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NJSA's Staffing News Online is a monthly e-newsletter that is available to the staffing industry.  The content for Staffing News Online comes directly from our industry partners.  If you are an NJSA industry partner and would like to submit content for Staffing News Online, please email office@njsa.com with your article.

  • Thursday, May 30, 2019 4:11 PM | Denise Downing (Administrator)

    Submitted by Avionte

    Curious to explore what strategies, recruitment technology, tools and tactics support staffing growth in 2019 & beyond? You’re in the right place!

    After connecting with 188 staffing industry professionals and gathering a comprehensive list of insights, Avionté is proud to sponsor and present this year’s State of the Staffing Industry Growth Benchmarking Report.

    This report aims to answer one question, “What technology choices drive growth and what doesn’t in the staffing industry?”

    Having spent hours analyzing results and talking with experts, the report found three overarching trends for building out a growth-focused staffing and recruitment technology stack. They are:

    1. Faster is better: Firms that respond faster, grow faster.
    2. Intelligent automation is the future: As competition for talent tightens, the human touch matters more than ever. Fast-growth firms are automating repetitive tasks to give their recruiters time to build meaningful relationships.
    3. Trust matters as transparency increases: Talent is more informed than ever before, which means word of mouth marketing and reputation management are becoming increasingly important.

    Keeping these three themes in mind, let’s look at three specific findings that relate to staffing industry growth projections in 2019 from technology. We’ll dive into the data and offer our opinion. If you prefer to read the actual report vs our synopsis of it, please feel free to download the entire 2019 State of Staffing Industry Growth Report.

    Report finding:

    “Fewer firms expect to see fast growth this year, just 21% compared to the 2018 high of 36%”

    Our takeaway: This isn’t too surprising considering the record low unemployment rate and the fact that there are currently more jobs than job seekers. Staffing firms should focus on speed more than anything in order to achieve growth. That’s speed at finding qualified employees and speed at placing them in a suitable job. According to the report, one of the key opportunities to achieve speed is to “capitalizing on the latest technology and leveraging AI to quicken the recruiting lifecycle.” While that sounds a lot easier said than done, leveraging the right recruitment technology can have a significant impact on finding the right candidates, especially passive candidates.

    In short: Harnessing the right sourcing software can boost fast growth

    Report finding:

    “Office/Clerical and Industrial staffing saw the lowest cost per hire, while Management –level and IT staffing saw the highest”

    Our takeaway – Again, these statistics aren’t too surprising, especially since IT staffing and recruiting firms generally have a higher cost per hire than clerical/light industrial firms. While there’s a plethora of technology that can help lower cost per hire, video interviewing is one of the “low hanging fruits” of placing talent faster and more cost-effectively. To start, live video interviews are 6X faster than phone interviews and more than half of candidates actually prefer live video interviews while only 34% prefer in-person.

    Bonus: Check out this one-minute video interviewing overview clip that shows a practical example of how texting and video interviewing drives efficiency in the recruiting process.

    In short: Lower your cost per hire by trying out video interviewing.

    Report finding:

    “Referral programs and LinkedIn ranked as the top recruiting tactics with the highest ROI”

    Our takeaway: Referral plans remain king, word of mouth and incentive programs are tried and true ways to bring ROI but they are also some of the easiest to measure. Many of the marketing related tactics like Facebook, AdWords and email are fantastic methods to bring in revenue but are often difficult to accurately track. If you’re unsure how to measure ROI on your various marketing tactics, give our blog, How to Measure ROI on Recruitment Marketing, a quick read.

    In short: Recruiting ROI tactics are imperative but it’s also important that you can accurately track them.

    The insights collected in this blog only represent a small fraction of the total amount of goodies from the whole report. Feel free (literally, it’s free!) to download the entire 2019 State of Staffing Industry Growth Report. We’d love to hear your opinions/takeaways.

    About Avionté

    Avionté is a leader in enterprise staffing and recruiting software solutions, offering innovative end-to-end staffing solutions to over 900 customers and 25,000 users throughout the U.S. and Canada. Avionté delivers a robust platform for clerical, light industrial, IT and professional staffing firms to maximize profits and boost productivity.

    Click here to access the article on Avionte's website.



  • Thursday, May 30, 2019 4:05 PM | Denise Downing (Administrator)

    Submitted by Two River Benefits Consultants

    The State of New Jersey with its new Governor Murphy has been busy the last 16 months giving employees and their families more leave by implementing myriad new programs for employees to handle Family Issues. The programs are great for Families who need to take care of newborns and sick Family members, personal sickness off the job, and Close Friends. Most of the cost is said to be borne by employees not employers, but that cost transfer is easier said than done. Below is an outline of the Programs.

