Leadership is one of the most challenging jobs, but it is also one of the most important and rewarding. One of the keys to enjoying and having tremendous success is finding ways to make the complex task of being a leader simpler and easier to manage. I learned through my own successes and failures over the years. Over time, I have embraced a simpler way to effective leadership. “Sustainable Leadership” has evolved out of my passion for simplifying the job of being in charge. Sustainable Leadership, very simply put, is a razor-edged sword that cuts through the Gordian knot of complexity that is leadership today. What it does is help you be a more effective leader in a way that is so simple you’ll be amazed at how energized you become in your job.
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Five outstanding consultants from diverse disciplines have been inducted into the Million Dollar Consultant® Hall of Fame, as announced at a ceremony at the Oriental Mandarin Hotel in San Francisco on November 13, conducted by Alan Weiss, PhD, the globally-acclaimed “consultant’s consultant.” -- Scott Wintrip, CEO of Wintrip Consulting Group, St. Petersburg, FL. A renowned consultant and executive coach, Scott helps clients such as Boeing, P&G, Randstad, and Wells Fargo grow in both domestic and international markets. His expertise includes strategy, coaching, recruiting, retention, sales, leadership, and accountability, making him a versatile and highly expert corporate resource.
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Welcome to this year’s Staffing 100. For the second time, we bring you the 100 most influential people in the staffing industry as nominated by you, our advisors and the Staffing Industry Analysts team. Among the 100 there are strategists, entrepreneurs, reformers, researchers and businesspeople. But there’s one thing they have in common: a love for people and placing them in jobs. Given the vicissitudes of the recession, this has been no easy task. These staffing professionals have experimented with staffing models and come up with ideas that have sparked dialogue and changed the world of work.
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With gnashing teeth and powerful jaws, the tyrannosaurus rex was a fearsome beast competing for dominance millions of years ago. So too was the ancient crocodile as it engaged in a daily survival of the fittest battle for food, security, and sustainability. While both of these vicious creatures walked our planet eons ago, only the crocodile had the wherewithal to subsist through millions of years of evolution. Companies in the staffing and recruiting from selling individual product lines industry have much in common with these creatures. There are powerful firms, both large and small, that are consistently winning business in head-to-head match ups with their competitors. Everywhere you look, these T. rex-like companies are chewing up their competition as they grab market share and gobble up contract after contract. Yet, some of these organizations will not survive more than a few decades as evolutionary forces in the market create opportunities for smaller, more adaptable companies. These savvy organizations evolve as the market evolves, staying true to core methods that stand the test of time while adapting their best practices in response to the ever-changing needs of clients.
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Fast-forward to the year 2020. What will it be like? Will we be getting around in alternative fuel cars? What about those jet packs we were always promised? And what of the world of work, and specifically, the world of staffing?
While no one knows for sure what 2020 will bring until it's here, we at SI Review spoke with staffing executives, workplace experts, and other industry veterans about what they think the year will hold for the staffing industry in particular. What will be the same nine years from now? What will be different? What trends might there be? What challenges and obstacles will the industry face? What sectors of staffing will likely be "hot" and not so hot? SI Review asked execs and others in the industry to look into their crystal balls and provide some predictions.
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The staffing game is more complex and competitive than ever, and making dazzling sales presentations is no longer enough. Rather, successful sales is more about listening to what the customer actually needs rather than talking up your selling points. Through more listening, you’ll transition from a selling-focused company with limited opportunities to a marketing-focused company for which opportunities abound. There are basically four orientations organizations fall into when it comes to their approach to business: the Production Concept, the Product Concept, the Selling Concept and the Marketing Concept.
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It stunned the staffing industry. Ensemble Chimes Global Inc., then one of the largest vendor management system providers, declared bankruptcy in January 2008, crippling operations of staffing firms and clients. Companies scrambled to find ways to pay and manage their temporary workers.
The VMS and managed service provider filed for bankruptcy protection a day after its parent company, Los Angeles-based Axium International Inc., did the same. The parent company was itself a major payroll services provider for Hollywood productions.
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Take Your Pick -- 10 Tips For Finding Excellent Candidates Among The Unemployed
Conventional wisdom says that if a job candidate is unemployed, there is probably a good reason -- and your staffing firm shouldn't be trying to place that candidate.
But the current recession, with the highest unemployment rates seen in decades, has made the situation less clear.
"Right now, in this current economy, there are some excellent candidates" who are unemployed, said Barbara J. Bruno, CEO of Good as Gold Training, who trains recruiters and runs her own staffing agency.
In the past, for example, "you almost never believed that a real quality sales person would ever get let go," said Glenn Davis, president of the Next Step Group, a technology sales recruiting firm in Westminster CO. "That has kind of gone out the window a little bit in these
economic times."
