The differences between Boomers and Generation X workers is both more simple and complex than one would think.

Or so says research conducted by the University of Illinois and published in the Academy of Management Review in 2010 .

The study found that companies lean toward relying on stereotypes at the expense of other relevant facts.

Researchers also stated that “there are no one-size-fits-all-solutions. Just as we don’t want to take more simplistic approaches in race and gender issues, we shouldn’t automatically assume that a gray-haired man isn’t on Facebook or good at technology. Assumptions based solely on age can lead to some very faulty conclusions and missteps.”

The study took data from years and decades passed and identified three factors that researchers felt could contribute to what it called “generational factions” which could keep workers from working together and spreading knowledge.

Age, of course, was one of the factors. However, researchers found that workers were more differentiated by their common experiences of significant events, giving as examples workers who lived through World War II, compared to those who came of age when President Kennedy was shot or who were working when the 9/11 attacks occurred. These, the researchers found, could grow subgroups within single generations.

Another factor was multi-generational. For example, even if a worker is in his late 20s or early 30s, if he or she started at your firm 10 years ago, the worker may have more in common with another worker in her 40s or 50s who also started 10 years ago than another late-20-something who started just two years ago. The workers with the decade-long tenure will remember when your firm didn’t use e-mail as much to communicate with workers, for example.

According to one researcher (Aparna Joshi, a professor of labor and employment relations), “[w]hat we are headed toward is creating a better understanding of the complexities of generations in the workplace and, we hope, more realistic solutions. Businesses need to make targeted diagnosis like a doctor diagnoses an illness, rather than just prescribing penicillin for every ailment.

“It’s human nature that workers interact with their cohorts, seeking out their own,” Joshi continued. “Figuring out ways to bring them together will allow companies to tap into all of those knowledge silos and reach full potential.”

When looking or great temporary or direct-hire employees for your Syracuse-area firm, contact CR Fletcher Associates, Inc. We’ll help you find talented and reliable workers for temporary, temp-to-hire and direct hire assignments. Contact us today!

In a  recent survey of employees at various organizations, workers said that they could do more to eat better and be more active at work, and that employers could do more to increase health and wellness in the workplace.

Human resource experts also say that if companies provide the resources for their employees to eat better and keep active, it will not only reduce healthcare spending for employers and employees, but it will boost productivity as well.

A report by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has shown that about 75 percent of adults will be overweight by 2015.  The Center for Disease Control has found that obese employees are absent from work almost most two times more often than other workers, costing companies about $4 billion each year in lost productivity.

Another survey found that about 20 percent of organizations had some kind of weight management program.  But these were for the most part in the health and hospitality area and in places that employed more than 500 people.  Because being overweight can increase the risk of such conditions as heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke and cancer, these weight management programs can help with preventing these diseases and keeping down healthcare costs.
More than two-thirds of organizations offer some type of wellness program, up almost six percent from four years ago.  Almost three-fourths of organizations with 500 or more employees had some type of wellness program.  Of these, government organizations had the highest percentage at more than 80 percent, and service groups had the smallest, at just a little over 60 percent.

More than half of these wellness programs offered flu shots, and almost one-third gave health risk assessments and offered stop-smoking classes.  Almost one-third offered yearly physicals, and one-tenth had in-house medical staff.

What types of work habits contributed to weight gain?  The survey found that almost three-fourths of workers had a junk-food snack at least once a week, while almost one-third had a junk-food snack three times a week.  More than one-third of the workers said they had to stay at their desks, reducing physical activity.  Stress from work also led to bad eating habits.

But, on the other hand, two-thirds of employees said they would use a gym, nutrition education and weight management classes if they were available at work.

Exercise great judgment and contact  C.R. Fletcher Associates, Inc. when you need sales/marketing, HR, accounting/finance, IT, administrative/clerical, and warehouse workers for your Syracuse-area firm, we’ll find you skilled and reliable personnel for short-, long-term and direct-hire opportunities. Contact us today.

Do you ever feel that work would be pretty dandy if it weren’t for, well….your co-workers?

They can be so annoying at times. The gum popping. The Facebook surfing. The messy desks. The gossip. The backstabbing.

If you do sometimes wish your co-workers would just stay home more often than not, you’re not alone. A survey in June found that employees have many minor complaint about colleagues. Here are a few (of course, these are how other people are annoying; we’re never annoying!)

The biggest annoyance stated by those surveyed were colleagues who are poor at time management, resulting in missed deadlines and/or putting others behind in their own tasks.

Employees also were put out by their colleagues who took too many sick days and who took too long at lunch or on breaks. Colleagues who didn’t know a deadline if it jumped up and pulled their hair also had their co-workers pulling their own hair in frustration, as did too-long meetings (especially when they had no agenda) or did not begin or end on time. Co-workers who passed the time checking their Smartphones or other personal electronic devices during the meeting also came up in the top pet peeves lists.