    The Paid Sick Leave Programs

    It started with the Paid Sick Leave program effective October 29, 2018, the New Jersey Earned Sick Leave Law allows employees to accrue 1 hour of earned sick leave for every 30 hours worked, up to 40 hours each year. The law permits employers to create policies that provide additional leave time. For Staffing Companies that place a temporary worker with client firms, earned sick leave accumulates on the basis of the total time worked on assignment for the staffing company, and not separately for each client firm to which the employee is assigned. The cost to pay for 2 workers during sick leave can accumulate quickly at a large staffing firm. The Permitted uses include family illness, Domestic Violence, Legal Services, Public Health emergency, and to attend a school related event.

    The Family Leave or FLI passed on February 19, 2019 is effective July 1, 2020. Family Leave use by an employee now covers a foster child, parent-in-law, sibling, grandparent, grandchildren, domestic partner, or any other individual related by blood to the employee, and any other individual that the employee shows to have a close association with the employee which is equivalent of a family relationship. Leave can be taken in the case of documented domestic violence or sexually violent offenses associated with these additional categories of family.

    The one week waiting period requirement is eliminated before payment of Family Leave Benefits. The benefit changes from a 6 week period to a 12 week period effective July 1, 2020. The cost is currently 0.08% of Taxable wage up to $34,400 which rises to $131,200 effective July 1, 2020. Many higher paid employees will be affected by this change, as will the employers cost to replace them while on leave. Expect the cost to rise to around .20% Taxable wage with the doubling of the benefit period to 12 weeks.

    New Jersey TDI Benefits (or TDB) program will be changing effective July 1, 2020. The benefit increase will be from 66 2/3 of Salary to $650 per week to 85% of Salary to $850 per week. The Covered Salary will rise from $34,400 to $131,200. The change will create a minimum rise in these costs by 50% on July 1, 2020. As part of that increase, the minimum wage will be raising the cost 24% as the current minimum wage will rise from $8.85 to $11/hour in January 2020. Staffing companies will need to increase their costs to their customers by at least 24% due to the minimum wage increase. Add on a minimum of 20% for the increase from 66 2/3 to 85%- more likely around a 30% increase in cost. The increase in volume for employees paid more than $34,400 up to $131,200 will also be substantial for higher paid employees or Temps. This will need to be calculated by each firm on an individual basis. We will find out more in September or October when the state announces the new employee rate charge for TDI about who is exactly paying for the cost of the rise in benefits. It is currently .17% Taxable wage.

    Unpaid Leave Programs

    The unpaid leaves are other costs that will be borne by employers in New Jersey.

    Federal Medical Family Leave- FMLA which can be given up to 12 weeks in a 12 month period. Jobs are protected, and intermittent leave is allowed. Eligibility 1250 hours, earned hours do not need to be consecutive.

    New Jersey Family Leave Act- NJ FLA which need to be offered as 12 weeks in a 24 month period. Eligibility 1,000 hours earned.

    New Jersey Safe Act - The Safe Act needs to be offered for 20 Days in a 12 month period. Eligibility 1,000 hours earned. For Domestic/Sexual Violence.

    The eligibility for these many leaves has to be handled by each employer on an individual basis. The difficult part is how the unpaid leave works with the paid leave and how long a job can be held under each program and combined paid and unpaid leave programs. All paperwork needs to be handled properly by each employer to protect them from Legal Liability. All employers will need help managing the paperwork required to offer these benefits to employees.

    The expectation is that more employees will take advantage of these plans being offered for the following reasons:

    1. The higher weekly benefit levels for BOTH Family Leave and Temporary Disability Programs.
    2. The increase to 12 weeks from 6 in the number of weeks available under the Family Leave Program and TDI program increases lost time costs.
    3. There will be an increased number of situations which will need which to be dealt with about who will qualify for the Family Leave Program(FLI).

    These additional benefits will cause employees to have little of no incentive to come back to work. A return to work program should be offered to help combat these extra cost drivers.

    A combination of increased awareness, more attractive weekly benefit levels, and increased number of weeks available will encourage more employees to utilize these benefits in the years ahead. Staffing Firms will need to calculate, manage and understand all of these programs to keep themselves in Compliance. The use of an HR Management program can be a large help to customers along with an organized program set up to effectively manage these issues.

    Two River Benefits has developed such a program to make your life easier.

    In addition...

    State IRA Program- On March 28,2019 Governor Murphy passed a law requiring all employers with 25 or more employees to offer an IRA to all employees over age 18 who have worked for 90 days. All employers are required automatically enroll their employees into the program for 3% of their pay. The employees can opt out. Money will be collected by the state in their program. We expect this will go into force around January 2021. There are penalties enforced by the state for employers who do not offer this coverage after 2 years.

