April 24, 2012

Facebook accounts? Fair game or not?

by Herb Dew

It’s funny, this issue came up with my son 2-3 years ago when he was still in college. He had some fraternity pictures on his page that were “edgy” and I remarked to him the need to be careful. “Son, it won’t be long before companies look at that stuff and judge you on it.” “Dad, it’s not their business what I do on my Facebook page!” He did take my advice though and was more careful about monitoring what he put up there and the comments he made.

There has been a lot in the press recently about public access to social media. Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Facebook are the latest rage. Even Pinterest! I was looking at a girl I know on Pinterest the other day. She had pinned all sorts of alcoholic drinks and some weird stuff on her page. All the world could see it. I remember thinking “does she know her parents can see that?” Maybe more importantly, since she is graduating from college, does she want ALL THOSE EMPLOYERS seeing that? I don’t think so.

I think companies exploring social media to help them see the nature of who they are hiring is SMART. In an interview process you might get 2-3 hours to decide if you want to hire that person. How they will represent your company, their ethics and morals are almost impossible to assess. BUT. The posts and images an applicant diligently posts and updates gives you an accurate look into the persons’ focus. If the persons’ social media has profane language, caustic comments, immature photos, then how can you ignore that about that person?

I was reading about a company that would during an interview ask the interviewee to actually LOG INTO Facebook. If the person said no, they were out of the process. The applicant and the interviewer would then review the persons’ Facebook page and discuss the content. It was one major piece of the overall hiring decision. Is this fair? I guess it depends on the perspective you’re coming from. Facebook is public domain. What you place on it is fair game. More and more employers are using it to learn more about who they are hiring. Whether it was fair or not doesn’t matter. It’s public domain. Your cute, edgy Twitter posts can be seen. Don’t like being judged on that? Then don’t post stuff you wouldn’t want to face up to.

Like it or not, this is going to grow. My advice to young people? Read your page like you were going to defend it in an interview. If you can’t get comfortable with it, make changes now. You will eliminate the risk of embarrassment.

Herb Dew
President
HTI

April 9, 2012

Being a “great” company!

by Herb Dew

This will be the first of a few blog entries talking about the qualities that make a company a “great” place to work. Numerous studies have shown through the years that employees value compensation well below a couple of other categories. It’s important to pay people a fair wage, but it’s far more important to create an environment at work that makes people feel good about being there.

If you look at most companies’ employee surveys, the lowest scored category often is “communication”. This is a constant struggle between management and employees. What information should be shared? How often should employees and management talk? How well does a supervisor communicate to his/her employees? Is the method of communication the company promotes authoritative or collaborative? Companies have so much friction in the area of communication. And the answers to fixing the problem are often not easy.

A great company is one that values the thoughts of its people. The company isn’t afraid to hear tough feedback. A great company wants tough feedback. A great supervisor/manager isn’t afraid of direct feedback. He/she can field tough questions and give honest answers. Good communication isn’t always what employees want to hear. But its honest. And explained as well as it can be.

Great communication starts at effective front line supervision empowered by senior management. It begins with good listening skills. It allows for barriers to be stretched between management and employees so that open discussions can occur. Some companies utilize roundtables to attempt this. Others use suggestion systems. But these cannot replace ongoing communication on a regular basis. Engagement. Look at great companies and you will see supervisor and managers who know their people. They talk together about problems and challenges. They share ideas and respect opinions. Great communication happens every day. Not just through a round table or a suggestion system.

At HTI I began a long time ago openly sharing the companies’ financial data down to the net profit line. Other CEO’s of privately held companies were astounded by that. “Why would you allow your employees to see how much you’re making?”. I would laugh and say, “How can I develop someone to run a business for HTI if I don’t teach them the financial piece?”

To be great company you have to always fight to be the best you can be in communication. If you’re an employee of a company asking you your opinion, don’t be suspicious, be honest. Don’t be mean in your responses, be constructive. Trust me, you will be heard.

Herb Dew
President
HTI

February 29, 2012

The Impact of “hiring the right person”.

by Herb Dew

I have placed or been involved in the placement of thousands of candidates over the years. I have witnessed hundreds of different hiring and selection processes. Some of these processes helped the company to select a person who was “right”. But many times the hiring process did not. The cost to the company of an unsuccessful hire is steep. Statistics show that companies hire the “right” person only 30% of the time. One in three. That means that two out of three times the person hired is either “not right” or mediocre.

