Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 467,000 in January.
Unemployment rate edged up by 0.1 percent to 4.0 percent.
Employment growth continued in leisure and hospitality, in professional and business services, in retail trade, and in transportation and warehousing.
The number of unemployed persons decreased by 467,000 to 6.5 million.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) declined by 300,000 to 1.7 million in January.
Among the unemployed, the number of job leavers increased to 952,000 in January, following a decrease in the prior month.
Looking Forward:
A record-setting spike in coronavirus cases wasn’t enough to derail the job market recovery at the beginning of the year. Hiring rose higher than expectations.
Service industries were hit hard in January as the latest coronavirus surge led to absences among employees, kept customers away and compounded supply constraints. Perhaps no sector was struck harder than the restaurant and bar industry.
“The economic fallout from each successive wave of the pandemic has been smaller and smaller,” Nick Bunker, economist at jobs site Indeed, said in a note. “This trend, along with strong demand for workers suggests 2022 could be a year with continued strong gains for the labor market.”
The unemployment rate rose slightly in January to 4% from 3.9% in December, with more people joining the workforce. Low joblessness is helping spur wage growth. Wages climbed 5.7% in January from a year earlier, nearly double the average of about 3% before the pandemic hit.
Omicron still affected the job market in January. The variant sent millions of sick workers into quarantine, exacerbating labor shortages at restaurants, airlines and public-transit systems. 3.6 million Americans were employed but absent from work due to illness in January, up from two million in Jan 2021 and 1.1 million in Jan 2020.
It’s a New Year, but it is more of the same for many workers. The Omicron variant of the ever-changing Coronavirus has forced many of us to work remotely, postpone travel plans, and cancel social gatherings, which has further strained our mental well-being.
We know that worker morale is low.
The mental health strain may be most evident at work, where workers experience burnout and are frustrated by their lack of a healthy work-life balance.
In one survey from Talkspace, an online mental health company, 50% of employees felt that work has become too stressful. Many reported working longer hours and feeling pressure to work harder because of managing high employee turnover and juggling multiple projects at once.
And low morale is leading to resignations.
Workers are in a rut, and some are even quitting their jobs to find a better situation with another company or in another profession altogether. 4.5 million workers quit their jobs in November alone. While compensation and benefits are factors, work-life balance, career development, and workplace perks are essential as well.
In our Employee Retention Guide, we discuss some of the reasons why workers are resigning in record numbers. If you haven’t had the opportunity to read it yet, it may be helpful to learn how to market internally to your employees and provide a positive working environment.
Why are mental health discussions between employers and employees necessary?
As employers and employees alike navigate through the ups and downs of the pandemic and other issues affecting mental well-being in the workplace, we know that solid communication is essential.
Many organizations invest in wellness programs that cost billions of dollars, but few understand how their employees feel on a daily basis. This is where managers need to roll up their sleeves and discover what tools and programs can help their employees and coworkers.
But this is easier said than done.
That’s why we want to share a few simple tips with you that might help facilitate honest mental health discussions with your employees. Hopefully, these tips will allow you to be more effective in developing a framework to enhance their well-being.
What does well-being in the workplace look like?
Before we list any tips, let’s define what well-being in the workplace looks like so you can apply that definition to your discussions with employees.
A comprehensive study conducted by Myers-Briggs investigated well-being in the workplace. For over three years, researchers asked more than 10,000 participants about the activities that would contribute to feelings of flourishment while on the job.
The researchers found that well-being was more than just happiness (although it was undoubtedly a contributing factor). They concluded that positive well-being was dependent on the following factors:
Positive Emotions: Frequent feelings of happiness, contentment, and pleasure
Relationships: Mutual feelings of caring, support, and satisfaction
Engagement: Deep psychological connection and absorption in an activity or cause
Meaning: Having a sense of purpose and direction
Accomplishment: Pursuing success or mastery for its own sake
Negative Emotions: Low levels of anxiety, pessimism, and depression
How to get started discussing mental health.
According to a Harvard Business Review study with Qualtrics and SAP,almost 40% of employees surveyed said they have never been asked how they were doing by their manager or co-workers. About the same number of respondents said that the pandemic and other factors worsened their mental health.
From those two statistics, we can gather that facilitating an in-person or virtual environment, especially if it encourages a connection amongst coworkers, can go a long way in improving employee morale.
Now, let’s acknowledge the elephant in the room.
It could be awkward to ask employees to share how they feel if it’s new to them and the manager.
Here are several ways managers can make mental health discussions easier to help their employees have a better sense of well-being while on the job:
Make check-ins a regular meeting on the calendar.
Now that so many people are working at least part of the week remotely, it’s easy for their feelings or issues to go unnoticed.
Regular one-on-ones provide the appropriate setting for employees to share how they’re feeling. It’s their time to discuss their career goals, what they may be struggling with, or anything else affecting their overall well-being.