    Employers who offer a 401k or similar type plans will not be required to offer the State IRA program. There were no stipulations in the law as to how the 401k plans will need to be adjusted to comply with the law, and who will have jurisdiction over the IRA benefit- The State of New Jersey, The State of New Jersey Banking and Insurance regulators, or FINRA (the old SEC)- Stay tuned- that should be interesting. There will be more to come as to how the legislation will be implemented in the next year or so.

    Two River Benefits is developing a program to deal with this also.

    Click here to download the article as a Word Document.

  • Thursday, May 30, 2019 4:00 PM | Denise Downing (Administrator)

    Submitted by Peckar & Abramson, P.C.

    The Social Security Administration has resumed the issuance of “No-Match” letters to employers, creating a murky set of obligations to avoid fines or penalties in the event of a Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”) audit, sometimes called a Form I-9 or worksite enforcement audit. Employers who receive “No-Match” letters should act swiftly and deliberately, not only to avoid the consequences of a finding that they knowingly employ unauthorized workers, but also to make sure that they do not run afoul of anti-discrimination laws.

    It’s no secret that the Trump Administration has made employment eligibility verification a major priority. In Fiscal Year 2018 (“FY2018”), Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI") conducted 6,848 worksite investigations (up from 1,691 in FY2017) and initiated 5,981 Form I-9 audits (compared to 1,360 in FY2017). While the “No-Match” letters are delivered by the Social Security Administration (“SSA”), they may be part of a larger administration crackdown on unauthorized employment. To wit, investigators will often request “No-Match” letters when conducting a worksite investigation, and the action (or inaction) of an employer may be relevant in assessing fines and penalties.

    Employer Correction Request Notices, commonly referred to as “Social Security No-Match Letters,” are not new. The process began in the early 1990s to notify employers that the SSA was unable to post earnings for some of their workers due to a mismatch. “No-Match” letters were typically sent to employers who had submitted a name and social security number on a wage and tax statement that did not match the SSA’s records. In 2006, the Bush administration decided that these discrepancies could assist in combating unauthorized employment. It issued regulations setting forth specific procedures to follow after the receipt of a “No-Match” letter. Employers who followed the guidelines would be given safe harbor, and those who didn’t risked a finding that they had “constructive knowledge” of illegal employment. However, before the regulations went into effect, they were challenged and enjoined in federal court. In 2012, the Obama administration rescinded the regulations and suspended all communication to employers regarding data mismatches. Many consider the Trump administration’s resumption of this program to correspond with its increased worksite investigations and enforcement.

    With a lack of clear guidance surrounding the “No-Match” letters,” employers are in a difficult position. If they ignore them, they risk potentially adverse consequences when being audited or investigated. If they take adverse employment actions against an employee who hasn’t been given sufficient time to resolve the discrepancy, they risk a discrimination charge from the employee. Some employees, even when given a reasonable period of time to address the issue, will be unable to adequately correct or explain the discrepancy. How does an employer navigate this quagmire?

    The U.S. Department of Justice has provided guidance on certain “Dos and Don’ts here. At the outset, it should be noted that there are a number of reasons why a “no match” can occur. For instance, mismatches can arise due to clerical or administrative errors, an unreported name change, confusion regarding multiple last names or the inconsistent use of hyphenation, among other reasons. A mismatch between an employee’s name and social security number does not necessarily mean that employee lacks a work authorization, and the government cautions that employers should not use the “No-Match” letter alone to make adverse employment decisions such as suspension or termination.

    For each “No-Match” situation, the employee should be given notice of the issue and a reasonable amount of time to rectify the discrepancy. There is no set time period for what is considered reasonable, but the employer should check in consistently with the employee to make sure that he or she is taking steps toward resolution. If the inconsistency cannot be resolved, then the employer has some difficult decisions to make. Those cases will require careful and thoughtful consideration of the various pitfalls, and the advice of competent legal counsel is essential to avoiding liability.

    In sum, an employer that fails to address a “No-Match” letter in any way, and fails to follow up with an employee, could face a finding by federal investigators that it had constructive knowledge that it was employing unauthorized workers. In any Form I-9 audit, investigators will specifically look for evidence as to how an employer dealt with such notices. On the flip side, an employer cannot react to such a “No-Match” letter by simply terminating an employee, as it could face a claim of discrimination.

    P&A’s Employment and Labor Department is fully capable of addressing these issues both from the immigration law side as well as the employment side.

    Click here to download the article as a Word Document.

  • Monday, May 20, 2019 9:13 AM | Denise Downing (Administrator)

    Submitted by Haley Marketing

    Talent shortages. Shrinking margins. Diminishing employee loyalty. Minimum wage hikes.