Hiring a new person  into a company costs as much as $20k to $30k per placement. Sometimes with larger relocation packages this number is higher. Then factor in all the time it takes to train and familiarize a new person into their role. Most companies will say it takes 30-90 days for a person to get productive. Plus factor in the cost of every employee that spends their work time getting the new person up to speed.

And yet only one out of three times this investment pays off. Two out of three times it provides average or below average results.

Now factor in a really poor hire. What damage soes this person do before they are seperated? Its a huge potential cost if you lose a customer. Or if you face a big quality mistake. Or if the morale of a team this person works with is effected.

Hiring “the right person” starts with understanding what is “right” for your company, team and role you are filling. Start with looking at high performers you already have in your company. Benchmark their work habits and personality. Are they detail oriented? Or are they “run and gun”? Does the job require an outgoing personality? Does the person have to make alot of solo decisions in which good judgement has to be exhibited? What skills does the person HAVE to have and which skills would be nice but not necessary. How important is education. What kind of person fits your culture?

Now look at your hirng process. Does the process accurately assess these elements in the previous paragraph effectively?

I recently was a part of a company’s post interview process. I had no control over the interview process. As we gathered and dicussed the applicants interviews the previous day it was evident that each person on the interview team had THEIR OWN view of what they were wanting. There was no central expectation for what they wanted. So when discussing the pro’s and con’s of the candidate there was no baseline vision to go off of. In the end everyone asked “do we like him/her?” Some did, some didn’t. They hired her. Will she be successful? I don’t know. I hope so.

Are you hiring a person who is critical to your business? You will. Or you may be doing so now. My advice is that you take the time to review your hiring process and invest some time into understanding what a successful person in your company acts like. Pull your interview team together before hand and solicit their feedback. Outline what you have learned benchmarking some other successful employees. And agree as a team to 2-3 elements a person must show in order to be a “fit”.

The impact of hiring the “right person” has far reaching effect. The cost of hiring “the wrong person” is expensive and far reaching.

Herb Dew

President

January 3, 2012

E-verify in SC

by Herb Dew

South Carolina’s new immigration law
is now in effect, even though a federal judge put parts of the law on hold in
December. Among the portions now in effect is a requirement for businesses to
use E-Verify, an online program that allows employers to input information from
required I-9 hiring forms and find out a new employee’s legal work status.
South Carolina government jobs, including positions at public universities,
have been screened with E-Verify since 2009, as have private jobs at companies
with more than 100 employees.

With the new law, that requirement extends to all businesses. Employers that
are not registered to use E-Verify will have a grace period until July. After
that, businesses that violate the law will get a year probation and have their
license revoked for repeat violations.

Make sure your hiring systems are in compliance!

 

Herb Dew

December 7, 2011

Tight Recruiting for Skilled Hourly in SC

by Herb Dew

It’s interesting. Back when I was in high school, it was not unusual for some of my friends to go to a technical school versus a 4 year college to earn a degree. They were good technically, but didn’t want (or were not able) to get through the engineering schools curriculum in order to complete their degree. Now many of these friends of mine earn $75,000-$100,000 a year…..and they are technicians and machinists working for great companies.

Our biggest challenge recruiting in our state is the vast shortage of bright, capable, skilled hourly workers. Nowadays, a “skilled hourly” worker is darn close to being an engineer. The technology you work with in most manufacturing facilities requires that the people maintaining that equipment be versatile in both electrical and mechanical technologies. Machinists (people who turn metal or plastic into amazing products) are becoming equally hard to find. Why are we seeing such a dangerous shortage? Isn’t there a nationwide recession? Doesn’t the nation face a 9% unemployment rate?

The answer is simple…the number of unemployed, skilled hourly workers is far lower. I would wager a guess that it’s as low as 2-3%. And statistically in good times that rate of unemployment would indicate a severe shortage.

At HTI, we have attacked this issue on the part of our bigger customers. We are working on a wide range of ideas that can look at filling short term needs, but also ideas that address a longer range problem. What are we doing? First, we re-structured our recruiting function to create a highly skilled, separately managed “skilled hourly team” that has as its focus skilled hourly recruiting. We have begun communicating closely with Technical Colleges offering both certificate programs as well as Associates degrees in applicable areas. Our plan is to push recruiting all the way back to high schools. Why high schools?

It’s simple. There are many kids in high school who are good at math and are technically strong that don’t know the incredible earning potential out there. Our society has mistakingly suggested that you had to get a “4 year degree” to be successful. So you see kids go off to college, sometimes struggle and drop out, or get degrees in areas that they then find hard to use, and they end up in some industry that doesn’t interest them. So we are going to try to partner with companies, Tech Schools and the state to get the message out that “we need you!”

