Salaries on job description

Salaries on Job Postings

Overview of Issue

In a recent survey, 91% of job seekers and 67% of recruiters want a salary to be listed on a job description. However, only 12% of jobs posted list a salary according to a Ziprecruiter interview with CNN. This issue has gained recent attention with legislation moving swiftly across the country and prominent leaders calling for transparence and equity.

And yet, many employers still express reluctance about including the salary in the job posting.

Watch the video below for our argument about the benefits for companies including salaries in job descriptions, featuring Peak’s Clarence Augustine.

Looking Up Salaries Online

In our modern Internet age, more and more job seekers are looking up the salary, or expected salary, on tools like salary.com or glassdoor.com.

Salary.com is an aggregator of data that helps employers and job seekers estimate the compensation range of a given role in a given area.

Glassdoor, by contrast, relies on user information where past and present employees report what they made in a specific role at a specific company.

Increasingly, job seekers can get a pretty good idea of how much they’re worth to you.

Transparency is Key

91% of job seekers want to see a salary listed. They also want to know what the benefits look like, what their upward mobility paths look like, and how the company culture is. Job seekers increasingly are doing extensive research online before the interview to vet a company, just as the company is vetting them.

For staffing agencies, we seek to get as much of this information ahead of time as possible. This helps us to be able to better sell your role. This information is always useful but is downright critical in the current tight labor market.

Sharing the salary on your own job posting is also estimated to pull in 2-3 times as many views on various job posting sites. So, if you’re struggling to find people, you should really think about including the salary in the job description.

Pay Equity

It’s currently estimated that women earn 80 cents to the dollar that a man does. This problem is also experienced by various marginalized groups of people: people with disabilities, racial and ethnic minorities, and LGBTQIA+ people. When a group is historically disenfranchised, they may be less likely to negotiate for the competitive wages earned by their peers.

Pay equity is still a huge problem in the workplace and including a salary on a job description is one of the first and easiest steps a company can take to beginning to correct for this continuing issue.

Why Companies Don’t Include Salaries

Companies might be reluctant to include salaries on job posting for a couple reasons (and why those arguments are flawed):

  1. Attempting to payroll lower costs – many companies feel that they can get away with lowballing candidates in order to keep costs low. This often increasingly feeds into existing pay equity disparities. Also, candidates can just look it up online and will lose trust in your organization when they find out you’re lowballing them.
  2. Not enough budget for required skill – some companies may not have the budget for the skills and abilities they need to recruit for so they don’t include a salary in order to get some unsuspecting candidates to accept the role. This will probably leave you spinning your wheels with recruiting and experiencing a higher turnover rate, thus costing you more money in the long run. You must pay people what they’re worth.
  3. A company is worried about their existing employees pay – finally, some companies are concerned about their existing employees finding out what their new hires are making. Ultimately, this is an issue with pay equity and a company should be paying new employees close to what their current ones are making. Attempting to cover this up will lead to significant turnover and job dissatisfaction.

Let’s Talk about Salary Bands

Unfortunately, the other mistake many companies make is including a really wide salary band that doesn’t give an accurate expectation of how much people will actually be earning in the job. This too can drive a negative perception of the company as perspective employees suspect you’re trying to trick them into a role.

Try to express, as transparently as possible, the base salary (before commissions and bonuses) and keep the range between $5,000 – $10,000.

 

Engaging and Remote Workforce

Remote Workforce Engagement – A Guide for Businesses

Overview of Remote Work Challenges

Over the pandemic, we saw a huge shift to the number of employees working remotely. Even today, the number of remote and hybrid workers far outstrips those from before. However, employee engagement is a painpoint among remote talent and something many companies struggle with. How does your company engage with and include people not in the office?

In this video we share our advice for companies looking to better engage remote workers through an inclusive culture. Featuring Brandon Kline from our Disability Inclusion Management team.

The Changing Landscape of Remote Work

Prior to the pandemic only 6% of workers were remote. At the height of the pandemic, as many as 35% of the workforce was working remotely, and that has since dropped to 26% (December 2022). However, this still poses a five-fold increase in the number of remote workers.

Furthermore, remote work is one of the most in-demand job types out there. Many employees are even willing to take a lesser paying job for the flexibility, comfort, and work-life balance that remote work can afford. With our modern technology, remote work is not going away.