    If your staffng company is like most, pressures like these are squeezing you from all sides.

    How Can You Be Productive and Proftable in a Market Like This?

    1. Flip your perspective

    Instead of a talent-scarcity mindset, identify where the talent is and pivot your recruiting tactics to find those people.  With record-low unemployment, your best potential hires probably already have jobs. Identify your target candidates’ pain points and develop your messaging to attract them. What are your key differentiators? What actually makes working with you different. What’s in it for them (e.g., higher pay, better work environment, benefits, career growth opportunities)?

    2. Plug your leaks

    Develop a “non-leaky” candidate experience.

    You can’t afford (literally) to lose qualified applicants! You are competing with TONS of other companies vying for their attention. You’ve paid in time and money to get them to your website to possibly apply. Once they’ve applied, make sure you have a defined process for staying in touch with that applicant with several touch points along the way.

    Share a blog. Send them a helpful eBook. Send a list of places to go to lunch close to the business; the closest bus routes. ANYTHING to show them you value their attention. Continue to do this throughout their assignment (temp or contract), so you can easily retain them for the next opportunity.

    3. Market effectively

    Did you notice that Indeed just cut your organic jobs off from appearing on their site? Yikes! Gone are the days of being able to rely solely on organic traffc to your jobs. After making sure your website and job board are primed and optimized for organic search, develop a multistream distribution approach to get your jobs in front of both active AND passive job seekers. Here are a few ideas:

    • Publish Facebook Jobs
    • Share jobs to Facebook and LinkedIn job-search groups
    • Send out hot-job emails to your ATS list on a regular basis (even to people who worked for you years ago)
    • Publish regular blogs that are SEO optimized to increase your organic search presence on search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo
    • Run Remarketing Ads to people who visit your site (just like those Amazon ads that follow you everywhere)
    As you test certain tactics, always keep in mind your larger goals for recruiting and sales, to make sure your marketing activities lead to better ROI for those goals.

    4. Create a Candidate-Focused Application Process

    So, you’ve spent lots of money to get people to your site through social media, word-of-mouth, Google ads and job fairs, and someone clicks on your APPLY NOW button. What kind of application are they faced with? Is it huge? Do they have to create a login and password? Are there multiple pages they must complete just to show they are potentially interested in a job?

    If your career-site application requires someone to enter their social security number, remove that field immediately!  This is one of several items that instantly make someone leery to fill out an application. Here are a few ways you can make sure your application is user-friendly and gives you a chance to pull in better applicants:

    • Shorten the initial application to name, email and phone number (you get two ways to reach out).
    • If you need a resume, consider this the second touch point, not the first.
    • Choose a job board with Easy-Apply options like Apply with Facebook/LinkedIn, Indeed/Twitter/Amazon. This literally allows the person to apply in SECONDS!
    • Make sure your jobs and job board are formatted for Google Jobs and technically able to find them.
    • Make sure your application is mobile first (not just mobile friendly). If you look at your website traffic on Google analytics, you will likely see close to 50% of your traffic coming from phones and tablets (if not more). Make sure your application can be filled out on a phone just as easily as on a computer.
    • Don’t post vague job descriptions. If a site visitor can’t figure out what the job entails in the first few lines, they won’t apply. Make sure to communicate what’s in it for them (WIIFT)!
    Get out of the squeeze!
    If you’re feeling the squeeze right now, there are ways to reach the right candidates and generate sales leads. Take the time to reevaluate your processes and let data drive your decisions. 

    If you’re looking for data on what’s working and what’s not, reach out to us at Haley Marketing Group. We practice what we preach. Our marketing best practices are tried and true, and we are always looking at data and new tactics to help our clients reach exactly who they want to.

    Click here to download the article as a PDF.

  • Friday, May 10, 2019 9:15 AM | Denise Downing (Administrator)

    Submitted by Assurance

    A large deductible plan provides the same workers’ compensation insurance coverage as a guaranteed cost insurance plan. In fact, a deductible option is a guaranteed cost insurance plan with the addition of a special deductible endorsement. A deductible program is designed for large employers that have the capacity to self-insure part of their workers’ compensation losses. The size of deductibles for these plans generally range from $100,000 to $1,000,000 per occurrence.

    Why would I want a large deductible plan?

