“You Gotta Get Paid”

It's my pleasure to present this recording of the Staffing Talk show from Friday, Feb 5, 2010 with guests Attorney Sara Kobberman and TempWorks Venture VP Jack Terrana:

• You gotta get paid.  You're not your client's bank.  Best practices in client management and collections.  How to manage presenting your first invoice.  Getting to AP.  Legal steps in case you have to play hard-ball.   Run your staffing business like you’re going to sell it tomorrow.
• Government business.  How government purchases of staffing and recruitment services are increasing rapidly.   While much of the economy remains weak, government is getting bigger, fast.    How to get your share of it.
• Monster.  Plus why Monster's purchase of Hot Jobs doesn't make sense.  Fundamental problems in Monster's business model make the Hot Job acquisition nonsensical, a fact Wall Street confirmed by dumping Monster shares to the tune of 20%.

Staffing Robot Follows Up on My Interview of Him. Thanks!

You can read the Robot’s comments here.  It was a great show, and I look forward to having him back on when we cover healthcare staffing again.

He also has a funny post up on his blog now about what air travel reservations would work like if it used the US healthcare system.

Readers may remember a thorough debate on Obama’s healthcare plans between the Robot and Peter Arnold.  You can find it here.

A Little UK Press for TempWorks – Thank You RecruitingUnBlog

http://recruitingunblog.wordpress.com/2010/02/06/global-mash-up-thanks-to-tempworks/

Bill writes:

Tempworks are a staffing and enterprise software business run by C.E.O. Gregg Dourgarian. Gregg is based in Eagan,Minnesota and first heard about #trulondon through twitter. Gregg shares my view that technology is shrinking the world, and that geography is irrelevant when it comes to best practice. Gregg is in the process of truly integrating social media in to his products and will be exploring this further from a users perspective in the track “Twitter Automation: The good, the bad and the ugly.” 

In addition to software, Tempworks automate and fund the payroll operation of both temp and contract recruiting businesses offering a very different whole solution. If you are in this sector, contact me to arrange a meeting with Gregg. (He is over from the 15th Feb.) Gregg shares my excitement at the prospect of the global mashup of views, opinions and cultures, and really made this possible. It’s not exaggerating to say that Gregg made the international element of #trulondon a reality.

Thanks Gregg, for all your support and continued involvement. It’s about much more than the money.

How I Was Hoodwinked on Twitter by Tech Pundit Louis Gray

[ed.-  both Jesse Stay and Louis Gray commented so to get their perspective please click on the comments button to get a fuller perspective.]

Note: Louis Gray is a well-known and respected tech blogger.  I assume he fell into the role I describe here unwittingly, perhaps as part of the collateral damage of being associated with new tech toys.

  Like it or not, people will judge you on Twitter based on your following/follower ratio.  If that ratio is bad (following many, followed by few) which it is for many spammy network marketers, people will shun you and avoid following you without another thought.  Even if your ratio is moderately bad, it’s still a sign that you are out to sell something instead of trying to engage in real conversation.

The reality though is that many end up with bad ratios despite being sincere communicators.  This can happen easily if you sign up for certain unscrupulous twitter services.  They’re a bit like a gentlemen’s club - they promise you a good time but end up taking your money and sending you home with a disease. 

Gentlemen’s Clubs and Louis Gray

This happened to me recently (not at a gentlemen’s club – I count myself firmly in the Tim Tebow camp here, thanks) when at the suggestion of a well-known tech pundit, Louis Gray I tried out a service called SocialToo run by Jesse Stay that promised better twitter searching and networking. 

Not long after plunking down $20 for the service (thinking that since it was a pay-for service that it wasn’t a spam trap), I found my twitter account was following all kinds of unsavory MLM types.

Once I realized what was happening I quickly changed my Twitter password only to find out an hour later that the spam follows were still taking place.  CHANGING PASSWORDS DID NOT REMOVE SOCIALTOO’s ACCESS TO MY ACCOUNT!  The only way to turn it off was to go into my Twitter settings page of services and turn it off there [ed. - it works this way for all services that interface with Twitter].

Saved by Tweepi

Fortunately I was able to use Tweepi, a free service, to find most of the spammers that SocialToo connected me with.  Tweepi allowed me to sort my followees by various spam-related criteria and to quickly click on the ones I wanted to unfollow.

So shame on you Louis Gray.  May you drown in spam along with Jesse Stay.

Twitter Automation – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly #TruLondon

I’m pretty pumped up about TruLondon, the unconference on recruitment, HR and staffing.  I don’t remember being as excited about a trip to Europe since I studied there when I was 19. 

The unconference revolution is at hand.  And like the Woolworth Four, you don’t should never ask permission to start a revolution and certainly should never miss out on a good one.

The chance to be around the leading minds in recruiting and social media for two whole days has me dizzy.

I’m a software developer at heart and will be leading a track on Enterprise Twitter Automation.   The good, the bad and ugly about APIs and websites that promise you wonderful things but are full of surprises.

