What’s the Difference Between Work-Ready and Available?

When you’re interviewing people for a job, you need to know the difference between work-ready and available.

Work-Ready Means Vetting…

Work-ready means the candidate has been vetted. They have undergone background checks, reference checks, and any other required screening.

Vetting is important because sometimes job applicants who seem qualified on paper may not turn out to be good employee material.

Applicants may have misrepresented their qualifications, shown a spotty or poor work ethic, or even have criminal convictions. Any of these make them a poor candidate for your company. Unfortunately, you may have to terminate them later on if you don’t vet them first.

…and Training

Work-ready also means the applicants have been trained to do the available job. They may have been trained at another company, or they may have gone specific training on equipment or tools before they begin the job.

Work-Ready Employees Can Begin Right Away

Ultimately, hiring a work-ready employee means that the new hire can actually begin work right away. If you make a hiring decision on a Friday morning, the new worker can show up Monday morning, ready and able to work.

An available worker, on the other hand, may not be able to show up Monday morning. “Available” means they are not currently working and have applied to work for your company. But they have not been vetted or trained.

Vetting can take two weeks or more.

Training a new worker to be fully up to speed can take anywhere from several days to several months, depending on the job.

As a result, available for a job means so much less than being work-ready. A work-ready candidate can start to be productive for your company right away.

Stride Can Ensure that Applicants Are Work-Ready

If you want work-ready people, let a staffing agency help. Staffing agencies are experienced at vetting applicants. They have contacts and systems in place to perform vetting and can do it quickly.

It’s a good idea to vet top candidates at the same time as the interview.

Staffing agencies can also find trained employees for hire.

Stride Staffing’s goal is to build stronger connections between employers and individuals by doing staffing differently. Really. Contact us today for hiring and recruitment help in Richardson, Texas and other locations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

How Can Partnering With a Staffing Company Help Reduce Costs?

Keeping costs down is important in any business. Staffing your organization can add up to be expensive.

Costs add up as well. Human resources departments and hiring managers in your company need to take time to write job descriptions, post jobs, sift through applications, interview and more. That’s time they aren’t spending on other productive work.

And if a new hire doesn’t work out, the cost to let them go and hire replacement workers can be even greater.

How do you reduce those costs? Partnering with a staffing company can help you keep costs down.

Staffing companies can help in the following ways.

1) Recruitment

Staffing companies are experts at developing job descriptions and reviewing applications. They can help you decide how to advertise for open positions and who to bring in to interview.

2) Interviewing

Interviewing can be a lengthy and time-consuming process. Let a staffing company screen the applicants, so that only the best prospective employees are interviewed. That’s the most cost-effective use of everyone’s time.

3) Screening

To find the best workers, and to pinpoint people who will work out over the long term, it’s important to screen them. That means performing drug and other screenings and calling references to see what their performance and work ethic is like. This can be very time-consuming. Staffing companies are pros in performing all kinds of screenings. Let them do this to maximize the productivity of your human resources people and hiring managers.

Recruiting Temporary Workers to Reduce Costs

Temporary workers are another way to reduce costs. If your company has seasonal ebb and flow, it can cost you heavily to bring on full-time workers in one month that you may not need the next month. You are paying their salaries and may have to pay them severance to lay them off.

You can solve this problem by hiring temporary workers. If you need many workers in one month but not the next, you can tailor the number of workers by needs, without any obligation to keep them on and pay salaries or severance.

Plus, if temporary employees show themselves to be good workers, you have the option to hire them as permanent employees. Your costs for recruiting and interviewing go way down as a result.

How a Staffing Agency Can Help

Recruiting and screening new workers can be expensive. Staffing companies are experts at recruitment and screening. We can also work with you to meet your needs through temporary staffing.

Stride Staffing’s goal is to build stronger connections between employers and individuals by doing staffing differently. Really. Contact us today for hiring and recruitment help in Arlington, Texas and other locations.

Easy Ways to Stay in Compliance

When you you’re a human resources manager, one of your duties is keeping on top of compliance rules and regulations. Your company needs to abide by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rules, sexual harassment policies, and antidiscrimination laws, among others.

What’s the best way to ensure that the company stays in compliance?

Here are the steps to take.

