Canadian Staffing Index - June 2011

“Although the Staffing Index remains below the pre-recession 100 level, it is continuing along an encouraging trajectory. On the ground, ACSESS members are reporting anecdotally that temporary assignments are lengthening, more employers are hiring permanent employees with the assistance of staffing companies, and there is a return to the traditional and predictable seasonal fluctuations in Temporary hours,” explained ACSESS President, Bryan Toffey, adding that, “These are all signs of stability and cautious optimism in the Canadian employment market.”
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The Canadian Staffing Index measures the hours of labour performed by a sampling of temporary and contract staffing in the staffing industry. The data collected is the largest sample size done in Canada provided by a number of Canadian staffing companies and accounts for approximately one third of total staffing industry sales. To preserve confidentiality the data is collected by Staffing Industry Analysts www.staffingindustry.com; an independent company specialized in staffing industry statistics. Data is available for the months starting July 2008 (the benchmark month) to the current month.

In review of similar Index research from the USA, many experts agree staffing industry employment data serves as an economic indicator. Historically, temporary employment improves as overtime hours increase and as unemployment claims decrease. This means the Index can provide a "near real time" indication of how the Canadian economy is performing.

"The Canadian Staffing Index demonstrates both the changes in the Canadian economy and the volatile nature of the staffing business. It is that ability to provide a flexible workforce that brings tremendous value to our clients."
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For more information regarding the Canadian Staffing Index contact:

Amanda Curtis, CAE
Executive Director, ACSESS
1-888-232-4962 / 905-826-6869

www.acsess.org

More Canadian Job Creation

Go Canada!

The Canadian Staffing Index produced by Acsess (Association of Canadian Search, Employment & Staffing Services) has consistently given us a two to three month leading indicator on job creation.

28,000 Canadian Jobs created in Canada is considered to be a moderate by meaningful number of new jobs indicating that we are still improving. Its my impression over the years that the Statistics Canada employment numbers are not always spot on but the aggregate sum of their employment data over any rolling three month period is probably pretty accurate. This is three consecutive months of reported gains. Woo Hoo!

It's nice to see Ontario's manufacturing continue recovering. Alberta is also making tremendous gains thanks to a strong resource commodity sector.

To see where some of these jobs are, you can follow The People Bank on Facebook. Just click the like button!

Follow more blog postings by Steve Jones of The People Bank on The People Bank Website www.thepeoplebank.com/Blog

Temp Staffing Index Continues to Rise

Staffing Index Turns Upward, May 2011
The Canadian staffing index — a measure of temporary staffing in Canada — edged up one point to 85 in May, the Association of Canadian Search, Employment and Staffing Services (ACSESS) reported Thursday.

The news is mixed from sector-to-sector, according to ACSESS President Bryan Toffey. “We’re still seeing some shutdowns and lower hours worked in manufacturing, particularly with respect to the automotive segment. Despite this, the demand for services remains strong, keeping the total number of hours worked per day on the rise.”

The index has demonstrated consistent long-term growth, said Robert Balicki, research associate with Staffing Industry Analysts, which produces the Canadian staffing index in conjunction with ACSESS. “Though the [May] gain was small, year-over-year growth was 8 percent. This is the sixteenth month of uninterrupted year-over-year gains, truly a good sign for the Canadian temporary staffing industry and the overall economy.”

The staffing index measures the hours of labor performed by temporary and contract staff in May of 2011 compared to the benchmark index of 100 established in July of 2008.

Inexpensive Perks - Attract & retain Talent

May 17th, 2011

For most companies, the idea of a big bonus or an automatic salary increase has been relegated to “the good old days.” But there are ways to add perks to a job listing and reward your employees without sending your company to the poorhouse. Offering flex-time, telecommuting, and tuition reimbursement are the most popular, but there are many more options. Use a little creativity and you’ll create a buzz about your business that will attract and retain top talent.