You can make mental health part of the agenda or just take a few meetings during the meeting to ask them how they’re doing. If you sense they are uncomfortable, the next tip may be helpful.
Embrace the vulnerability.
Experts suggest acknowledging the awkwardness up front to break the ice. You could explain how you care about them and want to make sure they are alright, or share your mental challenges to make them more comfortable sharing theirs.
And it doesn’t have to be a free-form discussion, especially for the first time. Creating questions in advance or framing the conversation in a way that encourages them to assess their feelings on a 1-10 scale could be helpful.
If an employee doesn’t feel comfortable sharing, that’s fine. It’s just important that they know that they have someone to speak to if they want.
Offer flexible solutions based on their answers.
Listening is essential, but your employees will want to know that you heard them. Together, you can problem-solve any issues they may be having proactively.
This may mean working towards a solution for the individual employee (maybe they need to leave early on Wednesdays to pick up their child from school) or revising policies to reflect common issues your employees may be dealing with, especially if it’s during a transition point where a lot of changes are happening all at once. Be as generous and compassionate as you are realistically able to ensure your employees feel valued.
If your employees start to see changes around the workplace based on their feedback in meetings, they may be more willing to share and speak up when they experience negativity in the workplace or feel complacent.
Understand that you can always ask for help too.
You might be in a leadership role, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you have all the answers. During an employee discussion, they may have questions about specific policies or resources available to them.
You can always say you’ll get back to them after checking in with HR or your leadership team if you’re unsure. It’s better to come back to them later with a viable solution than to guess or make promises you can’t keep.
This will help you build trust and better understand your wellness resources and policies while determining if they align with your employees’ well-being. If not, an extensive discussion with your leadership team about building a wellness culture should be scheduled.
A Final Message about Well-Being in the Workplace.
We encourage you to review the Myers-Briggs definition of positive well-being in the workplace. If an employee receives positive reinforcement, has strong relationships with co-workers, is engaged with their work, and believes in their career path, they will likely have a stronger sense of well-being in the workplace.
Through your mentorship and communication with employees, you can help build a vital and mentally healthy workplace that is viable in any work environment or external situation.
J & J Staffing Resources is a professional staffing agency that connects local businesses to job seekers throughout the Greater Philadelphia area, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.
We bring over 45 years of expertise in office, industrial, technical, and professional staffing placements as well as payroll management, and offer a wide range of services for both employers and job seekers.
Need help? J & J Staffing has offices in Newark, Bridgeport, Woodbury, Cherry Hill, Ewing, Princeton, Langhorne, and Horsham. Visit your local J & J staffing center or get started below.
Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 199,000 in December.
Unemployment rate edged down by 0.3 percentage points to 3.9 percent.
Employment continued to trend up in leisure and hospitality, in professional and business services, in manufacturing, in construction, and in transportation and warehousing.
The number of unemployed persons decreased by 483,000 to 6.3 million.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) declined by 185,000 to 2.0 million in December.
The number of persons not in the labor force who currently want a job was little changed at 5.7 million in December.
Looking Forward:
Hiring slowed significantly at the end of last year, a stark indication that employers are struggling to fill positions even as the United States remains millions of jobs short of pre-pandemic levels.
Economists said the report increased the chances that the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates quickly to cool off the economy, since wage growth threatens to keep prices increasing as businesses try to cover their climbing labor costs.
The report on Friday came with an important caveat: The data was collected in mid-December, before the pandemic’s latest wave revealed its strength. Since then, the Omicron variant has ignited a steep rise in coronavirus cases, driving up hospitalizations and keeping people home from work.
There is widespread optimism that the Omicron surge will be short-lived and that the economy will then regain momentum. But economists are bracing for the surge in cases to curtail job growth in January and in the coming months.
There is plenty of evidence of momentum underlying the uneven economic recovery, and signs abound that jobs are numerous even if workers are hard to find. The share of people quitting their jobs just touched a record, and ashortfall of workers has caused many businesses to curtail hours or services.
Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 210,000 in November.
Unemployment rate edged down by 0.4 percentage points to 4.2 percent.
Job growth was widespread, with notable job gains in professional and business services, transportation and warehousing, construction, and manufacturing.
Employment in retail trade declined over the month.
The number of unemployed persons, at 6.9 million, continued to trend down.
In November, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more), at 2.2 million, changed little in November but is 1.1 million higher than in February 2020.
Looking Forward:
Nonfarm payrolls increased by 210,000 in November, following a gain of 546,000 the previous month. The number was well below Wall Street expectations of 573,000.
Professional and business services and transportation and warehousing led gains, while hiring in leisure and hospitality was sluggish and retail lost jobs despite the traditional holiday hiring season.