Remote Work – A Range of Employee Experiences

While remote work is very popular, many express feelings of loneliness or trouble engaging with with the company. While some workforces feel fully integrated, others feel fragmented with remote workers gaining less visibility and less recognition for their hard work.

Thus, as a company who hires remote workers, you want to make sure that you’re creating a consistently positive experience for all of your employees no matter where they are.

What Can You Do?

  • Regular check ins – just as you would with any other employee, its important for managers to have a cadence of regular check ins that are given the same priority as in-person check ins.
  • Respecting their time – it’s important to make sure that when you schedule time with remote workers that you recognize their time is valuable and seek to prioritize showing up for those meetings the same as you would for employees in your building.
  • Show your face – its important to utilize video chat in order to build rapport and have deeper engagement. This is especially important if you schedule a meeting and they show their face but you don’t show yours. Face time, even if 1,000 miles away, is still important.
  • Show your support – make yourself always available to chat and consistently provide them feedback. It’s also important to remember to build relationships with your remote staff the same as you would in-person staff. It’s also important to remember to help ensure they take breaks and disconnect the same as on-site employees. Finally, provide recognition company-wide so everyone to celebrate their accomplishments.
  • Host virtual events – it can be disappointing when an employee can’t join you for in-person event. Try alternating between on-site and virtual after-hours and team building events.

Respecting Boundaries

Many remote workers can feel challenges with being able to disconnect. If their bedroom is their office and if their phone and email goes off all hours of the day, it can be difficult for them to take necessary time away. As employers we need to be respectful of and honor those boundaries.

Finally, understand that differences in time zones may make it difficult for people to attend certain meetings scheduled earlier or later in the day.

Nobody wants to work any more

“Nobody Wants to Work Any More” Discussion for Businesses

Overview of Recruiting and Hiring Challenges

When the labor market gets tight, this becomes a familiar refrain. But actually we find there’s nothing different about the work ethic of people working right now compared with times past, and this refrain is actually quite an old one.
Many companies are now worried what if “nobody wants to work for ME any more?” So let’s talk about some of the hiring fatigue you’re experiencing and what you can do about it.

Join Peak Performers and guest Brian Crawley to for discussion on the hiring challenges companies are facing and why so many of us are saying “nobody wants to work any more.”

 

 

Not a New Phenomenon

The challenges companies are facing are turning them towards a familiar phrase “nobody wants to work any more.” This phrase dates back to newspaper clippings going to 1894.

In periods of difficult hiring, the people doing the hiring and interviewing often become frustrated in doing so and take out their frustration by minimizing the work ethic of the current workforce.

Let’s Talk about Hiring Fatigue

The average person stays in a job is around one year. This means that all your new hires and longtime employees are more likely to turnover, further frustrated hiring managers and recruiters. Hiring managers and recruiters are tired from the churn.

It can be exhausting to spin your wheels trying to recruit people only to not have them ghost you on interviews or not show up on their first day. It’s even more exhausting when those employees you work so hard to bring onboard leave soon thereafter.

What if “Nobody Wants to Work For ME Any More?”

This has caused a reckoning among hiring managers and companies as they realize that the problem may be with their jobs and company.

In times of a strong labor market, it can be difficult to make your job stand out. In times where pay is going up, it can be hard to retain your workers without doing the same. And when you’re short staffed, your existing staff feels more pressure and is more likely to burn out and leave. Meanwhile, all your employees begin to reevaluate the work culture of a company and how much they actually want to stay where they are.

What Can I Do?

For starters, its important to not externalize the problem. The talent is not less qualified or lazier than they used to be. They’re just shopping around for the best deal. So how do you make your job more attractive?

Once you find great talent, the single greatest barrier that can arise is a long onboarding process. Your hiring team needs to move swiftly to identify talent, interview them, make an offer, and get them started.

Once they’re there, focus on building an inclusive culture where people want to work.

What are Employees Looking for?

Besides pay and benefits, the single biggest consensus among job seekers is the desire for remote work. Many employees are even willing to take a job that pays less if it allows them to work from home at least some of the time, as we see with hybrid roles.

