If you work in human resources, you know that even in this depressed economy, you have open positions that are hard to fill.

It’s no secret that these jobs are in technical areas, areas that demand a high degree of education and expertise – engineering, IT and healthcare. The fact is that for these areas of the labor market, demand is high, even though in other areas there are too many people chasing too few jobs.

A recent survey of more than 2,600 companies around the country showed that one-quarter of the businesses had jobs for which they could not find qualified people, according to Matt Ferguson, CEO of a job search firm. Ferguson says that their data shows that there is only one person looking for a job for every three open positions in a number of areas, including nurse practitioners and cloud developers.

If you are a human resources professional and/or recruiter, there are things you can do to help recruit the talent you need, Ferguson says.

One practice Ferguson recommends is to keep track of the positions that are hard to fill. If you are aware of the hard-to-fill positions, you can put a process of ongoing recruiting into place – networking with job hunters who are looking for jobs that may not be available now, but are likely to open up in the near future.

You also need to keep track of where the skilled workers are in your area. Find the cities that have the most people in the areas you are looking for and recruit there. Talent is not distributed evenly throughout all geographical areas. You have to go to where the supply is.

You also need to match the salary to the demand for the position. Don’t expect to hire someone in a hard-to-fill area at a bargain price. Make sure you are matching what your competition is offering.

You also can train workers yourself. If you are scouring the landscape for candidates, and you still cannot find anyone, your company should take on the task of training candidates in the skills that are needed. Many people have the basic level of skills that are needed to benefit from the training.

If you’re looking to fill hard-to-fill positions in construction, architecture or engineering in the Washington, DC area, give RealStreet Staffing a call. We look forward to hearing from you!

Although there may be issues involving discrimination, some companies still will not even consider hiring people who are unemployed. There is a bias against the unemployed because of the general assumption that during layoffs, it is usually those who are the least productive who go first.

But as Jim Stroud, a corporate recruiting expert notes, during this downturn, those assumptions may not hold as they did in the past. During the recession, companies went through several rounds of layoffs. Is it reasonable to assume, Stroud says, that even those people let go in the second or third round of layoffs were also underperformers? There are many good people out there, people who performed well for their companies, who nonetheless fell victim to the recession.

There are several good reasons for hiring someone who is unemployed, Stroud says.

The first is that it is unlikely they will leave anytime soon after being hired. After being without work, they won’t be particularly eager to risk losing employment. They may also help to increase retention among other workers because the previously unemployed person will be telling other employees about the problems he or she had while unemployed.

Hiring the unemployed will help your brand. Once it becomes known that you are willing to hire the unemployed, that you don’t discriminate and that you act fairly, it may help your company attract talent and maintain loyalty.

An unemployed person may bring new skills to the company. Many unemployed are using their time to go back to school to update their skills and knowledge, and they will bring this with them.

Bringing an unemployed person on board may help you build up your business networks. Looking for work, an unemployed person builds up his or her own network of contacts, and he or she will bring these contacts to your firm, people who may be potential new hires themselves or new customers.

And, finally, hiring an unemployed person may enable your company to take advantage of tax breaks for doing so. Under the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act, for example, for each qualified employee retained for at least 52 consecutive weeks, businesses will be eligible for a general business tax credit, often referred to as the “new hire retention credit,” of 6.2 percent of wages paid to the qualified employee over the 52-week period, up to a maximum credit of $1,000, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

RealStreet Staffing can help your Washington, DC-area engineering, construction, architecture company find great workers for your temporary, temp-to-hire or direct-hire assignments. Call us when you need skilled, reliable workers!

As you try to fill openings at your company with the most talented people possible, you are obviously working to come up with the best questions to ask job candidates. Naturally, applicants have questions of their own, some more probing than others. But it is to these more probing questions that your human resources department should have good answers if you want to compete for the best candidates.

Some of these questions applicants are more likely to ask than others, but all of them are the kinds of questions that human resources professionals should be asking themselves. Dealing with hard questions also will help your company clarify goals and values to help employees perform better.

Some things that applicants might be curious about are why employees like working for the company, what brought them to the company and what the work atmosphere is like.

Other questions might include the philosophy of the business and its strengths and weaknesses.

Other queries are more of the nuts-and-bolts type, such as what the day-to-day responsibilities of the open position are, how quickly the company wants to find someone for the job, and the next step in the interviewing process. Although perhaps not a common question, a candidate may ask how his or her skills compare with other applicants.