The U.S. economy created far fewer jobs than expected in November, in a sign that hiring started to slow even ahead of the new Covid threat, the Labor Department reported Friday, December 3rd.
The household survey shows accelerating employment gains, workers returning to the labor force, and low levels of involuntary part-time work. The payroll survey shows a significant deceleration in job growth, particularly in COVID-affected sectors.
Employer demand for workers has been strong for months but the labor shortages have held job gains to solid but less-than-blockbuster levels. In September, COVID’s delta variant kept many Americans cautious and many schools from fully reopening, forcing parents to put off their return to the workplace or job hunts.
The effects of the COVID Omicron variant remain to be seen.
Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 531,000 in October.
Unemployment rate edged down by 0.2 percentage points to 4.6 percent.
Job growth was widespread, with notable job gains in leisure and hospitality, in professional and business services, in manufacturing, and in transportation and warehousing.
However, employment in public education declined over the month.
The number of unemployed persons, at 7.4 million, continued
to trend down.
In October, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) decreased by 357,000 to 2.3 million but is 1.2 million higher than in February 2020.
Looking Forward:
Hiring has seesawed this year along with the pandemic, especially in vulnerable sectors like hospitality and retail, where workers must deal face to face with customers. White-collar employees have fared better, since many can work remotely.
Some employers are complaining of a shortage of workers, as many people remain on the sidelines of the job market. The labor force participation rate —the share of the working-age population employed or looking for a job —was flat in October.
In theory, the demand for workers should be drawing more people into the labor force, but the participation rate is nearly two percentage points below where it was before the pandemic. Early retirements have been a factor.
Supply chain problems are another headache for employers. Automobile manufacturers have been particularly hurt by a shortage of semiconductors, while many companies are dealing with rising prices for raw materials and transportation.
The Commerce Department reported last week that the economy grew by 0.5 percent in the third quarter, compared with 1.6 percent in the second quarter. Economists attributed the slowdown to the resurgent pandemic and the supply chain holdups.
4 Core Pillars for Building a Thriving Company Culture
When your team comes together to complete a project or accomplish a company goal, it feels great! The synergy between leaders and employees makes a huge difference, especially when it’s crunch time—so, how can you create and maintain a close-knit and productive company culture?
Your company culture is influenced by many facets; company principles and values, style of management, and employee personalities, to name a few. How positive and productive your company’s culture is depends on how you nurture it.
There are high productivity company cultures where amazing feats seem to happen each week, but everyone is stressed and overworked.
There are laid back company cultures where no one cares, there is no growth, and nothing gets done.
Then there are places where people come together, grow professionally, and thrive as an organization.
If your workplace carries a stressful vibe, constantly misses deadlines, or fails to retain great talent, follow these four pillars as a foundation for how you can build a thriving company culture.
1. Know Who You Are as a Company
Do you have a clear grasp on who you are as a company? Or, what it means to represent your brand?
Company cultures can be strong and very defined or loosely written and inconsistent. The strength of yours depends on how much effort you put in to defining and nurturing it.
Have Clear-Cut Principles and Values
Some companies put little thought into their culture and allow it to simply form organically, however, this doesn’t guarantee a positive culture or one that matches your vision. To help your company grow and keep everyone on the same page, you will want to define a specific list of your company’s principles and values from the start.
When defining principles and values, every company will differ. Nowhere does it say you have to offer flexible hours, a casual dress environment, or career development incentives to be a great company. Each of those things contribute to a specific company culture, but it doesn’t have to be your culture.
When shaping your company’s core ideals and beliefs, consider some of the following questions:
What do you want to see and do when you go to work every day?
What commonalities do each of your current employees share?
What makes you and your employees proud to come to work?
What’s something you would change about the company if possible?
Defining clear principals and values will guide your company culture closer to what you envision it to be.
Defining Company Principles
Principles are a framework for running your business and letting employees know how to operate within your system. A strong set of principles will drive how your employees act and work together. You will want to create principles that will drive productivity and that you can see yourself working in.
Consider these examples:
Teach, don’t give
Don’t try to please everyone
Communicate what is expected
Advocate for what’s best
Lead by example
Defining Company Values
Values are a framework for what your company believes and have a big impact on your company’s culture. These are the traits and qualities you consider worthwhile and can help define the type of people you prefer hire.
Consider these examples:
Family first
Self-improvement
Teamwork and collaboration
Career development
Personal accountability
Diversity
2. Share Your Business Vision
When principles and values are clearly defined, it makes it easy to share your company’s story—the ultimate vision of what the company is set out to achieve. Organizations start thriving when everyone on all levels is clear on the expectations of their role, how to facilitate work as a group, and what the end goal should look like. It’s the role of your leaders and veteran employees to live the company’s story and share it with their peers.