This matters since during the pandemic many people were forced into remote work and realized the advantages of being able to better manage their work-life balance.

If your competitors allow remote work and you do not, you may continue to face hiring and retention struggles.

 

Quiet Quitting: Advice for Employers

Quiet Quitting Guide for Businesses

What is quiet quitting

“Quiet quitting” is the phenomenon of employees doing the minimum to satisfy their job requirements but not going above and beyond. In doing so, employees are seeking a better work-life balance. This originated from a TikTok video in March 2022.

“Quiet quitting” has been last year’s verbal punching bag of many companies who are struggling to hire and retain workers as well as get more production out of them. However, “quietly quitting” is really just a signal of the changing times and shifting labor market. Furthermore, it’s a symptom or wide-spread burnout that has spurred the “great resignation” from last year.

In this video, we explain what is “quiet quitting,” where it came from, and how it’s affecting businesses featuring Peak Performers’ Kathi Workman.

Work-Life balance

An increasing importance is being placed on work-life balance in today’s company culture. This becomes increasingly important to retaining workers. While once upon a time work cultures might have been a “give me your all” environment, most successful companies today are finding it important to give employees some space and respect their time off.

While hustle culture is far from dead, it’s important to recognize that many valuable employees are seeking to strike a more even work-life balance. The prospect of being able to set boundaries is exciting and hopeful for many employees.

Effects of the pandemic

The COVID-19 lockdowns forced many people into remote work where it was difficult to find a physical separation between work and home, especially when one’s office is in their bedroom, and when phone calls and emails come through all day long.

Following the nationwide labor shortages, many employees and job seekers have felt empowered to ask for better separation between work and their personal lives and thus has spurred the social media trend of “quiet quitting”

Who is quietly quitting?

It’s estimated that as many 50% of workers have “quietly quit” or are doing the minimum to satisfy their job requirements. People from all levels in organizations as many people struggle to regain a better work-life balance.

Is quietly quitting bad?

Technically, if someone is quietly quitting they are still satisfying the job requirements.

Many employers may become frustrated with not being able to gain as much output from workers, but perhaps we need to be re-evaluating the role expectations for our jobs.

Many workers take offense to the term “quietly quitting” because they feel like it unfairly characterizes them setting boundaries at work.

As an employer, should I be upset?

You can be, but it might be more productive to understand the current trends of the labor market and what employees are seeking from your culture. It’s also important to recognize that some employees can be just as productive and effective even if they’re not available all hours of the day.

At the end of the day, many people want a better work-life balance and quietly quitting is one of the ways that employees are expressing this desire.

It’s also a moment to turn inwards towards company culture since many employees are seeking something deeper than a paycheck and are seeking a mission to stand behind and to be more involved at work.

What can employers do about quiet quitting?

Validate the experience of your employees and tell them they’re doing a great job. Seek to include them more in your company’s culture.

Show compassion and understanding when employees need to disconnect and respect their work-life balance by learning when to bug them and when business can wait.

Loneliness at Work

Loneliness and the Work World

Advice for Businesses to Combat Loneliness

Whether employees are working on-site, hybrid, or remotely, loneliness at work is an increasing challenge many individuals and their businesses are facing (though perhaps its felt most by remote employees). What employers may not realize is that this is hurting bottom line and productivity by causing higher rates of burnout and turnover.

Let’s talk about loneliness and building a culture of inclusion, especially in a world where many of our co-workers are half a continent away. Watch the video below with Peak Performers’ Nick Bergen.

Key Stats about Loneliness

  • 36% of Americans feel loneliness at work on a regular basis
  •  61% of young adults feel loneliness regularly
  • 51% of mothers with small children feel lonely

Loneliness affects a lot of people. These statistics have drastically increased since 2014 and the COVID-19 lockdowns have accelerated the trend even more.

Despite the amount of connectivity we all have access too, many people are feeling more disconnected than before.

Why should you care as a business?

While this may feel like something that’s “not your problem” this can adversely affect productivity, employee engagement, and retention.

Employee engagement is most drastically affected by loneliness. If someone is feeling lonely, they are much more likely to disconnect at work. Employees want to like who they work with and seek social engagement in their work.

And when someone is feeling lonely their productivity tends to decrease. Additionally, they’re more likely to turn over or “quietly quit.”

