qualifying restrictions on eligibility that make it virtually impossible for the temp to ever collect. In most cases the temp by the nature of the business never reaches the required number of hours worked to qualify for paid time off. In the case of hospitalization the benefit levels and co-pays limit coverage the temp can use and the premiums are mostly paid by the temp anyway which they can't afford. The end result is very few take out the coverage.
This doesn't stop the staffing service from justifying (and charging) a higher bill rate to you in exchange for providing these " phantom benefits" that few receive. A better solution if you want benefits for temps is a" pay as you go" approach where you only pay for those benefits that are actually paid to each individual temp.

8. YOUR EXPECTATIONS ARE PROBABLY NOT REALISTIC.
Ok.....this will obviously be an extreme example but it serves the message. You need 50 temps tomorrow to perform unskilled positions. They must be flexible about shifts and have transportation to your facility located in the middle of nowhere. The job requires individuals that can read tape measures with 95% accuracy, read and write, pass a basic math test and not be color blind. The physical part of the job requires lifting up to 75 pounds, being on your feet all day, and working twelve hour shifts. They must pass a drug test and have a clean criminal background record for the past five years. The starting pay rate is $7.50/hour and if they miss any time in the first 30 days for any reason their assignment will be ended.
Unless your staffing service has SUPERMAN in its name your expectations are a little too high for any service to meet. Those that will tell you differently are just leading you down a path to failure. Most companies that ultimately become disenfranchised with using temps do so from having been told that their unreasonable goals are obtainable...instead of the truth.

9. YOUR STAFFING SUPPLIER IS GIVING YOU A HECK OF A DEAL AND YOU SHOULD STICK WITH IT.
The staffing industry being what it is these days is very competitive. Some might say cutthroat. Every day it seems we must prove ourselves worthy to keep our customers. Competitive bidding is a big part of this process and we all go through it.
Every now and then we lose a client that claims to have found a new supplier that can beat our price, guarantee lower turnover/absenteeism, pay for temp benefits and have a staff person available on call 24/7.
If all that is true, we say you'd be a fool to turn down an offer like that and go for it....no hard feelings. The only thing we'd throw in the pot is that if it doesn't work out give us a holler and we would be happy to work with you in the future.

10. IT WILL TAKE US A DAY OR TWO TO FIND THE RIGHT PERSON TO MATCH YOUR NEEDS.
For some in the industry it is a common practice to buy time on filling a difficult order by sending out a person that is not really qualified to perform the task at hand. The theory is to hope you won't notice the individuals shortcomings at least for a few days while the scramble is on to find a better match.
What your supplier should do is be upfront and provide a few options for you to consider. The first is to wait a day or two and find the right person rather than waste time training the wrong person. Another possibility is to utilize a less skilled person that can perhaps do some of the tasks required until the perfect match is found. Or, you and your service can work out a deal where the staffing supplier provides you some free training time should a perfect fit not be found. At the very least your supplier should be honest about their prospects for filling your order by staying in contact with you a couple of times each day and be understanding should you give the order to a competitor.
.

Tim's Talking about Health Care Reform, ADA and BLS

2011-04-17T20:09:00.001-04:00

THIS JUST IN.....

Did you know that requiring your employee to be 100% before returning to work could be a problem? It would seem that when an employee with an ADA disability is unable to return to full duty but wants to return to work the employer is obligated to try and see if some sort of reasonable accommodation can be made to return the person to work under restrictions.

Apparently employers are not required to remove essential functions of the job or create a new job in order to make this happen. So, you might want to check out your return to work policy (if you even have one) to avoid one of those hard lessons compliments of the Federal government.

TEMP JOBS SHOOT UP IN MARCH
Temp jobs rose by 28,800 in March to about 2.26 million according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The temp penetration rate rose to 1.73% in March from 1.71 percent of the total workforce.

As we've pointed out before increases in temporary employment bodes well for the economy as temp hires are a pre-cursor to companies adding permanent staff.

WHO SAYS WE ALL CAN'T GET ALONG?
Health care reform being what it is, it is at least comforting to know that all the powers that be were able to agree to repeal Section 9006 of the new law that would have required businesses to 1099 every vendor they use.

Talk about killing trees....and can you imagine how many new IRS employees would have needed to be hired to play with all that paper?

QUICK DRAW McDRAW ANSWERS
1.(c) 2.(d) 3.(a) 4.(b) 5.(true) 6.(3) 7.(a) 8.(d) 9.(true) 10.(?)

Tim's Talking About the EEOC, Doctor's Notes and Youthful Discrimination

2011-03-14T10:27:00.000-04:00

FINALLY IN THE FOREFRONT...AND STAYING OUT OF TROUBLE!

At long last there is a new trend in employer discrimination and we at Ryan Staffing have nothing to worry about. Did you know that the EEOC recently held a hearing to discuss potential discrimination facing unemployed job seekers?