Keep watching us here at HTI. We are continuing to lead the way in innovative strategies for recruiting here in the Southeast.

This is a complex problem we face. The State has got to address this. If we can take the lead on this issue, companies will look favorably at us when selecting where to locate a high technology facility – the kind of facilities we want in SC.

Herb Dew

November 18, 2011

2012 SUTA Battle

by Herb Dew

If you have read some of my other blogs on this issue, you know that this last year SC’s SUTA tax structure was modified by the legislature and the impact was that tax rates went up on most companies between 60-350%. Some even higher than that! The senate passed a temporary relief bill that applied about $146 million in relief for the year 2011 that was retroactive back to January. This relief provided about 23% reductions. This left STILL the highest business tax increase that I ever recall SC enacting.

What does this do for SC? First, it weakens our claims of being a “business tax friendly” state. Any company that has labor as a major portion of their cost structure is going to look at our top tax rate of 11.5% and say “hey Ill go to Georgia…or Alabama…or Tennessee and not have that kind of risk”. More importantly, it was a significant tax increase placed on employers during a weak recovery out of the worst recession we have had in the US since the Great Depression. In our greatest time of need, when companies that had survived began the process of thinking about adding new jobs, the Senate passes a bill that levies on businesses a cost that in many cases cost the state thousands of jobs.

How did we get to this point?

First, there are many factors that caused SC to have to borrow money to cover unemployment costs triggered by the deep unemployment that struck the state starting the end of 2008.

1. The existing system didn’t not change enough to adjust for increased claims. All parties agree that there needs to be more tax income. The problem is that the state was slow in addressing the issue and now wants to get it all back too quickly. And at a HORRIBLE time for the economy.

2. SCDEW (South Carolinas unemployent commission) has been run poorly and has paid millions of dollars in fraudulent or unearned claims in the past. Again, this number is HUGE and now employers are asked to pay of the states sins.

3. Unemployment cannot be a welfare system. Right now it is. All parties agree that there is a system needed to assist someone while their transitioning to a new role. The problem is that we have people that just want to stay on that system.

These are just the biggest 3 reasons. Several other factors contribute to the problem. Over the coming months the issue will begin to come to the forefront as companies find out that this years reduction was only a bandaid. in 2012 the wage cap increases from $10,000 to $12,000 so there is a 20% increase on top of going back to last years “array” system rates.

How do we fix this? I think SC has to think out of the box.

The question that I keep wondering is “why do some companies in the lower tiers pay little or nothing? This is IN FACT an insurance policy. And we do have alot of companies that go out of business that cannot pay back over time their account deficits. Is it right to not pay anything towards an insurance policy? I have car insurance. I have not had a wreck or a claim on my car insurance EVER. Yet I still pay towards car insurance. I say make EVERY company pay SOMETHING. Its only fair. And it takes some pressure off companies in higher tiers that have a higher claims history because of the nature of their business.

Consider employee contributions. I heard a speaker say that an employee paying $1 a week would contribute up to $75 million a year towards their insurance. And maybe employees buy-in would help reduce the fraud that plague the system because they shared in that cost.

Drug test recipients. We had an employee that failed an employment drug test that was recieving unemployment. This is more frequent than people might think. Why pay for unemployable people?

Consider a work for pay system. Maybe let people get their first 4-6 weeks of unemployment without having to work. Than have them do public work or service work for a continuation of benefits. Its a motivation to find something if you have to work anyway. And it accomplishes something positive for the state while paying the money out.

These are just some ideas I have had. Stay tuned. This will be a big issue again this year (2012). We all want SC to be considered competitive. Right now our system hurts some idustries we need to come back desperately: Tourism, Farm, Manufacturing.

 

Herb Dew

 

November 8, 2011

HTI moves into new building!

by Herb Dew

This Friday (November 11th) our corporate group moves one block down to our new corporate headquarters on the corner of Spring Street and Coffee Street. We are extremely proud of what we have accomplished and we will now be able to combine two offices into one. Our headquarters will house our Professional Recruiting group, our Accounting group, Sales and Marketing, Safety, and Human Resources. It includes a state of the art training center, as well as multiple conference rooms and an upscale break area.

With downtown parking at a premium, this move allows us to all park near our building and also provide parking to those visitors coming in for interviews or using our training center.

We will start in about 14,000 sq feet, with the ability to grow into more space as needed.