When we talk about company culture, it’s important to recognize that for most people company culture is the people and the experience of going to work.

What can businesses do to positively impact company culture and loneliness?

First off, understand that socialization happening at work is not a drain or something that needs to be punished. Time spent around the proverbial “water cooler” is time well spent to increase a culture of inclusion and improve company culture

It can also be helpful to implement an employee wellness program. Many such programs focus solely on physical health but having a social and mental health component can help with employee loneliness.

Also make sure to include all of your employees in company events and social activities wherever possible. Be on the lookout for those who are most socially disconnected and make a concerted effort to include them

Finally, strive to make your workplace more inclusive by including more people of various different background. It’s important to remember that hiring just one person from a representative group is not enough for true inclusion and it helps to avoid multiple people from various diverse groups to mitigate “tokenship” effects.

 

 

Free Training and Learning with Metrix

Announcing Partnership with Metrix Learning

Peak Performers is proud to announce a new partnership program with Metrix Learning and Workforce Solutions Capital Area.

Through this program, current employees, as well as job seekers who connect to Peak Performers, are invited to gain free training and and certification preperation through Metrix’s platform.

Metrix Highlights:

  • Pick from 100s of courses and career tracks to help you improve your skills or learn new ones
  • Learning incorporates push reminders, quizzes, reading, and videos for an interactive learning experience
  • Training is on-line and self-guided taken completely at one’s own pace
  • Signing up is easy and it’s free

Ready to get started?

Visit this link and complete the form. Don’t forget to select “Peak Performers” when selecting “Referred By.”

Note: if you’re outside of the Austin-area, you still may be eligible to enroll. Contact info@peakperformers.org to get more information.

What happens next?

After completing a form, you will be redirected to the home page to get started learning right away. Pick from 100s of different individual courses or choose a pathway with curated course recommendations.

Learning is all online and self-guided. You can use this as an opportunity to gain additional skills or explore whether a career focus might be right for you. Watch the video to learn more about how to navigate the platform and select pathways, courses, and certifications that are right for you.

 

 

Remote work drawbacks

Considering the drawbacks of remote work

Is remote work good for my career?

I’ve worked remotely before so I get it: rolling out of bed right before work, looking out your kitchen window at the sunrise while you check email and sip coffee, taking a neighborhood walk to break up the work day—it’s pretty nice. For many other people, such as those with kids or those with certain disabilities, this can be a godsend allowing them to have a schedule that actually works for them or a work environment where they’re comfortable and productive.

For these reasons, I think that remote work will always have a place, as it should. But I think it’s still relatively new and it’s important to point out some of the drawbacks. Also, if you’re considering remote work for the first time, be sure to check out our article here.

Remote work downsides:

1) The jobs are highly competitive to attain.

According to Google, there are twice as many people looking for “remote jobs” as there are people looking for “jobs.” This is pretty consistent with the job seekers I meet. They often ask about remote work and then only reluctantly agree to consider on-site jobs or hybrid roles. Also, its estimated by Zippia that only 15% of jobs are work from home. So, if you are only considering remote jobs, realize that you will be competing against WAY more people for way fewer jobs.

2) Remote workers may be more likely to get laid off.

In a survey of 3000 managers by beautiful.ai, 60% agree that remote workers are more likely to be laid off first (only 20% said this is unlikely). Laying off people is hard—but perhaps these conversations are made a little easier when the person is not sitting across the table from you? Perhaps its made a little easier when you don’t have lunch with them in the break room every day? 

3) You may be less likely to get promoted.

Face time matters for your work life: a lot of interpersonal relationships develop in the workplace and its easier for your manager to see the great work that you do when they can see it in person. That’s not to say you can’t get promoted but that it might be harder to develop rapport with your bosses and colleagues. Also, you might have to be more deliberate about demonstrating your hard work. This trend has been called by Fast Company the “Zoom ceiling” after their study found remote workers less likely to get promoted.

4) Your boss probably likes the office.

Odd are, your boss probably enjoys working on-site and got to where they are from going into the office. For many people, their work life dominates their social life. You may be able to tout evidence of remote worker productivity, of which there’s plenty of recent discussion, but that alone won’t overcome their natural preference. After all, when you work remotely, they now have to spend a large portion of their week talking you on on video chat.