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The economic crisis in Europe, an apparent stalemate over a debt deal in Washington, persistently high employment, the ongoing military conflict in Afghanistan, threats of another global recession…the list of uncertainties goes on and on. During this Thanksgiving week in the United States, it may be difficult for some to feel grateful given the current circumstances.
Uncertainty always exists, yet, with the proliferation of the 24-hour media outlets our society has become hyper-focused on the latest news, especially the bad variety. Each of us, however, still has free will, and with it we get to choose where we place our gaze. So, focus your attention this week on all that is going well and the full extent of the opportunities before you. As you do, you’ll create your own level of certainty as you make the most of all of the positive aspects of your life and your work. What a way to celebrate the meaning of Thanksgiving!
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In a competitive staffing market, with customers demanding specific skills, some staffing firms are training their temporary workers to stand out from the crowd.
Although the idea of training temporary workers is not new — some firms have been doing it for decades — it has become easier with advances in technology. Still, it’s not the right answer in every situation, so firms need to consider carefully whether a training program is the right approach for them.
“It’s still a huge area of opportunity and an area where staffing firms can provide value where it’s not being provided in a lot of places,” says Scott Wintrip, founder and president of StaffingU and the Wintrip Consulting Group, which helps companies, including staffing and recruiting firms, grow.
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As teenagers, all of us experienced some sort of physical or emotional pain as we grew in mind, body and spirit. I recall how especially painful these growth spurts were in my legs, as though some invisible force was stretching the bones to what felt like the breaking point. Growing pains can feel especially painful in companies as well, and can create added stress, poor job satisfaction, inconsistent customer service, staff burnout and lower employee retention.
Robust growth comes from a structured method of strategies supported by tactical actions that induce growth and expand your bottom line. This type of expansion looks like a piece of uncooked lasagna positioned at a 20-degree upward angle or steeper. There will almost always be small upward and downward trends in revenue and profits, just like the small waves in a piece of lasagna, but the overall trend is upward.
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We would like to draw attention to the people who make this industry work. Yes this issue is all about you. You bring us something we can’t do without: jobs. There are those among you who create jobs as well as those who place people in them. Finding jobs in any economy is challenging enough but in this one, “challenging” takes on a whole new meaning. These lists credit people who have made a difference to the industry and thereby positively affected the lives of hundreds, if not millions. The Staffing 100 is not a ranking; rather, it’s a list of influential staffing leaders chosen after a thorough review of nominations made by you, our advisors and the Staffing Industry Analysts team. We hope to update this list yearly. If your nominations did not make it to this year’s Staffing 100, don’t give up. There is always next year.
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As teenagers, all of us experienced some sort of physical or emotional pain as we grew in mind, body and spirit. I recall how especially painful these growth spurts were in my legs, as though some invisible force was stretching the bones to what felt like the breaking point. Growing pains can feel especially painful in companies as well, and can create added stress, poor job satisfaction, inconsistent customer service, staff burnout and lower employee retention. Robust growth comes from a structured method of strategies supported by tactical actions that induce growth and expand your bottom line. This type of expansion looks like a piece of uncooked lasagna positioned at a 20-degree upward angle or steeper. There will almost always be small upward and downward trends in revenue and profits, just like the small waves in a piece of lasagna, but the overall trend is upward.
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On April 20, 1999, Cassie Bernall, a 17-year-old student at Columbine High School, faced a life and death choice — tell the boy with the gun what he wanted to hear or tell him the truth. Being strong in her convictions, she chose the truth and he choose to end her life. This tragedy is one of the saddest moments of that decade and it holds for us a powerful truth about control over others: we have none. Each and every person we work with has the power of choice and nothing we say, nor how we say it, gives us any dominance over the decisions and actions that individual will make.
THE DAMAGE OF ATTEMPTED CONTROL
What makes matters worse, for us, are the three types of fallout from the supposed best practice of controlling the client or candidate:
Irreparable Harm to Our Industry. For decades, our business has often been referred to as a necessary evil or only worthy of engagement for problematic hiring. Yet, ours is a service that impacts the most important asset of every company, its people, along with of the most important aspects of peoples’ lives, how they financially support themselves and their families. Given the worthiness of what we do, it’s no stretch to conclude that our reputation is a result of the tactics we employ.
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When QPS Employment Group did a major upgrade of its software last year, the Brookfield WI-based staffing firm held a Webinar for internal staff, to train them on how to use the new technology.
QPS also held a Webinar for internal staff when it made changes to its benefits program -- to explain the new program and where staff could find information about the changes on the company Intranet.
And this spring, when QPS began implementing a pay card program, it held a Webinar for internal staff once again, to show them how to set up the card and how to educate associates about it.
The Webinars have been a nice supplement to the individual, in-person training the company provides, says training coordinator Mark Milan.
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In nine different interview videos, Scott shares advice on how a job seeker can stand out, what a staffing agency can do for you, industries that are flourishing, and making it big.
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