1) Keep on top of rules and regulations

One of the challenges of keeping abreast of compliance rules, regulations, and laws is that they change. You need to make sure that you know the most recent ones, so your company policies follow them.

If necessary, hire a consultant or keep an attorney on retainer, if possible, to notify you when relevant policies change and break them down for your department.

2) Develop a set of compliance guidelines

Part of the compliance job, of course, is letting the managers, supervisors, and employees know what the compliance regulations that are relevant to their job are! The best way to do this is to develop a set of compliance guidelines.

A policy manual is a good idea also; the guidelines can be contained in a larger group of company policies.

3) Hold informational sessions

While it’s great to have guidelines and manuals written, busy managers and employees may, let’s face it, not always take the time to read them thoroughly. The best strategy here is to hold informational sessions. This can be part of onboarding and can be combined with other information on the policies.

Think about video recordings of existing sessions for employees as a refresher or introduction to compliance.

4) Tap into the managers and employees

Make sure that managers and employees know they can always tell HR about any areas that are not in compliance.

People working next to conditions that may not meet OSHA standards, for example, are in a position to tell you about it. It’s better you know that having the company face an inspection and a fine — or worse, an accident.

Put up posters regarding rules and regulations to reinforce what they are. Many government organizations, such as OSHA, supply these free of charge.

5) Follow the rules

If an issue arises, discuss it with all parties with a stake. Be sure to follow the policies you have set.

It’s wise to give an opportunity for correction, but establish what the correct must be and the time frame it must be completed in.

Stride Staffing Will Help Meet Your Needs

If you have questions about compliance, we can help. We work with many companies to establish policies.

Stride Staffing’s goal is to build stronger connections between employers and individuals by doing staffing differently. Really. Contact us today for hiring and recruitment help in Arlington, Texas and other locations.

4 Reasons Why Respect Is Better Earned Than Demanded

All managers want — and need — their employees to respect them. But there are different ways to make sure you are getting respect.

If you earn respect, you are much more likely to get it than if you demand it. Employees look at their bosses to see what they do. If it doesn’t accord with what they see, or with what they are asked to do, they won’t give managers respect.

So how do managers earn respect? Here are 4 ways.

1) Doing Yourself What Is Required of Them

If you want hard-working and reliable employees, you need to be a hard-working and reliable boss. Believe me, if they see you working as hard to lead the team and benefit the company as they are asked to work, you will earn respect.

Always do yourself what you ask them to do. Is punctuality a problem? Never be late yourself. Be visible getting to work and working.

2) Create a Positive Workplace

Developing a positive workplace takes time and effort. You need to promote and reward positive behaviors. You need to instill a sense of teamwork. Be sure to let your employees know they are appreciated.

Make rewards for positive behaviors visible. If people do above and beyond, post a congratulatory letter in the lunchroom.

3) Recognize Their Achievements

Employees respect managers who recognize their achievements. Praise them for great work performance. Take the team leaders, official or unofficial, aside to thank them for helping lead the team.

If you see potential, develop your employees further. Promoting someone will gain their appreciation, but having the skills and insight to notice their potential wins both respect and gratitude.

4) Provide Opportunities to Take Ownership

Employees differ, of course, in the amount of supervision they need. But good workplaces will provide opportunities to take “ownership” of some tasks. Let the more responsible people decide how or when they will do specific tasks, if possible. Set the overall direction and what needs to be achieved yourself, but give them some ability to decide and choose.

Do you need help with staffing your company?

Need more people for the job? We can help with job postings, applications, and more. Stride Staffing’s goal is to build stronger connections between employers and individuals by doing staffing differently. Really. Contact us today for staffing agencies in Arlington, Dallas, Mesquite, DeSoto, and Richardson, Texas.

Your Six-Step Guide to Motivating the Millennial Workforce

Millennials, the generation born between the 1980s and the mid-1990s, are currently the largest group of working adults in the nation. As a result, every manager needs to know how to work with millennials, and how best to motivate them.

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1) Realize They See the Advantage of Working Hard

Millennials see the advantage of working hard. After all, the first of them hit the job market just in time for the Great Recession of 2008-2009. They may have seen parents or older siblings struggling with unemployment or having to move back to their parents’ house. They know the importance of getting and holdings jobs as a result.

