With nearly 10 percent of the nation’s workforce out of work, you, the recruiter, are probably finding a lot more résumés on your desk.  It can be daunting to find the best person for the job in such a large pool of applicants.  A good candidate knows how to stand out, including researching the company and asking intelligent questions during the interview.  But you, also, need to research the candidate and ask intelligent questions during the interview.  After all, you want to find just the right fit, and with so many candidates to choose from, you may need to ask more questions than you would ask in a typical interview.  While you reach for those extra questions, bear in mind illegal inquiries that could get your company in hot water.  Avoid adding a discrimination claim to a stressful screening process; use caution when discussing the following topics.

1.  AGE

It’s probably obvious you shouldn’t ask how old a candidate is—whether you’re concerned a candidate may be too old or too young to fill the position.  It may be less obvious you shouldn’t ask how long a candidate plans to work before retiring or other questions that could open a case for ageism.  Instead, you can ask if a candidate is of legal working age and about a candidate’s long-term career goals.

2.  MARRIAGE AND FAMILY

Plain and simple: You can’t ask if a candidate is married or has children.  Similarly, you can’t ask if a candidate intends to get married or have children, or if a female candidate would come back from maternity leave if she became pregnant.  Even something potentially innocuous, like asking about a woman’s hyphenated last name, could lead to trouble.  If you’re concerned a candidate’s family obligations may take them away from the job, focus your questions on the facts.  If a position requires overtime or travel, especially at short notice, ask if this will be a problem.

3.  RACE AND NATIONALITY

It is illegal to ask if a candidate is a U.S. citizen or speaks English as a first language.  Of course, the answers to both those questions are important to choosing the right person for the job, so instead, ask if a candidate is legally authorized to work in the country.  You may also ask what languages a candidate fluently speaks.

4.  HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS

Most every topic directly relating to a candidate’s health and physical fitness is off limits.  You can’t ask about personal habits such as smoking, drinking, or prescription drug use.  You may, however, ask if a candidate uses illegal drugs.  You may also ask if a candidate has ever been disciplined for violating a company’s alcohol or tobacco policy.  Likewise, you can’t ask about a candidate’s personal health, such as disabilities, illnesses, sick leave taken, or even height and weight.  Stick to the facts necessary to perform the job’s duties and ask, “With or without reasonable accommodation, are you able to perform the essential functions of this job?”

5.  MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS

Sometimes seemingly basic—even conversational—questions can pose the biggest threat.  You are not allowed to ask if a candidate lives nearby or has a long commute.  Instead, try asking if the candidate is willing to relocate for the position and is able to work within the designated business hours.  You also can’t ask about a candidate’s general criminal history, but can ask about particular crimes as they relate to the position (for example, fraud and theft for a finance-based job).

When conducting interviews, as a general rule of thumb, stick to the facts: job functions, past work experience, and future career plans.  Phrase every question in a way that relates to those facts and you’ll find the right person for the job without ending up in a legal battle.

The recruitment experts at GHRO can help your company fill its ranks with the highest quality talent available.  To attract and maintain the best candidates, GHRO will prepare a personalized recruitment strategy aligned with your company’s goals and objectives.  GHRO will also manage the entire recruitment process, from screening applicants to helping you select the right employees to conducting negotiation.  For more information about how we can help you acquire top-notch talent, visit our website.

It is not Wall Street, the large multi-national corporations or even the vast banking institutions that are the driving force behind the American economy. Small businesses remain the dominating factor that figure into the continuing success of the U.S. Economy. Small businesses with less than 500 employees support more than half of the private sector American workforce. By hiring a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) to help stay profitable in turbulent financial times, small businesses are able to reduce their operating costs, raise the efficiency of their management and stay competitive in the marketplace, thus keeping them playing a successful role in U.S. economy.

Small businesses do the following:

• Employ over half of America’s private sector workforce.
• Are responsible for hiring at least 40 percent of workers in the technological fields such as science, engineering and computer programming.
• Include over 50 percent of home-based businesses.
• Make up nearly all of the firms dedicated to employment.
• Generate the majority of new inventions and innovative breakthroughs in science and technology.

Despite the fact that banks and other lending institutions are currently creating more barriers than providing assistance to small businesses relying on loans to establish credit lines for commercial mortgages, vehicles, equipment and leases; as well as the fact that government regulations are making it increasingly difficult and more expensive per employee to stay in compliance, it has never been more crucial for small businesses to survive in the down economy.

Your PEO to the Rescue

For the reasons above, Professional Employer Organizations are coming to the aid of small business and providing hope for the future to many small business owners.