Here’s some perks to consider:

• Sports & Entertainment: Buy tickets from charity silent-auction tables for theatre, hockey, baseball, football or basketball and offer them as recognition, rewards and thank you throughout the year.

• Catch A Movie: Give away movie tickets (and money for popcorn, snacks and drinks).

• Grab A Bite: Restaurant coupons are always popular. Include a bottle of wine to say thank you to hardworking spouses for all that overtime work.

• Give A Gift Card: Whether it is to a local retailer, a Tim Horton’s card or shopping mall certificates, these are great ways to say thanks for a job well-done.

• Come And Get It: Leave the office early and treat everybody to a barbeque at a local park or throw a summer ice cream party or a winter pizza party in the conference room.

• Club Memberships Aren’t What They Used To Be: Most employees don’t need or want a fancy club membership but a family membership to a warehouse store like Costco will help your employees with food and clothing.

• Come Fly Away: If you don’t let your employees keep frequent flier miles earned for their business travel, use the accumulated miles to buy free flights for employees and/or pre-paid vacations at resorts or spas. (Mexico and the Caribbean are very popular destinations during Canadian winters.)

• Play, Dance, Laugh: Take some time to play games. Organize games in the park, ski days, skating parties, sailing excursions or fishing tours. Enter teams into charity bike-a-thons, walk-a-thons and 5 km runs. Bring in board games, cards or play charades. Break-out sessions at meetings and training days should include fun team building activities. Physical exercise and laughter are great perks.

• Ahhh! Spa: Have local masseuses come in and give chair massages to your employees. Reflexology foot massages are great, too. Also, buy some gift certificates to a neighborhood spa and treat your hard-working employees to some serious relaxation.

• Sponsor Teams: Offer to sponsor your employee’s kids’ Little League teams. Your company name on every uniform is good advertising too!

Look around your own life to see the types of things that make your daily existence just a little cushier and then offer those things to your employees. You’ll attract and maintain the good ones without breaking the bank.

To help you find those great employees, contact The People Bank today.

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Partners in Prevention speakers say CEOs must focus on workplace safety – Daily Commercial News

Partners in Prevention speakers say CEOs must focus on workplace safety – Daily Commercial News

VINCE VERSACE

staff writer

Improving safety in workplaces has to be a constant focus of conversation in company boardrooms, say the top executives of four Ontario-based companies.

“We are the keepers of the keys. If we are not living and breathing it, then we should not expect our employees to embrace that safety culture,” said Ted Moroz, president of The Beer Store and Brewers Retail Limited.

“CEOs have to embrace it … and have to surround themselves with people that share those values so employees believe you when you talk about how much you care for them.”

Moroz was joined by Frank Saunders, vice- president of nuclear oversight and regulatory affairs for Bruce Power, Roy Slack, president of Cementation Canada Inc. and Steve Jones, president of The People Bank, on a panel moderated by CBC TV journalist Amanda Lang during the recent Partners in Prevention 2011 Health and Safety Conference and Trade Show.

“Visibility is key,” said Saunders. “If a CEO does not ask about safety, people will believe he is not thinking about it. In the executive boardroom, how much does the issue of safety come up?”

Safety is paramount for a mining company like Cementation Canada that basically does “underground construction” as Slack said. In addition to already conducting intense work, a growing workforce always tests the safety culture of a firm such as Cementation since integrating new workers presents the possibilities for site safety to erode.

“We are hiring more people — our Canadian operations have 600 more employees in the last eight months — so you try to establish your corporate culture of safety on these projects,” explained Slack.

“We are working on how do we orientate. How do we get new people into our culture as quickly as possible?

“That is our challenge, to get back to zero (injuries),” said Slack. “It is a constant battle. There’s always a chance of an injury and you have to do whatever you can to prevent them. To get to zero is one point. Sustaining it is another challenge.”

Slack said that for some projects, a management team will show pictures and reports of other Cementation project sites that achieved perfect safety records to prove it is possible.

