In the words of Martha Stewart, it’s always “a good thing” to gather with other staffing professionals, both locally and nationally, and talk shop. That’s exactly what happened when I attended the recent Affiliated Staffing Group (ASG) meeting in Denver, Colorado.
ASG is a national association of more than 30 independently-owned staffing companies representing 33 states and over 200 offices in the coastal U.S. and Canada. A.R. Mazzotta has been a member of ASG for several years. Member owners, along with their key managers, gather together a few times a year to share best practices and receive valuable take-home advice. It’s an excellent way to stay up-to-date on important employment-related news and it provides a great opportunity to hear from others about what it takes to succeed in our ever-changing industry.
At our most recent meeting, we shared insights on many topics – from panels about employee safety to discussions about industrial recruiting and what’s happening in the marketplace. Attendee workshops and speaker topics included the importance of employee engagement and reducing turnover; how to market your agency’s brand in order to gain greater audience awareness and visibility; and the importance of social media and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for recruiting.
My favorite event of the week – “Recruiting in the Age of Googlization” – a speaker session presented by Ira S. Wolfe, one of our industry’s top thought leaders on employment testing and workforce trends. His keynote brought many important topics to light – like how technological changes in recent years have disrupted our work productivity, our job roles and our staffing efforts. We now live in a world of ‘everything Google’ – where man is beginning to merge more and more with machine. Wolfe shared excellent tips for surviving and succeeding in our current age of Googlization.
It’s also important to recognize both the strengths and weaknesses of technology in our industry. New job categories are emerging, and that’s a positive. On the flip side, technology is making it easier than ever to lose that personal touch that is so important for staffing agencies to maintain with the employers and job candidates they work with. It’s important to never lose sight of just how valuable personal, face-to-face interaction is within our industry. No matter what the future holds in terms of technological advances, the human element should always remain our number one priority.