By Christiane Soto, Snelling.com

When searching for full-time employment, temporary and temporary-to-hire employment is a great way for job seekers to gain experience, diversify skills and gain access to local employers.  However, many people do not even consider “temporary employment” as part of their job search strategy because the very phrase is considered “dirty”.  People scrunch their nose, make a face, look embarrassed or even act self-deprecating when explaining their decision to take on temporary work.

In addition, how many people do you know answer that they are a “temporary worker” when asked what they do for a living?

Myths

This is because there are many myths – stereotypes, if you will – regarding temporary work.  These include the following falsehoods that temporary work will:

• Pigeon-hole you as a low-value employee
• Provide only low-level, low-paying work
• Make you unattractive to employers
• Interfere with the search for a full-time job

This is simply not the case.  Read the rest of this entry »

According to a recent Monster study on employee loyalty, 4 out of 5 workers have updated their résumés in the last 6 months and almost 60% search for a job “all the time.”

Turnover is a huge cost for many companies – one that can decimate profitability.  The fight for talent is increasing, with companies constantly trying to lure talent away from competitors.  Currently, there is a huge premium on “passive” job seekers – those people who are employed but will accept a new job if they consider it to be a good opportunity.  So how do you keep your quality, core employees from leaving for a “good opportunity?  The answer is “employee engagement”.

3 Simple Steps

Engaging and retaining employees comes down to 3 simple steps that – if incorporated into every aspect of your business – can help you stop the rotating doors of “employee turnover”.     Read the rest of this entry »

It is not easy to recruit well-qualified healthcare professionals.  Physician groups, hospitals, ambulatory centers, laboratories and other healthcare organizations all struggle with the best way to find the finest people for their open positions.

Because of this, many facilities try to establish in-house recruiting departments. Whether they are looking to streamline costs or create value, many HR executives think that their HR professionals can best manage this process in-house – in addition to all the other required human resource-related duties.

This may not be the case.  No matter how efficient, aligned or inclusive your HR department is as a recruiting organization, it is extremely difficult to handle everything. When you cannot handle everything, you are not creating value.

Time

Recruiting is time-intensive.  If an internal department is trying to cull through hundreds of résumés while still managing daily responsibilities, the process can take weeks or months. This is a long time for a position to remain vacant.  In addition, candidates must be carefully screened to make sure that they have the proper education, experience as well as the right certifications and credentials.  This also takes a significant amount of time.

Recruiting as a specialty

Recruiting is, in many ways, a soft skill.  The internal HR professional must be able to not only locate a candidate but engage that person as well.  Effectively expressing all the reasons to accept the position, overcoming objections, compromising, negotiating and closing the candidate are all inherent skills found in the best recruiters.  Effective, focused recruiting requires specialized expertise and a distinct set of “soft skills” that may not be found among your current HR professionals.

Multiple “clients”

Depending on the facility’s size and needs, a HR department that tries to handle everything is more than likely torn between filling administrative jobs, clinical jobs, IT jobs or even executive positions.  Usually, the HR professional ends up working with the unit that “communicates” the loudest….not with the unit that has the most urgent need.

Focusing simply on hard dollar savings by trying to manage the entire recruiting process in-house can backfire. No one (whether it is a specific person or department) can do everything. Therefore, you can rely on Snelling Medical Professionals to help.  We know where to find suitable candidates, and we can quickly narrow this list to a small and manageable group.  Recruiting is what we do.  We know how to engage a candidate and match his/her needs and desires to your specific work environment and other intangible benefits.   If you are a healthcare organization that needs to fill your open positions quickly or map your future talent pool, contact Snelling Medical Professionals today.

By Christiane Soto, Snelling.com

I love my smartphone…..everyone, I think, loves their smartphones. This little device has given me more flexibility than any other invention created during my lifetime.  It has become ubiquitous to our way of life, used to communicate, conduct research and stay in touch with old friends.  We can even apply for jobs with it.

However, during the job hunt, your smartphone can become your worst enemy.

During this time, you must present yourself as professionally as possible.  With all the effort you have put into creating a professional résumé, cover letter, and wardrobe, it would be an absolute shame if your smartphone represented you in a unprofessional or inappropriate way…and then cost you a job offer.

Ringback tones and notification tones

Using bits of music, dialog, or inappropriate sounds as a ringtone or notification tone is a huge mistake. The goal is to appear professional – not to annoy or offend. Remember, you do not know the person sitting in front of you; everyone is different with different tastes and opinions.  We find different things funny; we find different things offensive.   Not everyone thinks Eminem’s lyrics are literary masterpieces, and you must always assume that using a woman’s scream as a notification for a new text/email/Instagram comment/Facebook “like” will offend.   Read the rest of this entry »

We spend the majority of our day at work, with our co-workers.  With this much time spent together, conflict is inevitable. This is not necessarily a bad thing.  Conflict is a normal part of the work environment, and no one is immune to workplace tensions. When we come together to resolve conflict is when we solve some of our greatest problems and when we create some of our greatest solutions.