A key way to motivate them is to stress job security, if it is available. Make it clear your company values hard work and effort, and will appreciate workers who show it.

2) Create Paths to Success

Millennials are at an age where they are likely thinking about saving up for down payment on a home or starting a family. Many, in fact, have stepped up their saving for retirement at a faster rate than any other generation. They know that Social Security might not be around when they’re older.

If millennials know there are paths to earning more, they’ll be motivated to work for you. Make clear any benefits or promotional paths in your company for promising employees. After all, homes, families and retirement all cost money. Millennials know they do.

3) Use Technology

While millennials may not spend all their time on digital devices of one sort or another, they do spend a lot of time on them! Join them. They see texting, email and social media as very natural and obvious ways to communicate. A printed newsletter or notices tacked on a bulletin board may not motivate them or get their attention as much.

4) Communicate Often

It could be feedback about performance or new developments in the company. Millennials are used to the pace of texts, email and social media. Messages there happen many times a day. Many observers think the idea of a yearly performance appraisal seems quaint to millennials. They expect feedback more often and may not be comfortable with lack of communication.

5) Get Buy-In As Soon as Possible

The sooner you can get your new hires to buy in to the company vision, the sooner you will see them integrated successfully into your culture and production mechanisms. Even when a team has differing strategies and diverse backgrounds present, as long as the company vision is a shared vision, the team will ultimately be more likely to succeed.

6) Choose Strategic Flexibility

Companies are now choosing to adapt to new markets and technologies by expanding the flexibility of their work environments when possible. After orientation is complete, and both the supervisor and employee feels comfortable, offering a flexible work schedule puts the pressure of productivity squarely on the employee’s shoulders. Millennials, like other generations, want to know that what they are doing day in and day out is making a difference somehow.  Linking ownership of their own productivity to the outcome is a hugely motivating factor.  Doing this reinforces the generation’s focus on social responsibility and begin able to make their “mark.”


Motivation Is Key

Motivating employees will lead to maximum performance. We can help you find motivated and conscientious employees. Stride Staffing’s goal is to build stronger connections between employers and individuals by doing staffing differently. Really. 

Contact us today for our employment agencies in DeSoto, Texas, and other locations.

Lessons Learned from Those Who Gave ALL for our Freedom!

The “Greatest Generation” is the generation that went through World War II. The Greatest Generation showed courage, loyalty and patriotism. They also showed leadership. Winning World War II required excellent leaders and strong teamwork — enough to form a band of brothers.

As a result, getting leadership tips from the Greatest Generation is a smart idea.

1)  Unify People Behind a Goal

In World War II, the nation was unified behind a single goal: winning the war. Soldiers, officers and people on the home front all knew the goal. They knew what their individual role was. They knew why the goal was important.

As in war, people need to be unified behind a single goal that matters to all of them. Whether it’s meeting quotas, increasing production or stepping up their skills, the dominant goals need employees unified behind them. People need to know why the goal is important. What larger picture does it contribute to? They also need to know how their specific role contributes to the larger goal.

Have meetings where you communicate company goals, why they’re important and what each person’s contribution is expected to be.

2) Develop Teamwork

The people who make up a specific group, such as a battalion or platoon, need to trust each other. They need to think like a team. Solo workers can’t do much in an army: it’s dangerous to be without the other soldiers. But neither can warehouse workers. They must work together as a team.

You may need to create teamwork in your group. Can you have contests where the group that produces the most gets free pizza? Have summer picnics with teams competing in softball or soccer. Sports teams, even temporary ones, are a great way to build teamwork.

3) Reward Hard Work

Nothing succeeds like hard work. The U.S. won in World War II because everyone worked hard until the job was done. The Greatest Generation had one of the strongest work ethics the world has ever seen.

Hire people with a strong work ethic. Reward the hardest worker of the month regularly. Make sure slacking off is not tolerated.

In the current economic climate, strong leadership skills are more important than ever. We can help you find good, responsible team employees for your team. Stride Staffing’s goal is to build stronger connections between employers and individuals by doing staffing differently. Really. 

Contact us today for our employment agencies in Mesquite, Texas, and other locations.