Candidates also might be interested to know what the company values the most in terms of what its employees contribute.

Other questions might include whether there is a career path at the company, chances of advancement and other opportunities the position might offer.

A candidate might want to know where most of the company’s senior management comes from – a particular area of the company or a variety of areas and he or she also may ask about any major problems facing the company or department.

An applicant might also ask about how the open position contributes to the bottom line.

RealStreet Staffing can help your Washington, DC-area engineering, construction, architecture company finds killed, reliable professionals. Contact us today.

Now that social media has gained a real prominence in our society and in the workplace, employers are using it more and more to check out job candidates.

Career counselors are telling those looking for jobs to be careful regarding what they put on their Facebook pages or what they tweet on Twitter because potential employers could be watching. Job applicants should only put information on their sites that will help their chances of finding employment.

But employers need to be savvy as well when perusing social media sites, to be aware of the conventions and customs that are in general use so that they don’t misinterpret things.

For example, a social media site is not a résumé, and should not be treated as one. If you are looking at a job applicant’s site, don’t be too worried about misspellings or grammar problems. Online slang has become common usage, phrases such as “lol” are tossed around a lot. People use shortcuts all the time, so it would be a mistake to look at it any other way than as casual, conversational writing.  Don’t take it as a sign of the candidate’s writing ability.

Other things to ignore are rude remarks. Again, looking at someone’s personal profile, you will see personal conversations, teasing and back-and-forth bantering that will likely have some coarse language. That doesn’t mean that the person will behave the same way in a professional setting.

Also, avoid personal photos. These really have nothing to do with the hiring process, and you don’t want them to affect your opinion. Other information not to take too seriously are remarks about job histories that a candidate might have on his or her Facebook site. Don’t regard these comments as anything definitive about the candidate’s qualifications – use the résumé for that.

Finally, federal law prohibits job discrimination based on race, religion, gender, national origin, and against people with disabilities. If you think this kind of information might affect your hiring decisions, it might be best to avoid looking at social media sites completely, since some of this information will be on the site.

RealStreet Staffing can help your Washington, DC-area engineering, construction, architecture company gear up for major projects — or gear down when the project is complete. Contact us when you need skilled, reliable employees!

If you want to increase the chances of having a successful relationship with your staffing firm, here are a few things to keep in mind when your company makes a request for contingent employees.

The first tip for making things go as smoothly as possible is to make sure you notify the staffing service as far in advance as you can as to when you will be making an order. This is even more important if you are going to be making several orders.

Make sure you get ongoing progress reports on how your orders are being filled and set a specific time when you will get the progress reports. Doing so will help you know if you will need to contact other services.

Find out if the staffing service also is filling requests for the same types of workers for other companies, and where your company stands on the list of orders to be filled.

You also should let the service know how much leeway your company has as far as what the skills you need in the temporary workers and how many hours a day or week they will be at on site.

If you are looking for a specific set of skills, you need to be clear about your requirements with the staffing firm, be very clear that you won’t  settle for anything less.

Make sure that you have frequent communications with the staffing firm’s managers, and get together on a routine basis with the your service’s representative to let him or her know how the firm is doing.

Check with other staffing companies to get an idea of the rates you will have to pay to be competitive and to avoid any unnecessary haggling.

Finally, try to create a welcoming atmosphere at your site for the temporary workers on assignment with you so that they will want to come back.

When you need reliable professionals skilled in the construction, engineering and architecture industries for your Washington, DC-area company, contact RealStreet Staffing. We can source, vet and place workers in temporary, temp-to-hire and direct hire assignments. We look forward to hearing from you.

One of the regulatory traps that businesses sometimes fall into when they use staffing services is the employment classification of contingent workers.

Many times a business that uses contingent workers from a staffing firm takes on certain responsibilities for the workers, responsibilities usually associated with “regular” employment.

By doing this, the company allows itself to be considered an employer, along with the staffing agency, opening itself to the liability that goes with being an employer.

There are some straightforward guidelines that will help a company avoid being considered an employer of the temporary workers.

The first one is something not to do – don’t repeat the same functions as the staffing agency. If you are going to do that, why hire the firm in the first place? Sometimes, businesses will take on the task of recruiting, selecting and interviewing potential temporary employees. This is what you are paying the staffing agency to do. If your business takes on those tasks, the prospective employee will think your business is the hiring organization. You might not be real keen on having the staffing agency do these things, but the firm’s thoroughness will surprise you. If you have doubts, ask the staffing service to show you how it tests and selects employees.