5) It can be lonely.

I can personally say that I prefer working remotely on days where I need to deeply focus on a project. However, I nearly always find myself working through lunch, rarely take that afternoon walk, and at the end of the day I’m longing to talk to someone in person, to collaborate, and I find myself eager for validation on my work product. Some of my remote coworkers describe how they’ll go out to eat dinner at a restaurant, even alone, just to be around other people. 

Disclaimers

We’re all going to have different experiences working remotely. My boss and many of my colleagues work remotely. Many of them HAVE been successfully promoted. I’ve worked remotely as well as in a hybrid environment. There can be some incredible advantages to remote work, but it’s also important to evaluate some of these drawbacks too.

2023 Job Seeking Advice

Find a job in 2023

Top job seeking advice from Peak Performers

It’s that time of the year: time for merriment, cookies, holiday wishes, and even New Years resolutions. Top of many people’s lists are finding a job or finding a better job. Are you looking to find a job in 2023?

What are our job seeking tips for 2023?

Recession planning

Job seeking will be harder in 2023 than it was in 2022 due to a likely economic downturn (one that is probably already upon us). However, talent is still exceedingly hard to come by due to the number of people who left the workforce during the pandemic so as a job seeker the wind is still at your back. My best advice is this: do not procrastinate because more and more layoffs are happening. If you need a job, start applying for a new one as soon as possible. I have more recession planning tips here.

Network, network, network

75% of all jobs are gained by who you know. While Indeed and Ziprecruiter get the hiring limelight, most jobs are still acquired through shaking hands and making friends. So now is a great time to get on LinkedIn and build your personal brand. Now is a great time to join a job club, such as LaunchPad Job Club. Check out more about why networking is important.

Success is (partly) about showing up

In a recent Business Insider Article from 2021, they report that in retail and food industries 90% of people scheduled for interviews don’t show up. In the professional sector, people are much more likely to show up but ghosting is still a major problem felt by all employers. So stick to the basics: answer your phone when it rings, respond to employer emails, show up to your scheduled interview, and write a nice thank you letter after your interview. 

Remote work, pretty please?

Did you know that on Google the number of people looking for “remote jobs” is double that of the people just looking for “jobs?” Remote work continues to be in vogue and is a valuable accommodation for many people with disabilities as well as those with familial obligations that keep them home. However, just realize that you’ll be competing against more people than ever before for those precious remote jobs. Odds are your boss actually likes working in the office and may want you there too—in fact some companies are enacting policies to NOT promote remote workers. Consider going back into the office or at least consider a hybrid work environment.

Seek out less visible companies.

We live in a rich-get-richer attention economy. Large, well known brands will get 100s of applications to 1 received at a small/medium sized business that does not have brand name recognition. It’s always been hard to get into these companies but, since many of them are implementing hiring freezes or laying people off, it’s harder than ever before. Drive around your city and write down the names of companies that are unfamiliar to you. Read local business publications to build a list of lesser-known companies. Consider new strategies for seeking out and applying for jobs. 

Peak Performers can help you find a job

Are you ready to find a new job or a better job? Peak Performers is actively hiring!

Employment after being an entrepreneur

How do I put my start-up business on my resume?

Running your own business is hard and you have to wear many hats. I’ve been there with a failed venture called “Mr. Good Name” back in my 20s that I started with a buddy of mine. It provided online reputation management services to small businesses in Ohio.

Being an entrepreneur teaches you a lot of skills you wouldn’t normally be exposed to; however, it doesn’t always translate well to a traditional resume and some employers may be reluctant to hire you. 

Tips for translating your resume:

What do you call yourself?

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is adding the title “CEO” if you were a one-person show. Yes, you were the CEO but a CEO’s resume looks really different than that of most people. Some recruiters might be concerned that you’re either arrogant or that you’re over-qualified for their position. Unless you actually had a significant amount of staff reporting to you and are actively seeking another CEO role, I would avoid lofty titles. I prefer simply “business owner/founder.”

Tailor your skills to the job.

