In every edition of our HR Insights Magazine, influential and wide-ranging thought leaders in HR, recruitment, staffing, management, and other fields discuss themes that are relevant to our clients’ businesses. The subjects differ from issue to issue, of course, but they are always connected to the latest industry news and trends. In this edition, we help you prepare for the future now.

In this issue’s feature, “Get Ready for AI to Change the Workplace,” Nicholas McQuire describes how organizations can use artificial intelligence technology to improve their security and services as well as employee productivity and satisfaction. “Companies that want to benefit the most from the shift toward more AI in the workplace,” he writes, “should start preparing now—not later—for its arrival.”

Another contributor, Rebecca S. King, also turns her thoughts toward what happens when tech applications replace some of the tasks that have been traditionally fulfilled by humans. In “Replacing Human Managers with Programming in the Gig Economy,” she examines what a case study of one automated platform reveals about the advantages (and pitfalls) of growing use of AI for certain managerial functions.

It is impossible to stop the future. But it is possible to prepare for it. Are you ready for what is coming?

In every edition of our HR Insights Magazine, influential and wide-ranging thought leaders in HR, recruitment, staffing, management, and other fields discuss themes that are relevant to our clients’ businesses. The subjects differ from issue to issue, of course, but they are always connected to the latest industry news and trends. However, for our feature article in this issue, “Staffing Impact far Beyond Filling a Seat”, we decided to take a look inward and invite four friends of AccruePartners to our office to ask about their experiences with us and how we live up to our tagline of “Building People, Companies, and Careers”. Three of them are current clients: Ayana Harnett, director of talent acquisition for one of our distribution clients (and a former AccruePartners employee); Johnny Morgan, CEO of another one of our distribution clients; and Brenda Sandoval-Logsden, human resources manager for one of our service clients (and a former AccruePartners candidate). The fourth, Alissa Farrow, is our current vice president of staffing.

Growth is one topic that appears frequently in this edition. Sometimes the authors discuss organizational growth, or how to expand a candidate pool or client base. Another article in this month’s issue, “How to Promote Career Growth in a Top-Heavy Organization,” shows Christina Chau taking a closer look at employee growth. She asks (and answers) the question that all organizations must wrestle with at one time or another: “How can a company help its employees have careers that are healthy and growing when there’s no room for promotion or raises?” She recommends including opportunities for skill building, increased access to exciting opportunities and helping to build their social network. Without offering opportunities for growth, Chau cautions that companies run the risk of seeing their most valuable employees leave.

No matter how well a company is doing right now, it needs to be ready for whatever is coming down the pike. Each day brings its own successes and challenges, and organizations that do not plan for the future will find themselves struggling when it arrives. Let us help your business develop and implement a plan to prepare for the road ahead!

We all know full well just how expensive recruitment, hiring, and training can be and we are always looking for new ways to reduce turnover rates. In today’s low-unemployment job market, you have to work harder than ever to keep employees on board. This issue of HR Insights offers several strategies you can implement to help keep your employees satisfied and engaged—and not looking for greener grass elsewhere.

In “How to Improve the Employee Experience,” Stacey Kervin boils the issue down to one factor: manager involvement. Many policies are created at “the top,” but middle managers are the ones who work closely with employees and know them best. Therefore, she explains, “organizations that want to move the needle on their employee experience must figure out how to get managers to embrace the company’s vision and actively make positive contributions to the employee experience.”

Employees who feel connected to and invested in their organizations are more likely to stick around, and good communication can play a key role in helping them feel that way. In this issue’s feature article, “It’s Time to Revolutionize Workplace Communication!” Mark Sawyier describes how to make sure that such communication both informs and engages employees.

No matter how good a company’s employee experience is, it always has room for improvement. Sometimes all that’s needed is a small tweak; sometimes an overhaul is in order. AccruePartners can help your organization figure out what it needs to do in order to decrease turnover—and increase productivity and competitiveness.

