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Seeking a recruiting partner who will put your needs first? One may be closer than you think!
Why an HR BPO provider like Advantec can offer clients exceptional and cost-effective recruiting solutions.

Statistics on the changing employment market vary, but all the research points to a market that will increasingly favor employees and job seekers over the employer. Some studies predict that there will be nearly 5 million more jobs in the United States than there will be workers to fill them by 2008. The Bureau of Labor Statistics findings indicate that just as increasing numbers of Baby Boomers begin retirement, the available pool of new, skilled workers is decreasing annually. This employment trend will have significant impact on all American businesses. Those businesses with special employment needs, technical or other skills, will be the most affected. In its recently released 2006 Workplace Forecast, the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) reported that 40% of all businesses surveyed (small, mid-sized, and large) are beginning to examine internal practices and management policies in anticipation of a labor shortage as Baby Boomers retire. The SHRM Forecast also noted that, because the most highly skilled and manager level Baby Boomers are financially more prepared for retirement, these gaps will be felt more acutely in the labor market.

Retention of key talent, already a challenge for many companies, is now crucial for any business that wants to maintain growth and profitability. The average cost of losing an employee is projected at 100 – 125% of that employee’s annual salary. This includes the direct costs of replacing the employee: recruiting expenses, screening and administrative costs, background and drug testing, benefits enrollment, training and orientation; and also the indirect costs of turnover: decreased morale, disruption of business functions, loss of clients, loss of business knowledge, lost productivity, and lost profits. In an information section marketed toward employers, Monster® reports that its database receives 40,000 new resumes every day.

The emergence of Monster and other online job services enables employees to find new jobs more quickly and in some cases has made job surfing a popular pastime among U.S. workers. One in ten workers recently surveyed by one such site, CareerBuilder®, reported plans to change jobs within the third quarter of 2006. Prospective ‘ideal’ candidates are leveraging the national job posting sites to find their next employer, and some of your best workers may be looking there themselves.

How will your business compete for the best workers in the next few years? How can you prevent the loss of key personnel in a competitive employment environment? Will your job description and compensation offering attract the ideal candidate? How can you confidently to hire for retention and results? Your best bet is to choose a recruiting partner that provides consulting expertise in the creation and analysis of a job description and compensation offering, helps you identify the right candidate, conducts the background and drug screening, and then on-boards your new employee – a true HR BPO recruiting partner. Your HR BPO partner is already familiar with your corporate culture and your business needs and is a smart choice to ensure that your company receives the greatest value on your investment in recruiting outsourcing. At Advantec, we find our clients are increasingly turning to us, their HR BPO provider, for full service recruiting support – with great results. We have a vested interest in assisting clients in filling their open positions with the right hire.

Michelle Gleeson is Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Gulfshore Insurance – a full-service independent insurance agency with a strong commercial construction practice in the rapidly growing Southwest Florida market and an Advantec client. Ms. Gleeson recently faced the challenge of filling eight open positions within her company, some newly created positions to meet increased opportunity in the market and some unexpected vacancies. The absence of needed talent in these open positions touched on many different departments within the company, and every area of Gulfshore’s business operations was affected. To make the situation even more challenging, many of the positions required specialized insurance knowledge, difficult positions to fill in today’s competitive insurance market. Ms. Gleeson turned to Advantec’s Recruting team after negative experiences with a “traditional” direct recruiting company. “The previous recruiters seemed focused on just filling the position to earn their commission,” said Ms. Gleeson. “When I started working with Advantec recruiter Neha Patel, the change was immediate. Advantec’s Recruiting Solutions are focused on finding the right person. As I worked with Advantec, I never felt that their priorities extended beyond mine. From resume screening to helping us draft realistic offers for candidates, Advantec looked at each phase with Gulfshore’s best interests in mind.”

As Advantec reviews resumes and conducts telephone screenings on behalf of clients, we provide executive summaries of the candidates to assist in their evaluation, a service Ms. Gleeson found particularly valuable. “The executive summaries provided by my Advantec recruiting consultant saved us all the time of reading through individual resumes to select candidates for further interviews. I can’t stress what a fabulous resource that was for our business,” said Ms. Gleeson. “To receive greater benefits than we would from a traditional staffing firm at a lower cost, coupled with the added security of knowing that our interests are represented by someone who understands our business is key for Gulfshore Insurance and for any company that needs to concentrate on running its core business.”