Office gossip also was a big annoyance.

That said, your colleagues also are talking behind your back about how annoying you are when you:

• are loud,
• talk about politics,
• send e-mail or visit your favorite Web sites for personal concerns during company time, and
• use electronic devices at inappropriate times.

E-mail also is a bit of a bugaboo among workers. Those surveyed said chain and joke e-mails should go the way of the Dodo. Employees who don’t reply to an e-mail related to work or a project, or who send an e-mail with a question that had been answered in previous e-mail also deserved to spend time in Dante’s first circle of hell.

Your takeaway? Set clear guidelines and policies regarding Internet and personal electronic devices at work. You also should set firm rules about communal area and desk cleanliness, as well as length of morning, afternoon and lunch breaks. Make your rules reasonable for your company culture, make them easily accessible and known to your employees, and be consistent in your enforcement.

When you need reliable, conscientious workers for your Syracuse-area firm, contact C.R. Fletcher Associates, Inc. We can find you skilled employees for temporary, temp-to-hire or direct-hire assignments. We look forward to hearing from you!

If you have employees who telecommute “to” work, they’re likely less stressed and enjoy their jobs more than people doing similar work at your firm on site.

Such is the finding of a recent University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) study. Researchers compared those workers who worked from home at least three days a week to employees who worked in the “traditional” manner at a company’s site. The study found that, while lax workplace communication often is cited as a big disadvantage to telecommuting, study participants reported that this issue was minor. In fact, telecommuters said they had the same timely access to important work information as their office-based colleagues.

Researchers concluded that telecommuting shielded workers from the more stressful and distracting parts of the workplace including interruptions, long and useless meetings, information overload, and — not surprisingly — office politics.

Your takeaway? Researchers recommended that companies look into starting or expanding telecommuting programs. If such remote working arrangements truly aren’t feasible at your firm, the researchers suggested that employers “identify and address the problematic and unsatisfying issues inherent in collocated work environments.”

Employers at the least should consider:

• Limiting the number of mass e-mails
• Cutting back on meetings
• “Creating a supportive climate where employees can register concerns without fear of retaliation”
• Streamlining your communication efforts by creating a “repository of information” accessible to employees at any time.
• Creating times and places where office-based employees may work uninterrupted.
• Assisting employees to “disconnect” themselves from work communication (e-mail, text messages, etc.) when the work day is done.

C.R. Fletcher and Associates, Inc. can alleviate your stress by sourcing and placing skilled and reliable employees for your Syracuse-area company. Contact us today so that we may hear more about how our temporary, temp-to-hire, and direct-hire placement services can help take a lot of the stress out of ensuring your workforce is of the caliber you require. We look forward to hearing from you.

A recent survey of about 200,000 employees shows that employee morale is the lowest it’s ever been.  Employees report job satisfaction is minimal.

In order to help raise the level of worker morale and motivation, one important tool that some HR specialists advocate is using praise and recognition.  The lack of motivation within a job and lack of engagement that lead employees to quit is a major expense for employers.  Hiring a new employee to replace one who has left can cost a company as much as 250 percent of the person’s annual salary.

The survey reported that 65 percent of the workers had not received any recognition at all during the past year.  Almost 80 percent said the major reason they left a company was because they felt their work was not appreciated.

At places where morale is high, almost all the employees said that the managers effectively use recognition of their employees.

Companies that use recognition of excellence in their organization usually are more profitable than those who barely use it all.  Moreover, those companies that do a good job of recognizing excellence have a return on equity more than three times greater than those companies that do not recognize good performance.

There are many, many ways to recognize excellence.  One way is to create high expectations for new employees by having a small ceremony on a new worker’s first day on the job.  This can then be followed by an e-mail to employees giving some background about the new person and what he or she brings to the organization.

At the start of the day, put three coins in your pocket.  Move one to the left pocket when you give some recognition to an employee for performance that has made a difference to your company’s goals, to your customers, or your employees.

Recognizing performance also means recognizing those who may not be the strongest performers at your company.  You need to praise even the most incremental movement toward the goals you want to achieve.

Another way to recognize an employee is to personally deliver the paycheck, and before you hand it over, tell the employee what his or efforts mean to the company.  It’s not the money that will inflate the employee’s pride, it is the praise.

You’ll be praising the work of C.R. Fletcher Associates, Inc. to the heavens when we’ve found the perfect employees for your Syracuse-area firm. Contact us today so that we may learn more about your staffing needs!

Companies will be ramping up their hiring once the economy really starts to recover, but the way they do it may include some different techniques.  Because of cuts to recruiting offices during the recession, companies are looking for more cost-efficient ways to recruit.  As a result, they are turning more to refining their methods using social media aimed at specific groups.