Also, if you have a large number of contingent workers at your company check with the staffing firm to see if it can have a representative stay at your company. Known as an “on-site” arrangement, this is the most effective way to handle administrative tasks,  and it also allows for better communication between you and your staffing firm. It also emphasizes to the temporary workers that the staffing agency is the employer.

Never take any disciplinary action directly against a contingent worker. Always go through the staffing agency. If you want to terminate the worker, you should discuss it and the reasons for it with the staffing agency, and the agency should then take the necessary action.

As part of this, you should be willing to share the worker’s performance shortcomings with the staffing agency. Then, if the worker is let go, the agency will be able to provide the worker with a specific reason, which will usually eliminate the possibility of charges of discrimination. Discrimination is sometimes alleged when a temporary worker is let go but no reason is given, which leads the person to believe something unethical is going on.

And finally, make sure your company policy clearly states that benefit plans are off limits to contingent workers.

RealStreet Staffing can help Washington Metro construction, engineering and architecture firms find terrific professionals for temporary or direct-hire assignments. Contact us today so that we may work with you to create a staffing plan that will help your business grow and prosper.

The makeup of the American workforce is undergoing a sea change, fueled in part by the current weak economy Companies and workers need to adapt.

According to Doug Berg, a workforce expert, the United States is in the middle of a big shift in the workforce, especially in the technology area. The way things have been done in the past just doesn’t apply any more, especially in the area of employee hiring.

If they are going to be successful, companies – including staffing agencies – and workers need to understand how the market for workers is playing out. Companies want quick access to workers who come in for just short periods. Preferences among workers are changing, as is innovation in technology.

The temporary staffing market is booming, growing from $60 billion a year to roughly $200 billion a year. This growth is also a marker of how the labor supply is shifting. The demand for contingent staffing is growing in all areas, while professional areas have been among the fastest growing. Creative, design and engineering consultants always have been in high demand.

The healthcare and legal areas also are showing big growth. Many businesses are moving toward contract and consulting work in the legal area because the big law firms are so expensive. So, instead of hiring a big name law firm, companies are trying to strengthen their own legal departments by hiring contractors.

The same thing is happening in the areas of accounting and finance. Companies are trying to use more contractors and consultants because the cost of these professionals is skyrocketing, driven in large part by government reporting regulations. One of the fringe benefits of this strategy is that a company can expand quickly when the need arises, and then shift resources as the need changes.

Berg predicts that the contingent workforce will only continue to grow. He uses information technology as an example. Companies that were 90 percent permanent workers and 10 percent contingent staffing are now closer to 60 percent full-time employees and 40 percent contract labor. Many of these are big companies, and the shift has allowed them to become more flexible.

If your Washington Metro firm is looking for flexible staffing solutions, give a shout out to RealStreet Staffing. We can provide you skilled and reliable engineering, architecture and construction professionals on a temporary, temp-to-hire or direct-hire basis. Contact us today!

In the past, orienting a new hire was usually relegated to some lower-level worker in the human resources department, and after that brief introduction to the company, the new employee was on his or her own.

Now, however, things are different because businesses realize the importance of getting a new employee up to speed, making him or her feel welcome and at ease in the company. Businesses realize that doing a good job of orienting a new employee — now referred to as onboarding — can have great benefits when it comes to productivity.

All of this orientation will still include the more traditional first-day routine – filling out the requisite paperwork.  But at the end of the day, the new person should have more to look back on than just filling out forms. The new worker needs to feel that her or she made a good decision by coming to work for your company.

While human resources will handle the routine types of things, the important job of orientation will be a part of the manager’s job.

As part of introducing a new person to the company, don’t overlook the views of employees already at the company, which can be very helpful. You can find out what they would have liked to have known when they came onboard. Find out what plans other employees have to help the new person get up to speed. You don’t have to do everything yourself. You can delegate.

One person should take on the responsibility of taking the new person to lunch every day, and the entire team should take the new person to lunch on the first day.

There are routine checklists for orienting a new employee readily available, but there are also the little things that should not be overlooked. For example, notify everyone by e-mail about the new hire so everyone can welcome the new person. You should set up the new employee’s computer and get his or her e-mail account in working order, along with making sure he has all the background information he needs on the software he or she will be using. You should also get his or her phone system up and running, along with instructions on voicemail.  Fill the new employee in on how to use the fax, copier and any other electronics her or she will be using. Have business cards already made up, if appropriate. Have a nameplate ready and waiting.. You also should have an organizational chart ready for the new person, so he or she knows who is who and how they fit into the company’s and department’s structure.