Why use a PEO? To help small businesses survive in a down economy,­­ a PEO will offer the following solutions:

• Establish an employer relationship by contractually assuming many employer risks by becoming the employer of record for government compliance, safety and worker’s compensation and employee/labor relations.
• Incorporate optional health benefits, 401k administration, general liability coverage, background checks, recruitment services and payroll services.
• Provide relief from the burden of HR management, employee benefits, employee leasing and HR audits.
• Improve employment practices, compliance and risk management in order to reduce a business’s liabilities.
• Allow access to a comprehensive administrative service, employee benefits and HR Consulting.

Being the little guy on the block is never much fun. However, small businesses are discovering finding that competitive edge has become easier with the help of a (PEO) professional employer organization.

Trying to establish and maintain a business presence in today’s marketplace is difficult enough for large companies but even more difficult for the smaller ones. This is why the little guys on the block are getting big help by choosing to take advantage of human resources outsourcing for recruitment services, HR management, government compliance, employee/labor relations as well as other HR functions.

The current economic climate is making it harder for small businesses to thrive. The high costs of employee benefits and government compliance are forcing organizations to explore new strategies to lower their operating costs to remain competitive. Human resources outsourcing provides the HR consulting and HR management that relieves employers of the many pressures of hiring, training and maintaining their staff.

Small businesses are cutting costs and increasing their efficiency by having an administrative services organization take over the responsibilities of payroll services, safety and worker’s compensation, employee leasing and other HR services.

Whether you have 2 employees or 2,000, utilizing a PEO can help businesses find talented employees as well as offer their management expertise to train and maintain them while lowering costs and saving the employer both time and energy.

A company’s goal is to succeed and become profitable. In many cases this means growth and expansion. A PEO understands the needs of both employer and employee. Their sole focus is to minimize costs while implementing an HR management structure to maximize efficiency.

Taking advantage of the cumulative experience of a PEO provider will help manage everything from employee relations to interpersonal communications between employees and customers.

Regardless of the competition, small business owners do not have to compromise on productivity or profitability. Small business owners can take advantage of the many opportunities for growth and success by using a professional employee organization to achieve the competent HR management that will give them the competitive edge.

To help reduce costly mistakes, an increasing numbers of companies are turning to a professional employer organization (PEO) to have better access to experienced HR consultants who can help with many time-consuming HR functions.

A Professional Employment Organization is a single source provider of HR outsourcing that will serve as a human resources department for client companies who want to utilize their services to reduce costs and raise efficiency.

PEO’s provide experienced human resources specialists who perform the duties of a staffing agency while also extending HR consulting and management of payroll services, risk management, employee benefits and other human resources functions.

The reason PEO’s work so well for small and mid-sized companies is because they assume the responsibilities and risks of employee maintenance.

When hiring a PEO, client companies enter into a practice referred to as co-employment. They take on the burdens of procuring and retaining employees as well as the tasks of assuring government compliance and the requirements of safety and workers compensation by becoming their employer of record for tax and insurance purposes.

A  PEO supplies companies with administrative services, reduced liabilities, benefits outsourcing, employee benefits, employee handbook, employee/labor relations, employee leasing, HR consulting and HR management.

A full service PEO will provide the following:

• Payroll Services
• Recruitment  services
• Risk Management
• Employee Benefits
• Human Resource Services

Hiring a PEO means a company can focus on their core business and cost-effectively outsource the expense and often complex employee relations that can strain a company’s budget as well as deflect from achieving their overall goals.

A professional employer organization will enable business owners to enter into a co-employment relationship knowing that the successful management of employees is in the experienced hands of human resources administrators whose number one priority is to save their client company time, money and effort.

Two major conferences were held this month to address the challenges facing government contractors and the Human Resources industry. We attended the GSA Opening Doors 2010 business-to-government conference in Los Angeles August 9-11 and the Navy Gold Coast Conference held at the San Diego Convention Center August 17-19 to discuss HR functions for government contractors.

Our representatives attended the conferences and focused on finding solutions for effective HR contracts with the US Government.

Our representatives had booths set up to speak to attendees about how government services can best utilize Professional Employee Organizations (PEO’s). “We started off as a prime contractor for the navy and do a lot for the Department of Defense as well as the Department of Labor,” states Brandon Carl, Business Development Manager for GHRO. “This experience has spun into us handling a lot of the HR functions for other government contractors because of how difficult it is. We have been doing it since 1955 so we’ve been navigating those waters effectively for a long time.” He continued by saying, “Since we’re good at what we do it is the perfect opportunity to talk about partnering, obtaining new contracts and helping the government maintain what they’re doing.”