If you’re a one-person show, you likely were the head of marketing, accounting, customer service, and sales. You did it all! Look at the kinds of roles you’re applying for and cherry pick specific experiences and skills to include. You won’t be able to include all of your experience and that’s ok.

Addressing failure.

If you’re applying for a job after running your own business, it’s probably because your business didn’t work out. In my own case, my business partner and I knocked on over a thousand doors and had a direct mail marketing campaign, but ultimately we launched the business in a recession and there was not enough market demand for online reputation management services. Am I ashamed of this? No. But culturally we tend to look down on failure without context—so provide that context. Use the experience to tell a story during the interview of what you tried and what you learned and then employers will be more understanding.

Tout your success.

If you had any success with your start-up, you probably had to work HARD for it. So include the story of your business as well as growth it achieved.

Signal that you work well with and for others.

Here’s the big one: many people start their own business because they have trouble getting a job in the first place, can’t keep a job, or have trouble working with/for other people. So, they try to do their own thing. HR wants to be assured that you will stick around after they go to all the trouble to hire. During the interview, address these concerns as directly as possible and be ready to demonstrate that you are a team player who can report to others.

What if I’m still doing it?

If you are still working at your start-up, be aware that potential employers might be concerned by this. Employers are concerned that 1) your attention will be divided 2) you’ll jump ship the moment business picks up or 3) you’ll use this job to steal customers or business secrets. It might be worthwhile to consider shuttering your business or keep it up only as a lightweight consulting gig.

Layoff FAQs and Planning

Planning for layoffs and frequently asked questions

Are layoffs coming in 2023?

Right now, the long-forecasted recession seems to be more imminent than ever. Some economists are predicting more layoffs in the near future.

Why are layoffs happening?

High tech companies sometimes act as the canary in the economic coal mine. High tech companies currently are struggling with access to cheap borrowing and venture capital. Furthermore, consumer spending has backed off. Other high tech companies are cutting back their workforce in anticipation of a coming recession.

Layoffs happen when companies need to cut down expenses. Often, employees are the most expensive part of most businesses and so they’re often the first element to be impacted when recessions happen or business slows down.

What should I do if I’m at risk of getting laid off?

  1. Work on your resume now. It can be hard to re-construct your work experience after you’re no longer with a company. When exactly did you do that project and what percentage impact did it have on the bottom line? Take the time while you’re still employed to get all the information about your current job that you may need to market yourself for your next job.
  2. Build your network. 75% of all jobs are found via referral. It’s all about who you know! Layoffs are a universally traumatic time period, for the people that leave and those who stay. If you are axed, know who you can reach out to for help finding another job and who will be your reference. Also keep in mind that often you can go to work for your competitors (provided there’s not a non-compete in place) or even your customers. Make sure to get personal contact information for people who will be allies in your upcoming job search.
  3. Get on LinkedIn. I often joke that only three kinds of people active on LinkedIn: recruiters, sales people, and job seekers. If you get on LinkedIn and start interacting with people and building your personal brand with insightful posts, you send a strong signal that you are available to work.
  4. Start applying. While you’re updating your resume and solidifying your network, you might as well apply for a couple jobs. You can take a couple of interviews and who knows…maybe you’ll find a great company to work for? Even if you don’t find a job right now, this will help you exercise these skills and get a feel for what the job market is like right now.
  5. Save some money for a rainy day. I’m not a financial counselor, but I will point out that many job seekers feel like they have to say “yes” to the first thing that comes along because they need a paycheck ASAP. If possible, try to save some money to ride out a period of job loss so that you can find the right opportunity and not just an opportunity. Similarly, you can start researching COBRA health insurance options (or other marketplace options) so you’re not left without insurance.
  6. Imagine the worst, hope for the best. While it’s not fun to imagine getting laid off, doing so can help emotionally prepare you for the worst case scenario. Doing this emotional preparation allows you to respond better in the moment and to hit the ground running if it does happen. Job loss often comes with grief and this can help you process your grief faster so it doesn’t get in the way of your new job search.

Who gets laid off first?