Although the unemployed are not a protected group, hiring practices that exclude the unemployed from consideration could have a disparate impact on protected groups...Hispanics or African-Americans who have higher unemployment rates as an example.

In the temp business, nearly everyone we hire is unemployed because very few people quit full time employment for a temp job. Further, to keep payroll tax costs down we try hard to first place those that are actively collecting unemployment benefits.

E-VERIFY SELF CHECK AVAILABLE MARCH 18TH

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has announce the E-Verify Self Check System of Records will be available March 18, 2011. This voluntary service can be used by job seekers who want to check his/her own work authorization before being hired. This allows you to fix errors. Employers are being cautioned not to use this self check service because it could qualify as pre-screening leading to liability under anti-discrimination provisions of E-Verify.

DOCTORS NOTE RULING REVERSED....CAN REQUIRE "NATURE" OF ILLNESS

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently reversed a lower court ruling that blocked a Columbus Ohio directive requiring employees returning from sick leave submit a doctor's note that include the "nature of the illness".

The lower court invoked Rehabilitation Act and ADA principles in outlawing the practice calling it intrusive and lacking in business necessity. The 6th Circuit did not see it that way ruling that the nature of illness is necessarily a question about whether the employee is disabled.

YOUTH WASTED ON THE YOUNG...AND OTHER STUFF

According to a 2010 survey done by Workplace Options 68% of the general public believes that young people with a high school diploma are not prepared for work. And 35% hold the same true for recent college graduates.

The U.S. is the world's largest manufacturing economy producing 21% of the global output. China is third at 12%. Manufacturing supports 18.6 million jobs in the U.S. or about 1 in 6 private sector jobs (9% of the workforce). The average manufacturing worker earned $72258 in pay and benefits in 2009 versus $58411 for non-manufacturing workers.

Workplace filings involving discrimination increased to 99,922 last year up from 93,277 the year before. Nearly one-third of these were retaliation claims that result when employers retaliate against employees that file charges. The EEOC took in $404 million in monetary relief from employers.

CHECK OUT YOUR ANSWERS TO CHARLIE TRIVIA

1-C,2-B,3-A,4-D,5-C,6-C,7-A,8-B,TRUE,10-A

Tip of the Month: Can Your Staffing Company (And You) Survive a Disaster?

2011-03-14T10:19:00.001-04:00

Just think about all the technology out there and how we have come to rely on all of our little electronic devices to manage our daily lives. Think about everything you do on-line and the lack of "hard copy" paper support we rely on to perform basic tasks like bang and bill paying.

While I marvel at watching those manipulate their Smart Phones, I don't really care if one never lands in my lap.

I'm old fashioned....I worry a lot and I like to be able touch things that make my life tick.

One of the things that always concerned me is being prepared for the day that everything breaks at Ryan Staffing. What I'm talking about is disaster recovery...hence our ability to continue taking care of our customers and employees if the place burned down.

And then it dawned on me. Should not our clients be equally concerned about our ability to survive a disaster? I mean if you have come to depend on your staffing supplier to staff your facility on an on-going basis could their disaster become yours?

So the "tip" here is that maybe you should have some idea of your suppliers ability to continue in service should a disaster strike. Of interest might be:

1. Can they fill orders for personnel in their computer data base crashes and they have no backup system in place?

2. Will the temps receive their paychecks on a timely basis in the event of a fire?

3. What procedures do they have in place for off- site storage of computer records and hardware backup systems?

4. Do they have adequately trained staff back up should key members be incapacitated or otherwise unable to perform their jobs that service your account?

5. Are there adequate physical facilities available to your supplier to re-open for business by the next business day?

I'm sure you can come up with many other possible scenarios to be concerned about. Simply by thinking about your own place of business and how it would respond to a catastrophe is food for thought.

At Ryan Staffing (mainly because I worry excessively) we have several layers of backup in place that would allow us to continue in business without interruption short of all Northeast Ohio being wiped out.

For example, our servers are located in Atlanta along with segregated backup systems to keep our computers operating. We also perform off site backups locally. We have the capability to run all of our computer systems from every one of our physical locations as well as my living room. We store physical items off site such as business forms, checks, etc. All of our staff now receive paychecks electronically via our paycard system. Everyone is trained to be able to do more than their regular job making us two to three people deep in all parts of the business.

Hopefully (knock on wood) we will never be put to the test. At the same time shouldn't you be prepared to know that your staffing supplier has the systems in place to keep you going?

Tip of the Month: A Little Reflection Never Hurt Anyone

2011-02-15T22:07:00.000-05:00

This month in a candid interview with himself Tim talks about life in the staffing industry, the 20th anniversary of Ryan Staffing, the business climate locally and lots of other interesting stuff about temps that may help improve your bottom line.

QUESTION: Congrats on hitting the 20 year milestone. That's quite an accomplishment in this day and age with all the failings of small businesses and the deep dark recession we've been in. How have you managed to hang in there?

TIM: Thanks for that atta-boy...it hasn't been easy. To quote a line from Christmas Vacation..."I had a lot of help from Jack Daniels".