Social Recruitment the Old-Fashioned Way

In recruiting it helps to have a long-term lead nurturing plan in place, and in the case of Colin it was long-term indeed.  I first got acquainted with his extended family back in 1995 when my kids and Colin’s cousins became good friends in school.  Since then, not just Collin, but Karl and Laura as well have worked for us on and off both full-time and part-time.

Meet Colin Stoerzinger, a Support Center Specialist at TempWorks since 2009. Colin assists clients with troubleshooting, training and answering any questions that they may have. He also helps make customizations to the client's system.

Graduating from the U of M in 2008 with a Bachelor's Degree in HR Development, Colin went to work as a Recruiter for a regional airline. He recruited, interviewed and placed employees. Colin's experience as a Recruiter helped him to get a better understanding of the importance of software like TempWorks, since he already had the hands-on experience of what many of our clients do.

 

When asked what he liked best about working at TempWorks, Colin answered, "Working in an environment where I get the opportunity to continually learn and develop new skills."

When Colin is not busy writing a customer report or troubleshooting, he enjoys playing pond hockey, fishing, camping, going to concerts, and strumming his guitar.

Colin hails from Rosemount, Minnesota, but currently lives in Inver Grove Heights

Staffing Calendar of Events for TempWorks

TempWorks enjoys meeting up with anyone related to staffing, recruiting, payroll processing or funding.  Please contact me to meet up at one of the upcoming events or see an updated list of events here on our events page.

One-Time Events

February 17, 2010  Attending Recruitment Agency Expo, London England
February 18-19, 2010 Platinum Sponsor of TruLondon, London, England
March 15-17, 2010 Attending Microsoft Mix, Las Vegas, NV USA
March 17-19, 2010 Sponsoring Staffing Executive Forum, Las Vegas, NV USA
April 20-21, 2010 Attending TruUSA, Madison, WI USA
September 22-24, 2010 Attending American Payroll Association, Las Vegas, NV
October 26-29, 2010 Attending Staffing World Las Vegas, NV USA

Recurring Events

Staffing Talk Show, Every Friday, 11:30 EST.  Weekly internet talk show.

Allied Healthcare Staffing Agency Thrives Despite Recession

It’s been my pleasure to have followed Molly Gould over the last few years and am proud to have been a support for PT-On-Call’s rapid growth.

Washington based therapy placement agency, PT on Call goes paperless is 2009, allowing them to continue to grow, even in a tough economy.

Saint Paul, MN (PRWEB) January 31, 2010 -- PT on Call announced that their decision to go paperlessin 2009 has created quite an outcome for their company, both internally and for their client's.

PT on Call has been providing Physical, Occupational, and Speech Therapists to healthcare facilities and schools since 1986. The company services Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Alaska, Montana, and Hawaii.

Paperless Processes

PT on Call was determined to be completely paperless by the end of 2009. To achieve this goal they consulted with their software provider, TempWorks, to determine what products would allow them to achieve their goal. PT on Call COO, Molly Gould, comments, “TempWorks is a powerful production tool. Since we implemented TempWorks we closed our year out in one week, and we saved overhead, as our accounting department is down to one employee.

NO PRINTING

Due to the increase in effectiveness, we are doing more with less effort.” Gould continues, “Our feat for 2009 was to go paperless, no notes, no files, no documents, no printing. TempWorks has helped us to obtain our goal. We use TempWorks exclusively, saving time, money, allowing us to be more effective in man power.”

“PT on Call’s move to a paperless environment encompasses TempWorks’ primary business goals, the elimination of exorbitant staff from back office operations resulting in an increase in their overall bottom line,” states VP of Payroll Processing Mari Kautzman.

TempWorks President, David Dourgarian remarks, “By using TempWorks Paperless products PT on Call is able to cut costs, improve efficiency and satisfy employees and customers, all in one integrated package.”

Gould concludes, “Overall, I would say that TempWorks has allowed us to be more efficient and effective without increasing our overhead which increases our overall profit. TempWorks has been the key to our continued year after year growth, even in the roughest economy in my working lifetime.”

I Don’t Get Lady Gaga, But I Danced to that Rama Rama Song

First time dancing in years.   Maybe I had too many beers (one, apparently, is too many for me these days).  Nevertheless a great time for me and the TempWorks team at the Train Depot in Minneapolis this last weekend.

Who’d I dance with?  None other than my future daughter, Laura Baratto, pictured to my immediate right (to the left as you view the picture).  Can you tell we both have a lot of Italian blood as does Jack Terrana on the far left?

Both my son, David, president of TempWorks and Mark Baratto, EVP (Mark is pictured to the left below) gave stirring speeches about the company’s performance in 2009 and plans for the coming decade.

The Passing of a Staffing Industry Pioneer

Not long after I started TempWorks I had the good fortune to meet George Arnold, the owner of the then Olsten franchise in Wichita, Kansas (now The Arnold Group), and some family members including Jill.   George greeted me warmly there and told me stories about how he had worked with my Dad decades earlier putting together a big national staffing contract.

I’ve since gotten to know many family staffing businesses around the country but George and his team that included several family members remain in my mind as one of the most cohesive and mutually respectful.

Sadly George passed away recently, but his family carries on with his dream of running a highly respected staffing company.