In the temporary staffing industry, there’s a highly transitional workforce that enters a work environment that companies like The People Bank cannot manage, supervise or control, said Jones. Joining industry safety associations has been key in learning best practices, innovations, improved worker training, securing rebates and injury reduction, he added.

Jones said his company’s safety culture focuses on “activities” such as inspections or training program attendance to see if the safety message is coming through. Year-end reports are “lagging indicators” of safety effectiveness.

“Focus on the activities knowing that if we are doing the right thing today the result we will get, in the future, is the result we are hoping for,” Jones said.

Linkedin Resume Builder

Over 22,000 LinkedIn users have signed up for the new "Resume Builder" application since it was introduced in December 2010. Resume Builder is a new feature created by LinkedIn employee Yevgeniy Brikmanthat through a monthly employee competition called Hackadays.

In my test of the application, I was able to develop a reasonably professional looking resume in less than 5 minutes by allowing it to use my existing LinkedIn profile.

I admit that my existing Linkedin profile is designed to attract attention through key word searches rather than with a resume in mind. I've been in the same job with the same company for 28 years and don't really expect to need a resume any day soon but with another 4 minutes of work on my profile content, I would have a resume that rocks!

If you are a job seeker and need professional looking CV, never mind those complicated Microsoft templates with restrictive frames and hidden formatting; check out LinkedIn Resume Builder. If the content on your profile is good enough for public viewing on the social network then it should be good enough for a resume.

There are eleven formats to choose from. Resumes can be exported and printed in PDF format. Also, each resume gets a custom link that you can share with others via email, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Another great innovation for job seekers and recruiters from our friends at Linkedin.

Check it out http://resume.linkedinlabs.com/

Steve Jones
Wiki - "Curriculum vitae is a latin expression which can be loosely translated as [the] course of [my] life."

Ontario Family Day. Seriously, what’s all the confusion about?

Following the Ontario election of 2007, the Ontario Liberal government introduced Family Day as Ontario’s ninth provincial holiday adding to the pre-existing holidays of New Year's Day, Good Friday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

Alberta and Saskatchewan also celebrate Family Day. Under a different name, Manitoba celebrates Louis Riel Day and PEI celebrates Island Day on the same third Monday of February each year. It is a school board holiday, in Newfoundland but not an official provincial holiday.

The third Monday of February is a regular working day in British Columbia, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and the territories. To confuse matters further, Family Day is not recognized in any province by the federal government of Canada.

The provincial Employment Standards Act and provincial governments do not have the jurisdictional authority over labour laws affecting people who work within federally regulated industries. The federal government of Canada retains authority over employment laws applicable to chartered banks, the post office, inter-provincial trucking, airlines, railways, broadcast communications companies, shipping firms and telephone companies.

Ironically, the Family Day holiday continues to cause great confusion in the National Capital Region and the Ontario Premier’s own provincial home riding of Ottawa South where a significant percentage of the riding’s population are employed by the federal government of Canada and other federally regulated industries. Notwithstanding all the hoopla made by McGuinty propagandists about the importance of a new Family Day holiday, many of those who elected the Premier are not eligible to take advantage of the day off with pay.

Greater disappointment and confusion arises, when two working parents are employed within different industries. A parent employed within the federal government is required to work while children are given the day off by provincially run schools and spouses are home because most private sector businesses are closed.

Even further confusion arises for the thousands of Ontarians living near the Quebec border who are employed by Quebec based companies. They are not permitted the day off because it is not a Quebec holiday. Conversely, Quebec residents who are employed by Ontario based companies are given the day off with pay but they sit home without kids and spouse as Quebec schools and business remain open. This all seems to take the “Family” out of the Family Day, doesn’t it?

If you are not confused enough, the temporary staffing industry and other provincially regulated businesses that provide services to the federal government are required to give their workers a day off with pay while the federal government users of these services are all at the office. Imagine two-hundred thousand federal government employees aghast by having to make their own coffee, fix their own printer, answer their own phones and type their own memos.

