southern california

Is a College Degree Necessary to get a Good Job?

Is a College Degree Necessary to get a Good Job?

The workforce in Southern California is becoming increasingly specialized. Today, a high school diploma is typically not a guarantee of a person’s ability to handle most job skills. In fact, individuals with only a high school diploma face extreme difficulty finding a well-paying position with job security. In most instances a college degree is a necessary qualification.

With the cost of a college education continuing to rise, many individuals begin to question whether the expense is worth it. By examining the financial differential between those with a college degree and those without one you find that the more educated a person is the more money they will make throughout their lifetime. In fact, it’s estimated that people with a college degree earn about twice as much as those without one.

Obtaining a college degree is worth a lot more than just the financial difference though. Individuals with more education are typically qualified for jobs with better benefits as well. In addition, the jobs they acquire are generally more secure.

Even though obtaining a college degree right after high school increases your earning potential, this doesn’t mean that only current students can benefit. Individuals with secure positions can earn raises and better benefits from going back to school.

Although a college degree is always worth the expense, it can be costly to obtain. This can become a burden if you are unable to find a job shortly after graduation. While many people simply assume that a college degree will solve their financial problems, the reality is that you must first do a lot of planning in order to profit from your education. For example, when deciding on classes do not waste your money on ones that you are not prepared for or will not take seriously. Remember that college is an investment for dedicated individuals.

After completing your college degree your best option is to talk with an experienced staffing agency. A staffing firm can help you quickly locate a job that matches your specific skill set.

iStaffing Agency helps place professional candidates into Management, Senior and Executive level positions in Southern California. iStaffing Agency specializes in Human Resources, Accountants, Executives, IT Professionals, Loan Officers and other professional candidates in addition to candidates in the Entertainment and Nonprofit sector. For more information about how iStaffing Agency can help you locate your next career opportunity in Los Angeles County or Orange County, California please contact us today.

Common Workplace Problems That Can be Solved by a Staffing Agency

Common Workplace Problems That Can be Solved by a Staffing Agency

Staffing problems occur in every type of Southern California business. In fact, staffing issues are one of the leading causes of problems in businesses both large and small. If you’ve ever considered utilizing a staffing agency’s services, now is the perfect time to see if this solution is right for your company. Let’s take a closer look at the most common workplace problems and how they can be solved by using a staffing agency.

Fluctuations in demand
Whether you have a seasonal business or you foresee a dramatic but temporary increase in demand, a staffing service can help you. A staffing firm can provide you with competent temporary employees when you need them, allowing you to simply go back to your regular staff level when the demand slacks off.
Turnover issues
There might be positions within your company with a high turnover rate. A staffing agency can provide you with a highly trained individual to fill the position. Even if you aren’t looking for a permanent hire you can use a temp employee until you are able to address the issue.
Specialized skills
Individuals with specialized skills are necessary in IT departments and other specialized areas within your company. A staffing agency can provide you with the highly trained individuals that you require.
Immediate needs
If a position suddenly opens up and you know that it will take several weeks to find the right candidate, a staffing service can help you fill the position immediately with a highly trained and qualified worker. This frees up your resources, allowing you to continue business as usual.
Rising costs of labor
As the cost of living rises so do employee wages. Today, employees expect higher pay and more benefits as well. This can become a big problem for companies both large and small. An excellent way to solve this problem is to subcontract the work to a temporary staffer.

iStaffing Agency helps Southern California companies locate, screen and place professional candidates into Management, Senior and Executive level positions. iStaffing Agency specializes in Human Resources, Accountants, Executives, IT Professionals, Loan Officers and other professional candidates in addition to candidates in the Entertainment and Nonprofit sector. iStaffing services all areas of Orange County and Los Angeles County. For more information about how iStaffing Agency can help your company with their staffing needs, please contact us today.

Goals for Employee Relations

Goals for Employee Relations

Employee relations are the ways in which a company interacts with its staff, delivers policy information and works on creating a more productive workplace. When you do not create solid policies for employee relations you ultimately create issues within your company with the potential to stop growth and affect future success. When the objectives of employee relations are properly understood, a company is far more likely to put the proper resources and time into creating good policies.

Developing policies that clearly present company information helps to create clarity between the company and its staff. This might include the proper way to submit a time card or a list of employee benefits. When employees understand exactly what management expects of them and how to work within the structure of the company, the workplace becomes much more efficient. However, when a company fails to relate important information to employees the company is likely to experience a drop of productivity as well as an increased level of turnover.

When a company focuses on employee relations they create a corporate culture. Corporate policies that focus on these relations help to increase employee retention, saving the company expensive turnover costs. Developing policies that address the needs of employees help the staff to feel respected. Such policies include unpaid leave, health benefits with counseling options and a retirement program.

