Welcome! Are you a new visitor to Ask Haley? We hope you'll enjoy our marketing tips, creative insights, and work samples. To keep up to date with our latest ideas, please subscribe to our RSS Feed. And if you do not already receive our newsletter, The Idea Club, you can subscribe here.

Ok, time to confess again…I’m a sports junkie.  Especially for my hometown teams (stay with me this time, I swear this will relate back to staffing).  So when I heard that ESPN had released its annual Ultimate Team Rankings, I couldn’t wait to see how the Bills and Sabres did.  The Rankings include all 122 teams from the four major sports (baseball, basketball, hockey, football). 

The great thing about this Ranking is that it isn’t created by some writer or blogger just making up his own list.  They create their list by surveying the fans of each team on a number of categories:

• Bang for the Buck
• Fan Relations
• Ownership
• Affordability
• Stadium Experience
• Players
• Coaching
• Title Track

Because it comes from the fans, I tend to put a little more credibility into this ranking.  Two years ago the Sabres were ranked #1, and my civic pride couldn’t have been bigger.  Now, just a short two years later, the Sabres have dropped to #63 and the Bills a dismal #91.  Yikes!

What stood out to me is that both teams performed poorly in ownership and players.  Of course when your owner sends one of your eight home games to Canada you have to expect some low rankings.  But that’s another blog for another time.

The local sports talk show had a field day with this and they brought up a good point.  It would be easy to just blow this off and say “ehh it’s just one survey, what does it matter.”  But they made the point that if you were a corporation and your customers ranked you this low it should throw up some big red flags.

So, as a staffing firm, what can you learn from this?  If someone surveyed all of your clients and candidates how would they rank you? 

How would they feel about your “players” or “ownership”?  

What would your candidates say about their “stadium experience”, aka your office?

Would you still rank as well as you did before this recession?  Or have you taken steps to improve your customer service during these difficult times?

So why not take each of these categories and make up your own survey?  Keep it anonymous in order to get respondents true feelings.  

Of course there is no definite end in sight for this recession but now is the time to start planning to take advantage for when the economy does bounce back.  It could mean the difference between your firm being at the top of the rankings or down near the bottom, like the Bills. 

Now if you’ll excuse me I’m now going to cry into my Scott Norwood jersey.

Ok, I’ll admit it, I’m a 4th of July junkie.  I love this day more than my birthday, more than Christmas, yes even more than the first weekend of the college football season.

As a kid we always went to a family cottage and tried to cram as much fun as possible into one 12 hour span.  Baseball, golf, swimming, the beach, hot dogs, bandminton, the list goes on.  And as I’ve gotten older that hasn’t stopped.  I guess it’s just something about grilling meat, leisure sports, a few cold beers, and things blowing up that works for me. 

That last point especially, is the key to the holiday for me.  A 4th without fireworks is like Christmas without a tree–just wouldn’t feel right.

So I thought I would pass along a history of fireworks.  I hope that everyone has a fun filled and safe holiday!

The History of Fireworks

• The Chinese are credited with the invention of the first firework which was a bamboo case filled with explosives, although some say that India was where the first firecracker was made.
• The first recorded fireworks display was at the wedding of Henry VII in England in 1487.
• European royalty enjoyed fireworks so much that Elizabeth I appointed a “Fire Master of England”, James II knighted his firemaster and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V dedicated a part of his army whose only function was to stage victory displays.
• Early settlers brought fireworks to our country. “Firings of black powder were used to celebrate holidays and impress the natives” (Wikipedia).
• By the time that the American Revolution took place, fireworks had already been established as playing a role in celebrating events and important occasions. This is why fireworks easily came to mind when America declared its independence.
• On July 4, 1776, we claimed our independence from Britain and the first official celebration of Independence Day (which included fireworks) occurred in 1777–before the Revolutionary War (1775-1783) was won.
• Fireworks were also displayed at George Washington’s inauguration in 1789.
• In the late 18th Century, politicians used fireworks to get people to attend their speeches.
• In 1892, over one million people celebrated the 400 year anniversary of Christopher Columbus discovering America in Brooklyn, NY.
• “Congress led the way for the encouragement of fireworks on the Fourth of July by authorizing a display on July 4, 1777, in Philadelphia, a year after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.” (Heintze)
• Over the next couple years, Fourth of July celebrations made their way to big cities such as Boston (1777), Worcester (1779), Charleston (1783) and more.

Companies need to change their thinking and push the envelope if they want to survive and even thrive in this economy.  During the course of the past year, we’ve heard this advice time and time again.  I recently read an article in Workforce Management that gave me insight into several staffing firms that are breaking down barriers.  These staffing firms are going after specific niche candidates, such as working moms, baby boomers, college students, retired individuals and other highly skilled tech and engineering talent.  Such business niches can be a win-win for companies if they are willing to try something new.