Handling and resolving conflicts is one of the biggest challenges that managers and their employees face, because it is (well) hard.  The way to handle this is not to ignore the situation or pretend that nothing is wrong.  The way to handle conflict is to have – what many people call – the “difficult conversation”.

Here are 5 tips to make your next difficult conversation as productive and stress-free as possible:

• Don’t procrastinate.  In order to reach a productive outcome, you must first have the conversation.  When we have to do something that is outside our comfort zone, it is very tempting to simply put it off until “later”.  However, if you are waiting for the perfect time, that time will never come.  Perfection is something you make – not something you find. Stop procrastinating and talk. If it helps, set an appointment; they are harder to wiggle out off. Read the rest of this entry »

As the CEO of Snelling, I have seen this industry grow and change phenomenally over the last several years.  Rising labor costs, especially those associated with workers’ compensation insurance, health benefits and unemployment taxes, as well as uncertainty around the Affordable Care Act, have led to an increased use of temporary and contingent workers.

With this growth comes a choice, as workforce management firms compete for your business. Promises of competitive advantages, higher quality workers and lower costs permeate the landscape.  Snelling comes to the table with these same promises and much more.  We have been an industry leader for years, and that knowledge is summed up in our People + tagline.  With Snelling’s People + you know that you are getting a quality workforce management partner – one who not only says all the right things, but can prove it.  At Snelling, we are:

People + Proven Results

For over 60 years, Snelling has provided complete workforce solutions to their clients….whether it be a temporary team of workers to help with demand fluctuations or the perfect candidate for a full-time position. In every office across this country, we apply our experience and knowledge to provide you with the unique solution designed to meet your specific need.      Read the rest of this entry »

It is a fact.  Businesses are more profitable with engaged, satisfied employees.  Unmotivated, burnt-out (or burning out) employees hurt your business – in both tangible and intangible terms. In order to maximize profits, improve your employer brand, and become a best-in-class employer, you need to help your burnt out employees.

What is burnout?

Employee burnout described a worker who is disengaged from his job. There are some primary causes of burnout, including stress, overload, boredom, and/or poor working conditions.

In many ways, employee burnout is a nationwide epidemic. Companies (of all shapes and sizes) have been trying to do more with less for years. Promotions have ground to a standstill. Recognition programs were cut to the bone. Stresses of all different types raised the issue of workplace bullying and hostile work environments.

The working wounded are everywhere…..in every company.     Read the rest of this entry »

By Christiane Soto, Snelling Medical Professionals

Leadership is an art, something to be learned over time, not simply by reading books.  Leadership is more tribal than scientific, more a weaving of relationships than an amassing of information… (Max DePree)

But with the growing complexity of the healthcare system, a new type of physician is gaining prominence- the physician leader.  Now, in some respects, all physicians are leaders…in the operating room, in the emergency room, in the examination room.  However, a physician leader combines clinical care knowledge with administrative duties in an attempt to take a “good” medical facility or group and make it a “great” medical facility or group.  He/she is changing the face of medicine – realizing that change must occur – and is combining clinical knowledge with administrative leadership to do so.  The problem is leadership does not come naturally to many.

Creating a vision, sharing it, and then seeing it through to fruition does not come inherently to many physicians.  They are trained to identify a problem / situation / condition and then take the steps necessary to fix it.  They cannot grow into something that they do not understand, are skeptical about, or shy away from due to societal misperceptions (Alec Baldwin’s “I am God” speech from Malice, for example).

Many of today’s physicians have never received formal leadership training.  They are not born leaders, but they can learn to become great leaders.  Everyone can learn new skills, and the same goes for doctors.  Leadership is a skill, and (as such) it can be learned.      Read the rest of this entry »

By Christiane Soto, Snelling.com

Is it possible to turn a seasonal job into a full-time position?  Absolutely.  Is it easy? Not always…not every seasonal (summer or holiday) worker can transition to a full-time employee.  Remember, if the company could hire everyone, they would not have needed to bring on a seasonal staff. However, there are definite things that you can do to better ensure your chances of being the person who makes that successful transition.

The key is you.  You will not be handed a full-time work gig simply because you are “present”.  You need to show management that you are a “high value” employee.  You need to do this because (in today’s business environment) management emphasizes value when deciding who makes the transition from seasonal worker to full-time employee.  Now, this judgment is based on perception – it is subjective to a certain degree, but there are 5 things that you can do every day to increase your value and therefore your chances:      Read the rest of this entry »

There is a strong relationship between a company’s profitability and its employees’ engagement levels.  Profitability – especially during a small window of time – is of extreme importance to seasonal businesses.  A lot of money has to be made during the peak sales period in order to survive the “valley” of low sales.

Because of this, employing quality seasonal employees and keeping them engaged is of upmost importance.  If you do not focus on them and their level of job satisfaction, you could easily isolate your customers, lose business and (therefore) lose money.

In many ways, you must focus on their satisfaction levels in the same way as your full-time (year-round) employees.

For example, you must:      Read the rest of this entry »