    In short: a possible reduction in premium! You take a calculated risk that your loss control and claims management efforts are going to meet or exceed your historical loss experience and outperform similar companies in your industry. The expectation is that the insurance premium saved by choosing a higher deductible will exceed that of the claims costs in a given policy year.  With this in mind, a company should develop annual operating budgets that project the direct and allocated costs of its expected claims, including excess insurance. Other advantages of a large deductible workers’ comp plan include:

    • Significant cash flow advantage over most other fully insured or alternative risk programs
    • Increased market availability or number of carriers willing to underwrite staffing
    • Increased incentive for implementing loss control programs
    • Increased incentive for implementing return to work programs
    • Advantages of self-insurance without having to obtain regulatory approval or high start-up costs
    • Easy access and exit
    • Possible tax savings
    What are the disadvantages?
    • Financial security required
    • Years of deductible policies may aggregate collateral to the point it can deplete line of credit availability
    • Unpredictable timing of claim reimbursements
    • Risk of large, unpredictable losses, especially if no aggregate deductible applies
    If structured and monitored correctly, a large deducible program can provide greater control, the possibility of reduced long-term total costs and a significant competitive market advantage over your competitors. Want to see if this plan is right for you? Contact me today.

    Click here to download the article as a PDF.

    WRITTEN BY: KURT MURRAY
    Kurt Murray is a Principal at Assurance who focuses on mid-sized companies in the staffing industry. With over 20 years of experience, his primary responsibility is to provide cost-effective solutions and develop insurance programs that are individualized to a company’s specific needs. Kurt graduated from Northern Illinois University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance. He’s been a presenter at numerous staffing industry events and conferences, including TempNet, American Staffing Association, New Jersey Staffing Association and Staffing Services Association of Illinois

  • Friday, April 26, 2019 7:54 AM | Denise Downing (Administrator)

    Submitted by Peckar & Abramson, P.C.

    The H-1B visa category allows U.S. employers to temporarily hire foreign nationals to work in “specialty” or “professional” occupations. Congress caps the amount of new H-1B visas at 85,000 per fiscal year, with 20,000 set aside for individuals with a U.S. Master’s degree or higher (“the advanced degree exception”). The next fiscal year begins on October 1, 2019, and H-1B petitions can be submitted six months in advance of a new fiscal year. Between April 1-5, 2019, USCIS received 201,011 H-1B petitions, which is significantly more than the allotted number of visas. A lottery has been conducted to determine which petitions will be adjudicated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”).

    This year’s lottery was conducted differently than in past years. In previous years, the 20,000 set aside for the advanced degree cap was handled first, then the advanced degree petitions that were not selected carried over to the regular cap lottery (the 65,000) with all the rest of the cap-subject H-1B petitions. This year, all of the petitions were first run through the 65,000 regular cap, then the remaining advanced degree petitions were run for the 20,000 advanced degree slots. USCIS expects this seemingly subtle change will result in a marked increase of advanced degree petitions being accepted in the lottery (approximately a 16% increase). Prioritizing “the most-skilled or highest-paid beneficiaries” is consistent with President Trump’s “Buy American, Hire American” Executive Order.

    Premium Processing this year will also be handled differently than in FY2019. If you recall, last year Premium Processing was suspended so that USCIS could handle the backlog of H-1B petitions that had accumulated. This year, USCIS will allow Premium Processing for cap-subject petitions using a “two-phased approach.” For cap-subject petitions requesting a change of status (for instance, a change of status from F-1/OPT to H-1B), Premium Processing could have been requested concurrently with the initial H-1B filing or can be requested after the fact beginning May 20, 2019. Premium Processing of all other H-1B petitions will not begin until “at least June 2019.”

    While USCIS will no longer accept cap-subject petitions, it will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap, such as “H-1B transfers” filed on behalf of individuals who have already been counted against the cap and want to change employers, or H-1B extensions for employees whose H-1B approval period is running out. USCIS will also continue to accept H-1B petitions from cap-exempt employers.

    Employers whose petitions were selected in the lottery will receive a receipt notice, indicating that they have been submitted for processing. In recent years, receipt notices have been mailed between mid-April to June due to the high volume, and the same is to be expected this year. Employers whose petitions were not selected will receive a rejection notice, and the Form I-129 petition/filing fees will be returned in full.

    F-1 students working with optional practical training (“OPT”), who are beneficiaries of a pending or approved H-1B petition, will have their work authorization automatically extended through September 30, 2019. OPT students not accepted in the lottery whose status is expiring this summer will need to explore other options to stay in the U.S. and/or continue working. To wit, any employer whose petition is not accepted in the lottery should consider whether another visa is available for the desired worker.

    Employees seeking change of status should remember that international travel will adversely affect the change of status request. Any travel should be discussed with an immigration attorney before you leave the U.S.

    For more information, please contact: 

    Michael J. P. Schewe, Esq.

    Senior Counsel | Peckar & Abramson, P.C.