In one recently leaked, misguided and then retracted missive, a federal government employee actually claimed to have the authority to over-rule provincial employment standards, commanding their provincially regulated service providers to attend work and denounced the prescribed laws which guarantee time & one half pay. Thankfully, that memo has been deep-sixed.

Imagine a situation where an employee is a resident of Quebec, working for an Ontario based provincially regulated employer that provides services to the federal government of Canada at a service site located in Hull Quebec. The rules are clear. The worker is entitled to a day off with pay. Why is that not obvious?

Would you like to know the Ontario government’s prescribed method to calculate the amount of public holiday pay? Let’s leave that for another blog on St. Jean Baptiste Day or Remembrance Day when everything will be clear as mud.

For greater clarity, you can find out more about Ontario Public Holidays and the Employment Standards Act at http://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/es/

Chris Roach - Regional Director of Business Services

It gives me great pleasure to announce that Chris Roach has joined the leadership team of The People Bank, a division of Design Group Staffing Inc. (DGSI)

Chris joins The People Bank as Regional Director of Business Services in a role specifically created to suit his talents. Chris will leverage his industry specialization and well established relationships within the Electronics, Pharmaceutical, Aerospace Science, Defense and Manufacturing sectors to help develop new markets, new branch offices and new services for our company.

He is recognized as a thoughtful executive who understands the opportunities in the market and then leverages the knowledge and skills of his teams to translate those opportunities into plans, actions and results. Chris brings exceptional operating experience and a strategic strength that will undoubtedly contribute to the continued renowned success of The People Bank and Design Group Staffing Inc.

I first met Chris over 15 years ago when he was rapidly advancing his career and developing his reputation with TES Staffing. He immediately impressed me as a much needed future leader in the Canadian staffing industry. In more recent times, he served six years as President of Cadre an Engineering Search and Contract staffing firm, a company named one of the top 50 fastest-growing Canadian small businesses in 2007. During his entire 23 years within the recruitment and staffing industry, Chris has earned his reputation as a staffing industry expert, a talented practitioner, a tenacious hard worker and most importantly, he has been fulfilling his role as an ethical and inspirational role model and thought leader within the Canadian staffing industry.

Chris Roach has served as a board member and past President of ACSESS (Association of Canadian Search, Employment and Staffing Services); the single national voice and governing body for staffing providers. He has served on industry committees for Ethics & Standards, Government Relations & Legislation, Professional Certification and Education & Safety. He currently serves on the ACSESS National Nominating Committee.

The People Bank is a specialty division of Design Group Staffing Inc., Canada’s largest privately owned staffing firm. DG Staffing Inc. (DGSI) operates specialty divisions and brands such as Design Group, The People Bank, Inteqna, Project Search Group, Placement Group, Aimco Staffing Solutions, Allen Professional Search, La Banque de Personnel and The Medical Recruitment Network. We provide permanent search, contract and temporary staffing, payroll services and managed services for thousands of Canadian customers and tens of thousands of employment opportunities each year.

Design Group Staffing Inc. has been consistently selected as one of Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies, and has earned Platinum Status, one of this country’s most elite business designations. Our commitment to quality is reflected in our ISO 9001:2000 certification and our commitment to safety is reflected in our COR safety standard in Alberta and as a founding member of the Ontario WSIB/ACSESS Safety Group.

Although we lead the industry in size, business process and recognition, our success truly comes from our team of great people. We are very pleased and proud to announce that Chris Roach has made the decision to become a member of our team.

Steve Jones
President
Business Services Division, DGSI
The People Bank, Aimco Staffing Solutions, Allen Professional Search, La Banque de Personnel

Canadian Staffing Industry Leads The Way

We can look back upon 2010 and easily describe it as the year of staffing industry leadership. For starters, we lead the Canadian economy out of recession by helping employers fulfill their rehiring plans. While we were going about our business, our new Canadian Staffing Index provided a leading indicator of job recovery for economists, businesses leaders and government policy makers.

