Have you ever paid attention to car manufacturers’ ads?  They show you models that are loaded with extras and then entice you with prices that seem too good to be true – and they usually are.  Because what those numbers in bold print don’t include are all the fees, taxes and options that can literally double your true costs.

It’s the same with hiring.  While you may be tempted to estimate your cost-per-hire based solely on advertising expenses, this figure is only a small part of your true costs.  For a more accurate appraisal, consider the following factors:

HR Time

• Developing job descriptions
• Preparing and placing / posting ads
• Reviewing résumés
• Telephone screening candidates
• HR interviewing
• Conducting assessments and skills testing
• Performing drug tests and reference checks
• Processing paperwork

Other Costs

• Cost of advertising (classifieds, job boards, other online posting)
• Legal costs
• Management interview time
• Opportunity costs (time HR and hiring managers could be spending on other productive activities)
• Costs of vacancy in the position
• Costs of a bad hire (all the costs involved with replacing a new hire who doesn’t work out)

The Value of Recruiting Services
When it comes to direct hires, staffing firms offer tremendous advantages to employers.  The staffing service assumes the vast majority of the hiring costs and only charges a fee when and if you hire a candidate they provide.  Direct placement services provide the following benefits:

• Fixed costs of hiring
• Minimal disruption to the organization and no loss of focus
• Dedicated, experienced recruiting specialists who can accurately identify the best candidates
• Ability to directly recruit top candidates (even those who work for your competitors)
• Access to the staffing firm’s extensive candidate database, as well as regional and national recruiting networks
• Satisfaction guarantees

A.R. Mazzotta Employment Specialists – A Better Way to Hire
Hiring on your own can be expensive, time-consuming and frustrating process.  So why do it on your own?  Contact A.R. Mazzotta today.  Our dedicated recruitment specialists will make your next hire a success – guaranteed.

Much as a carpenter must select the right chisel to carve a head post, a hiring manager must carefully choose the right assessment tools to make a sound hiring decision.  To help you develop a functional hiring “toolbox,” here is a brief overview of commonly used assessment tools.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Need help with assessing candidates, or any other part of hiring?  A.R. Mazzotta provides a variety of staffing and hiring services to manage the entire process for you – recruiting, screening and assessing individuals on your behalf, and then referring only the most qualified candidates to you.

“I’m sorry, but all I can do is verify this person’s name, title and dates of employment.”

Sound familiar?

These days, getting an honest and reliable reference can be a real challenge.  HR is cautious.  Supervisors are too busy.  And often, the references a candidate has provided are afraid or unwilling to give honest feedback.  So how can you improve the results of your next reference check?

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

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

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

Looking for ways to do more with less?

Okay, let’s be realistic.  In today’s economic climate, what business isn’t looking to do more with less?

Staffing firms offer several effective solutions for reducing overhead, managing labor-related costs and improving productivity.  Used intelligently, staffing services can save you more money than they cost.  Here’s how:

1. Lower fixed expenses.  Develop a plan to staff your business strategically.  Minimize your permanent employees to the level needed to sustain your core volume of work, and then proactively plan to bring in extra help only when it’s needed.
2. Access expertise as needed.  Have a special project or new initiative to staff?  Bring in temporary experts with the specialized skills you need without impacting fixed expenses.  As an added benefit, these professionals are often less expensive than consultants.
3. Control benefits expenses.  Benefits for temporary employees are provided by the staffing service for which they work.
4. Reduce overtime.  Use temporary employees to reduce the amount of overtime your permanent staff works.  As an added benefit, temporaries can alleviate the burnout overtime causes, keeping your core staff more productive.
5. Minimize training expenses.  Reduce training costs and shorten learning curves by bringing in temporary employees who are already trained and have experience using the skills you need.
6. Lower recruiting costs. Use direct placement services to reduce the costs, and eliminate the time and hassles, involved with advertising, screening resumes, interviewing, testing and reference-checking applicants.

With over 40 years serving Connecticut employers, A.R. Mazzotta has the services and experience to deliver real cost savings for your business.  Contact us today to find out how we can help you do more with less.

If your company is like most, you may struggle to find effective ways to reward employees without spending a lot.  Thankfully, when it comes to boosting morale in these unpredictable economic times, money isn’t everything.  Here are some creative ideas to keep your staff’s spirits and productivity high, while keeping an eye on your bottom line:

1. Keep employees informed.  Make sure employees understand your organization’s current “state of the union.”  Communicate what challenges and goals your company faces, as well as the factors that will contribute to your success. 
2. Let employees know what they can do to help achieve that success.  Explain how increasing customer service and loyalty, increasing efficiency, minimizing waste, etc. can help achieve company goals.  The more employees believe they can have an impact on organizational outcomes, the higher their productivity and morale will stay.
3. Ask employees for input.  Before making decisions that impact their roles or work – and may possibly lower spirits – ask employees for their feedback.  If you attempt to understand their perspectives and feelings, changes will be more readily accepted.
4. Respond to staff members’ questions and requests promptly.  Both morale and productivity suffer greatly when employees feel their concerns are just ”swept under the rug.”  So if you don’t have one already, create a formal process for addressing employee issues in a timely manner.
5. Give employees a sense of ownership by increasing responsibility.  For example, one Philadelphia-based consulting firm creates voluntary employee committees to set up an annual health fair and ongoing food co-op.  The extra work makes employees feel good and allows potential leaders to hone their skills.
6. Consider alternative rewards to company picnics.  Believe it or not, many employees find forced company socialization a burden.  So instead of spending money on an annual cookout, consider other ways to drive productivity.  Try awarding spa or salon gift certificates, movie passes, etc. to thank employees for their individual efforts.
7. Institute a peer-nominated employee recognition award.  An Atlanta business school awards employees for personal achievements as well as organizational contributions that go beyond job responsibilities.  This company finds that recognizing just one employee creates a huge boost in morale company-wide.
8. Offer more flexible work schedules.  For many workers, especially single parents and other caregivers, having the flexibility for personal time to handle family obligations is a huge morale-booster.  And often, your company can offer this perk without incurring additional expense.  Ideas include earlier/later start times; working four 10-hour days; working from home one day a week; and job-sharing.