Seriously, I think the key has been our strategy to be the best and not the biggest. Every time we have gotten away from doing that the bottom line and customer service has suffered. We've also managed to keep a core group of full-time staff together for a number of years, which has been invaluable.

QUESTION: So, how is business these days?

TIM: It is surprisingly good. Our volume in 2010 was up significantly from 2009, which was our slowest year since 1994. We are hearing good things from our clients about business picking up throughout 2011 and the ASA index of staffing employment continues to rise.

QUESTION: Are the reasons for companies to use contingent labor still the same as they were 20 years ago?

TIM: I would say so. Everyone is constantly trying to lower their costs and that is what we provide our clients. I just read the results of a cost survey of large companies (over 1000 employees) that use contingent labor. They reported median overall savings through the use of a flexible workforce to be about 15 percent in 2010.

QUESTION: Aside from still being here, what's been your biggest accomplishment personally and that of Ryan Staffing in the past 20 years?

TIM: Personally without a doubt it's been not wearing a tie to work for the past 20 years. I kid people, but seriously I invented the concept of "dress down" days back in 1987. As far as Ryan Staffing, it has to be our making the INC. 500 list in 1996. We were the 47th fastest growing company in the U.S that year. It's the same list Microsoft was on years before, so that was pretty neat.

QUESTION: Let's face it, temps are often the butt of the late night comics crowd and are often portrayed in a in a not so positive way....call it stereotyped. Does this bother you?

TIM: Not really. Those that blame the current high rate of unemployment on temps or the loss of manufacturing jobs in this country are kidding themselves.

Temps make up less than two percent of today's labor force. And recent numbers show that the USA still leads the world in manufacturing....about 40 percent more than China in 2009.

Most all temps are hard working individuals working at low pay rates without much in the way of benefits mostly for the hope of getting hired permanently. Those that poke fun at temps couldn't last two days doing what they do. And no, you won't see me guest staring on Undercover Boss just for that reason...I know the truth!

QUESTION: What do you hate most about your job these days?

TIM: That's easy...it's all the legal challenges we have to face daily. Fighting bogus workers compensation claims, challenging unemployment compensation determinations, getting sued for things you haven't done and so on and so on.

It has become never ending and very frustrating. It is without question why small business failures are up and jobs are going overseas. That and all the administrative activities you must comply with, courtesy of the government bureaucracies and politicians.

As an example, little old Ryan Staffing has to complete four separate Census forms every year for the government. We process about 30 court orders for child support deductions a week and about 100 claim forms concerning unemployment compensation issues a week too.

QUESTION: OUCH! Well then, what is a good day?

TIM: The best day of the year is when I get to bring my collie Murphy to work on his birthday and take him to PetSmart. Getting positive feedback from our clients about our staff also makes me smile, but don't tell anybody.

QUESTION: So Tim, What does Ryan Staffing have coming down the pipeline in the next 12 to 18 months or so?

TIM: We hope to continue to make use of certain technologies available in our industry to improve service delivery to our clients and communication with our temporary staff.

For example we plan to expand our use of social media outlets to communicate job openings to our temp database to fill client requests quicker. These same outlets will be used in various recruiting activities. Imagine receiving a job offer via text mail instead of the phone call.

Using specially designed telecommunication software programs to remind people of start dates, interview appointments etc. are also being planned for use later in the year.

One of our biggest accomplishments in 2010 was successfully converting all of our employees from paper paychecks to debit cards (pay cards). This has been well received and has eliminated almost all of our paycheck issues that have been around for years. We definitely plan to push ahead utilizing these technologies.

QUESTION: Anything planned for the 20 year birthday party?

TIM: Nothing official. You know 20 years just includes Ryan Alternative Staffing, Inc.

My beautiful wife Susan started in the industry in 1979 and I started in 1984. It's a long story but we've effectively been self employed in the industry for 32 and 27 years respectively.

Back to your question, we're kicking around a few ideas and hope to do something special to mark the occasion late in the year.

QUESTION: Well, this has been a real interesting learning experience for me. We'll have to continue it later in the year.

TIM: You can count on it. I love talking to myself.

(Next time Tim will talk to himself about how he would save a bundle using temps, staffing industry rip-off's and more stuff about the past twenty years.)

Tim's Talking about TORT, Temps in the Labor Force and Manufacturing Expansion

2011-02-15T21:43:00.001-05:00

THE COST OF LITIGATION

As a company, Ryan Staffing has from time to time been the victim of lawsuits that are frivolous at best and extortion at worst. It has always grated at me when I've agreed to pay out nuisance dollars to settle a lawsuit when I know we've done nothing wrong. The cost of litigating almost always exceeds the cost of settling by tenfold or more...so it becomes a business decision.

Most of us remember the McDonalds hot coffee lawsuit.