    70 Grand Avenue | Suite 200 | River Edge, New Jersey 07661

    office 201.343.3434 x2103

    mschewe@pecklaw.com | www.pecklaw.com


  • Wednesday, April 24, 2019 2:59 PM | Denise Downing (Administrator)

    Submitted by Avionte

    Recruiters and staffing professionals often spend loads of time and money on marketing efforts to help their business stand out from the 20,000+ staffing and recruiting firms in the US. With so many marketing channels and strategies, there’s a lot to play with, which begs the question:

    “What marketing strategies/efforts are paying off?”

    If you break down the three most basic ROI recruitment marketing metrics, they include:

    Brand awareness – How well known is your brand?

    Pipeline growth – When marketing campaigns turn into direct revenue

    Promoters – How well liked is your brand and how do people talk about it?

    Just about every marketing campaign aims to impact at least one of these metrics but the trouble is accurately measuring them. In this blog post, we’ll take a deeper look at how to prove ROI with these marketing channels:

    • Social media
    • Third party review sites
    • Website

    Social Media

    With 70 percent of people using social media daily in North America, it’s one of the best places to reach candidates but also one of the murkier options for measuring ROI. With metrics like reach, engagement, likes, shares and reactions – there’s a lot to play with. Social marketing best practices suggest starting with a goal like building brand awareness or boosting pipeline and then determining which metrics align with that goal.

    The trick is to start with a very specific goal and aligning it with exact numbers and a realistic time frame.

    Here are a few examples of some goals and metrics:

    • Increase brand awareness by gaining 100 new Facebook likes and 20 reactions in a month
    • Place two new candidates that came directly from a tweet in a week or less
    • Boost awareness by gaining 100 new connections from LinkedIn over a two-month span
    • Place 10 new candidates from all social channels (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) with $150 in ad spending over a month

    Whether you achieve your goal or not, you’ll learn over time what works and what doesn’t. Practice makes perfect, right? Need ideas on how to get started? Check out our guide on How to Maximize Your Facebook Business Account for Recruiting.

    Third Party Reviews

    Ever Googled your business? Were you surprised by what you found? With a plethora of third-party review sites like Glassdoor and Google, there’s a lot of content out there that can deeply hurt or help your staffing business.

    While it’s often difficult to provide exact ROI from these third-party sites, having a good average review is never a bad sign. If reviews on these sites are not as good as they could be, launching a campaign to current clients asking them to write a review can dramatically help your brand AND make it easier to prove value.

    For example, let’s say your Google review of your business is currently 4.2 (out of 5). Your goal is to boost it by .4. To achieve your goal, you email 100 clients asking them to give your business a review on Google and aim for 10% completion. After a week or so, you check back on Google and found that 15 new people wrote reviews, many of which contributed to a better average score of 4.6. You’ve exceeded your goal and can easily report back on the success.

    Bonus: Use your favorite Google, Glassdoor or other third-party reviews for your marketing content. Whether it’s for a social media campaign or content for your website, it’s free, high-quality content that’s from someone outside your business.

    Website

    Typically, websites are often the crème de la crème of your marketing engine. Your website provides a glimpse into who your business is, helps answer questions and ultimately, drives leads. Like social media, there are literally hundreds of metrics to report on but for the sake of time, let’s look at two important ones that are easier to measure ROI on:

    Visits – How many people visit your website a day? How about a month? Is your traffic growing year-over-year? Which pages are your highest converting pages? Answering these questions is the foundation for a solid ROI measurement. If you haven’t already, be sure to get analytics on your website. Free tools like Google Analytics work wonderfully to prove and report on ROI. Here’s a free guide to installing Google Analytics if your website is hosted through WordPress.

    Conversion rate – With the traffic you do have, how can you optimize it to ensure it’s capturing the maximum amount of leads possible? Conversion Rate Optimization or CRO for short does just that. Check out this blog from the folks at Venture Harbour, they wrote out 100+ ideas to test on your website for higher conversion rates. The best part of CRO? It’s easy to report on ROI. Using free tools like Google Analytics, you can prove what did or didn’t work with your CRO efforts. Often, just changing one thing, like one less field in a resume upload form can produce dramatically more leads.

    About Avionté

    Avionté is a leader in enterprise staffing and recruiting software solutions, offering innovative end-to-end technology solutions to over 900 customers and 25,000 users throughout the U.S. and Canada. Avionté delivers a robust platform for clerical, light industrial, IT and professional staffing firms to maximize profits and boost productivity.

    Click here to view the article online.

  • Wednesday, April 24, 2019 9:44 AM | Denise Downing (Administrator)

    Submitted by AGR Financial

    Every industry comes with its unique set of financial quirks, and the field of staffing and temporary personnel is no exception. From the common use of payroll funding services to the process of ensuring a firm is adequately covered by insurance, there are a variety of challenges that must be tackled on the path to staffing success, and AGR Financial can deliver more than two decades of experience to help your firm prevail.