There are laws in place regarding employment and the treatment of employees. Potential legal issues include discrimination in the workplace and harassment. The objective of employee relations is to create a legal framework that protects both the company and the employees while creating a productive workplace.

Employee relations activities include annual employee reviews as well as the ongoing development of employees through both training and managerial guidance. When the company and the employees work together on developing employee careers, employees benefit from a clear path to promotion and advancement in the company. The company benefits by identifying future management candidates. The appropriate training can then be applied to guide the future success of the company.

Importance of Employee Feedback

Importance of Employee Feedback

Employee feedback has two different meanings in the workplace. In the case of employees, opinion surveys might be given by management in order to collect valuable information to help identify and resolve a variety of employee issues. On the other hand, employee feedback provided by supervisors and managers helps employees better understand their job duties and develop their work skills. Let’s take a closer look at the different types of employee feedback and their importance.

Opinion Surveys

Employee feedback obtained through employee opinion surveys can be used to pinpoint employee issues when employees are reluctant to share sensitive information. Employee feedback can provide employers with confidential answers to questions employees will not typically answer in interviews or during focus groups out of fear of retaliation. Employers can maintain the integrity of employee responses by allowing employees to complete these surveys anonymously.

Performance Related Employee Feedback

In order to improve department productivity, supervisors and managers should provide continuous and regular performance related employee feedback. This type of employee feedback shows that supervisors and managers are giving immediate attention to not only performance deficiencies but exceptional performance as well. Employees depend on this type of feedback from leadership. When supervisors and managers fail to communicate about employee performance, it reinforces poor work habits and other behaviors that prevent employees from advancement and goal attainment.

Supervisor and Manager Feedback

Another important factor concerning employee feedback is the feedback that employers receive about company leadership. This type of feedback helps a company’s leadership team determine if supervisors and managers have the skills necessary to lead individual departments and the company as a whole.

Employer Action Plans

Developing an action plan is the very best way to utilize employee feedback. An action plan assists a company in reaching its goal of improving employee satisfaction. One of the worst things that management can do is ask employees for their opinions and then ignore their answers. Employees should be able to expect clear responses from management.

Questions Employers Should be Asking Their Temp Agency

Questions Employers Should be Asking Their Temp Agency

In Southern California utilizing temporary workers can be useful in many situations:

For special projects that require more staff for a specific period of time
When trying out a new market area
When regular employees have planned or unplanned absences

When these situations occur it is extremely important for companies to have a relationship with a reliable temp agency. You will want to make sure that the people provided to you will be competent and team oriented. Before using a temp agency, employers will want to ask the following questions:

Do you specialize in my industry?

It is extremely important to find an agency that recruits workers that will be able to fill your needs. This becomes especially important when you require workers with very specific skills. You should also find out how wide a range of skills the staffing agency supplies. Knowing the agency’s capacity to source different types of help goes a long way towards developing a long-term relationship with the agency.

How do you evaluate candidates?

Temp agencies use a variety of different strategies to select their candidates. You should understand the evaluation procedure and approve of the screening process. Staffing agencies might use computer testing, psychological evaluations, personal interviews or a combination of all three.

What is your pricing structure?

It’s important to know exactly how the rate your company is being charged breaks down. You will want to find out how much is going towards the temp agency’s administrative costs and how much is actually going to the temp employee. Consider asking if the agency offers discounted rates if you plan to utilize their services regularly.

Do you offer a guarantee?

A respectable temp agency will not charge you for the time of a worker that does not fit your needs or does not perform the required work to an adequate standard. Whenever possible, choose a temp agency that gives a guarantee of satisfaction.

Understanding Pre-Employment Personality Tests

Understanding Pre-Employment Personality Tests

Employers in Southern California typically have several candidates to choose from. Pre-employment personality tests ensure an applicant is right for the job and that the job is right for the applicant. Applicants need to understand this as they prepare to be interviewed, tested and examined by potential employers and staffing firms. Pre-employment tests should not be seen as a pass or fail test but rather as an examination to locate the right fit.

Pre-employment personality tests come in many different forms. They might be true/false questionnaires, scaled-response surveys or essay questions. True/false questions typically pertain to specific situations, scaled-response surveys are similar to true/false questions but are ranked from strongly disagree to strongly agree and essay questions are more open ended. Pre-employment tests might be timed to ensure that prospective employees remain honest and are able to think on their feet.

Occasionally prospective employees overlook some of their best qualities. Before taking a personality test job seekers should prepare a detailed list of their personality traits that might interest a future employer. Making this type of list encourages applicants to take an honest look at themselves and determine whether they feel that they are right for the position at hand. It also reduces the chance that they will freeze up when asked questions.