It was filed by Stella Lieback and has now honored her by the creation of the "Stella Awards" for the most frivolous lawsuits filed during the year. A recent winner purchased a 32 foot Winnebago motor home. To make a long story short she was driving it home on the freeway and set the cruise at 70 mph. She then left the driver's seat to go back and make a sandwich.

The Winnebago crashed (duh) and she prevailed to the tune of $1,750,000 and a new motor home because the company did not put in the owner's manual not to leave the driver's seat after engaging the cruise control.

I feel much better about my own legal problems after reading this story on the internet...which of course makes it true, right?

ARE TEMPS THE PROBLEM?

If you listen to local talk radio, you will often hear the jokes about temps and how they are the cause of all the unemployment problems in the country. Not true.

Temps share of total employment is still well below the peak levels of the late '90s when it was a shade below two percent. The current share of temp employment is 1.6 percent of the labor force. So, maybe it's time to blame China or NAFTA for the problem and give the poor temp help industry a break.

FEDEX GROUND DRIVERS PROPERLY CLASSIFIED INDEPENDENT

A recent court ruling determined that FedEx Ground drivers were properly classified as independent contractors. This huge lawsuit, which involved multiple states where the drivers challenged their status, found that the "weightiest factor" in making their ruling involved the right to control issue.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY UP

January's manufacturing activity in the U.S. expanded by the fastest rate since May 2004. The index rose to a reading of 60.8 up from 58.5 in December and the highest since the 61.4 2004 number.

This is backed up by increases in the Staffing Index which measures growth in the employment of temporary help and traditionally indicates positive economic growth. That index in January stood at 89 up 13% from the same period a year ago.

Tim's Talking About Credit Checks, EEOC Settlement and Opiates Trend

2011-01-17T11:08:00.001-05:00

EEOC AND CREDIT CHECKS

You may recall that recently the EEOC advised against the use of credit checks as part of the hiring process because they tend to impact more adversely against minorities or females. Well that advice has now turned in to a lawsuit against Kaplan Higher Education Corporation for using the checks to discriminate against black job applicants through the way it uses credit histories in its hiring process.

According to the EEOC, "credit histories were not required to show responsibility, they were compiled to show someone was not paying the bills, which is not always the same thing". Huh?

Kaplan disagrees based on the fact that the checks are job related and needed to ensure that staff handling financial matters including financial aid are properly screened.

SOLICITATION OF COMPETITOR EMPLOYEE AGREEMENTS SCRUTINIZED
It would seem that certain high tech and professional associations have created agreements amongst themselves that promise not to steal each other's employees. The U.S. Department has concluded that such agreements represent restraint of trade and that such agreements should be abandoned.

WISCONSIN STAFFING SERVICES, INC. PAYS $20,000 EEOC SETTLEMENT
This staffing supplier apparently engaged in the racial harassment of a Native American through derogatory comments about "Red Bear's" ethnic appearance and through a co-workers mocking her by calling her "Pink Feather." The company forced her out of her job when she refused a directive to cut her hair, change her last name and stop "rubbing in" her heritage.

In addition to the $20,000 fine, additional punishment included posting new policies against these practices, supervisory training and additional training for the company rep put in charge of investigation these charges.

It is interesting to note that Wisconsin Staffing recently came out with a press release that emphatically denied these charges despite paying the fine which they estimated would be up to $50,000 less than the legal bill they faced.

MARIJUANA, COCAINE, CRACK?
You might think one of these three drugs of choice would represent an increase in use among your employees. You would be wrong.

It seems employee use of prescription opiates jumped 18percent from 2008 to 2009 and has increased 40 percent from 2005, according to Quest Diagnostics, Inc.

Quest notes that both prescribed use and misuse of opiates appear to be on the rise and that's something every safety conscience employer should be aware of.

UH OH!
Two former staffing firm owners are now residing in federal prison for scheming to hold 39 Philippine workers in forced service to work in hotels and country clubs in Florida. The pair made false promises to get the victims to incur debts to pay for up front recruitment fees and then threatened to have them arrested and deported knowing the workers had big debt problems back at home.

The sentence ranged between 51 months to 78 months behind bars. The report did not mention if the client companies that used the forced labor were aware of the situation or participated.

NON-EMPLOYEE WORKFORCES TO REMAIN STABLE OR INCREASE IN 2011
According to Yoh Services, L.L.C. which provides staffing services, 80 percent of the firms with at least $750 million in revenue expect their non-employee workforces to stay the same of increase this year. Increase usage of contingency workers has historically been a good sign for the economy.

To that end, according to the American Staffing Association index, staffing employment is 16 percent higher in December 2010 than the same period the year before. The index for December is at 101 up one point from November which means staffing employment is up 1 percent over the past month.

Tip of the Month: Be Vigilant of OSHA Record-keeping

2011-01-17T10:36:00.001-05:00

Our "tip" this month is a gentle reminder to all those that utilize staffing services to remember your responsibility to include all OSHA recordable injuries experienced by employees supplied by temp help companies at your facility on your company's OSHA 300 log.