Employers have been using social media sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook for some time.  But now employers are aiming their recruiting efforts at blogs with very specific content and audience and LinkedIn groups using video.  As an example, one employer used such a content-specific blog to find people who had a very specialized kind of financial services background. The company put a recruiting video on the site and got a very good response.  There usually is a big increase in people visiting a site after a video is posted, according to one social media consultant.  Nearly 20 percent of those viewing the video apply for the position, which exceeds other sources.  The cost to the employer is minimal, and thousands of people see the video.  Moreover, because the audience has been targeted, those who apply for the job are much more likely to have the qualifications the company needs.

Employee referral programs also are finding renewed interest.  It’s a lot faster and cheaper to make a hire if done from with a referral from a current employee.  Again, the company uses video, only this time puts it on the company’s Facebook page.  There is a much greater chance this way of being seen by workers, who then send it to their friends.  Moreover, the electronic traffic can be tracked to see how well the video is working in recruiting people.

The use of mobile phones in the hiring process also is becoming a trend.  Companies are placing videos on cell phones that users may then text ID to other people.  This way, an employer has the person who receives the video watching it and sending it to friends.  The video in this way goes viral.

Because these kinds of electronics and social media sites are becoming much more prevalent, especially among younger workers, companies are finding that if they want to reach more people, they have to have a presence on these sites and in these technologies.  And with tight financial constraints, this kind of recruiting makes sense as a way of reaching new groups of potential job candidates.

C.R. Fletcher Associates, Inc. can help your Syracuse-area firm find great local employees for temporary, temp-to-hire and direct-hire positions. We look forward to showing you how we can help your company become more profitable and productive. Contact us today!

When companies think of hiring temporary workers, it’s usually clerical or mid-level managers that come to mind.  But more and more in the fast-paced business world, companies are turning to contract employees to fill executive level positions, including CFOs and CEOs.

In today’s business environment, companies often cannot afford to go leaderless for the time it takes to search for and hire a CEO, especially when the future of the company is at stake.

Such leadership is especially crucial for start-ups, who need the guidance an experienced CEO can offer.  But they can’t afford to be without a CEO for the six to nine months it may take for a search.  By hiring a contract, temporary executive, companies can get a very experienced CEO to move their business forward right away, and have someone to mentor their own workers.

Such contract CEOs are screened extensively for their managerial skills, such as creating marketing plans, making long-range financial projections and negotiating joint venture agreements.

Contract work appeals to former CEOs who have expertise and want to keep their hand in the game, but who don’t want to make the all-consuming, long-term commitment a permanent position would require.

Another dimension that contract CEOs bring is a focus and strategic outlook, which their independence allows.  Sometimes, a CEO can get bogged down in operational details, the day-to-day running of the company.  Because the permanent CEO can get caught up in the details, he or she may not be able to focus objectively on the long-term

In a depressed economy, where businesses need to make tough choices, a temporary CEO also has advantages.  Because the temporary executive comes in without the emotional and political ties of a permanent employee, he or she can take a more objective look at a business, and also make the tough decisions without the entanglements that surround a regular CEO.  The temorary CEO doesn’t have to worry about relationships with others in the company if unpopular decisions need to be made.  These high-level temporaries have no political agenda, and so can be honest in their assessments. The contract CEO can play the role of the bad guy, and incur the ill feelings of other workers.  When a permanent replacement arrives, that individual may then focus on rebuilding the relationships and culture of the company without the baggage.

Sometimes a contract executive can help a company out of a crisis situation, if, as a result of the crisis, the original CEO loses his or her job.

If you need high-level or executive expertise for your Syracuse-area firm, contact C.R. Fletcher Associates, Inc. We can provide you with professional contract employees for those time when your company is in crises, between CEOs or otherwise needs the expertise only an experienced executive can bring. Contact us today!

It goes without saying that fair compensation for your employees is a necessity for motivation.  But assuming your workers have an adequate — even excellent — pay scale, and you want to make sure your employees are giving 100 percent effort, is the answer more money?

Surprisingly, no.  While bonuses are nice, they may not always be the most effective way to get the extra effort you want.  What is often more effective is making the work as fulfilling as possible and the work environment as friendly as possible.  How do you do that?

One way is to minimize office politics as much as possible to prevent the work atmosphere from becoming too onerous.  You want to make sure your employees have clear expectations for their job performance.  You want to keep rules and regulations to a minimum.  You want to make sure that when meetings are held that they are short and that they are efficient – there is a need for them, and a clear agenda that is followed.  You want to minimize competition among employees and get everyone to realize that they are working on the same team.  You want to make sure your workers are getting the information they need to do their jobs effectively.  And when someone has made an error, you need to focus on giving feedback that is constructive, that will help him or her improve performance, rather than just criticizing.  Treat your employees fairly.