Have a Common Story
It’s easier for people to get onboard if they can get behind the “why” of your story. Whether it’s the story of your services, products, customers, or a charitable cause, company cultures thrive when everyone understands the “why” behind what they are doing; it gives employees a common goal and helps to create an attachment to the work at hand.
Think about what your company’s services or solutions are helping people to achieve and the why behind it—that “why” is what drives teamwork and a sense of community.
Ingrain It In Your Training
You will want to demonstrate your company’s story and goals early on, especially during the interview process, so that potential new hires can get a feel for what the workplace is like and truly understand if the organization is a fit for them or not. The stronger and more apparent your culture is, the faster new employees will catch on.
Look to find ways you can ingrain you story into your training, such as teaching about your company history and looking at future initiatives.
Live It Every Day!
Talking about what you’d like your company culture to be is easy. Living it daily takes practice. You should be setting an example and living your company’s culture every day!
Thriving company cultures have leaders who believe in what is being accomplished and emanate the company’s principles and values. For your culture to grow, you need leaders to demonstrate principles and values through their decision-making. By leading through example, your entire employee base will be more likely to positively embrace your company culture.
Having the right people as your culture champions is important, as you don’t want leaders who are not embodying your principles and values to the fullest.
3. Balance Talent and Character
You have a vision for your company culture, you and your champions are living it every day, now you just have to hire the right people. Easy, right? Right…
Just as people loathe the job search process, businesses also rather not have to go through the hundreds or even thousands of candidates it can take to fill one position. To make your search easier, try not to expend all your time searching for the perfect resume (the “unicorn” employee). Often, and employee’s character can play just as large of a role, if not larger, than talent. Shift your focus on searching for someone that might not have all the skills, but that fits your culture and who is willing to work on molding to the role you need.
Don’t Chase the Unicorn
That perfect employee you are searching for may not be a unicorn after all! More often than not, the perfect talent match you are dreaming of is not the right fit culturally, and vise-versa. You may find out in the first interview that the person’s character is way off or out-of-balance with the rest of your team.
The moral here is not to judge an interviewee on their resume alone. The best way to find out more about their character is by bringing them in for an interview.
You Can’t Teach Character
You can teach a new employee how to use a technology, follow a process, or even a new skill, but you can’t change who they are—you can’t change their character. As you narrow down your list of potential candidates, character needs to play a large role in your selection, because it’s something you can’t change.
Character Creates Culture
Employee character and company culture are mutually supportive. When your organization is built of unique individuals with great character, you’re going to have a better chance for a great company culture.
“I’m not looking for the best players, I’m looking for the right ones.” – Herb Brooks
If you put a team together base on talent alone, you may be left with a lack of communication, collaboration, and synergy.
4. Focus On Employee Retention
Long-term, experienced employees are the backbone of company culture. They are the champions of your vision, the people that others are sad to see go, and the ones that other companies are waiting for an opportunity to hire. You need these people to succeed!
Companies with great retention rates that hold on to these champions give the impression of stability, something most workers want. It also shows job candidates the potential for building their career and long-lasting work relationships.
Benefits add a lot of value to a company’s culture and can help your company stand out from the rest. Why you may not be able to compete with the “Silicon Valley” style of offerings (fully stocked lunchroom, employee lounge and gameroom, flexible work hours), be realistic and consider things that can directly benefit the employee while benefiting your company in return.
Consider…
Paying for continued training (certifications, conferences, degree programs).
Transit benefits—great for city businesses and saves gas money.
A stocked coffee bar—save employees money while showing them you care!
Your provided benefits should reflect your company’s values and the type of job-seeker you are trying to attract.
Dress Code and Technology Usage
A bearded millenial in jeans and a hoodie, walking around texting on his phone!? The office environment has drastically changed over the last decade, and it’s important that your organization keeps up with the times.
Beards, jeans, hoodies, cell phones are all acceptable… In the right workplace—and that’s the key! The rules around what’s appropriate in your work environment will play a big impact on your culture, so create something that you can see yourself working in. Do what makes sense for your work environment.
Many job positions with no customer interactions are becoming more lenient towards attire and appearance, leaving judgment to an individual’s talent, work ethic, and character.
Jobs with front-facing customer interaction should still dress to the level that meets customer expectations while giving off the impression your business is going for.
Promote From Within
Promoting employees to higher positions within your company can benefit both your bottom line and the company’s culture. First, it helps with retention, as employees will feel assured they can continue their career paths with you. Second, you will benefit from the expertise of an employee you have nurtured through the ranks as someone who doesn’t have to be brought up to speed on the company’s values, goals, plans, or message.
Staffing Services In Greater Philadelphia
J & J Staffing Resources is a professional staffing agency that connects local businesses to job seekers throughout the Greater Philadelphia area, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.
We bring over 45 years of expertise in office, industrial, technical, and professional staffing placements as well as payroll management, and offer a wide range of services for both employers and job seekers.