Perhaps the most important advice a job seeker can take when preparing for a personality test is to be honest. Prospective employees should be less concerned with getting a job and more concerned with locating the right job. When applicants give dishonest answers simply because they think it’s what the boss wants to hear, they hurt both parties involved. Managers that go through the process of hiring a less than enthusiastic employee ultimately end up regretting it and the employee is miserable every day that they must work. While finding employment is very important, finding the right job is paramount to finding happiness.

In addition to being honest, applicants should relax when given personality tests that have a bearing on their future employment. While job seekers shouldn’t be so relaxed that they appear unprofessional, they also shouldn’t be so nervous that their thought process completely shuts down. Employers use pre-employment tests to evaluate a person’s disposition and see how well they work under pressure. Keep in mind when facing prospective employment that being prepared, honest and calm is just as important as the results of a personality test.

Temp Hire vs. Direct Hire Jobs

Temp Hire vs. Direct Hire Jobs

Southern California companies can grow extremely fast. As companies grow and expand they typically have to increase the number of staff and employees on their teams. The new team members should be able to help the company with production and should ultimately be an enhancement to the company. Temp hire and direct hire employees both have their own unique benefits for both employers and employees. Let’s discuss the difference between temp hire and direct hire.

Often times a company will hire a staffing agency to locate competent temporary workers. The company will use these employees to either fill in for missing employees or for positions where no one has been hired yet. If the hiring process is delayed, a temp employee can be used to fill the position without remaining on staff full time. This gives employers the opportunity to hire another employee directly.

Direct hire employees might prove to be more committed to the job over temp employees because it is considered to be much more permanent for them. Direct hires are specifically chosen to fill a particular need within a company.

Temporary employees often move around from job to job. This makes it possible for them to gain a lot of experience in different areas of work and expertise. In addition, the constant change of work environments makes each new position more exciting.

Direct hires typically receive more benefits and job security than temporary workers. Direct hires are permanent employees meaning that they are not faced with the possibility of losing their job simply because their allotted employment time has run out.

Temporary workers do not always have the option of securing another temporary job immediately after one has ended. If temp agencies are not able to find a steady flow of work for temp workers then their job security is almost nonexistent. However, if a position becomes available, a reliable temp employee that has successfully proven that they are an asset to the company might be offered a permanent position.

Summer Heat in the Workplace

Summer Heat in the Workplace

August is usually the hottest summer month in Southern California. Heat related illnesses are extremely dangerous and can quickly become fatal if the proper precautions are not followed. If employees will be working in conditions where temperatures are expected to reach 85 degrees or higher, it is the employer’s responsibility to ensure all possible safety precautions are being taken.

Heat related illnesses are caused by prolonged exposure to extreme temperatures. While employees working outdoors are prone to heat related illness, it is not strictly an outdoor work problem. Employees working indoors are also vulnerable to heat related problems. It is important to remember that anytime the temperature rises above 80 degrees you are at risk.

There are five different types of heat related illness:

Heat cramps
Heat rash
Heat stroke
Heat syncope
Heat exhaustion

Heat cramps are generally not fatal but should still be taken seriously. If left untreated they can become a serious problem. Symptoms include pain occurring in the arms, legs and abdomen and muscle spasms. When heat cramps occur it is important to drink lots of water and get to a cooled rest area.

Heat rash is another heat related problem that is not fatal by itself. Symptoms include clusters of red bumps on the upper chest, neck and folds of skin. If heat rash is suspected, do your best to keep the area dry and if possible, perform work duties in a cooler, less humid environment.

Heat stroke is far more serious than the previous problems. There are several symptoms of heat stroke that can go unnoticed because the person affected assumes they are simply hot due to rising temperatures. Symptoms include excessive sweating, flushed skin, dry skin, high body temperature, confusion, seizures and fainting. If you notice any of these symptoms it is important to seek immediate medical attention. Heat stroke can be fatal.

Heat syncope is fainting caused by prolonged exposure to heat. This can occur when an employee has been standing in a hot environment for a prolonged period or when a person stands too quickly from a seated position. Symptoms include lightheadedness, dizziness and fainting. Medical attention must be sought immediately.

One of the most common heat related illnesses is heat exhaustion. Heat exhaustion occurs as a natural response to excessive loss of salt and water. Symptoms include excessive sweating, paleness of skin, slightly elevated body temperature, fatigue, dizziness, weakness, lightheadedness, muscle cramps, muscle pain, nausea, headache, moist skin, shallow breathing and racing pulse. When heat exhaustion is suspected, immediate medical attention must be sought.