Staffing Industry Chief Urges Attitude Adjustment

The president of the American Staffing Association was in town recently, and in a charming Tennessee accent, he scolded the profession.

“The problem is we don’t act like a $69 billion industry,” drawled David Bartholomew, chief executive of national firm Staffmark. “Our clients don’t appreciate what we do for them. They put the temporary help agency right next to the guy selling them a used copy machine.”

Because the industry is one of the fastest growing in the country, that attitude needs to change, Bartholomew told the Nevada Staffing Association on Sept. 21.

The American staffing industry employs 2.9 million people daily. In 2005, the 25 Nevada Staffing Association member companies sent out 18,600 workers every day 2 percent of the total workforce, akin to national statistics.

About 46 percent of temp workers in Nevada secured full-time jobs in 2005.

Bartholomew said the industry needs to increase its professionalism and sell a quality placing service rather than cheap labor.

And he warned about common practices that work against the industry.

One is allowing a client a company that requests temp workers to dictate how much it will pay a staffi ng agency. For example, a data entry fi rm will request 20 workers at $10 an hour, saying it will pay the agency $13 an hour so that the agency has $3 for administrative, screening and placement costs.

“I don’t know of another industry that allows that,” Bartholomew said. He demanded that staffing companies set their own rates.

Another caution he gave was to never sign indemnity agreements, which are becoming more common in staffing contracts.

“We’re all signing them, and we don’t even read them,” he said. “If you read it, it says basically from when the sun goes up in the morning to when it goes down at night, you’re responsible for anything that goes on at a (client’s) facility” even if it has managers or supervisors.

The American Staffing Association is launching a multiyear marketing campaign to improve the image of the industry. It surveyed middle sized companies and Fortune 500 companies, finding that businesses like the flexibility of temp workers but are sometimes unimpressed with the quality of the employees.

But a marketing campaign will reinforce a message that has been pushed for several years: that temporary jobs often bridge to a full time job and that companies can save the effort of screening and finding qualified candidates for jobs.

Bartholomew pointed to a bar graph. By the association’s definitions, 94 percent of news stories about temporary workers in 2005 were considered positive, compared with 55 percent in 2000.

He predicted battles on upcoming congressional and legislative bills, especially concerning immigration reform. He urged the staffing companies to prepare for increased responsibility for documented workers, starting now by using the free, online Basic Pilot Program to check Social Security numbers. (The government run Web site is linked from www.uscis.gov/graphics/services/SAVE.htm.)

Bartholomew said he expects American temp-worker levels to reach that of Europe’s, rising to 4 percent of the total workforce.

Turning its monthly meeting at Gordon Biersch into a near all day event, the Nevada Staffing Association held a banquet that night to give out its third annual Temporary Employee of the Year Awards.

Winners included: Jennifer Farinas, James Clarkson, Charles Williams, Ruby Fuller and Edwin Castillo of The Eastridge Group; Amelia Rubio of One Source Staffi ng; Eric M. Schnider of Priority Staffi ng; Al Rice, Margaret M. Inzinga and Tina M. Jules of Manpower Inc. of Southern Nevada; Alan R. Stewart of Millenium Staffi ng Services; Lanelle Christman of Express Personnel; Karen Vail and Timothy Whitcomb of Staffmark; Brenda Berry of Corestaff Services and Jay Morland of Accountants Inc.

Cristina Rodriguez covers medical and workplace issues for In Business Las Vegas and its sister publication, the Las Vegas Sun. She can be reached at [phone] or by e-mail at cristina.rodriguez@ lasvegassun.com.