Need help? J & J Staffing has offices in Newark, Bridgeport, Woodbury, Cherry Hill, Ewing, Princeton, Langhorne, and Horsham. Visit your local J & J staffing center or get started below.
Hiring Seasonal Employees Can Bring Success in Peak Periods
Has your business been experiencing a spike in workload recently? Maybe your peak season is just around the corner and you want to make the most of the increased opportunities.
Adding seasonal employees can bring a much-needed boost to your in-house productivity so you can meet demand and expand your business. In fact, having a flexible temporary workforce available can effectively scale your team’s capability without impacting the efficiency of your full-time staff.
To highlight the benefits of seasonal employees and help you get started, we’ve gathered some key resources to help attract, hire, and retain a valuable temporary workforce perfectly fit for your business needs!
Attracting the Right Candidates in the Right Season
Finding good help is hard, especially when it comes to the busiest seasons. Depending on your industry you may see influxes of workload before the holiday season, right before the tax deadline, or even around back-to-school time.
However, getting the most productivity out of your seasonal hires can be a difficult task, especially if your workflow requires a decent amount of training.
Incentivizing the choice of your company over other temporary options goes a long way in attracting a dedicated, hardworking team, but the benefits you provide can be so much more than a higher pay rate. Here are some additional quality of life benefits you can use to better attract and retain the right seasonal employees:
♦ Signing Bonuses – Most temporary employees are looking for a quick and stable source of secondary income, so any available bonus is likely to pique the interest of applicants. It is best to offer this bonus with a condition, like awarding it after the completion of ten shifts. These terms will generally protect your seasonal expenses from employees that want the bonus with a minimal amount of work.
♦ Same-Day Pay – This perk is especially important during the holiday or back-to-school season. Some of your seasonal employees may be home for the holidays, preparing to leave for school, or trying to gather extra money for gifts or supplies. Offering faster cash than your competitors will give you another competitive advantage when looking for new hires.
♦ Offer Flexible Scheduling – Many holiday hirings include longer or later shifts to accommodate for increased traffic, so accommodating employee schedules can go a long way to making your temporary hires happy.For example, if a new hire already has a day job, starting their shift around 7:00 PM can allow time for dinner and rest before a second shift. If you operate a retail store, this can also give a break to your full-time employees, allowing some afternoon shift workers to leave earlier!
♦ Increase Pay for Undesirable Shifts – If your business operates 24/7, or simply has later hours than most, you may want to consider offering greater benefits to those employees who work the least enjoyable shifts.More qualified or experienced applicants may be looking to work more normal shifts, so adding the prospect of higher pay can put highly efficient employees in positions all throughout your working hours. For more information on how to retain highly skilled employees, continue reading or read our blog on how to retain great talent!
♦ Offer a Referral Bonus! – Who wouldn’t want to work with their friends? Offering a referral bonus to both current and new employees creates a win-win-win scenario for everyone involved. While bonuses should still not be given right away, incentivizing referrals can relieve some of the stress from HR and energize your employees to become recruiters for qualified and like-minded candidates!
While the application to your business may vary, implementing some of these tips can go a long way to improving the quality and quantity of applicants you are recruiting. Now that you’ve got the right people on hand, it is time to determine the best time to hire, so you can receive the maximum benefit for your team!
Hiring and Training Candidates at High-Impact Times
Even though having a strong temporary workforce can do a lot for your business, hiring at the wrong time or being unprepared for onboarding can have a harmful effect on your productivity and efficiency.
It is important to note that seasonal employees are not plug-and-play, especially if they are being brought on for the first time. Even experienced temps will need some time to acclimate to your work environment, so it is best to make the best effort you can to properly onboard and train your employees.
Here are four keys to keep in mind when setting up new employees for success!
Connect with a Top Staffing Firm – Even if you are running job ads in traditional spaces like Indeed or LinkedIn, you may not always be receiving a truly complete list of qualified candidates. Starting a relationship with a scouting or staffing company can remove some of the hassles of the job search, while also acting as an effective way of prescreening other applicants. Taking this step ensures you are always getting the best employees available!
Hire Before the Season Starts – If your industry requires a significant amount of training, it is important to begin looking for temporary employees early so there is sufficient time to train them. Untrained or inefficient workers can severely harm productivity and quality of labor, posing an extremely high risk to your business. Even if the jobs you are hiring for are not extremely technical, it is best to start the search for temporary employees about two months before peak season. This buffer allows for a selective search for employees while also retaining enough time to allow them to gain proficiency with the work they are doing!
Train with Top Performers – Do you already have high-efficiency workers? Maybe long-term employees that have become masters of their craft? Training your temporary employees with these top performers can instill good work habits and extra attention to detail when compared to general training. While it may be difficult to remove this high-value employee from the floor at times, the return on investment often consists of a deep roster of well-trained and proficient employees!