Two final tips: 1) Have someone who can act as a sponsor or mentor to the new employee, someone who can be a role model. 2) Take the time to talk to the new hire about performance goals and expectations.

RealStreet Staffing can help Washington Metro construction, engineering and architecture firms meet and exceed their strategic staffing goals. Contact us today so that we may work with you to craft a staffing plan that will help your business grow and prosper.

They are referred to in different ways – communications skills, personality traits, soft skills.  But whatever they are called, recent studies have shown that they are just as important to a company’s success as other more quantifiable business skills.

About 75 percent of those surveyed identified these employee skills as necessary to success.  These skills include listening, persuading others, and working together.  Moreover, in successful companies, about 85 percent of those surveyed said these skills were necessary for success.

These kinds of skills are just as important as other business skills in helping a company meet its goals, according to human resource managers.  And companies that try to educate employees in such skills call them critical for their success.

The skills that companies most frequently work on with their employees include teamwork, the duties of leaders, coaching, time management, listening, verbal and written communication, and project management.

These skills not only are important for success, but also for adapting to changes in the business environment.  When making a change, communication skills become especially important, not just to explain to employees what is happening, but to motivate them to work at the change, according to human resource advisors.  These skills are also important when it comes to working with younger employees just entering the workforce.  This generation of workers wants constant feedback, and so communication becomes even more important.

To encourage the development of these kinds of skills at your organization, the first thing to do is figure out what particular communication skills are most important to your business. Observe the star performers at the company and see how they use these skills. Someone at the executive level should be in charge of implementing the training program for these skills.  It’s important to have someone at this level supporting the program because these skills are harder to measure quantitatively, and so it’s harder to show their value. But you also should try to measure the things that are measurable.  Feedback from a range of co-workers can help to determine what particular skills an employee needs to work on.  Surveys can help to get a sense of how well the lines of communication are working throughout the organization, as well as teamwork.

Then, target those specific skills which are most important to the success of your business or your department.  For some, teamwork may be the key skills that needs improvement; for others, it may be time management or listening skills.

If your Washington Metro construction, engineering or architecture firm needs skilled professionals, contact RealStreet Staffing. We’ll help you source and vet reliable workers for your temporary and direct-hire needs. We look forward to serving you.

If you are an employer and, in the course of your recruiting, you come across applicants who seem to have more education and experience than are required for the job, don’t reject them out of hand.  As a matter of fact, give them serious consideration.

As much as this seems to intuitively go against the grain, new research is revealing that workers considered to be overqualified usually outperform other workers – and they don’t leave any earlier than any other workers.

The bias of hiring managers against employees who are considered to be overqualified is common throughout the business world.  Businesses usually look for candidates who match the job requirements as closely as possible, as opposed to someone who has more education or experience than is required.  At first glance, this seems to be a good policy, because studies have shown that employees who believe themselves to be overqualified tend to be more dissatisfied at work.  A recent study of more than 150 call-center workers showed just that – there was a strong connection between workers who were overqualified and dissatisfaction at work.

And rejecting someone because he or she is considered to be overqualified conforms to all legal guidelines, unlike other discrimination cases based on age or gender.  Moreover, the refusal to consider people thought to be overqualified has cast them into the pool of those who have been unemployed for more than year, labeled as the long-term unemployed, a group that now makes up about half of all those who are out of work.

But even before the recession hit, having too many overqualified workers was a problem around the world, especially in emerging countries where education levels are rising and the job market cannot keep pace.

However, by not looking at these workers, businesses are passing up a tremendous opportunity.  One study  looked at people with above average intelligence who washed cars and collected garbage.  Not only did these people perform better than others on the job, they generally stayed on the job longer than other employees.  Money was not the key consideration.  For some, it was the lifestyle that the job offered, such as the working hours, or the values of the company.

The studies also showed that companies can lessen the feelings of job dissatisfaction of so-called overqualified employees by giving them more decision-making authority on the job.  By empowering them like this, it makes them more engaged and happier in their jobs.

If you have a need for qualified and reliable workers for your Washington Metro company, contact RealStreet Staffing. We can source and vet hard-working individuals for your temporary, temp-to-hire and direct-hire assignments. We look forward to hearing from you.