Layoffs often affect many people and companies all do it a little differently. Here’s some of the most frequently targeted groups of people:

  • Mid-level managers. Often, companies will seek to downsize by cutting out management. If you are a mid-level manager overseeing a small team, you may be at higher risk if your company were to merge these smaller teams.
  • Less tenured employees. Sometimes there will be a feeling of “last in, first out.” If you were recently hired you may be at higher risk.
  • Higher paid employees. Employees who have been around longer and are paid relatively higher than their peers doing similar work might also be at higher risk of lay-offs.
  • Lower performing employees. Sometimes companies will target specific employees based on performance reviews.

Who can help if I get laid off?

Peak Performers is happy to! Please browse our jobs here! Also be sure to reach out to your local workforce development center and your personal network.

Additionally, make sure to check out our local resources list. Remember, you’re not in this alone.

Artificial intelligence and the work world

Insights into the new world of work

Is artificial intelligence coming for my job?

If your job is repetitive and requires minimal independent decision making, the short answer is yes.

Yes, artificial intelligence, robots, and engineers behind these innovations are coming for your job. 

So, you should take this time to upskill. With the changing economy, it is no longer a viable excuse to say you “don’t like computers” and therefore won’t use them. Furthermore, as a society we should pour resources and training dollars to ensure that no-one who wants to gain additional skills is shut out of a job in the future because they can’t afford it or don’t have access to the technology.

The future of work

What becomes a more interesting question is: 

“What will the future of work look like when we work alongside artificial intelligence?”

In the world of chess, there is not a grandmaster alive who can beat a well coded 99 cent phone app. Computers have come a long way.

And yet it’s important to recognize that computers think and excel at different kinds of tasks than we do. A computer beats grandmasters because they are able to “see into the future” more possible moves ahead and calculate the optimal play in every possibility. They win the war of attrition by consistently making moves that are just a little bit better based on hundreds of thousands of calculations.

However, the moment that you change the rules, the algorithm becomes inoperable. Let’s say that we set up the board randomly or add a new piece that moves differently from the others. The value of humans is that they have flexible, malleable thinking and can make independent decisions without having to relearn the entire game.

Currently, the world’s leading grandmasters (who can beat other humans) are the people who religiously consult computers for optimal plays in practice and then are able to blend this with flexible, independent decision making when playing others. However, it’s also important to note that if you can download an app on your phone and have access to basically the same resources. Novice human players today are vastly better than they were a decade ago.

So how will AI impact your job?

All of our industries are seeing an infusion of AI. For recruiters, we are learning the ways of an applicant tracking system. Similar to a chess program, it’s able to quickly find candidates and also recall past interactions with those people. 

What it lacks is also important to note: the ability to read between the lines on a person’s resume, the ability be creative and see other possible jobs for which they might fit, the ability to have a conversation. Hiring humans is complicated and requires other humans and will for the foreseeable future. 

Even basic communication skills, such as responding to an email, is very difficult for a computer to do well. Language is complicated and built on very complicated and ever-changing rules. However, you can gain a lot from turning on spell check before you reply to the email.

The bottom line: learn to work with computers. They are a tool, not some scary overlord. The most successful workers in the future will be those who can learn to adopt and utilize these new tools.

Are you ready to upskill?

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All about staffing agencies

Staffing agency business overview

What is a staffing agency?

A staffing agency is a business that searches for workers on behalf of other organizations. They help these clients with temporary and/or permanent roles. (And they help job seekers find jobs.) Personally, I find this definition from Law Insider to be the most helpful:

“Staffing agency means any person who undertakes, with or without compensation, to recruit, refer or place individuals for employment, or to procure opportunities for work, or to with an employer.” – Staffing agency definition from Law Insider.

For temporary jobs, the staffing agency acts as the “employer of record” or legal employer and provides workers wages and benefits. For permanent jobs, the staffing agency operates as an extension of the HR team by helping them recruit, screen, and interview talent for permanent jobs within the company. This model, often called “direct hire,” is different in that the recruited person is never an employee of the staffing agency.

Staffing agencies tend to specialize in a particular kind of service or talent. For our part, we mostly focus on office and professional roles.

What else do you call staffing agencies?

Staffing companies are called many different things, some of which include:

  • Employment agencies
  • Recruitment companies
  • Consulting companies
  • Staffing firm

All of these terms are interchangeable and it’s mostly a matter of preference which label a staffing company prefers using.