Reward Success and High Efficiency – While a lot of your temporary employees may only stay temporary, creating bonus incentives for certain levels of performance, attendance, or success can encourage a strong level of healthy competition between employees and better to identify a path to full-time employment for the highest performers
The overall goal when hiring these new employees is to make sure they are making the maximum impact for your business while minimizing the risks to quality and productivity. Taking these proactive steps prior to bringing on some new talent will better ensure that you are getting as great of a return as possible!
Working to Retain a Loyal Temporary Workforce
Even after peak season ends, there may be some standouts from the new employees. Working to retain these team members, even if they leave during the slower months, will help build a long, reliable list of skilled workers with high-value experience.
However, it is still important to treat your temporary workers with respect. Although some of them may seem expendable at first, the long-term prospects of a well-trained seasonal employee can bring a ton of value to your company in the long run.
Whether you’re looking to retain or promote some of your most talented short-term employees, here are a few important notes to keep in mind when throughout their term:
Treat Temps Like Full-Time – Your seasonal hires are performing a great service to your business. While they are not the highest impact members on your payroll, they are allowing you to capitalize on the increased traffic that comes with your busy seasons. Make them feel at home, invite them to team meetings, or provide benefits that your full-time employees also get around these times. Identifying them as valuable parts of your organization will go a long way toward motivating your short-term hires to work hard during their current term and make them more likely to return at another time.
Offer a Path to Promotion – Depending on your industry, the part-time work you provide may be a valuable resume-building tool for the younger members of your seasonal staff. Allowing them to make the most of this experience over time not only increases their potential for company-wide impact, but also long-term retention and success. You should provide clear and attainable goals that highlight a path to increased responsibility, better pay, and even short-term or full-time promotions. What may originally start as a need for seasonal employees can quickly become career growth and change for any of your temps. Empowering these new team members can make a positive difference in their life while also encouraging some healthy competition with your full-time employees. For more resources on how to get started promoting your seasonal workers, check out our blog on hiring temps as permanent employees!
Be the Employer of Choice – Just like you aim to be the best in your industry, you should also desire to be the best working environment for all of your employees, especially part-timers. Even though a seasonal employee is not plug-and-play from the start, multiple seasons of experience can forge a truly versatile team member that can continually contribute to your business efforts. To better achieve this goal, you should be seeking out new perks or accommodations that give your seasonal employees a positive experience that encourages and empowers them to return.
Staffing Services In Greater Philadelphia
J & J Staffing Resources is a professional staffing agency that connects local businesses to job seekers throughout the Greater Philadelphia area, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.
We bring over 45 years of expertise in office, industrial, technical, and professional staffing placements as well as payroll management, and offer a wide range of services for both employers and job seekers.
Need help? J & J Staffing has offices in Newark, Bridgeport, Woodbury, Cherry Hill, Ewing, Princeton, Langhorne, and Horsham. Visit your local J & J staffing center or get started below.
Temp, Temp-to-Hire, & Direct: How to Choose the Right Recruitment Method for Your Business
Do you know the difference between the types of employment available when looking for a job?
Do you know the difference between the types of employment available when looking for a job? In this article, you’ll find the definitions of tricky terms like temp-to-hire and contract hiring. You’ll also find information about the advantages of using temporary workers vs. hiring full time workers based on the situation.
Finding and hiring the right employees can prove to be a challenging task that can impact your business both positively and negatively. A lot of decision-making goes into the process, and if you use the wrong recruitment method to secure the talent you need, it can hurt your retention rate, employee moral, and bottom line.
Choosing between short and long-term hires depends on your business’s custom needs.
To help you determine the best placement method for your situation, we created this helpful resource that covers the benefits and challenges of a range of employee situations including:
The Department of Labor considers an employee whose term lasts a year or less to be temporary. Temporary jobs are often available for a variety of reasons and allow employers to obtain help they need without having to add new employees to the payroll. There is usually a deadline or a target date associated with temporary work that marks an end to the period of labor agreed upon by the employer and employee.
What are the benefits of using temporary employees?
Temp Employees can become Full Time Members of your Staff
Temporary employees are not full time employees, but they can become one!
Many temps have a fresh outlook at the company they are working for and can bring a ton of value in a short period of time. If management takes notice, they can decide to bring them on full time to continue to boost their company staff and morale.
Saves Your Company Time and Money
Hiring a temporary employee can get you the help your business needs quickly without the cost and effort of recruiting and hiring staff and adding them to your payroll. Temps work on site under your supervision while remaining employees of the staffing agency. That means there are a lot of costs you don’t have to deal with including hiring, firing, unemployment, workers’ compensation, and benefits.
Offers Staffing Flexibility
Temporary employees help businesses by quickly filling openings caused by seasonal demand or employee absences like vacation, illness, maternity, or disability leave. Employers can stay current and meet demands, while not overstaffing to fill temporary positions.