To some there is a misconception that these injuries should be recorded on the staffing company's log. According to OSHA Section 1904.31 the party that provides the employee day to day supervision is responsible for the record-keeping of the injury/accident.

The reason this is more important than ever to get it right is because OSHA on September 30, 2009, initiated a National Emphasis Program on Injury and Illness Record-keeping (NEP). The scope of NEP was increased this past September and will not expire until February 2012.

OSHA has determined that under reporting may exist in some industries that have traditionally high accident rates. Their goal is to make sure employers are accurately completing the OSHA 300 log.

OSHA has targeted employers mainly in the manufacturing and health services industries, but all need to be aware.

Inspections can be very detailed and time consuming. They can include inspection of medical records, workers compensation files, insurance records, payroll/attendance reports, safety reports, disciplinary records and just about anything else related to documenting employee activities. The OSHA inspector will use this information to recreate an OSHA 300 log and then will compare it to the one posted by the company.

The inspector can even conduct interviews with the person that supervises the activities just out lined and is REQUIRED to conduct a limited walk-around inspection of your facility.

Hefty fines can be levied. Lowe's Home Centers in Dayton/Cincinnati were hit with $182,000 in proposed penalties earlier this year for record-keeping violations. Enough said.

You might be wondering why I used the term "gentle reminder" in reference to this subject matter. Several years ago I had a discussion about this subject with one of our larger clients in the area. That person insisted the record-keeping was our responsibility and not theirs. Honestly, I tried to be very gentle in my persuasion and I even gave the individual the OSHA representative to contact to confirm my story. The rep had just provided our company with training on this subject. To make a long story short this client dropped us like a rock because they did not like my "help" on this matter. As it turned out, this was a good thing because they had lots to record concerning our employees if you know what I mean. I sometimes wonder if that former client ever got busted....but I don't spend a lot of time on it.

Remember you can easily visit the Department of Labor/OSHA website to obtain a copy of this requirement. Good luck.

Ryan Staffing Enters 20th Anniversary Year

2011-01-17T10:23:00.001-05:00

Officially on July 15th Ryan Alternative Staffing, Inc. will turn 20 years old. We joke that in this industry that works out to about 150 but I'm sure everyone feels that way about their job/employer at one time or another.

What it means to me is that not only have we survived but we have grown and prospered for over two decades. Sure, we're a lot grayer than when we started, but apparently we have done enough right over the years in our approach to how we treat our clients to still be in business. I know we haven't made everyone happy. What I do know is that it has never been from not wanting to make everyone happy or from a lack of effort in trying. And that is what separates the winners from the losers when you start up a small business in an extremely competitive industry like ours.

So, during 2011 we plan to look for ways to express our gratitude to both our clients and hard working temps that have had a positive impact on our longevity. Without both, there is no doubt we would not be around today. And for that we are thankful.

Sincerely,

Tim Ryan-President
Susan Ryan-Vice President Sales

TIP OF THE MONTH 'Maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought doesn't come from a store'

2010-12-20T10:58:00.000-05:00

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!

Tim's Talking About Facebook, UPS and the EEOC...

2010-12-20T10:45:00.000-05:00

FACEBOOK POSTING AND INTERNET POLICIES

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.

Tim's Talking About the Improved Labor Market, Interviews and Interns...

2010-11-17T22:20:00.000-05:00

GETTING BETTER!

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.

Tip of the Month: Get What you Pay For!

2010-11-17T22:09:00.000-05:00

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.

So be sure you're getting what you pay for!

November Browns Trivia Contest

2010-11-17T22:01:00.002-05:00

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.(d) 2.(a) 3.(c) 4.(a) 5.(c) 6.(b) 7.(c) 8.(a) 9.(b) 10.(b)

--
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

Winners of the October Buckeye Trivia Contest

2010-10-19T09:01:00.001-04:00

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!

Tip of the Month: Pick a Supplier Who Doesn't Cut Corners and Keeps You Out of Trouble

2010-10-19T08:51:00.001-04:00

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?

Tim's Talking About Pay Cards, FBI Databases and the Staffing Index

2010-10-17T15:33:00.000-04:00

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.

Tip of the Month: Why We Should Support Drug Free Workplace Pt. 2

2010-09-12T12:58:00.001-04:00

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!

Tim's Talking About Worker's Comp, Health Care Reform, Microsoft and Strippers...

2010-09-12T12:45:00.000-04:00

Stripper Fraud

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.

Tip of the Month: Drug Testing and the Temp

2010-08-19T19:00:00.000-04:00

Consider the following:

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.

Tim's Talking About Co-Employment Issues, Drug Free Workplace and Department of Labor

2010-08-15T16:03:00.000-04:00

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

_______________

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.

Tip of the Month: How Social Media Helps Hiring in Heavy Supply Market

2010-07-20T23:13:00.000-04:00

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.

Participate in Ryan Staffing's Hate/Love Contest and Win Cavs, Browns and Indians Tickets!

2010-07-20T23:00:00.000-04:00

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.