Our Safety Groups also showed tremendous leadership, helping to prove that staffing companies are some of Canada’s best and most responsible employers. ACSESS, in cooperation with the Alberta government, the Workers Compensation Board and the Alberta Association of Safety Partnerships, initiated the first industry specific Certificate of Recognition (COR) safety program and over thirty member companies registered to help lead the way.

The members of the Ontario ACSESS Safety Group continued to “lead by example”, demonstrating the kind of leadership that fosters pride in our industry. Once again, this Safety Group was successful in reducing lost time injuries and frequency of incidents and they were rewarded with over $900,000 in member rebates. Leadership has its benefits!

Our Chapter Presidents are also stepping up their leadership game. Local Presidents from across Canada have been regularly meeting with each other to discuss, share and learn best practices in the operation of a local chapter and to develop winning chapter initiatives.

During our annual conference in 2010 we recognized the following people and companies for their leadership:

Award of Excellence, Johanne Berry, CPC, Tele-Ressources Ltee.
Leadership Award, Jacqueline Pourreaux, CPC, Hunt Personnel
Special Recognition Award, Sherri Strong, CPC, The People Bank
Community Service Award, Randstad Canada
Community Service Award, The Bagg Group
Health & Safety Award, C-S Personnel Ltd.

Time after time, ACSESS members assume various leadership roles with a sense of purpose, shared vision and a desire to make our individual companies better and our industry better. As we turn every corner another staffing industry professional is leading us to change and improve. You are a passionate group and it’s no surprise that the staffing industry is the source of so many leaders doing so many great things.

In this issue recently published issue of Dialogue and on the ACSESS website, you’ll find a summary of the upcoming conference for 2011. Whether you are looking to lead or to be lead, the industry’s best will converge on Montreal in May 2011. If you are staffing professional, this is an event that you don’t want to miss.

(Reprinted from my President's Message in ACSESS Dialogue Magazine)

Enjoy,

Steve Jones

ACSESS National President

Click here for: ACSESS Conference Brochure and Registration Form

Click here for: ACSESS Dialogue Magazine

Safety Matters - Temporary & Contract Staffing

The Association of Canadian Search, Employment & Staffing Services (ACSESS) sponsored safety group will receive rebates totalling $900,681.07. The safety group, comprised of over 65 ACSESS member firm accounts, will be awarded the rebates for initiatives that significantly reduced both the severity and frequency of workplace injuries in 2009. A rebate ceremony for ACSESS members will be held on November 24th, 2010. Please click here to view our press release.

As a sponsor since 2001, ACSESS oversees member companies' participation, liaises with the WSIB and other health and safety organizations, recruits new safety group members, measures progress and regularly reports to the WSIB. The association also encourages members to share ideas and pool resources by organizing joint meetings and leadership workshops and helps participants to develop action plans.

ACSESS Safety Groups 2011 - Accepting new applications

Benefits of a staffing firm joining a safety group:

• Access to health and safety resources and best practices from other participants


• Help with developing and managing effective health and safety programs


• Healthy and stable workforce


• Increased productivity


• Increased employee morale


• Benefit from ongoing support from a health and safety consultant with industry specific expertise

Along with improving workplace safety, staffing companies can reduce WSIB premiums and earn financial rebates.
Interseted Staffing companies can click here to complete an application form.

Open Houses for staffing company owners and managers are scheduled for December 2nd in Windsor and December 10th GTA - Please click here for Open House Details.

Congratulations to all Staffing companies who are active members of the safety group you for your dedication to this industry.

Together, the sataffing companies are reducing workplace injuries and setting higher standards for safety in the staffing industry.

Mary McIninch, B.A, LL.B (Membre du Barreau du Québec)
Director of Government Relations/Directrice des Affaires Publiques
Association of Canadian Search, Employment and Staffing Services
Association Nationale des Entreprises en Recrutement et Placement de Personnel
905-826-6869/888-232-4962