Provides Time to Builds Skills
Temporary employment not only helps employers, but employees too by allowing workers to explore new career paths and opportunities without a long-term commitment. Temporary work can be an excellent way to build skills and gain experience while making connections in a particular field of interest.
Disadvantages of hiring temporary workers
There is always an adjustment period whenever a new employee starts, and training is required no matter their level of experience or skill. Hiring a temp worker might be a good move depending on the amount of training needed to get the employee up to speed and your industry.
For example, if you work in an industry like retail that has a seasonal rush around the holidays, and the same temps return every year, you might not have to spend a lot of time training employees. However, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, temp workers have between 24% to 54% higher rate of injury than standard arrangement workers. For those in the construction or manufacturing industries, the risk of costly injuries might not justify the accessibility of hiring temp workers.
Low Morale
Morale problems can occur among your employee base, especially if temporary and permanent employees are working together for an extended period. Temporary workers can start to feel under appreciated if they are performing the same job, putting in the same hours, but do not receive the same compensation or benefits as permanent employees.
Temp Employees are Not Eligible for Benefits
Because temporary employees are not directly hired employees, they are not typically eligible for benefits.
In fact, they are paid directly from the temporary staffing company and are not on payroll at the company they work for.
What is a Temp-to-Hire Employee?
A temp-to-hire employee is usually recruited for about a six-month period or more. During this time, the employee’s status stays on the staffing agency’s payroll so employers can evaluate the candidate’s performance before committing to hiring them full-time or decide to seek a different individual.
Why do companies hire temporary workers?
Temp-to-hire jobs can be made available for a variety of reasons. Many companies need someone in between a temporary worker and a direct hire worker so they opt for temp-to-hire employees.
Life can get in the way easily from:
Long vacations
Maternity leave
Disability leave
Illnesses
Current employees finding other jobs
Temp-to-hire employees can help fill this vacuum for a short amount of time until the job is not longer needed or another more qualified direct hire employee fills the spot.
Benefits of Temp-to-Hire Employees
Offers Flexibility and Reduces Risks
Using temp-to-hire placement allows you to ensure that your next hire is a perfect fit before you bring them on-board. If you find that the candidate is not working out, the temporary staffing agencies can help find you someone else who will meet your needs.
The main benefit of using temp-to-hire recruiting is that you have a better chance of making qualitative, smart decisions for the benefit of your organization. Employees define the productivity, performance, and brand identity of your business, and temp-to-hire placement gives companies the ability to make smart hiring decisions for long-term success.
Assess Skills and Performance
If you’re hesitant to hire a potential employee because you’re not sure how they will perform once hired, this is the perfect situation for a temp-to-hire placement! You have the time to assess their skills and performance on the job, then hire them if they are a great fit.
Temp-to-hire recruitment also provides an advantage for the candidates as well. If the candidate’s resume sn’t as impressive at first glance, they can still woo over the recruiter with their performance and skills and bag a position they deserve.
Saves Time and Money
Staffing agencies can help you get in touch with temp-to-hire candidates and cut down on the time and hassle of recruiting yourself and then deciding everything from salary, incentives, benefits and much more. You can then focus on your business rather than spending your time recruiting.
Challenges of Temp-to-Hire
Lack of Teamwork
Sometimes temporary employees do not integrate with your full-time employees. Permanent employees can be hesitant to work with someone who might not be around long or become prickly around those they perceive to be interlopers. There’s no easy solution to building a great team, so watch how temp-to-hire employees embrace your company’s culture and established teams.
Contract Buyout Fees
If you find that you would like to hire the candidate permanently, you may have to pay a fee to the staffing agency to buyout the contract or wait until the end of the contract period in usually 60 to 90 days. If you wait too long, the employee might feel underappreciated and move on to take another offer.
Temp-to-Hire Employees vs Temp Employees
Temp-to-hire recruitment is great for when you find a potential employee who made a wonderful first impression, but does not have a lot of experience.
Temp-to-hire placement let you see a potential employee’s performance without making a commitment and spending time and money headhunting.
Using a temporary employee can be a great idea if you have a short-term need to fill or do not currently have the resources for a new hire.
A temporary worker can be a good solution, especially for seasonal work or if you need to quickly fill an open position.
If you’re interested in keeping a temporary employee with your company, you might want to consider a temp-to-hire placement.
What is a Direct Hire Employee?
A direct hire is an employee who is brought on as a full-time employee at a company and is not paid by a staffing agency for a temporary period. Direct hire placement is usually used when businesses have a long-term or high-skilled job opening and plan on keeping the new staff member permanently.
Benefits of Direct Hire Employees
Better Candidate Selection
Often, a business who uses a staffing agency for a direct hire placement can attract top performing candidates. Most top performers are continually employed, and a direct hire position can attract the top talent in your area that a temporary or temp-to-hire position would not.