    Making Payroll

    The primary challenge for a staffing agency is making payroll regularly. In many industries, payroll can be managed without much thought. When it comes to the temporary personnel field, however, it’s of the utmost importance. Because staffing firms typically invoice their clients for the payment required, the firms are unlikely to be compensated until a certain amount of time passes – sometimes the period is 30 days, sometimes it’s more. Regardless, waiting a month for payment is not an avenue that lends itself to efficiency, and it can make it tough to pay the employees you’ve placed, which must be done in order to avoid heavy regulatory penalties. Granting credit to your customers is a necessary evil, but you are not a bank, so outsource the task!

    Almost universally, this means that staffing firms are required to secure outside funding options in order to make payroll, whether through traditional banks or specialized service providers, such as AGR Financial.

    Obtaining Funding In A Fluctuating Economy

    A characteristic that the staffing and temporary personnel industry shares with most fields is that success often depends on the state of the economy. Since the economy tends to fluctuate relatively regularly, it naturally brings about changes in every industry – in turn affecting the staffing firms from which these industries source their labor.

    While poor economic conditions might only inflict limited damage upon a staffing firm, other companies often use staffing services instead of hiring permanently to minimize risk. A booming economy can bring about an increase in business drastic enough that the staffing firm may need substantially more funding than the amount it usually requires. This isn’t always attainable through standard methods, and turning to industry-specific financing options, like AGR, can become both necessary and greatly beneficial in the long run.

    Again, you are not a bank, so why finance your clients yourself?

    Navigate The Industry With AGR Financial

    Successful staffing is something of an art, requiring firms to make each and every decision carefully and operate with the utmost caution at all times. If your temporary personnel firm is in need of funding or professional financial guidance, contact Allen Geyer, President, or Evan Prodromo, Vice President, in our Edison, NJ Corporate Headquarters at 732-572-0568 or visit www.agrfinancial.com to learn more.

    Click here to download the article in PDF format.

  • Wednesday, April 24, 2019 7:58 AM | Denise Downing (Administrator)

    Written by Martin L. Borosko, Staffing Practice Leader of Becker LLC

    The past year marked another active year for mergers and acquisitions in the staffing industry. The number of transactions rose from 2017 and valuations held fairly steady across the industry. The question is what can we expect in 2019? We surveyed a number of the leading investment bankers and private equity firms in the industry about their expectations for the upcoming year.

    Overall Market
    The consensus is that the market will remain strong through at least the first half of 2019 with a potential cooling of the market in the second half of the year. All sources expected a strong first quarter in terms of activity.  Simply put, there remains a healthy number of sellers and buyers who entered the market in the second half of 2018 and are still looking to close deals. This overflow from 2018 combined with new entrants into the market should ensure that activity will remain at a pretty consistent pace with 2017 and 2018. An active market along with the fear of an economic downturn having been pushed out until 2020, should protect valuations through the first half of the year as well. 

    The big “if” for the second half of the year is, of course, the economic outlook for 2020. A number of the experts surveyed for this article indicated that they anticipate some buyers heading to the sideline in the second half of the year based on their belief that the economy will slow in 2020.

    While activity and valuations will remain strong, buyers/PE investors are continuing to narrow their focus and refine their criteria for acquisitions targets. Professional staffing businesses in high growth and niche areas will remain in highest demand, and correspondingly, will continue to reap higher valuation multiples. Businesses with flat or declining growth profiles and/or in lower margin markets will find limited buyer interest and less attractive valuations.

    Commercial and Light Industrial Staffing
    Valuations in the commercial and light industrial staffing market dipped slightly in the late second quarter and early third quarter of 2018. Activity, however, remained strong. The consensus is that valuations will hold where they are now and activity will remain steady in this sector for the first half of 2019.

    Private equity has cooled a bit in terms of interest in this sector of the staffing market and that development is one of the factors that led to the slight dip in valuations. Without strong interest from private equity, it might be hard for valuations to rise in this sector in the near term. On the other hand, foreign and middle market strategic buyers entered the market in the second half of 2018. This group of buyers along with the private equity buyers still in the market, should be sufficient to carry the market where it is through the first half of the year. The consensus is that there may be another slight dip in valuations in the third quarter if there are any signs of an economic slowdown in 2020.

    Healthcare
    Valuations and activity should stay robust in the healthcare staffing industry throughout 2019. This sector continues to garner strong interest from buyers and PE investors. The only constraint on the market is the tight supply of healthcare professionals and the question of whether healthcare staffing firms have sufficient pricing power to improve margins given rising wages in the sector. Healthcare staffing firms with demonstrated growth profiles, robust technology platforms and a strong management team that desires to remain with the company post transaction will continue to receive attractive valuations throughout 2019. Geographical penetration will continue to serve as a catalyst for many strategic acquisitions.