Tim's Talking about Health Care Reform; Maternity Leave and W-2s...

2010-07-20T22:50:00.000-04:00

It’s Coming!

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.

Study: Java May Not Be The Morning Jumpstarter

2010-06-22T09:09:00.001-04:00

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.

Continue Reading

Tip of the Month: Embrace Technology Offered By Your Staffing Supplier

2010-06-21T13:01:00.000-04:00

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.

Tim's Talking about Pay Cards, Growth in the Temp Industry, and Webinars...

2010-06-21T12:31:00.001-04:00

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.

Remember to Remember This Memorial Day

2010-05-27T10:21:00.002-04:00

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.

The Panama Deception won the 1992 Academy Award for best documentary film.

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 Plans Switch To Pay Cards

2010-05-24T12:01:00.001-04:00

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.

For a program overview click on FAQ’s – Skylight One Card.com. Click here to view the brochure.

Case Study Part II: Do-Overs During the Recession

2010-05-24T11:45:00.000-04:00

Back in January we started telling the tale of our situation here at T/A Industries. I’m sure you remember me.

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!

Tim's Talking About Mothers Milk, the Temp Industry and I-9 Checks...

2010-05-24T11:07:00.002-04:00

Mothers Milk
Did you know that the recently passed Health Care Reform legislation requires employers to provide nursing mothers with an unpaid break to “express milk”?

The break must be provided “each time such employee has need to express the milk” for one year after the child’s birth. It also requires employers to provide a private break area (not restroom) shielded from view and free from intrusions. Just something to think about in the coming months.

Temp Help. . . A Growth Industry?
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics 117,000 temporary jobs were created in the second half of 2009. This is despite the economy as a whole shedding traditional jobs by the thousands.

Further predictions call for employment services to be among the fastest- growing segments of the economy adding 637,000 jobs over the next 10 years.

Top 10 jobs for the temps 2008-15
Occupation Jobs added (thousands)

Laborers and freight stock & material movers       40.0
Customer service reps                                                      34.2
Construction laborers                                                        33.7
Team assemblers                                                              31.7
Other production workers, assemblers                           29.3
Helpers – production workers                                          28.3
Employment, recruitment, placement specialists           24.5
Registered nurses                                                             20.0
Office clerks – general                                                      16.2

Total                                                                                    599.7

Independent Contractors. . .Be Careful
Now that business activity is picking up. . .sort of, the temptation to save a buck by utilizing independent contractors instead of permanent hires (or temps) is ever present. It’s also time to be careful.

During a 16 month investigation in 2007-08 the U.S. Dept of Labor caught 12,300 cases of mis-classification in New York alone. They catch you by comparing employer generated 1099-Misc statements with individual returns.

For more information on how the Federal Government determines independent contractor status visit IRS.gov.

Staffing Index Continues RiseAccording to the American Staffing Association U.S. staffing employment is 22% higher than the first week of 2010 and 17% higher than at the same time a year ago.

The index has some history for identifying recession ending trends and predicting increases in stock market indexes.

Take a look at these major staffing company stock prices: (04.20.10)

                                         Current               Year Ago           %Change
Manpower (Man)      56.93                   42.01                   +35.6
Kelly Services (Kelya)      17.27                   10.69 +61.6
Adecco (Ahexy)                 29.27                   20.50                    +42.8
Robert Half (RHI)               30.09                   23.46                    +28.3
Randstad (Ranjy)               25.45                   15.00                    +69.7

Did you know?

2.6 million temps work each day.
2008 sales of temp and contract staffing was $70.7 billion.
6000 staffing firms operate 20,000 offices in the U.S.

I-9 Checks?I recently saw an HR person ask if it was proper (legal?) for her organization to spot check their staffing supplier’s I-9 forms on temps working at their place. The simple answer is “sure”. And, I might add it’s not a bad idea when you factor in the potential co-employment liability your firm risks if the staffing company is not accurately completing the I-9 paperwork.

The battle on immigration reform is heating up with the recent law passed in Arizona.

Did you know that Herbert Hoover during the “real” depression ordered the deportation of all illegal aliens to create jobs for Americans? Or that Truman did the same after WWII to two million illegals? And finally the Eisenhower successfully deported millions of illegal Mexican nationals in “Operation Wetback” in 1954?

Anyone think this could happen today?

WSJ.com: Auto Parts Plant Turns Casino

2010-05-11T09:48:00.000-04:00

Strapped States Find New Virtues in 'Vice'
May 11, 2010

Voters and politicians in Ohio used to slap down attempts to expand gambling in their state. But last week, many cheered as demolition crews razed an old auto-parts plant in Columbus to make way for a new casino.

Facing high unemployment and the aftermath of a $3.2 billion state-budget shortfall, Ohioans voted to allow casinos in November. Gov. Ted Strickland dropped his longtime opposition to video lottery machines, proposing to add them to racetracks to generate new tax revenue.