Stronger Employee Commitment
Direct hire employees often have a better sense of stability and security within the company they are placed. Temporary employees usually do not feel the same sense of loyalty toward the company a direct hire does, as temp workers know their employment period isn’t permanent.
Ability to Offer Better Perks
With a direct hire, companies can promote their own perks and benefits packages. If your company has a great retirement package and insurance benefits, there are perks that can be used to attract the type of prospective candidates you are seeking. Temporary or temp-to-hire employees, on the other hand, receive monetary and insurance benefits from the staffing agency.
Challenges with Direct Hire
Less Flexibility in Compensation
From an administrative point of view, direct hires are more expensive to place than temporary or temp-to-hire employees due to their salary and benefits packages. Achieving greater payroll flexibility with direct hires can be more difficult. While direct hires are often highly qualified, employers have to compensate them for their expertise and skills.
More Time-Consuming
The process of hiring an employee directly is slower than a temporary or temp-to-hire placement. It takes time to make a long-term decision and evaluate the pros and cons of hiring an individual who has the potential to be with the company for years. This lengthy process can cause you to miss out on great candidates if you’re too slow to make a decision and a competitor hires them first.
What is a Contract to Hire (C2H) Employee?
A Contract to Hire (C2H) means that employee will work for a predefined amount of time, or until a specific job/task is completed. If an employer decides to extend their contract, they may do so, but they are by no means bound to this type of employee.
A Contract to Hire employee can be used to fulfill certain company obligations. Similar to a temp-to-hire employee, C2H’s can fill in for any of life’s obstacles that get in the way of a regular day at work.
Direct Hire Employees vs Contract Hire Employees
If you are looking to fill a higher position, a direct hire placement is a great way to attract top performing candidates and inspire company loyalty.
While this process can be time-consuming and more expensive, it’s the best way to find and retain top talent. A contract to hire is great If you have a specific job you need to get done and you’d prefer to not take away from your current employee resources. These employees can be trained rather quickly as they will already have the skills for the job you need done.
Staffing Services In Greater Philadelphia
J & J Staffing Resources is a professional staffing agency that connects local businesses to job seekers throughout the Greater Philadelphia area, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.
We bring over 45 years of expertise in office, industrial, technical, and professional staffing placements as well as payroll management, and offer a wide range of services for both employers and job seekers.
Need help? J & J Staffing has offices in Newark, Bridgeport, Woodbury, Cherry Hill, Ewing, Princeton, Langhorne, and Horsham. Visit your local J & J staffing center or get started below.
If you’re tuned into the South Jersey employment marketplace, the article below will not come as a surprise to you. Over the last five years, a number of Fortune 500 companies have expanded into South Jersey creating new employment opportunities, with more companies looking to expand as well in the future.
This April, NJBIZ.com published an article announcing that Amazon plans to open three more facilities in New Jersey at the Carteret Center that would create 2,500 jobs. The new Amazon fulfillment centers will be located in the townships of Logan, Edison, and Cranbury in South Jersey. That means Logan will now have not one, but two facilities.
This rapid growth in South Jersey has put a strain on companies recruiting new employees and retaining their top talent. The economy is moving very quickly from the employer-driven marketplace of the last decade to the new employee-driven marketplace. Like a consumer selecting the best car for their family, good candidates are weighing all the options available to them in their local employment marketplace.
With the changing job market, you need to be able to answer the question, “why would a candidate want to work for you?” If you’re having trouble, your recruitment and retention team should develop a compelling answer as to why your company stands out as a great place to work.
Good employees have more options, and you need to understand what differentiates you as an employer. Five of the most common considerations employees make when taking a job opportunity include:
Competitive wages
Good work environment
Excellent benefits
Flexible work schedule
Experience and training
Use the employee considerations above to fine tune your recruiting and retention strategies. In this competitive employment marketplace, it is also imperative that you act fast! Qualified candidates are in huge demand, and it’s possible that if you take too much time making hiring decisions, your top candidates could accept another job offer if you don’t respond quickly.
It’s no secret that the South Jersey employment landscape is changing. Being prepared and making timely decisions is essential to keeping ahead of the competition. If you’re ready to make a move, J & J Staffing Resources can help you find the talent need to keep your company growing.
Staffing Services In Greater Philadelphia
J & J Staffing Resources is a professional staffing agency that connects local businesses to job seekers throughout the Greater Philadelphia area, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.
We bring over 45 years of expertise in office, industrial, technical, and professional staffing placements as well as payroll management, and offer a wide range of services for both employers and job seekers.
Need help? J & J Staffing has offices in Newark, Bridgeport, Woodbury, Cherry Hill, Ewing, Princeton, Langhorne, and Horsham. Visit your local J & J staffing center or get started below.