    IT
    The IT staffing sector will continue to see the highest valuations and greatest activity in the industry in 2019. In particular, IT staffing businesses in strong niche markets will demand the highest multiples within the IT staffing industry. Multiples will continue to range from six to eight times EBITDA for middle market IT staffing firms (EBITDA $3M $7M) with a proven track record of growth in the first half of 2019 and should carry through until the end of the year assuming that there is not a major economic downtown in the forecast.

    Finance and Accounting
    The US finance and accounting staffing merger and acquisition market should remain steady in the first half of 2019. Growth in private equity market, business spending and new regulations will continue to fuel demand and drive revenue slightly upward in the sector. Human cloud staffing will continue to pose a threat to traditional finance and accounting staffing. Businesses offering a combination of traditional staffing and technology driven staffing, such as human cloud staffing, that show solid growth will be the most attractive sellers. Overall, valuation multiples and activity should remain at 2018 levels.

    Niche Sciences and Engineering
    Life sciences, robotics and other staffing business participating in higher bill rate technology or scientific sectors will continue to be highly sought after acquisition targets.

    Conclusion
    Favorable economic conditions and a stable of active buyers/investors and willing sellers should fuel the M & A market in staffing for the first half of the year and into the second half of the year. We expect buyers/investors and sellers to be motivated to get deals done this year before the uncertainty of the economy and next year’s election factor into the market for 2020.

    Click here to download the article in PDF format.

  • Thursday, April 18, 2019 4:46 PM | Denise Downing (Administrator)

    Provided by Haley Marketing

    Do you need to don white gloves or extend your pinky while typing? No. But whether you call it email etiquette, tech etiquette, digital communication etiquette or anything else, one thing is certain:

    Manners matter in staffing!

    Everyone is busy, and we all make mistakes. Still, communication oversights and faux pas can have serious professional consequences.

    Need a little brush up? Use these digital communication etiquette tips to improve the service you provide to clients, candidates and internal customers, too.

    Email Etiquette Tips:

    1. Fill in the “To:” email address last. Wait until you’ve proofed everything and made sure attachments are attached before filling in the recipient’s address. This will keep you from accidentally sending an email prematurely.
    2. Be professional, but conversational. Texting lingo and emoticons have their place – but it’s not in your professional business correspondence. Keep your tone appropriate at all times, striving to come across as respectful, friendly and approachable. Remember: Nothing is truly confidential, and digital communications are forever!
    3. Watch your tone. Follow the basic rules of courtesy you learned while growing up, using words like “please” and “thank you” when appropriate. And be careful when incorporating humor into digital communications; jokes frequently get lost in translation.
    4. Create a clear, descriptive subject line. Make it easy for your recipient to tell what your email is about (and to search for later if they need to). Choose a subject line that lets the reader know you’re addressing their concern. Otherwise, it may be overlooked, ignored or deleted.
    5. Use the recipient’s name in the greeting. Addressing the reader by name adds a personal and courteous touch to your email.
    6. Think before hitting “Reply All.” Do you enjoy having to sift through communications that don’t impact you? Neither do your clients, co-workers, managers or vendors.
    7. Be concise, yet thorough. Assume your recipient is busy. Get to the point quickly and be sure you include all relevant information to prevent unnecessary back-and-forth.
    8. Use formatting features to make the email easier to read. If you have to send a long email, use bullets, numbered lists, bold text and other formatting options to make the content skimmable and emphasize important ideas.
    9. Read your message aloud. To prevent misunderstandings, read through your message, putting yourself in the recipient’s shoes. If it sounds even slightly harsh or negative to you, it will to the reader. Pro tip: USING ALL CAPS IS THE WRITTEN EQUIVALENT OF YELLING – as is using a string of exclamation points!!!!
    10. Use a spell checker, but don’t rely on it. It can be helpful, but it’s no substitute for incorrect/missed information, inappropriate terminology, etc.
    11. Always include a signature line or block. Don’t assume every recipient knows who you are. At a minimum, your signature should include your full name, company name and contact information.
    12. Double-check to ensure you’ve selected the correct recipient. Once you’re sure your email is clear, concise, courteous, complete and correct (yep, that’s 5), pause before hitting the “Send” button. Review each recipient’s email address, to be sure it reaches them!

    As with all other aspects of staffing customer service, using good manners in email matters. Share these tips with everyone in your organization to raise the bar in your digital communications – and deliver even better service, every day.

    Click here to download the article as a PDF.


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