Even as technology increasingly mediates our interactions with the world and with each other, interpersonal relationships still form the foundation of our society. In companies, such relationships exist between employees and management, among workplace colleagues, between organizations and their clients and vendors, and in many other areas. The articles in this edition of our HR Insights describe what companies can do to strengthen the connections with their employees—and thereby strengthen themselves.

Part of building a strong relationship involves

meeting the needs of everyone in it.

 

As the workplace model shifts from one in which employees expect to move up the ladder in one field to one in which they prioritize exploring several fields in order to find meaningful work and opportunities, companies need to be ready to accommodate those preferences. In the feature article for this issue, “How to Support Tomorrow’s Leaders Today,” Ashley Goldsmith suggests strategies that organizations can implement in order to navigate this shift successfully.

Sometimes one of the best things companies can do to help foster connection is to encourage employees to interact directly with each other more—or maybe even insist on it. In the Watercooler column for this issue (“A Radical Proposition: Phone-Free Conference Rooms”), Mike McKerns writes that maybe companies should “just keep phones out of the conference room entirely” so they don’t interfere with “living in the moment and building real face-to-face relationships.”

We believe strongly in the power of connection.

As one year draws to a close and a new one is on the horizon, it’s worth remembering that in the business world the pace of change doesn’t follow a calendar: organizations that want to stay ahead of the pack must reevaluate and retool themselves constantly. This issue of HR Insights offers suggestions for how HR and companies can adapt to current and future trends and prepare their workforces for whatever is coming down the pike next.

This edition’s feature article, “6 Megatrends Changing the Face of HR and Business,” pulls together the discussions held during the recent WorkHuman Executive Forum organized by Globoforce. These conversations have focused on the big issues that are reshaping HR and highlight the need “to provide a more ‘human’ employee experience that strengthens connections between people and teams and ultimately drives stronger employee and company performance.”

Because good HR leaders and strong managers play a critical role in shaping their companies, a number of authors explore ways that organizations can ensure that they have the most effective managers possible. In “‘Leadership’ Isn’t ‘Management,’” David Flotten presents a cautionary tale about conflating “being a good employee” with “being a good manager.” And in “The Right Way to Deliver Negative Feedback,” Ashley MacInnis offers strategies to help managers fulfill one of their most difficult—and most important—responsibilities.

A new future arrives on our doorsteps each day—and each one brings both unpredictability and possibility. That’s why it’s important for organizations to keep anticipating, preparing, and adapting.  AccruePartners can help your company be ready for whatever future it encounters!

AccruePartners has been ranked one of North America’s Most Socially Engaged Staffing Companies on LinkedIn!

Social engagement was tracked from September 1st through August 31st of this year with over 60,000 Search and Staffing companies listed on LinkedIn. AccruePartners is proud to have landed in the top 25 in North America, further confirming our marketing efforts have been on target.

LinkedIn measures the ranking using three key areas when choosing the top socially engaged companies:

Being on social media is essential for any business; LinkedIn in particular for staffing companies. LinkedIn can be a powerful tool for individuals and companies looking to make new connections, generate leads, and build their brand and we’re so excited to have been recognized for an achievement we feel can only further our success within the industry.

Check out the full list here.

AccruePartners is proud to announce we have landed Staffing Industry Analyst’s 2017 Fastest-Growing Staffing Firms List for yet another year!

This year 110 firms made the list of fastest-growing US staffing firms with at least 15% compound annual growth in revenue from 2012 through 2016. AccruePartners ranks number 65 this year with a compound annual growth rate of 25.1% in 2016!

The list is based on staffing revenue, which included temporary staffing revenue, direct hire, retained search and temp-to-perm conversion fees. For the purposes of this list, staffing revenue did not include revenue from payrolling, PEO services, MSP fees or pass through funds, RPO operations, HRO operations, or online staffing services.

Read the full report and list here.

About Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA):
Founded in 1989, Staffing Industry Analysts is the global advisor on staffing and workforce solutions. Our proprietary research covers all categories of employed and non-employed work including temporary staffing, independent contracting and other types of contingent labor. SIA’s independent and objective analysis provides insights into the services and suppliers operating in the workforce solutions ecosystem including staffing firms, managed service providers, recruitment process outsourcers, payrolling/ compliance firms and talent acquisition technology specialists such as vendor management systems, online staffing platforms, crowdsourcing and online work services. We also provide training and accreditation with our unique Certified Contingent Workforce Professional (CCWP) program. Known for our award-winning content, data, support tools, publications, executive conferences and events, we help both suppliers and buyers of workforce solutions make better-informed decisions that improve business results and minimize risk. As a division of the international business media company, Crain Communications Inc., SIA is headquartered in Mountain View, California, with offices in London, England.

Forbes has released their 2017 list of America’s Best Recruiting Firms and AccruePartners has landed number 15!

Forbes worked with analytics firm Statista to compile two lists of America’s best recruiting firms.  To conduct its research, Statista first consulted with sources like trade organizations and company databases, identifying about 4,000 recruiters in each of the two categories. Then it invited thousands of recruiters, employees who have worked with recruiters over the past three years, and H.R. managers to take an online survey. The survey asked them to recommend up to 10 recruiting firms (excluding their own), and it gathered a total of 20,000 recommendations. The companies with the most recommendations ranked highest.

With thousands of recruiting firms in the US, we’re honored to make this list and so thankful to have a dedicated team who continues to make it happen.

Check out the list here. 

 

 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment is at at the lowest we’ve seen since August 2007, coming in at 4.6 percent this month.

Companies are aggressively hunting for the best talent. Job searching? 2017 has great things in store for you but are you prepared for the new year’s trends? Use this December downtime to take full advantage of your search so you’ll be fully prepared for the new year.

 

Here are five key trends, provided by US News, that job seekers should expect to encounter in 2017:

 

 

 

 

 

Dive deeper into each of these trends on US News’ website here.

LinkedIn announced its “Most Socially Engaged Staffing Agencies” for 2016 last week. AccruePartners is proud to have landed a number seven spot on the North American “Medium Enterprises” list! 

At AccruePartners, we’ve integrated social media into our business strategy as an intentional priority. AccruePartners feels it is very important to embrace this outlet and engage our candidates, clients, employees and communities on topics like visibility, research, insight, market intelligence and as a customer service tool. Social media has proven to be an important element in our marketing strategy, delivering on all of the above with tracking and quantifiable data to support it.

 

AccruePartners believes clients, candidates and employees alike want to partner with companies like ours with outstanding social sharing and transparency.

 
The LinkedIn list is based on an extensive analysis of the interactions between over 60,000 staffing firms, 627,000 consultants, and 450+ million members on LinkedIn over the past year. Social networks are changing the way we do business and our team has strategically worked at increasing our social presence with social reach, employee engagement and interactions, employer brand and content marketing. According to LinkedIn, winning firms this year all shared something in common – consistency across multiple metrics.

 
According to Ryan Holmes, CEO at Hootsuite, “Investing in a social strategy now is the single best way to future-proof your business for the years ahead.” Our candidates are on social media. Our clients are on social media. Holmes also states that the average user logs in for nearly 1.7 hours every day or 12 hours a week. With stats like this, why wouldn’t our company be on social media as yet another way to interact with those we do business with?

 

 

View the full list of winners here. 

Last week Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA), announced this years fastest-growing staffing firms for 2016. The list includes 112 of the fastest-growing US staffing firms with at least 15% compound annual growth in revenue from 2001 through 2015, up from 102 last year.

This list is now the largest since its inception in 2005. AccruePartners ranks number 40 this year with a compound annual growth rate of 35.7% in 2015. We’re honored to make this list yet again, and showcase our continuous growth not only in Charlotte, but nationwide!

Read more about this year’s list here.

Published by the Charlotte Business Journal, the Top 25 list ranks companies according to the number of local search consultants and AccruePartners tops the list of contingency firms with 54 search consultants – 14 more than that recorded in 2014.

Contingency firms are paid only when a position is filled and the company’s business currently consists of 95% contingency placements. We are grateful for the opportunities to lead the staffing industry with continued success and aim to keep the momentum going in the year ahead!