The conferences were held to connect businesses with government agencies to promote opportunities in a recovering economy. The government has budgetary restraints just as the private sector does and as a result has enlisted the help of Human Resources Outsourcers to provide viable business efficiency solutions to better serve the public.

Our representatives were happy to be among the attendees and found the conferences had successfully addressed many of the pressing issues the government is having in regards to contracting PEO’s for recruitment services, safety and worker’s compensation, payroll services and many other HR functions.

Did you see us there? How was your experience at the conferences?

A growing number of companies are choosing to incorporate human resources outsourcing into their business model. However, to be successful it takes professionals who are capable of implementing successful HR outsourcing strategies:

Top 5 HR Outsourcing Strategies:

1.    Recruiting Qualified Employees – With the evolution of technology, finding experienced employees who have the skills required to make a business successful in today’s marketplace is an integral part of the hiring process. Human resources outsourcing provides professional recruitment services that will focus on connecting the most qualified employees with the right employers. By utilizing the services of an HRO, PEO or ASO, companies gain access to a diverse workforce with a wide variety of expertise and skill sets. Bad hiring practices are a common mistake companies are finding very costly, resulting in substantial losses to their production and deeply impacting their bottom line.

2. Superior Training Techniques – Adequately training a workforce is time consuming and can drain a company’s resources without the critical input of human resources experts to establish well organized and successful training techniques. When neglecting to sufficiently train employees job performance and employee retention suffer and will ultimately reflect a company’s profits as well as their credibility. Training and development requires a company to be proactive. Relying on professional HR management for guidance and structure has proven to be vital for any business model.

3.  Employee Relations – Maintaining employees is complex and involves clear-cut policies that need to continually be communicated. Employee benefits, an employee handbook and employee/labor relations are all important business practices that are designed to cultivate a working relationship between business owners and employees. Avoiding potential problems and litigation is a critical aspect of HR that is significantly facilitated by a professional employer organization.

4. Observance of Government Regulations – Companies who do not comply with the mounting amount of changing local, state and federal regulations are subject to huge fines and must pay thousands of dollars per employee to comply.  While compliance is costly the penalties for not complying is more expensive. Keeping organizations up-to-date with these regulations takes the support of HR consulting services that specialize in government compliance.

5.   Employee Incentives – The key element to effective employee relations is to reinforce an employee’s value on a continual basis. Companies must motivate their employees to retain them. A management system designed to improve retention and employee/labor relations will reward the employee for their hard work and boosting job performance and output.

Currently there is a significant spike in the employers who have less than 25,000 employees choosing to outsource human resources. These companies have found that there are many benefits of using a professional employer organization (PEO). Among the top three reasons medium-sized businesses are incorporating HR outsourcing into their strategy is they are able to remain focused on their core business, operate more efficiently and cut costs.

More companies are deciding they no longer want to place capital expenditures solely onto their own human resources and are opting instead to outsource to stay competitive.

In the last ten years outsourcing has become more popular among companies who want to expand but want to control costs by eliminating full-time in-house positions that don’t directly make a significant contribution to the bottom line.

Human resource outsourcing has become a viable strategy and is growing rapidly in the United States as well as overseas. Companies that have made the decision to outsource HR find that they are receiving a higher quality of expertise at lower costs which improve their bottom line.

Another shift taking place is being made towards selective outsourcing. Companies are beginning to use multiple vendors and are only choosing to outsource specific departments and job functions.

However, using multiple vendors requires management to become more adept in contract management as well as to become more knowledgeable in service costs, standardization and detailed protocols when dealing with external providers.

As HR outsourcing is becoming increasingly popular, managers are looking for guidance and information to help them make their decisions about recruitment services and how to find the right professional employer organization.

The following are some of the benefits of using a professional employer organization (PEO) for the outsourcing process.

•    A PEO will enable companies to effectively outsource the management of human resources, risk management, employee benefits, payroll, workers’ compensation, training, development and other services.

•    A PEO will perform extensive searches for qualified candidates with expertise in a required field such as technology or programming.

•    A PEO will reduce legal liabilities such as safety and worker’s compensation, employee/labor relations, government compliance and other regulatory processes involving human resources.

•    A PEO will often offer more attractive benefits packages and attract employees with a higher skill set.

HR outsourcing has become more common in recent years because it is a very effective way for companies large and small to contain costs, reduce administrative burden and minimize risk.