"If I had not been confronted with these difficult circumstances, I would have obviously opposed expanding gambling in Ohio," says Mr. Strickland.

Nationwide, the public-funding crisis has led many state and local leaders to similarly reverse course. Hampered by withering funds for law enforcement, health care and other public services, a growing number of officials are condoning activities and businesses they'd be apt to restrict in better economic times.

For fiscal 2011, 38 states project combined budget shortfalls of $89 billion, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, a bipartisan policy research group. Thirty-one states expect budget gaps totaling $73.5 billion in 2012. As a result, says Todd Haggerty, an analyst at the group, lawmakers are "trying anything and everything in order to bring their budgets into balance."

Oakland, Calif., began taxing sales of medical marijuana last year. Now at least a half- dozen states are weighing measures to allow some legal pot sales. Others have loosened decades-long restrictions on Sunday alcohol sales. And about a dozen, like Ohio, have discussed or passed plans to ease restrictions on gambling.

California legislators are debating whether to allow and tax Internet poker, even though such gambling is prohibited by federal law. "It is generally easier to pass something like this in a recession," says Lloyd Levine, a political consultant working for the pro-poker effort. As a state assemblyman in 2008, before the economic crisis, Mr. Levine introduced a similar initiative that failed.

Americans have a time-honored tradition of banking on vice in tough economic times, says David Laband, an Auburn University economics professor who studies the alcohol industry. "Blue laws" restricting Sunday alcohol sales, he says, are a common casualty of recessions.

"Every time there's an economic contraction, sure enough, you start seeing local repeal efforts," says Mr. Laband.

Continue Reading
Copyright News Corp - Wall Street Journal

Happy Mother's Day: A Tribute to Moms

2010-05-07T09:58:00.002-04:00

To all our maternal readers out there, The Corner Stool decided to pay tribute this year by compiling a list of famous moms throughout television and film history.

Below you'll find a series of YouTube clips commemorating moms, in no particular order. These characters, though fictional, represent all the comforting feelings us mommas-boys from dear, ole' ma. (Notice I used ole' instead of old). But these characters aren't fit to carry the giant purses and maintain the AOL accounts of today's real moms.

So Happy Mother's Day to all, from Ryan Staffing. Here's our tribute:

Carol Brady

Between 1969's first airing of The Brady Bunch and 2002's made for TV movie The Brady Bunch in the White House, the mother of the lovable bunch of swingin', singin' children was played by just two actresses: Florence Henderson and Shelley Long.

In the television show, Carol was always managing the troops, providing words of encouragement to Jan; helping to milk Marsha's ego; and making sure Cindy didn't get into any trouble.

In the two major motion pictures that came out during my lifetime, she was a comedic compliment to the outrageous dialogue from her husband.

I personally appreciate the satire of 1970s home life.

Kitty Foreman

Speaking of '70s satire, the mother of Eric and Laurie Foreman oozed of down-home comedy. She babied her whimsical son, while dispersing tough love to her rambunctious daughter. All the while she openly talked about sexuality with her conservative husband, Red.

Compared to Carol, Kitty was a real feminist, working as a nurse during most of That 70's Show eight year run, 1998 - 2006.

For this blog post, I used this Web page for TV Moms as a launching off point. Not a lot of moms on that list were working mothers in their respective shows, so hats off to Kitty.

J.C. Wiatt

While television's most famous moms may not have been career-women, film took the working-mom angle to the big screen, especially during the span of 1985 - 1995.

Diane Keaton portrayed a businesswoman turned parent in the 1987 film Baby Boom.

While her lack of maternal instincts provide comic relief throughout the movie, Keaton eventually decides that she can juggle the diaper-changing board with the executive board room.

Elaine Miller

Played by Frances McDormand, Elaine brings the single-mom demographic to our list.

This character from the 2000 film Almost Famous is interesting because she goes through a real conflict in the movie. It is revealed that she lied to her son, William, about his age. So he is actually two years younger than his classmates.

To make up for this, she allows him to spend a month working as a rock-n-roll journalist. She doesn't quite let him go off on his own though, providing maternal wisdom along the way.

A college professor, Elaine has the famous line of telling her class, "Rock stars have kidnapped my son!"

Her hands-on parenting approach does push her daughter to leave as a flight attendant in the early stages of the movie. But the two do reunite for a heart-felt family moment.

Career Builder: 'Unemployed Workers Slowly Being Rehired'

2010-04-30T09:00:00.000-04:00

About 51 percent of workers laid off in the past year have been rehired for full or part time positions, according to a post on the Hiring Site, the HR blog published by CareerBuilder.com.

The blog, which is working with the USA Today, conducted a survey of 900 workers who were laid off in the past year as part of their study.

Employers will be affected by this increase, as well, the blogger wrote:

* While many job seekers are willing to negotiate a lower salary, this may be temporary, as indicated by the nearly 4 in 10 workers who’ve indicated that they plan to look for new jobs as the economy improves, making it crucial that you start thinking about a talent compensation strategy to ensure you’re offering the salary that is not only fair to your organization, but also competitive enough to attract new employees and compel your current ones to stay.