Here are examples of three staffing firms that are changing the traditional staffing model—and whose clients are benefiting:

Mom Corps – 94% of the company’s pool of over 25,000 candidates are made up of mothers who left corporate America to spend more time with their kids.  The moms have skills, experience, education and training under their belts—they just don’t want to work a typical 9-5 schedule.  Founder and CEO Allison O’Kelly said that the draw to clients is that “flexibility is currency”, in other words, “If employers offer more flexibly, candidates will view this as one form of payment.  So clients might be able to pay less money for higher talent, or they can access candidates who would not otherwise consider the position.”

The Boomer Group – The Boomer Group places, you guessed it, baby boomers or retired individuals.  They boast that their candidates have business and life experience, maturity, low turnover, and a proven record of results.  For their candidates they offer medical and dental coverage, a benefit that is extremely valued among this age demographic.  CEO Stephanie Klein says, “When I first started, I had the intention of saying that mature people are better workers than younger ones.  Now, we don’t say that all young people have a poor work ethic; we say that for certain key positions, experience counts.  This is our difference.”

CollegeHelpers.com – Although this is not a staffing company but rather a specialty job board, their business model is worth mentioning because it shows you what can happened when you go after a specific niche.  According to Workforce.com, they are “focused entirely on matching employers who want college students for part-time, temporary and seasonal jobs with those students at more than 1,000 institutions across the country.”  There are almost 2,000 employers that currently use the site and for a flat fee they can list as many colleges they’d like.  This low cost of doing business with access to top talent is appealing to companies across the U.S.

The examples in this post can help you stretch your current business model to take profitable advantage of business niches and make it successful for everyone involved!
Some facts found in Workforce.com’s article: “How Clients and Staffing Companies Can Benefit From Unconventional Candidates.”

Jobless claims, home sales, consumer confidence, interest rates. Most of us look to traditional indicators to gauge the state of the economy. But what do dry cleaners, first dates and romance novels show us?

I came across this great article that features a light hearted look at historic economic trends :  10-quirky economic indicators.

Enjoy!

So you’ve set up your LinkedIn profile…now what?

One of the best resources within LinkedIn are “groups”.   You can join groups to take part in discussions with colleagues within your industry, answer questions, share best practices, network, etc. 

The folks at Beyond–Recruitment Strategists recently came up with a list of the Top 5 groups that all recruiters need to join…

1. Linked: HR- Topics for Discussion: Job Offers, Recruiting Strategies & Processes, Career Management, Retention, Human Resources Trends & Technologies, HRIS, Best Practices, Employment Laws, Retirement, Compensation & Benefits, Health Care, M&A, Downsizing, Headhunting, and other key HR topics.

2. ERE.net- A networking group of over 12,000 human resource professionals.

3. eRecruiting- An excellent group for sourcing of candidates.  Over 7,000 members.

4. OpenReq- This group features 14,000 members who are dedicated to serving the staffing and recruiting industry.

5. Indeed- Indeed.com’s LinkedIn group featuring more than 4,000 members.

We’ve seen more and more of our clients becoming active in social networking sites.  What groups are you joining?

On June 23, QPS was recognized by Ragan.com for their major achievements stemming from their new website.  QPS determined they needed a new site since their old site wasn’t meeting their client’s needs. So far, the new site has produced amazing results!

Quick stats:

• The QPS site has more than a 450% increase in overall traffic.
• It has a 250% increase in candidate applications.
• The average user spends an average of 4.39 minutes on the site. 
• QPS also went on to win the “Best Corporate Web site” and “Best in Show” awards from the American Staffing Association.

Read the entire article where QPS was featured.

Q: In your last Ask Haley you talked about why a staffing firm should be on Twitter.  What about LinkedIn? 

A: Designed as a professional networking tool, LinkedIn currently has more than 42 million members in over 170 different industries in 200 countries and territories around the world.  According to LinkedIn, a new member joins approximately every second and executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members.  With those numbers, it’s safe to say that LinkedIn can be worth your time if invested the right way.

Unlike Twitter, the positive implications of using LinkedIn are much more straightforward.  Your professional network may be one of your most valuable assets as an individual and as a staffing company.  With LinkedIn, you can connect to other staffing firms like yours (that may have similar challenges), connect to colleagues you have worked with in the past, connect to your current clients and prospects, join groups, find talent, etc. 