But you also need to make sure employees are each pulling their own weight.  If they’re not, you may get some grumbling among your higher performing employees who feel they are being taken advantage of.  This also relates to another tip – make sure your employees are able to put all of their abilities to use.

Employees also need to feel their opinions are valued.  They should be given a voice as to how they do their work.  This also ties in with another good workplace management technique – encouraging employees to take responsibility for what happens at the company and to exercise leadership where appropriate.

Another basic management technique that all companies should have in place is the establishment of clear, achievable goals and methods of measurement that show improvement in performance.

You also need to provide encouragement to your staff, and don’t be too stingy with a hearty pat on the back when it’s deserved.

Keep in mind as well that you are not just working to motivate one employee at a time, but working to change the tone and atmosphere of the entire organization to clear away things that dampen employee motivation and allow those practices that take advantage of employees innate ability to motivate themselves.

Let C.R. Fletcher Associates, Inc. help you achieve great results with great people. We can source, interview and place many talented Syracuse-area employees for temporary, temp-to-hire and direct placement assignments at your company. Contact us today.

If your company needs more personnel, but is not sure for how long, or if you want to try out a new employee, temp-to-hire staffing may be the way to go.

With temp-to-hire an independent firm will advertise the job, evaluate resumes, interview the applicants, and test them in the relevant skills.  When the staffing service has found a candidate it feels is right for the job, the staffing company will send the resumes to you and then schedule interviews.

Your company does not have to spend all the time and effort screening the candidates because that is done by the outside firm.

As part of the temp-to-hire process, your company will enter into an agreement with the outside firm that outlines the terms of the relationship.  The staffing service usually will charge an hourly rate during the temporary period, along with a flat fee charged to place the applicant as a regular employee.  The cost of the flat fee will depend on the applicant’s first-year salary, if they are hired.  The fee can vary, depending on the job applicant and the length of the temporary employment period.

During the time when the employee is working as a temporary placement, the temp-to-hire firm will process the employee’s timesheets and send your company invoices for the hours worked.  Your company will pay the flat fee when you are ready to make the temporary position a permanent one.  After paying the flat fee, the relationship with the temp-to-hire firm is essentially over.

It is important to note that when working with temp-to-hire firms, your company is under no obligation to hire the candidates that the firm sends to you.

There are a number of advantages to using staffing company’s temp-to-hire service.   It enables your company to focus on the work it does, instead of spending the time to advertise and screen candidates, conduct interviews and do follow-up. Your staffing company’s temp-to-hire service also usually covers the cost of doing all of the candidate screening.  In addition to recruiting and screening, the firm will do criminal background checks, work history reference checks, and take care of workers’ compensation insurance, federal and state taxes, and benefits.

When you want to “try” an employee before making the important commitment of bringing someone on to your Syracuse-area company’s payroll, let C.R. Fletcher Associates, Inc. find you qualified and reliable candidates for temp-to-hire assignments. We will perform all sourcing and background checks — all you need do is perform interviews with top candidates and then try your favorite for a few months until you decide to hire him or her — or not, if you feel the candidate isn’t a good match. Contact us today.

If you use temporary employees on a regular basis, you’re undoubtedly finding how critical they are to your company’s long- and short-term success. You even may be using temporary employees in positions that are critical to company’s future. And, while you know how important it is to keep your “regular” employees motivated and engaged, you’ve no doubt discovered how important it is to keep your temporary workers just as motivated and engaged.

Here are some tips to help you do so:

Just as you should do with anyone who crosses your path, treat your temporary employees with respect. After all your temporary workers are helping your business grow and thrive. They do deserve your respect and attention.

That said, when a new temporary worker comes to your site, make every effort to introduce them to your worksite, just as you do a new, regular employee. Show the worker where the lunchroom is, where the bathrooms are located, etc.

In addition, when you introduce the worker to your regular staff, refrain from introducing her as “the temp.” Instead, introduce the worker to her new colleagues by giving her name and the duties she’ll be filling at your company. This presents your temporary in a much more respectable light to her new co-workers — and it also presents you as a professional in the eyes of the temporary worker.

As you introduce the temporary worker, tell her a bit about your company and her role within it. This will help her feel more like a part of your team and less like “the temp.”

In fact, you should aim to treat your temporary employees as much as possible as your “regular” employees. Keep them in the loop regarding your company’s goals and challenges. Bring them in on staff and department meetings or, if you feel you can’t or shouldn’t due to the sensitive nature of these meetings, at least let them know in general what happened in the meetings. Be sure to send them your company’s memos and announcements to them.

When you’re looking to bring in new employees on a temp-to-hire basis, or when you need highly skilled temporary employees to help your business grow, give CR Fletcher Associates, Inc. a call. We provide talented and hard-working employees for Onondaga County companies. Contact us today.