Additionally, the service performed, staffing, is itself sometimes called different things, such as:

  • Staff augmentation (often associated with information technology staffing projects)
  • Consulting services (often associated with IT when the workers are 1099 contractors, not employees)
  • Temp service (usually associated with short term, less experienced positions)
  • Contingent labor (often associated with project-based staffing)
  • Employee leasing (this is a somewhat outdated term referring specifically to temporary employment)

These terms are also all interchangeable.

How much do staffing agencies cost?

Staffing agencies make money through temporary staffing, temp-to-permanent staffing, or direct hire staffing. Each of these models generate revenue for the agency a little differently.

  • Temporary staffing: the client is charged an hourly “bill rate” that accounts for costs associated with the employed individual. These include: wages, benefits, insurance, risk, operating costs, and profit. Costs might also be expressed as a “markup rate” or “markup percent.” For example, an employee makes $50 / hour and the markup rate charged by the agency is 50%. The bill rate is therefore $75 / hour ($50 + $50*.5).
  • Temp-to-permanent staffing: the client is charged an hourly “bill rate” as they are in normal temporary staffing. However, the client can hire the person on directly if they’re a good fit for the organization. If this happens, the client is charged a placement fee that decreases over time the longer the employee works temporarily.
  • Direct hire staffing: the client is charged a percent of the first year’s annual salary for the selected candidate. This is sometimes called a “placement fee” For example, if a person makes $100,000 / year and the placement fee is 25%, the amount charged is $25,000. Sometimes, a client asks for “executive search services.” This model is virtually identical except is usually a harder and more involved search reserved for leadership roles. It also typically costs more.

Actual out-the-door costs for staffing vary within the industry and is subject to negotiation based on a range of factors. The good news is that it usually doesn’t cost anything to have a staffing agency look for talent. It only costs if you decide to bring someone on board.

For our part, you can schedule a time to go over pricing with one of our business development team.

Is temporary or direct hire better for me as a client?

Different organizations will prefer various staff augmentation models. Generally, there are several key questions to ask yourself:

  • Is this project-based or short term? If so, I recommend temporary staffing.
  • Do I want to try the worker out? If so, I recommend temporary-to-permanent staffing.
  • Do I want help recruiting for internal roles? If so, I recommend direct hire.
  • Do I want to pay up front or spread out the cost? If up front, I recommend direct hire as a straight forward, one time fee. If spread out, I recommend temporary-to-permanent.

Who uses staffing agencies?

Many organizations use staffing agencies. Government, companies, nonprofits–most organizations use or have used staffing agencies to solve business needs such as finding talent quickly or completing projects.

Why hire a staffing agency?

This is the question I get asked the most: “Why would I hire a staffing agency when I could just recruit myself?

 

Some of the top reasons organizations hire staffing companies include:

  • Try before you buy: if you want to try out someone on a temporary basis before committing to hiring them, this can be a great reason to utilize temporary or temp-to-permanent models.
  • Unable or too busy to find talent yourself: sometimes you need help finding someone. Whether you need a whole bunch of people for a time sensitive project or are struggling to find a hard-to-find candidate, staffing agencies act as an extension of your HR to find and send you talent.
  • Cost effectiveness: it can actually be cheaper to bring on temporary personnel instead of paying staff by the time you account for wages, benefits, cost to train, and other hidden employment costs. This is especially the case if the work is not constant and you’d be struggling to find things for another extra employee to do. Similarly, it can be cost effective to utilize direct hire if not having someone in role is costing you money. In both cases, utilizing these services can also cut down on costs related to advertising jobs and employing recruiters.
  • Reduced organizational risk: whenever you employ someone, you’re taking on risk. A staffing agency absorbs the cost of workers compensation and health insurance. They’re also liable for unemployment claims. Finally, should any labor disputes arise, it is usually the staffing agency that is held accountable.
  • Access to their talent pool and expertise: staffing agencies spend all day, every day recruiting. Your HR team, by contrast, may only do it once in a while. When you sign up with a staffing agency, they often have recruited for similar previous roles before and perhaps have some candidates already ready to go. They can often find talent faster than you can and access talent that was not visible to you.

Need staffing help?

Our recruiters are ready to assist. Reach out to us today to schedule a consultation. You can also check out our guide to picking the right staffing agency for you.