“Advantec’s Recruiting Solutions are structured to provide differing levels of support, ranging from basic job description creation and posting, to screening and identifying best candidates and complete assistance with interviewing and selection of top candidates,” commented Pat Goepel, Advantec’s Chief Executive Officer. “Our most comprehensive services also include drug screening and background checks. We draft the ad postings, consult on the description and compensation, and provide postings on popular online sites as well as all national print publications. For the small to mid-sized business, we can provide big business recruiting strategies and results at an affordable price. With the expected increase in employer competition for the best workers, Advantec offers our clients an edge in attracting top talent.”

Unlike a traditional staffing firm, Advantec also provides clients with support in retaining existing and new talent. Carol Conway, President of CRS Technology, a nationally recognized provider of computer networking products and services and an Advantec client, finds the support that Advantec provides to her company through all our consulting services to be invaluable. “The common thread from recruiting through employment is particularly effective for my business,” said Ms. Conway. “First, our Advantec recruiting consultant provides us with postings which are well-written, well-placed and well-thought out, all of which lead to a pool of highly qualified applicants for each open position. Then she supplies additional support by filtering the applicants for further screening, conducting reference checks, and creating applicant summaries – saving us considerable time. Once the candidate we have selected becomes our employee, Advantec will continue to have contact with that person through every facet of the new hire process and throughout their employee experience, as our provider of benefits, payroll and tax administration.”

“Advantec is superior in all its core competencies, which allows for an improved employee experience,” said Ms. Conway. “Since selecting Advantec, we have never looked elsewhere. Advantec adds value to our business with consulting services like recruiting and provides us with exceptional service through our Advantec Human Capital Consultant and our Client Relations Partner. When a vendor adds that level of value to a business while reducing overall costs, the relationship becomes a true partnership. That is how I see our relationship with Advantec.”

Advantec has built its business on multi-process relationships to create the ideal HR BPO solution set for small to mid-size businesses. Advantec began as a full-service PEO and today we can offer flexible solutions for clients as their needs change. As a successful company, we continually strive to improve the employee experience and are also mindful of employment issues that might not be central to a traditional staffing firm. Advantec has built an HR knowledge base which allows us to serve in an HR capacity at every level of the employer-employee relationship. This places our company in a unique partnership with our clients. Through the support of excellent payroll and benefits administration, including features like employee self-service, and through our extensive range of professional education and training courses, we help our clients to build a corporate culture which allows them to attract and retain top talent.

Advantec has cultivated relationships with multi-process vendors in areas that touch the recruiting process directly. The most significant of these are providers of drug screening and background checks. The Federal government estimates that as many as 71% of illegal drug users are employed and that the typical drug abuser costs a company $7000 annually. Drug abusers are also five times more likely to file a workers’ compensation claim. Unfortunately, some of the biggest costs of employing a drug abuser are more difficult to calculate. The US Department of Labor reports that 20% of all workers have had the quality of their work experience affected by a co-worker’s substance abuse. This can cost a company much in terms of lost productivity and decreased morale – leading to greater turnover in the organization. As an HR BPO provider, Advantec helps clients obtain proper drug screenings for potential new hires. We further support our clients with consultative advice on drafting and enforcing HR substance abuse policies for all employees.

Conducting proper background checks on potential new hires is another means of ensuring that your company is hiring for results. An applicant may appear on paper to have the experience and qualifications that your company needs, but statistics from background checks conducted in 2005 show that over one third of all applicants reported inaccurate employment histories, 14% provided inaccurate information about their education, nearly 10% provided false information regarding professional licenses, and 9% had criminal records. Failing to run background checks can be costly to your business if you hire an unqualified applicant and will expose your company to serious liability. Advantec recognizes the importance of proper background checks, so much that we include them as a standard step in our full-service recruiting solution. The benefit to our clients is that they take no additional steps to ensure that the proper information is verified, and they enjoy comprehensive checks on their potential new hires at a reduced cost – before they have invested in or assumed liability for the new employee.

Once a new hire is on-boarded through our system, Advantec continues to act on behalf of our clients by providing the best possible support to all employees, which increases job satisfaction and reduces turnover. Our system, powered by PeopleSoft®, gives employees at any size business the opportunity to enjoy Payroll and Benefits Administration through the application of choice of 76 of the top 100 Fortune 500 companies. As an HR BPO provider, Advantec adds further value for the client and employee through our exceptional service model, centered on providing timely and accurate answers to inquiries. We also support our clients’ retention goals through our extensive consulting services, including Professional Training and Education courses for employees at all levels and a tool designed to assist employees in appreciating the value of their salary and benefits packages, the Total Compensation Statement.

At Advantec we constantly challenge ourselves to improve the process and technology of the solutions we provide and offer our clients the opportunity to improve the delivery of services to their employees and family members. This increases satisfaction, reduces turnover, and adds significantly to a business’ profitability. We give our clients the power to do more with their business.