How are the big national and international staffing firms recruiting and placing professional technical temporaries? In interviews with Kelly Services, Manpower, and Robert Half Accountemps, here is what their spokespersons said:
Carl Camden, Executive Vice President of Kelly Services in charge of Sales and Marketing, said Kelly Services uses the Internet widely. Camden thinks over 70% of Kelly Services' recruits are a result of the Internet.
Kelly Services also has a site that will build a resume for the professional technical person. This will help the candidate make sure the resume is formatted so that the correct key words will be included.
This is important because many services use scanners that are programmed to select candidates based on how the scanner is coded. Therefore, it is important that you make sure your skills are listed correctly on your resume according to the temp part time or full time job you are applying for. Your resume then has a greater chance of being selected by a programmed scanner.
If you have any questions about why your resume was not selected, call the staffing service you submitted it to and ask to talk to a real, live person who can give you an explanation. Computers are only as good as the commands given them. You may be qualified for a job that a person from a staffing service can select you for even though your resume may not have been selected by a computer. It never hurts to be persistent and to follow up on each and every listed job for which you may be qualified.
In an interview, Gretchen Kreske, manager of strategic information for Manpower, said Manpower has been placing people in professional technical jobs for over 25 years. Manpower recruits extensively from its Internet site , and one of the programs offered by Manpower, according to Kreske, is TechTrack. TechTrack is Manpower's CD based technical training for information technology professionals.
One way to use the Internet is to enter the type of job you are looking for and review the Web sites that match your skills. Or, you can type in the name of a staffing service and review what the Web site lists. For example, if you type in the Robert Half Accountemps Web site, you will be offered a variety of options. The options include locations of the Robert Half Accountemps office closest to you, the types of skills Accountemps is recruiting for, jobs available with salaries, and where the jobs are located.
Mark Nightingale, with Robert Half Accountemps, said many applicants come from referrals: "Good people know good people." Many people with professional technical skills come to Accountemps via the Internet, and some come because of the special kinds of financial jobs where Robert Half Accountemps has a reputation for placing the professional technical temporary.
Many Web sites will also allow you to send the initial information to the staffing service through the Internet. That means you can complete an application and fax your resume to the number listed on the site. You may be asked questions by e mail or by a phone call if you give your name and number.
Joanie was an information technology specialist who found herself looking for work because the company she worked for had been sold and the national company that had acquired her company had foolishly done away with the information technology division. (This company obviously had no vision since they abolished the information technology division, and Joanie was better off not working for them.) While Joanie was living off her severance pay, she starting surfing the Net to see what else was out there as far as jobs went.
Joanie found many staffing services listed on the Web. She had to determine which staffing services recruited candidates like her who had technical skills. After narrowing her search down to 12 services, she carefully read the job openings listed on their Web sites. Some of the services had functions that allowed her to fill in a resume format and actually send the resume through the Internet to the service. She tried three of these services and, following their instructions, entered her job skills according to their format.
She listed an e mail address as well as a phone number where she could be reached. Rather than give out her home phone number, Joanie listed the number of an outplacement service that her previous company had contracted to provide office support for the people who were downsized, fired, or simply laid off.
Joanie received responses from two of the staffing services that she sent resumes to through the Internet. One response was by e mail and one was by phone. The e mail response asked specific questions about the different programming languages with which she was familiar and her willingness to relocate and travel. The phone call was to ask more specific questions about her skill development.
The person who contacted her by phone was very abrasive and abrupt. Since Joanie was at a rather vulnerable time in her life, this did not sit well with her. The e mail contact was direct but also left the door open for Joanie to respond and ask more questions. The information shared in e mail covered aspects of what Joanie was looking for in a job, whether she was interested in long term temping, what types of benefits she wanted, and whether she wanted a temp to hire job. Joanie was not sure what she wanted at this point, although she basically wanted to avoid the type of position she had just left. She did not want to be a part of shortsighted company, so she responded that she wanted to be flexible and not lock herself into anything that was long term, meaning longer than three to six months for her. (In the world of temp, long term can mean years to never ending.)
The staffing service person Joanie had been conversing with by e mail set up a phone interview with her and explained the type of position the staffing service was trying to fill.
One job was an information technology position lasting approximately six months, and the pay was what Joanie was asking for. The contact from the staffing service went on to say she would need to have a background check run on her for the job and pass a series of tests. The job assignment turned out to be a win win for Joanie.
She took her first job as a professional temp with this service as a result of finding it on the Internet. She went on to work other jobs through two other staffing services she had found on the Internet and eventually tried out a temp to hire job. At present, Joanie is still uneasy about committing herself to one company due to her past experience, but now she knows if the job does not work out she can go back to professional temping.
In her spare time, Joanie continues to surf the Net to stay informed about jobs available for someone with her skills. She is considering picking up some weekend temp work to sharpen her information technology skills and to earn extra income.