* And while offering competitive compensation can go far in attracting and retaining talent, you also need to think about the intangible benefits employees crave, such as career growth opportunities and work/life balance. Learn more about ways to retain your best talent.

* Perhaps you only want to consider local candidates, but if you’re having a tough time getting the right talent in your area, think about how 42 percent of workers report that they would consider relocating for a job opportunity, and consider expanding your geographic talent search.

* Finally, as the need for talent increases, don’t discount former employees as talent sources. (Even if your open positions differ from those the former employees occupied, consider the 64 percent of workers who made use of their transferrable skills by taking jobs in a different field). After all, former employees are already familiar with the culture, have established relationships and may have an easier time making the transition to a new role in a familiar environment than someone completely new.

Read the entire article by clicking here.

National Hiring Program Provides Incentive for Hiring Unemployed Workers

2010-04-19T10:35:00.001-04:00

The job market just got a little bigger for employers. While the recession trend for hiring has ignored unemployed workers, a new bill President Barack Obama signed into law last month encourages employers to give those workers a look.

The bill, titled the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act, contains more than $17 billion in tax credits aimed at stimulating the hiring.

Under the HIRE Act, an employer would not have to match the 6.2 percent Social Security portion of a qualified employee's wages in 2010. To qualify:

    * an employee must be hired between Feb. 3, 2010 and Jan. 1, 2011
    * the employee cannot be hired to replace an exisiting employee
    * the employee cannot be related to the employer
    * the employee must not have been employed, working more than 40 hours, in the two months leading up to the hiring.

Employers can also receive a tax credit on their 2011 return for each new employee retained for 52 weeks.

The idea is to ensure job creation, rather than job filling. So think about that in the coming months.

Here are some links to Web pages with more information on the program.
SHRM: Job Law Provides Tax Breaks
Chicago Tribune: Tax Credits Encourage Hiring
The Bill's Text

Health Care HR Survey Results

2010-04-19T10:02:00.000-04:00

As part of our involvement with the Society for Human Resource Management, we conducted the following survey for the Portage County chapter's March newsletter.

Click image to enlarge:

Other Response from "What is your company dong to avoid rising health care costs?
Other: Wellness Options    harryw@cornwelltools.com
Nicotine testing, Wellness plan    aleggiero@rmh2.org
See below    crowe@mantaline.com
Added Wellness Program    diannas@cornwelltools.com

Comments:
We have an active Wellness program. Health assessments are done annually. Lunch & Learn sessions. Walking trail inside our building. Outside walks in good weather.    mmellinger@deltasystemsinc.com
We switched from being Self-insured to fully insured. We also increased deductibles    crowe@mantaline.com

Other responses to "If your company is offering programs to encourage better health, what are you offering?"
Other: Weigh-ins and lectures (1st year)

Comments:
Decreased "Wellness" rates for those who do not use nicotine.    aleggiero@rmh2.org

Responses to "If your company is changing the type of insurance that it provides, what is the change?"
Policy with higher deductibles for Emergency/Urgent    tturcotte@nbdint.com

Portage County HR Association Set for April Meeting

2010-04-19T09:24:00.000-04:00

Dear Friends:
Please join us for our next Portage County Human Resource Association (PCHRA) meeting on Wednesday, April 21st at 11:30 A.M. at the Maplewood Career Center (Conference Room A) 7075 St. Rt. 88, Ravenna.
PCHRA is Portage County’s primary forum for networking among area human resource professionals.
Our meeting agenda is as follows:

11:30A.M.        Networking/Registration

Noon            Chapter Business and Announcements
Lunch: $12.00 Members, $14.00 Non-Members and Guests

Speaker:    Judging a Book by Its Cover
    Vicki Prussak
    Wellness Coach

Sponsor:

Please be sure to RSVP to Kelly Jurisch at kjurisch@partaonline.org (no phone calls please) no later than Monday morning April 19th. Upon receipt of your reservation, you will receive a confirmation. Reservations made but not kept must be billed.

As always, you are encouraged to attend all PCHRA meetings and to bring a guest who may benefit from the professional interaction and program.

PCHRA 2010 annual membership dues are $36.00. Membership applications and membership renewal invoices are available at the meetings. PCHRA memberships are held per person not per organization.

Kelly Jurisch
President, PCHRA

Tip of the Month: Check Out Our Past Tips

2010-04-13T09:39:00.001-04:00

We at Ryan Staffing are starting to see an increase in volume. The increase is coming from the growth of existing clients as well as new clients or those we haven’t heard from in quite some time.

As a result, we would encourage you to take advantage of the links to past “TIPS” provided on our sidebar. You may not have paid attention to them the first go round because you weren’t using temps and the info contained in them may be finally timely.

Or, you can believe that I was just too lazy to come up with a new “TIP” this month. Either works for me!

Here are some links to our past tips: