Pre Employment Screening Articles

Sportsmen, lawmakers suggest dates for state database upgrade

BY CHARLES THOMPSON
Of The Patriot-News

If gun sales have to be suspended because the state police must work on its criminal history database, a panel of sportsmen and lawmakers say the shutdown should take place in late December or early January, rather than next week.

“We all agree that there has to be a better time to do this … than the opening of a hunting season,” Rep. Ed Staback, D-Luzerne, said.

The state police computer shutdown is currently scheduled to begin Sunday and conclude Sept. 6, suspending gun sales just as dove and goose hunting seasons begin. State police say they need to do upgrades to the state’s mandatory background check system for gun buyers. Gun dealers say the timing would cost them a lot of business.

Gov. Ed Rendell last week named the panel to suggest other dates for the shutdown.

State police Commissioner Jeffrey Miller expects to make a final recommendation to Rendell today on the timing of the shutdown. Miller insists a temporary shutdown is necessary during upgrades to its criminal history database.

Miller expects to check with other agencies that use the same criminal history database, and consult contractors working on the upgrade to determine whether state government will face financial penalties for postponing the work.

“There absolutely will be a cost associated with that, because you’re talking about a change in the contract with the vendor,” Miller said.

The panel met Monday, and several participants stressed they had made clear to Miller that their first preference remains searching for ways to complete the upgrade without a total shutdown of the background check system.

“We still have that request on the table,” said Melody Zullinger, executive director of the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen Clubs.

But Miller afterward indicated his staff has told him there is no way police can add new arrests and other information — about 1,500 per day, on average — into the Pennsylvania Instant Check System while the upgrade is under way. That could open the door to gun sales that shouldn’t be made, he said.

“Its too big of a risk for us to shoulder, because it only takes one person to slip through there and we could have a tragic situation,” Miller said. “Unfortunately, there is no way for us to do this without having some interruption to the actual system that PICS relies upon.”

All Pennsylvania gun dealers are required to run instant background checks of gun buyers before completing a sale.

The planned suspension of gun sales has generated criticism from dealers, sportsmen groups and gun owner’s rights activists. One group of 26 gun dealers has filed suit in Commonwealth Court seeking an order to block next week’s project.

Zullinger, Staback and others said their preference was delaying any suspension of gun sales to the period around New Year’s Day 2008, or the first full week of January.

They said that would avoid conflicts with the fall hunting and Christmas shopping seasons, as well as the busy period right after the holidays when people use gift cards.

CHARLES THOMPSON: 705-5724 or cthompson@patriot-news.com

Powered by Info Cubic - a pre employment screening company

By CHERYL R. CLARKE cclarke@sungazette.com

BLOSSBURG — Tioga County Housing Authority held its August meeting at Island Park to treat its staff to an annual picnic catered by Jamie Fry of the Wren’s Nest, Mansfield.

Executive Director Jim McRath announced the authority’s computer system will be upgraded beginning next month. Background checks that include credit checks are required for all public housing.

“We are changing the background check system from the ‘patch’ system the state police use to a Massachusetts firm — Rentgrow,” he said.

The new firm will do nationwide searches more quickly, saving the authority time and money, he said.

“Even though it will do a nationwide search, it is still cheaper than the state police and it is instantaneous,” McRath said.

State police background checks can take two to three weeks, he added.

In another matter, board member Leo Parchesky asked if the agency had looked into getting a company credit card so employees don’t have to use their personal credit cards to buy supplies for their offices.

“People are buying stuff for the agency on their own credit cards, and we shouldn’t do that,” he said.

Authority solicitor Priscilla Walrath said the process was more difficult because the agency “is not a corporation; it’s a public entity.”

In other business, the authority,

• Approved a six-month financial report for Fellows Town Apartments, Wellsboro, which came in under budget by about $2,000. The 11-unit seniors-only apartment building is about three years old and is the only one of the authority’s housing units in the county that is exclusively for seniors 62 and older.

• Approved two resolutions authorizing required 2007 reports to be sent to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The reports deal with the agency’s Section 8 management assessment program (rental assistance) and its public housing assessment system management.

• Approved a natural gas sales agreement with Gasmark for fiscal year 2007 for $8.37 per dekatherm. This is a 53-cent reduction per dekatherm from last year.

• Accepted a low bid of $5,400 for four remaining Charleston Township sewer hookups.

• Approved a liability insurance agreement with Volpe Insurance Agency of Scranton, for one year for $2,950. The policy covers seven people, all six board members plus the authority’s solicitor.

• Accepted four low bids for owner-occupied rehab work to be done by William Stewart, Nelson; Michael Bonk, Wellsboro; Bill Nickerson, Liberty; and Edwin Kibbe, Harrison Valley.

Powered by Info Cubic - a pre employment screening company

By mauzenne

More and more, companies are using psychological and behavioral tests as pre-employment screening devices. They supplement their interviewing processes in order to ensure less false-positives.This is wise, in our judgment, based on what we see of interviewing. Too many companies don’t screen rigorously enough, and have started enlisting more cerebral and/or technical techniques to be certain of new hires.

Even if you haven’t experienced one yet, it’s becoming more and more likely.

What does this mean for you? What’s the best way to approach and be successful at pre-employment tests? This is Manager Tools, and we’ll walk you through it.

Powered by Info Cubic - a pre employment screening company

By Yvonne LaRose

Michael Vick. Alberto Gonzales. Two drastically different people. Two high-profile individuals. Same gender but different ethnicities. Several things in common.

Both held press conferences this morning and made public statements about their professional actions that have come under scrutiny. Neither lingered to answer questions from the press. One resigned from office; the other anticipates that his career is essentially over.

But there, the similarities end. One announced he has found God. (Move over Paris Hilton!) One averred that he takes complete responsibility for his lack of discretion and needs to be more responsible, especially as a role model for young people. The other took no responsibility for the violations of which he is accused. One spoke of self-introspection and reflection indicating a need to discern where his errors in judgment occurred and why. Contrition was the tone in his voice. The other had no contemplation of such an endeavor. Bitterness was the tone in his voice. One acknowledged his position as a role model for youth who will be our future foundations of business and industry.

There was a third party in this morning’s press conference drama. That press conference bore many similarities to the first two. It was conducted by a high-profile personality who is male and is of yet another ethnicity. (It seems diversity was an underlying standard.) President Bush (the younger) had words to say about the resignation of his Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales. Bush’s voice held agitated bitterness. He expressed resentment that his chosen one had endured such difficulties and questions of how he conducted himself in his role. He seemed to imply that both he and Gonzales are above scrutiny and answer only to theirselves — not to their employers. Bush also declined to wait for or answer questions from The Press.

Neither Bush nor Gonzales see theirselves as potential role models. Neither feels the term “accountability” applies to them.

Sports pundits project that Michael Vick will be out of sports for a time but will probably do a short stint in jail. They feel his sports career is not over. Indeed, the Falcons have chosen not to fire him but have put him on indefinite leave. The thing of it is, Vick can afford a protracted leave given his position and the millions of dollars salary he commanded. Provided he stays in condition by exercising and practicing in some manner during whatever length of leave he must serve, Vick will be able to return to the gridiron a little older, a lot wiser (if he is sincere with his spontaneous expressions of this morning), and ready to do a better job of managing his life.

With regard to Vick, it sounded as though he had several long conversations this weekend with several people who have a lot of influence over his life. Their counsel was obvious in the choice of words and phrases that emanated from the young man. A father’s voice could be heard. A coach’s utterances could be deciphered. A religious leader’s counsel could be discerned. And the judgment of a lawyer was also laced through his statement. It is obvious that he listened. Unlike Michael Tyson, Vick understood the essence of the advice from all. The apology was not empty. But the cynic inside of us wonders whether this statement (made minutes or hours before appearing in court today) were designed to gain a more lenient sentence in December. There is a sufficient span of time for that speculation to be sorted out.

Of more importance are the statements and lack of contrition, lack of self awareness, of Gonzales and Bush. No doubt Gonzales will be able to find another law firm where he can practice. But he will not be snatched up as quickly as he would like and he will have too much time to reflect on his actions. He will have time to rue the re-actions to his acts not only during his two and a half year tenure but the years of his association with President Bush (the younger).

Bush faces a similar time of introspection and reflection. Given the personality we’re dealing with, the consummate refusal to hold himself accountable to anyone, it seems his lessons will not be learned in even this lifetime. Again, given his position and pedigree, Bush will have no concerns about his retirement years.

But this leads to the next consideration. Although there are some who will probably be willing to take Gonzales as “of counsel,” how long will it take for him to become among the employed once again. And with regard to Bush, will he spend the remainder of his life as a retiree or will he have any type of career left?

Let me turn these last thoughts over to you. Would you hire any of these three men? If so, which one(s)? and If so, for what type of role in your organization?

Powered by Info Cubic - a pre employment screening company

posted by Nick Fishman

Okay. So maybe this isn’t new news, but the story never gets old. Two Stamford, CT based HR Consulting firms released a study that shows that 65% of the companies in Fairfield county and the metro New York area conduct background checks. The findings were published in the Greenwich Time. See link to article below.

http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/local/scn-sa-b2b1aug23,0,2640911.story?coll=green-news-local-headlines

While the study doesn’t point this out, I think this news is noteworthy because those that conduct background checks in New York are subject to exhorbitant court access fees. For those of you unfamilar, New York established the Office of Court Administration (OCA) to act as a clearinghouse for criminal records in the the state of New York. The price tag for the privledge of this information: $52.00! (More on the OCA in a post later this week.)

Anyway, it is encouraging to see that these outrageous fees are not making it cost-prohibitive for employers to perform proper due diligence on their job applicants.

Powered by Info Cubic - a pre employment screening company

Hill Brothers Construction of Oxford, Mississippi recently agreed to pay $225,000 for sexual harassment by men, against men. The EEOC sued the company in an unusual same-sex suit, on behalf of a number of male employees. The company’s formal name is the Hill Brothers Construction Company and Engineering Company, Inc.

The EEOC charged that Hill Brothers discriminated against three male employees by subjecting them to a sexually hostile work environment. After a one-week trial, the jury awarded $75,000 each to Scott Beasley, Joel Graves and Douglas Smith as punitive damages in the case. The case was heard before Judge Michael P. Mills of the U.S. District Court.

Hill Brothers is a full-service construction company that has bid on public and private work. The firm has also submitted bids for civil work as well as defense contracts for the Army Corps of Engineers. They are licenses in Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Tennessee.

The three men worked as truck drivers for Hill Brothers. All were hired between September 1999 and August 2001. The trio complained of sexual harassment from Gregg Witt beginning in 2001. The EEOC charged that the sexual harassment was severe, pervasive and included sexually offensive comments, as well as unwanted and inappropriate touching.

The employees complained, but since both they and the offender were male, the company did nothing.

EEOC Birmingham District Director Delner Franklin-Thomas said, “Employers need to heighten their awareness of discrimination and take the appropriate action to address and correct it. There is simply no excuse for an employer’s failure to remedy pervasive sexual harassment and physical assault of employees who have complained repeatedly to management. We strongly encourage Mississippi employers to take notice that discrimination is a costly practice and early prevention makes a better, more productive workplace.”

“We are pleased with the jury verdict and believe the male victims in this case were vindicated,” said Senior EEOC Trial Attorney Valerie Hicks-Powe, who led the federal agency’s litigation efforts. “Employers must take all complaints of harassment seriously, regardless of the gender of the parties involved.”

This case is not over yet. The EEOC is still requesting that the court consider additional damages and injunctive relief to prevent Hill Brothers from similar actions.

EEOC Birmingham District C. Emanuel Smith noted: “Some employers may view male-on-male harassment as ‘horseplay’ or ‘boys being boys’ but this kind of intentional discrimination can cause needless suffering and permanent scars for employees,” said EEOC Birmingham District Chief Emanuel Smith. He added, “ – not to mention creating liability issues for employers who violate federal law.”

Most of us think of sexual discrimination as actions against women, but this lawsuit shows that in some workplaces, there is sexual harassment of men, by men. And, that number is growing every year.

In 1997, just 11.6% of sexual harassment complaints to the EEOC were from men. In 2006, that number had jumped to 15.4%, a 33% increase.  Overall, the EEOC had 12,025 sexual harassment complaints in 2006. The EEOC recovered $48.8 million in out-of-court settlements in those cases. It is the EEOC’s policy to investigate each complaint thoroughly. If the EEOC finds reasonable cause for the complaint, they will file a suit. The EEOC makes every effort to settle the suit out of court, to save the taxpayers the cost of litigation. Most companies agree to out-of-court settlements, although this one did not.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination in hiring, training, wages, working conditions, discipline, promotion or termination based on race, color, sex, religion or country of national origin. The vase majority of sexual harassment cases that the agency takes on are for harassment against women.

Posted by Amelia Figueroa, National Business Compliance Department

Pre-employment screening services make sure you are hiring the right people for the job. In today’s world there are many companies that provide services for many sectors. In the same manner, for the process of pre-employment, there are companies that provide services like screening candidature. These service providers guide the company or business sector in selecting and hiring the right candidate for their organization.
A company hiring an employee looks at a candidate’s merits, giving less importance to their background that can become the cause of major problems. These service providers help provide the right information by screening the employee’s past criminal history, fraudulent social security numbers, untruthful resumes, falsified employment applications, etc. The reports given are accurate and

School Drug Testing - Pros & Cons of Student Drug Testing at Schools
…drugs, but to prevent them from ever using drugs,illegal or not. Once teenagers are using drugs it is much harder for them tobreak their addiction. Maybe it’s the issue of peer pressure, which is thegreatest cause of kids trying drugs. …

legal compliant. This service can be provided online and include employment drug screening and back ground checking.

This service helps companies reduce hiring risks, increases efficiency and ensures employment of the right candidate. The staff at these servicing companies is professional, specialized in screening applicants within numerous industries, including all types of medical, technical, administrative, production, financial and management positions. The services include verification of employment, education, references and professional licenses, driving records, drug screening, credit history, civil history, criminal background checks and more.
There are many organizations that are turning to outside professionals for employment screening and drug testing services. The services provided are cost effective, highly professional and confidential and guarantee that your candidate has reported their qualifications

Teen Addiction to Prescription Drugs
…members could have the prescription, these drugs can be easier to get than street drugs. Prescription drugs are very commonly sold on the street like other illegal drugs as well. Some teens even think a prescription drug, regardless of whom …

accurately. The reports sent by these services are accurate and help you make the right hiring decisions. [http://www.e-PreEmploymentScreening.com]Pre Employment Screening provides detailed information on Pre Employment Screening, Pre Employment Screening Services, Pre Employment Background Screening, Pre Employment Drug Screening and more. Pre Employment Screening is affiliated with [http://www.e-PrivateInvestigators.com]Private Investigator License.

Arkansas says its program to screen prospective auto-parts workers by having them assemble Lego toys is serious, not child’s play.

The program is a response to some companies’ complaints about getting unqualified employees through state agencies.

Instructors at Arkansas Northeastern College’s campus in Burdette have developed a program to prepare prospects for working in a manufacturing setting. Teams build Lego crash cars on an assembly line.

The vehicles are not complex. Each is made with 37 parts, then is launched mechanically into a wall.

If the hood flies off, the car was assembled correctly.

The key skill being taught is teamwork. And the lesson that the state may be learning is that screening workers is key to recruiting employers in the automotive industry.

In the past, Arkansas has supplied many employees for autoparts companies who “might work a few days or a week and quit,” Gov. Mike Beebe said last week.

“There was no screening being done and no education being done and no training being done on the potential applicants about what type of work it was, what was expected and what the regimen was going to be,” Beebe said.

Beebe didn’t identify the companies that have had problems. But two divisions of Toyota Mo- tor Corp. have opened auto-parts plants in eastern Arkansas since 2005 — Denso Corp. in Osceola and Hino Motors Ltd. in Marion.

The logic behind the Burdette program is to simulate, to some degree, what an assembly-line job is like, said Tom Floria, director of The Solutions Group at the Burdette campus, about 10 miles south of Blytheville.

Other training centers in Arkansas may begin using the assembly-line simulation, Floria said.

The Burdette project is part of a larger employee screening process that Arkansas implemented in April in response to manufacturers’ grievances.

Randy Zook, who retired as chief executive officer of Atlantic Envelope Co. in Atlanta in 2004, became deputy director of the state Department of Economic Development, in early April. By mid-April, he had instituted the new screening.

“If there is anything different that we’ve done it is getting pretty up close and personal [with companies ] about understanding their pre-employment processes,” Zook said. “We discovered some opportunities to help them assess people.”

The agency is using a tool called WorkKeys, made by ACT Inc., the company that produces the college entrance exam, Zook said. WorkKeys, which has been used by other states for years, assesses potential workers’ skills in math, reading for comprehension and locating information, Zook said.

“From this, you can determine someone’s readiness to do a job,” Zook said. Zook estimated the cost of implementing the WorkKeys program at $ 5, 000. The Arkansas Department of Workforce Services already had thousands of the ACT programs on its shelves, going unused, Zook said. “It’s just been a matter of planning and execution, more than anything else,” Zook said. Supplying companies with qualified employees is something that states across the country are facing, said Ashvin Vibhakar, director of the Institute for Economic Advancement at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

PROFILE CREATED “It often comes down to the education side, in terms of the ability to do simple mathematics or even read a tape measurement,” Vibhakar said. “What this system does is it creates a profile of a job. You are determining the level of skills necessary to do the job. Then you create a profile of the individual so you can match the profile against the skills needed for the job.”

Before prospects qualify for the manufacturing screening, they submit an application with the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services and then have to pass an assessment to determine their skills. Once they pass that test, the economic development agency’s centers put them through 20 hours of practical training.

At Arkansas Northeastern College, that training includes work on the Lego assembly line, Floria said. No other training center in Arkansas uses the assembly-line simulation, which was created by Floria’s staff of six instructors, including three engineers. Legos were chosen because they are lightweight and easy to handle, Floria said.

Prospects “get a very strong dose of what the manufacturing environment is,” Floria said. “They’ll have to show up at 7 o’clock [if they are hired ] and work a full day. If you talk to most companies anyplace in the United States, they want someone who can read and write and will come to work on time, and they’ll teach them the rest.”

Before they begin, the prospects are aware they’ll be working with Legos, but they don’t see the job as belittling, Floria said.

“They actually seem to have fun,” he said. Requests to talk to the prospects for this article were denied.

Members of each team work together for 30 minutes and build as many cars as they can in that time frame, Floria said. Then they are asked what they would do if this were their company and they wanted to improve the efficiency of the process, he said.

“They catch on pretty fast,” Floria said. “Typically on the next run, we have seen a 50 percent increase in productivity. One reason is they are getting familiar with the parts, but the other reason is they have shifted the workload a little bit so one person isn’t standing while another is finishing their job. They have quality checks to pay attention to. We will put a defective part in the line, on purpose, and they are to look for those.”

When the prospects finish, they have been introduced to the work environment, and they understand the pressure of production, Floria said.

“We have heard some comments come back [from employers ] that these people are more prepared than any of the people they have interviewed,” Floria said.

The testing helps the prospects as much as the manufacturers, said Robin Myers, president of Northeastern Arkansas College, which is based in Blytheville. “Once they complete the assessment and are certified into the pre-employment training, then they have demonstrated what’s considered nationally an industry norm for a skill-set level,” Myers said. “If they don’t have those skill sets, we refer them to our existing programs to work on improving those skills. But more than 80 percent of those who initiated the training have stayed with the training and completed it.” Floria said about 50 prospects have completed the screening since the school began the program in July.

IDENTITIES NOT REVEALED Officials with the Arkansas Economic Development Commission declined to identify manufacturers that have complained about the quality of workers they were getting, but officials with the agency and economic developers say companies are satisfied now with results from the new screening process.

“[Companies ] are very pleased, and I think they will be more and more pleased as time goes by,” Zook said. “I think we’ll get a greatly improved perception of the Arkansas work force within 60 to 90 days. I think the situation is improving weekly.”

Any company trying to hire many workers faces a challenge, Zook said.

“What’s happening here is we’re helping businesses do a better job of facing a tough assignment,” Zook said.

Economic development directors in Osceola and Marion declined to comment about whether Denso or Hino officials have complained about work-force problems at their Arkansas plants.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to comment on what kind of issues Hino has had with employment,” said Kay Brockwell, economic development director in Marion. “That would be much more up to Hino.”

Glenn Ellis, national manager for sales administration, marketing and dealer development at Hino’s U. S. headquarters in Michigan, did not return a call for comment, but, in the past, Hino executives in Arkansas and Michigan have insisted that the company has had no problems from the work force in the Marion area.

A call to Denso in Osceola for comment also was not returned.

If manufacturers in Arkansas were so dissatisfied with prospective workers they were getting in the past, did that have anything to do with Toyota’s decision in February to put an automobile plant in Tupelo, Miss., instead of near Marion ?

“Was that a factor ?” Beebe said to The Associated Press. “Logic and common sense tell you it could have been. It may have been. But do I have anyone from Toyota who told me that specifically ? No.”

Toyota’s official explanation for not choosing Marion was the poor air quality in the Crittenden County city and a federal lawsuit that the automaker said affected that situation.

“I’m sure Toyota’s decision was based on a number of factors, and they made the decision that they thought was the best decision for their company,” Brockwell said.

In June, Beebe instituted a “work-force Cabinet” of leaders of state agencies, said Matt De-Cample, Beebe’s spokesman.

The group is comprised of leaders of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services, the Arkansas Workforce Investment Board, the Arkansas Department of Workforce Education, the departments of Education and Higher Education, the Association of Two-Year Colleges, the Arkansas Science and Technology Authority and a staff member from the governor’s office, DeCample said.

“There are not any specific initiatives,” DeCample said of the informal committee. “The main purpose is for communication [on work-force issues ].” Information for this article was contributed by Daniel Nasaw of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Pinched by a tight labor market and demands for more effective talent recruitment, companies are increasingly turning to temporary agencies as a source of permanent hires.     Richard Wahlquist, president and CEO of the American Staffing Association, says the number of temporary workers retained as full-time employees in a process known as temp-to-hire is expected to grow by 15 percent this year, equaling the healthy rate of expansion seen last year.

     “Temp-to-hire, according to our members, has been one of the fastest-growing segments of the business over the last two years,” Wahlquist says. “It is hot.”

     Some staffing firms report that temp workers are now regularly being screened like potential permanent hires by human resources departments, with full job and education backgrounds requested. As the demand for temp-to-hire increases, staffing agencies are raising fees for temp-to-hire arrangements.

     Express Personnel Services, an Oklahoma City-based staffing firm, has seen its temporary staffing business shift into an operation that serves primarily the temp-to-hire sector. Twenty years ago, temp-to-hire accounted for about 20 percent of the company’s temporary staffing business. Today, nearly three-fourths of its temporary recruiting is temp-to-hire, much of it in skilled fields like accounting. That experience mirrors the changes reported by the ASA; Wahlquist says 65 percent to 75 percent of temporary staffing today is temp-to-hire.

     “Ten years ago, all we did was drug screening,” says Bill Stoller, co-founder of Express Personnel. “Today we do background checks, credit checks. We are doing so much more because of the eventual decision that the company wants somebody to be full time.”

     Requests for more background information come from HR departments, which are turning to temp firms as a source of permanent hires in part because shrinking labor pools make it harder to find qualified candidates, particularly for critical skills like information technology. HR departments are also feeling pressure to fine-tune hiring to avoid mistakes that may require dismissal and new recruiting. By using temp-to-hire, companies can test-drive potential permanent hires without the costs associated with an immediate full-time hire.

     Elissa Tucker, a senior consultant with Hewitt Associates, a human resources consulting firm, says temp-to-hire has become a fixture in hiring solutions. “Companies that are starting to feel the talent shortage are coming to us and saying, ‘We are having a crisis; help us come up with a solution,’ ” Tucker says. “Temp-to-hire is one option we might recommend.”

     But she cautions that projections of an increasingly tight labor market could result in friction between temp agencies and their clients. “If the labor market gets really tight, there could be an issue between companies and staffing agencies, because they need to compete for the same talent,” Tucker says. “Staffing agencies want to hold on to employees for their own needs.”

     Tucker says HR departments that use the temp-to-hire option need to carefully monitor contracts with staffing agencies to ensure that the terms of the transition are acceptable and that the fee for hiring a temp as a full-time worker is reasonable.

     On the other side, Wahlquist says temp agencies need to prepare for more temp-to-hire requests with more focused recruitment efforts, particularly for sought-after jobs in tight labor markets. A temp agency that can’t supply talent on demand will quickly lose its usefulness to clients.

     “There is a tension that exists between fulfilling increasing client demands for temp-to-hire assignments and maintaining a sufficient bench of talent to meet client staffing requests,” Wahlquist says. “If my business model is to make contract talent available, and I end up becoming a source for full-time employees, where do I get the talent to put on my bench?”

     Finding qualified workers is among the top challenges faced by staffing agencies today. But according to a recent ASA survey, the No. 1 reason workers sign up with temp agencies is for help in finding permanent employment.

     Wahlquist estimates that 30 percent to 40 percent of temp workers get asked to stay on full time after their assignments end. In most cases, the offer is made with the staffing firm’s participation and under the temp-to-hire clause in the staffing contract. But some companies may try to go around those contracts and hire temps without notifying the staffing firm or paying the temp-to-hire fees.

     “We have heard reports of stealth hiring over years,” Wahlquist says. “What we advise staffing companies to do, as part of employee orientation, is to let employees know that they have an absolute obligation to inform the staffing firm of any requests made by a client to take a person on as a full-time employee. We also advise that staffing companies try to have the same sorts of conversations with clients—that if they want to hire staffing workers as full-time employees, here are the conditions.”

     Tucker says that as temp-to-hire usage increases, companies need to do their homework before engaging staffing agencies. Ideally, she says, companies should look at temp-to-hire as part of a long-term workforce planning strategy. Such a strategy would include estimating talent needs up to five years into the future and determining where shortages might appear and which types of jobs might be best suited for temp-to-hire use, she says. Companies also need to carefully negotiate contracts with staffing agencies for temp-to-hire arrangements.

     “Any company looking to use this as a strategy needs to go in upfront and try to have the best possible cost in the contract,” Tucker says. “In order for this to be a successful strategy, you want it to be cost-effective.”

     That’s fine with staffing agencies, which are just as keen on protecting their own interests in temp-to-hire arrangements and want the details spelled out in advance.

     “We need to get our return for recruiting people,” Stoller says. “We don’t want to come to the end of the process and feel we are not getting what we feel is a justified return out of recruiting these people. We are a little more upfront in discussing what fees are going to be—even more upfront than in the past.”

     Stoller says fees for temp-to-hire are generally on the rise as labor supplies tighten and the competition for talent increases. He also notes that one reason for higher overall fees is that the skills in demand are also rising. That increases the level of screening and pay rates, as well as the temp-to-hire fees.

     Wahlquist says that temp-to-hire clients now routinely request résumés from temp workers. Once those temps start working, their performance and progress is more closely monitored today by clients who want to see how well the temp workers fit and adapt during the term of the contract. If the temp passes the test, the company might then exercise the temp-to-hire clause and make an offer.

     “The big thing that companies take into consideration in temp-to-hire is that they can eliminate the cost associated with bad hires or bad matches,” Wahlquist says. “If I guess wrong based on a good interview, now I have lost all the cost of recruiting, screening and employing a full-time employee, and I will face the separation costs of letting that bad employee go.”

     By test-driving the worker in a temp-to-hire arrangement, the company gets a firsthand look at how a prospective employee performs in an arrangement where the temp agency is the employer of record.

     But while the general trend in staffing is for increased temp-to-hire business, not all staffing firms are embracing the shift. Philadelphia-based Yoh Services, which specializes in higher-level temporary workers like engineers, computer programmers and health sciences researchers, has kept temp-to-hire at less than 5 percent of its overall business.

     Jim Lanzalotto, vice president of strategy and marketing at Yoh, says his company has carved out a niche that focuses on providing highly skilled consultants for short-term projects. If a company wants to hire one of those consultants full time, Yoh would certainly oblige, he says. But the workers Yoh recruits tend to prefer roving, short-term assignments to permanent placements and might not adapt well to full-time employment.

     “It is almost like a round peg in a square hole,” Lanzalotto says. “Some people want to work full time, but if someone is a consultant, let them continue to be a consultant. The biggest message here is that you want to be sure you have the right people doing the right things.”

Workforce Management Online, August 2007

MyFox Saint Louis - Saint Louis,MO,USA

By: Teresa Woodard

(KTVI-myFOXstl.com) —
A new Missouri law makes it faster and easier than ever to get a gun. Backers say it just cuts through red tape. Gun control advocates say it’s not a huge change, but believe lawmakers should have spent taxpayer dollars making more important revisions.

“Let’s say there’s a person who has an issue where they’re in fear for their life and they need to get a gun fairly quickly,” says Michael Meyer, of the St. Louis Association of Firearms Training Instructors. “If they had to wait ten days, that may be too late.”

Now when you walk in a gun store, you can walk out with a gun, in minutes not days.

“It makes it fair as far as protection,” Meyer says. “You won’t be a victim.”

Meyer says the law change does not mean Missouri is going soft on gun control, but simply cutting through red tape, and a duplication of background checks.

Gun buyers used to be required to fill out paperwork at their sheriffs offices. The sheriffs would do a background check, and issue a permit a week or so later. Meyer says gun dealers would then do the same FBI background check.

Now the dealer is the only stop. Once they complete the FBI background check, which consists a phone call from the dealer and usually takes minutes, the buyer can legally purchase a gun.

“We’re not eliminating any background check, we’re just speeding them up,” Meyer says.

People who oppose the concealed carry law say this isn’t huge, but it does make getting a gun faster, which they say isn’t necessarily better.

What would be better, says Stacey Newman, of the Executive Director of the Missouri Women’s Coalition, is lawmakers working harder to keep guns away from criminals and kids.

“We need to make it tougher for those that are minors to obtain weapons,” Newman says. “This
technically doesn’t aid that, but I think we can obviously do much better.”

Meyer says this law won’t mean more criminals committing gun crimes.

“Criminals will always have access to guns illegally,” he maintains.

Newman says, “I don’t think this is a major change, but I also believe it’s a waste of taxpayer money. It makes me angry that we’re not focusing on the true values of protecting people and helping people.”

Powered by Info Cubic - a pre employment screening company