When it comes to social media, LinkedIn can be your most powerful sales and recruiting tool.  Here are a few best practices for making LinkedIn work for your staffing firm:

Recruiting and prospect research.
With LinkedIn, finding and connecting to candidates and prospective clients can be easy if you know what to do.  Here are five ideas:

1. Maximize your network.  With LinkedIn networks, bigger equals better. Think six degrees of separation.  The more people in your network, the more people you can access.  To build your network, connect with current and former clients and candidates, colleagues at former employers, alumni from schools you attended, and members of groups you join.
2. Use the company search. As a prospecting tool, it’s a great way to find key executives who work for specific firms.  As a recruiting tool, you can use the company search to identify current and former employees in specific job functions.
3. Use the people search tool to look for candidates based on keywords they’ve listed on their LinkedIn profile.  
4. Use the group search tool to find organizations and networking groups of people with interests and experience that’s relevant to the types of prospects and candidates you are seeking.
5. Ask for referrals.  If you have a tough job to fill, ask for referrals via your status, LinkedIn’s in mail email service, and by posting your jobs to appropriate groups.

Helpful hint: When selling or recruiting on LinkedIn, don’t be overly salesy.  It’s most appropriate to be professional and direct.  Also, be sure to let whomever you are contacting know why you are contacting them, how you found them, and what you’d lke them to do next.

Build your brand.
LinkedIn is a terrific tool for building your personal brand and reputation, as well as that of your company.  Here are three ideas for using LinkedIn for brand building:

1. Build your credibility by asking for recommendations.  
2. Become a thought leader by answering questions, sharing articles with groups you join, and asking questions. 
3. Use your status updates to show off your expertise, drive people to your website, keep people informed of the events you attend and the organizations you support.

Keep an eye on the competition.
LinkedIn allows you to keep watch over your competition.  Use the company, people and question searches to see how they are sharing their expertise, where they are networking, and keep track of who they are hiring.

The ideas in this issue of Ask Haley are really the tip of the iceberg when it comes to leveraging the power of LinkedIn.  Here are two resources with more ideas on getting value from LinkedIn:

Guy Kawasaki’s article: 10 Ways to Use LinkedIn

Free LinkedIn Taining

Best regards,
David

Please connect with me on LinkedIn:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidsearns

And follow me on Twitter.  
http://twitter.com/DavidatHaley

A friend of mine, Jim Della Volpe just shared the following tips with me. Whether you’re a solo recruiter or an executive in a large staffing organization, these words of wisdom hold true for us all…

Advice on Growing Your Business
At one point or another in your business, you’ve had the opportunity to move up to the next level of success and it required a certain investment: in hiring someone, in creating systems, in yourself. Problem is, you may have stopped yourself by using the excuse of “not having enough money. It’s a mindset that keeps you playing small and limits your growth. Sinatra didn’t move his own pianos. Are you? If you’re still doing everything yourself, then read this:

1. Let others take care of details for you so that you can focus on your “genius work”, the stuff that actually makes you money. You see, Sinatra didn’t move his own piano each time he sang at a gig. He had a team in place to handle those details so that he could focus on two things: Singing and Getting More Gigs. And that’s what you should be focusing on too: Working with Clients and Getting More Clients. Everything else can be delegated.

2. Sometimes, it’s time to put the frugal part of you behind and REALLY invest in your business. No more holding back. When it’s time to grow, it’s also time to take out your wallet and INVEST in making more. My experience has been that, when I do invest in my business, it always comes back to me at least 4 to 10 times over. And although “money” is usually the excuse I’ve used in the past for not doing something (and I’m not the only one, you have too!), I’ve found that if I really look at a situation, I almost always have the resources to invest or can find a way to get them.

Jim Della Volpe, Business Advisor / Executive Coach
www.growingtreepartners.com

PS: Jim and I are working on a special Lunch with Haley webinar on growing your business.  We’ll be announcing it soon!

An article written for payscale.com and recently posted on Yahoo! highlighted the top 7 highest-demand, best-paying jobs in Obama’s stimulus package.  Here they are in no particular order:

1. Computer Security Specialist (particularly in healthcare related areas)
   Median annual salary: $78,376
2. Cost Estimator (sets budget for material and labor)
   Median annual salary: $58,868
3. Civil Engineer
   Median annual salary: $66,638
4. Insulation Installer
   Median annual salary: $44,460
5. Solar Panel Installer
   Median annual salary: $44,460
6. Physical Therapy Assistants
   Median annual salary: $48,999
7. Loan Officer
   Median annual salary: $43,070

For Staffing Firms and Recruiters, sourcing these niche candidates and building “project teams” could provide a core area of differentiation and help drive profits.  And if you’re looking for staffing brochures or website updates to help market your new niche, we would be happy to help!

As a provider of construction labor solutions in a competitive environment, TradeSource, Inc. needed a new image that stood out from their competition. With a revised logo and color scheme, and a completely new website, Haley Marketing was able to “build” a new brand image that really differentiates them in the marketplace. With more than 25 locations, and staffing capabilities nationwide, TradeSource is able to post jobs from across the country with the Haley Marketing Job Board.

http://www.tradesource.com/

Discover more about Haley Marketing’s Website Services:
Staffing Websites
Staffing SEO
Job Boards
Staffing Software Integration