We are all excited to get moved in, and look forward to doing a “ribbon cutting” in January!

Herb

October 7, 2011

Our new website!

by Herb Dew

I am excited to announce the launch of our new look at www.htijobs.com! You will notice a lot of changes and functionality as you explore each page on the new site. Employment Solutions as well as Manufacturing Solutions each have their own site linked to our home site. We have added a Blog as well as an interactive calender. We also are doing RSS feeds from well known HR sites so we have fresh, daily updates on content regarding Human Resources.

Additionally we have launched the first phase of our online recruitment modules. These are critical to our growth. More and more we are seeing the importance of being able to take “real time” applications from people who might be looking for jobs at night or on weekends. This gives us a “24/7″ recruiting reach. Be patient! We are still working through the process of how to manage the online application flow. We hope that as we make that piece work, it will continue to give our customers the best recruiting reach provided by anyone in the Southeast!

We are always looking for Blog contributors! If you have an article or idea for something you thing would be valuable email our Marketing Manager, Anna Rowe at arowe@htijobs.com. She will work with you on getting a pertinent article posted about a topic related to HR, Recruitment or business in general.

Finally, we are always looking for new ideas! If you run into an issue or have an idea for a new feature feel free to email me at hdew@htijobs.com. We are always looking to improve, and we want you back on our site often!

Thanks,

Herb

 

October 6, 2011

Back to print? A paradigm shift in Marketing of the future.

by Anna Rowe

Social media is everywhere. Facebook is a real word, tweeting someone is normal, and instead of asking an inquisitive question to friends and associates, we just look straight to cyberspace.

Emails, texts, tweets, Facebook messages, blog posts, and websites are all valuable tools in marketing, but it leads me to question how much of this generation is inundated with so much social media, that they miss out on the messages trying to be conveyed. The days of brochures on glossy paper, printed newsletters with an antique finish, and hand written letters and slowly fading away.

In my four years as Marketing Manager with HTI, I have watched the stack of mail on my desk diminish from a daily pile to 1-5 pieces of mail a day…or sometimes none at all. Instead, I spend my mornings sorting through emails with the fear of deleting a valid, work-related message in the midst of junk.  It is time consuming and often times, hard to immediately decipher what I need versus what is trash.

However, I realized my true love for print when I take time each day to open my 1-5 letters. Junk mail or not, someone has taken the time to build a document, find a printer, run the piece through a press, pass it on to the postal service and get it to the front door of the office. Sure…paper uses up resources. But with the accessibility and ease of recycling these days, I don’t feel guilty at all. In fact, if someone really wants to get information to a client or partner, a nice touch is to send it via email, but follow up with a printed copy in the mail. Print is a nice touch that is rarely used these days. It will always be around, as there is nothing like a good hardback book. However, I feel as if it could become more of a novelty than anything in the future of daily business.

The point for these thoughts is that it makes sense to send a printed piece or letter. Sure it takes more time and money, but from a Marketer’s perspective, it shows that you have made the effort to get more business. You care about your company.  And in addition to the use of online initiatives, print is beginning to make you stand out. What are the odds.

September 29, 2011

Working with Staffing Firms.

by Administrator

I get alot of people who are looking for a job that send me resumes. Or they come by and fill out an application for a temporary job. Often we can help them out. But just as often we don’t have anything that fits the applicants background and we are unable to assist the person at that time. I hate that we can’t help everyone.

When you are working with a staffing company understand that the company is limited to its customers job openings and the requirements that those customers have. We are limited by that. There have been MANY times I have met someone and thought “wow I like this person, they would be a great (add job)”. But At that moment I don’t have that particular job opening amongst our customers needs. Individuals applying for jobs are an important part of what we do, but the people who pay staffing companies are our customers. And most of our customers have very specific requirements that often do not allow us to deviate from a hiring requirement.

My suggestion to job seekers is always the same. Use staffing companies as ONE resource amongst many. Even if you apply with one or more staffing companies, still spend time watching the newspapers, online job boards, blogs like this one, and networking with other friends and family members.

I also think its good to check in periodically after you have applied. One of the things that HTI is beginning to do is develop online applications and job listings so its easier for applicants to apply as well as to see more often what we have open. This is in response to our wish: to make working with us more easy and transparent.

Keep watching our blogs and look for an exciting new release to our website at www.htijobs.com coming in the next few days. You will begin to see a new look for us online. Feel free to comment here on how we can provide better service to you as an applicant. We know its stressfull looking for a job and we want to make it as easy as is possible.

Herb Dew