Staffing agencies offer insights into trends in temporary work

Area leaders in the staffing services industry were queried about current employment trends they are seeing in their field. Questions included: Who are the most sought-after employees in the temporary staffing industry right now? Is this consistent with past trends, or is it something new? If it’s new, could you speculate why? And, finally, is it easy to find workers in these fields? Following are comments received from directors, managers and CEOs at area employment agencies.

Representing Adecco’s Engineering and Technical Division in Idaho, we are seeing a sharp demand in skilled IT positions such as software engineers and developers. Overall demand is associated with increased IT spending, along with increased application development.

Most clients in the Treasure Valley have displayed a hesitant confidence going into the last half of 2010. Many intuitive Boise employers are positioning themselves for long-term success by making sure they have the right people in place when the economy comes back around. In fact, we still see many employers investing in developing and adding to their teams.

A serious concern to our clients as we continue to see the Boise economy recover is “talent flight.” Most employers in Boise will experience this type of attrition with skilled professionals voluntarily changing jobs for better opportunities. This will especially persist as major Boise employers continue to post positive financial results in addition to regional economies continually recovering while drawing our skilled workforce out to areas such as Portland, Seattle and San Francisco.

Now is an ideal time to locate and integrate skilled talent into organizations before the Boise technical labor market truly tightens up. Remember a few years ago most Boise hiring managers repeatedly said we can’t find technical talent.

Local hiring managers need to be aware of the continual economic recovery trends, especially in the Northwest IT sectors. As these regional economies continue to improve, positive attrition will certainly increase as well the search for technical talent.
Steven Guadagno
Area Director
Adecco Engineering & Technical

Here in Boise we are seeing a strong demand for medical office personnel, specifically medical billing specialists, as well as professional front desk coordinators and degreed staff accountants.

This new increase in demand for medical professionals has grown quite a bit as the health care industry has expanded locally. Professional front desk coordinators and degreed staff accountants are almost always in demand since good customer service and a strong finance function are critical to any business’s success.

Due to the recent increase in demand for skilled medical office personnel, it has become extremely difficult to find them in the Boise market.
Amanda Emerick
Branch Manager
Robert Half International
Accountemps OfficeTeam

Light industrial and clerical positions will likely see continued hiring increases for the third quarter, according to a national hiring trends survey conducted by Express Employment Professionals.

Express surveyed 10,181 current and former clients across the company’s more than 550 locations. Thirty-four percent of respondents plan to hire full-time commercial and light industrial positions in the third quarter, while 28 percent plan to hire for administrative and office clerical positions.

According to the hiring trends survey, these two types of positions have been in strong demand for 2010. Since January, 37 percent of survey respondents filled administrative and office clerical positions and 32 percent filled commercial and light industrial positions.

On a local level, business really picked up in the last few months. Our offices in the Boise area have experienced record growth in the second quarter of 2010.

In today’s market we have found that there are more qualified applicants; however, recruiting in a high unemployment economy has mandated additional time to identify top talent.

The third quarter also looks brighter for accounting, information technology, engineering and marketing. At least 11 percent of respondents indicated they plan to hire for these respective areas.

The Express hiring trends survey, which yielded a 9.19 percent completion rate, also looked at what is most important for new hires. Topping the list is credible work history, followed by job experience and specific skills.

From mid-May to mid-June, Express received more than 4,000 new job orders. Top job openings were for light industrial, manufacturing, office services, professional, engineering, technical, health care, accounting and financial services work.
Doug Haneborg
Operations Manager/Owner
Express Employment Professionals

The trend we are currently seeing in temporary job generation is with employees who are critical to the daily operation of a business – i.e., receptionists, administrative assistants, assembly / production workers, general labor workers and accounting clerks. These are the workers who produce goods, perform data entry and answer phones. Companies cannot function without people in these roles.

This is somewhat unusual in the fact that the jobs are not necessarily industry specific or seasonal.

The consensus is that many organizations are still unsure about the economy and they do not want to commit to hiring full-time workers if recent business growth is not sustainable. At the same time, orders must get filled, goods must be produced and phones must be answered. Thus, the labor need is there. Companies that have downsized are balancing these labor needs with temporary workers.

And, finally, is it easy to find workers in these fields? Although there are still many workers in the employment market, it takes more time to find highly qualified, motivated workers. The vast majority of applicants are simply responding to job postings to meet their unemployment quota. Our recruiters spend hours screening through these resumes trying to identify candidates who are actually qualified for our specific job openings.
Trish Cereda
Branch Manager
Select Staffing

The most sought-after employees right now are employees with landscaping experience. Now this is due to the seasonality of the industry and because of the climate that we live in. I have also seen a lot companies looking to fill driver positions through staffing services. I also base this on seasonal activity, and this I believe is due to workers who now can draw extended unemployment benefits.

I feel that there are more companies now using staffing services because of the “no strings attached” approach, or because most companies are on a hiring freeze. Educating companies on the use of staffing services during these times is also helping our industry. When an employer puts an ad out there for an entry level position, he or she is bombarded by resumes, and going through 100 resumes to find one person is not time efficient.

This is why it is important that businesses know what a staffing service can do for them.

I also approach it as if you were to buy a car, you would like to test drive that car before you purchase it, so why not do the same with an employee (because employees are usually the biggest cost in a business).

As mentioned above, there are a lot of workers out there and it is easy to get candidates, but the problem is sifting through them all to find the right one.
Craig Taylor
President
American Staffing

We have lots of employees but don’t have very many jobs; and the employees we do have come in for jobs that they are not qualified for.

Ten percent unemployment is not good. It seems like it (the unemployment rate) is either too low or too high. It’s all right at 5 to 4 percent. Below 3 percent you’re dealing with unhireables. At this point, you’re dealing with the overqualified. We know that they just want to go to work. But the employer thinks, “This guy is only going to stay for a while.”

We have a clerical job that I sent five people to for an interview. The employer said, “I’d like to hire them, but they’re too qualified. Once the economy gets better, they’re going to be gone.”

We all bolster ourselves up a little bit (when applying for jobs), but we have guys coming in saying they know more than they really do. They come in for a job in electronics and say they can solder; but all they can solder is pipes, and it’s a lot different than soldering computer chips. A lot of them try to say it’s no big deal.

I’ve gone two ways (when I’ve hired): hire someone with no experience so I can train them my way, or hire someone overqualified because they’ll pick things up faster. When you’re overqualified, eventually you find out you’re learning stuff, different stuff.

There’s a couple of industries going strong in this area, but other industries are just hanging on. There’s a couple of manufacturing companies doing well, but most are just hanging on.

I think a lot of it has to do with the health care reform. It’s kind of slowing us down too because no one knows how it’s going to affect them. It’s got our industry scared to death because they haven’t addressed anything with us. We’re afraid we might have to close our doors. If we have to cover insurance costs, that’s going to raise our prices.
Jerry Sharp
Vice President
A.E.S. Inc. An Employment Source

There does not seem to be any one specific need; we are seeing increased opportunities in all job classifications. I feel as though the expectations are a bit higher now than they have been in the past, with reference to the qualifications of the candidates.

This is consistent with past trends as when there is an increase in hiring, it is not typically in any one area.

We see a large volume of quality employees in the positions we are filling. Some very specific positions require recruiting, but for the most part, we are seeing many employees in our database who have the qualifications our customers are looking for.
Vonna Torrey
Branch Manager
Adecco Staffing