Staffing Can Boost Morale and Drive Productivity

Here are two more ways A.R. Mazzotta can help keep your staff’s spirits and productivity high:

• Treat an employee to a day off.  Allow us to provide a temporary replacement for the day.
• Reduce employee burnout.  Bring in our temporaries to help ease the burden of overtime.  Remember, you can avoid paying overtime by using our employees to handle the extra hours.

We at A.R. Mazzotta Employment Services send you wishes for a safe, happy, healthy, and prosperous 2010.

Happy New Year!

The current economy has driven down revenues dramatically.

This is not a newsflash, of course, but a harsh reality that has triggered sweeping changes to workforce plans – plans to increase capabilities, reduce costs, and survive the economic chaos that’s likely to linger into 2010.

If your company is struggling in the current economy, here are five key action steps you should consider adding to your workforce plan:

1.  Reduce labor costs and/or headcount. 

Identify which key positions, key individuals, and key skill sets will have the most business impact during the next two years.  Once you prioritize, you can then focus on retention, redeployment, and development efforts for the most impactful positions.

Develop ways to reduce labor costs and headcount in lower priority positions.  Ideas include:  mock or temporary layoffs; designating lower priority positions as “contingent labor” positions; labor wage arbitrage; and flexible outsourcing.

2.  Redeploy key employees.

Create a proactive redeployment process to move your top performers and highly skilled individuals into the units and jobs where they can have the greatest impact.  You should strive to have your best and brightest:

• doing what they do best;
• with the right skill set for the job and business unit;
• with the right tools, resources, and motivators;
• with the right manager; and
• with the right teammates.

3.  Retain key employees.

Tough times will not automatically cause your top employees to value security over external opportunity.  And just because you’re not hiring, it doesn’t mean your competitors aren’t targeting your very best.  So make retention a priority even during a downturn.

First, identify the things that excite and frustrate your key workers.  Then provide a plan for increasing their level of excitement, challenge, learning, and opportunity within the firm.  Finally, develop a “bad manager identification program,” because bad managers are the number one cause of employee turnover.

4.  Reinvigorate your succession plan.

If your firm has experienced hiring freezes or layoffs, it has made itself vulnerable to a future talent pool gap.  By failing to hire and develop talent, there may not be enough internal talent to fill future leadership positions once growth begins again.

The best course of action in this case is to maximize your talent pool, hiring top performers while simultaneously releasing below-average employees.  This approach will foster employee development and minimize the potential for a future talent gap.

5.  Prepare to “explode out of the box.”

Ensure you have sufficient talent to capitalize on the upturn by retaining your best recruiters and having them focus on:  developing Web 2.0 recruiting tools; maintaining employee referral programs; updating your employment branding.

Develop a “boomerang” program that maintains relationships with the very best employees you’ve had to release during the recession.  Staying in touch may allow you to rehire some of the proven talent you’ve lost once business improves.

Free Workforce Planning Consultation

During times of uncertainty, workforce planning is absolutely essential.  Be prepared – not surprised – by contacting A.R. Mazzotta today to schedule a free workforce consultation.  Our employment experts will:

• forecast your talent needs;
• examine your talent supply;
• help HR align the two by providing the right staffing and support services;
• prepare your business to “explode out of the box” once the upturn hits.

As managers, we intuitively know that giving and getting honest feedback is essential to our professional growth.  It’s also integral to building successful organizations.  So why is it that many of us put off giving feedback to our employees?  Maybe it’s because we’re afraid of negative outcomes.

Here are some common feedback mistakes:

• Speaking out only when things are wrong.
• Providing generic praise without specifics or an honest underpinning.
• Waiting until performance or behavior is substantially below expectations before acting on it.
• Giving negative feedback in public.
• Criticizing performance without giving suggestions for improvement.
• Not conducting regular performance reviews.

Clearly, giving and receiving constructive feedback is a skill that must be honed.  Developing proficiency in this area is essential to building good relationships with, and motivating peak performance from, your team.  To help get you started, here are four tips for providing feedback that produces more positive outcomes:

1. Be proactive.  Nip issues in the bud and avoid messy interpersonal tangles that result from neglected communication.  If you meet with employees regularly to give feedback, it conveys that their success is important to you, and that you want to be accessible to them.
2. Be specific.  Although it’s not easy to provide negative feedback, it’s important to be as clear as possible by giving specific examples that illustrate your point.  Instead of saying, “Your attitude is bad,” say, “When you miss deadlines, then cross your arms and look away when I discuss it with you, it gives me the impression that you don’t care about the quality of your work.  Can you help me understand this?”
3. Develop a progress plan.  Be clear about the specific changes in behavior that you expect in a specific period of time, and follow up as scheduled.
4. Link employees’ performance to organizational goals.  Reinforce the value of your employees’ contributions by giving specific examples of how their work and positive behaviors serve the organization and its customers.

At A.R. Mazzotta, we understand and appreciate the value of constructive feedback.  So we’d like to hear from you.  Please contact us with your questions, comments, and suggestions.