Meeting human resource needs has never been easier.

Finding the right candidate for the job

With an increasing number of companies concentrating on the fiscal bottom line and intent on eliminating any unnecessary overhead, finding the time to recruit qualified future employees is a luxury most simply can't spare.

That's where professional staffing services like Levert Personnel Resources Inc. comes in to carry out the necessary due diligence and to pinpoint a made-to-order candidate on a permanent, temporary or contractual basis.

Mark J. LeClair, a resource consultant at Levert, says more companies are "willing to pay an extra premium" to forego the hassle of advertising an open position, setting up interviews and filling out extra paperwork and paying the employer taxes, payroll deductions and other contributions for temporary employees.

Many of Levert's clients have come to the conclusion that subcontracting out the entire interviewing, sourcing, selection and hiring process by means of a recruiting service ultimately saves them time and money and frees up the office staff to do more productive activities.

"Small, medium and large companies want someone else to take care of these headaches," says LeClair, "We've got the prescription.

"We guarantee to our client that we will do everything in our power through our resources to get the proper candidate for the job."

Founded over 16 years ago by owner Richard Levert (originally as Nortemp Staffing Services), the new company name implies availability of a full range of human resource services beyond basic staffing needs.

With 14 employees, and offices in Sudbury and Timmins, Levert will conduct all the sourcing, screening, testing and hiring to meet personnel needs in management services, industrial, government or technical trades, information technology, office staff, payroll servicing or consulting.

Consulting services vary according to the individual needs of a client, says Paul Laverdiere, a resource consultant at the Timmins' branch. Services may include educating a company management team on how to refine their selection process and quickly weed out those applicants who may be over or under-qualified for a particular job posting.

"(The client) didn't know how to pre-qualify the proper candidate for that position so, in effect, it actually, cost that company a great deal of money. They asked us to come in and consult with their department managers and educate them on how to actually fine-tune certain job descriptions.

"Other companies know exactly what they want and often ask us just to do testing of their existing employees on different programs in cases of interdepartmental transfers."

Levert demands a particularly high standard of thoroughness in sourcing, checking references, interviewing and generally pre-qualifying the collection of individuals in their personnel database.

As a member of the Canadian Personnel Services Inc. (CPSI), an exclusive association of privately-owned and successful staffing services, Levert adheres to the quality assurance system in ensuring 100 per cent guaranteed client satisfaction within the first four hours of any placed candidate, or the client is credited with a replacement candidate.

Keeping tabs on their candidate's progress while on the job also receives priority attention.

"Follow-ups and follow-throughs with the client and candidate are extremely important to ensure there are no concerns," says Laverdiere.

"The idea is if we get a temporary candidate in there several times, there's a much better opportunity for, that client to be more receptive to take on that candidate longer or full time.

"In general, you want the relationship between the client and personnel service to be one of ease and to be confident with one another, so that they know where to go whenever there's an human-resource problem, or even if they need a temporary payroll service."

The process of a candidate search usually begins with a visit from an account representative to define the job description and requirements and to indicate the desired type of candidate for that work environment. Once the client reviews Levert's terms and conditions, a signed agreement initiates the internal search and matching.

Levert will look through their personnel database of 'certified' candidates - their pre-interviewed and pre-screened top-drawer workers - and their pool of registered 'temporary' candidates which have not gone through Levert's interviewing process and reference checks.

If nothing comes up which satisfies the client's needs, Levert will conduct a Canada-wide search from databases within the network of CPSI companies and/or conduct searching through their numerous searching strategies.

Security precations are enforced to maintain confidentiality and privacy for both the client and the candidate. Once the candidate is pre-qualified, then a formal connection is initiated between the candidate and the client company.

Once a consultant from Levert interviews, implements reference checks and ranks their candidates on short list, the client company can participate in a final interview process.

When a selection is made, Levert can tender an offer on behalf of the client company and also notify those candidates not chosen.

Based on the company's findings, hiring a professional recruiter could represent a significant savings on average once the cost of advertising a job and wages for internal staff to interview candidates are factored in, says LeClair.

Levert even encourages their candidates to include their agency as a reference on their resume, believing that a pre-qualified candidate represents a well-motivated, thoroughly screened and more productive applicant.

LeClair estimates their client satisfaction success rate to be around 98 per cent; 2 per cent is a reflection of a clients change in direction to hire internally.

"(The company) feels they've developed a solid reputation in the human resources industry based on the amount of growth Levert has had over the last four years. This is directly reflected in the Levert name."

Levert Personnel Resources Inc.'s Timmins branch is located at 1-11 Pine St. South. To reach the Timmins office contact 705-268-0808.

Sudbury's (head office) branch is located at 1771 Old Falconbridge Road. To reach the Sudbury office contact 705-525-8367.