I am a true believer in getting to know the vendors I work with personally.  I think that too often we forget that there is a real live human being behind the voice every time we call for help or engage the services of the vendors we rely on.  It seems that this concept becomes less real the larger the vendor we are working with, but what I have learned is that this is the perfect time to develop a mutually beneficial personal relationship.  Here are some key tips I have learned over the 20 years I have been in the Indianapolis Staffing industry.

1) Show true respect for your vendors.  It does not matter if we are talking about the hot dog vendor, the dry cleaner or the manager of your company 401K program.  If you are working with a representative at your vendor with whom you simply cannot "connect", respectfully ask for a new relationship.  It is critically important that you have a person within your vendor relationship upon whom you can rely to help you when you need it.  I recently posted a blog that applies to this concept.  For example, our business relies on Indianapolis job openings and hiring trends and we need all of the local support we can get.  Your vendor could potentially be your next customer or referral source.  Be respectful of the services your vendors provide and the knowledge and potential influence that they have.

2) Be an educated user of their product or services – ask questions, look for answers on your own before reaching out for help, take the time to really understand the resource or service you are engaging so as not to waste time with peripheral conversations.   Better yet, make intelligent suggestions about how they can improve their product or service based on your active use as a customer.  You will maximize your vendor investment if you just take the time to be a mid-level or advanced user of their services vs always operating at a beginner level. (ie: is your computer not working because it is not plugged in?)

3) Dive deeper – gain as much of an expertise in their knowledge base as you can.  Help them, help you.  It is very likely that your contact person at your vendor knows a lot of things about not only the product or service that you use, but about how your competition is using it successfully.  Not only that, but given that these are really human beings, they also have a lot of knowledge as a potential user of your own product or services.  Talk to them about what they know about your industry, you will be amazed at the reciprocal input you can get.

4) Recognize the service that you receive…good or bad.  Recognize good service with praise and bad service with constructive feedback.  You win either way, most of the time.  Most vendors are always seeking feedback on how they can improve their service to become more competitive in their industry.  If you can provide feedback that is constructive and not destructive, you are helping them with their quality improvement initiatives.

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Chicago to meet our database vendors in person.  We are not one of their bigger clients, yet they took the time to dedicate resources to a personal introduction to their company to those of us who were new users.  The owner of the company took the time to have a personal conversation with me around some ideas I had for how we use part of the product.  We arrived with educated questions and ideas and we left with a much improved respect and understanding of the mutual benefits of the relationship.  This is the same type of relationship we strive so hard to build with our customers at That’s Good HR as an Indianapolis staffing company.  This is where our business goes from being routine to infinitely valuable for us and for our customers.

Full disclosure here – I got this title partly from a blog post that I read from the Journal for Quality and Participation with a similar title.  This rather lengthy post talks about 5 specific principles in creating a culture of excellence.  I am addressing just one of those – The value of value.  This post caught my attention because it focuses on one of the topics about which I am most passionate.  Personal value contribution vs. entitlement.  More on that in a moment.

I was also, once again, inspired by my 1st grader, Nate, as he got ready for school this morning.  This is "spirit week" at his school and today was "Classical music day" so they were supposed to dress up in something that represents the classical music era.  I was at a bit of a loss, but Nate knew exactly what he was going to wear.  Pressed shirt, clip on tie, dress pants and a button down sweater.  Classical? Not so sure, but classic? – definitely.  The coup de gras came when Nate decided that he owed his school more in his dedication to spirit week so, scissors in hand, he headed to the backyard and returned with a rose which he then asked me to add to his lapel.  This is a guy who truly adds value when someone is counting on him to deliver – the value of value.  This is where my 7 year old inspiration connects to the topic at hand. 

I think that sometimes we forget what we are going to work each day to do – not simply to show up and put the time in required to get paid.  Rather we are there to add value to our employer and to support and grow the business that they do.  When you recognize, internalize and deliver on this, you come out the winner both personally and professionally.  The post I mentioned above explains it very well:

"Remember, your company doesn’t pay you because you owe on your mortgage; they pay you because your worth to the company exceeds what they pay you. This also means that while your peers are worrying about justifying their paychecks, you are leaving such concerns in the dust because you already exceed that standard in your normal course of business."

I have been in a number of leadership roles in my 20 year career in Indianapolis Staffing and have had many people come to me for advice on how they can make a difference, how they can move up the ladder in the company.  I start by telling them they have already answered their own question….make a difference.  Marcus Buckingham does a great job of talking about working within your strengths and when you can do that, being passionate about doing a great job comes naturally – but even for those who are not able to work in the ideal role right now, giving it your best each day will bring you closer to that opportunity little by little.  You can’t fake adding value – either you do or you don’t, there is no "sorta value".

More from the post mentioned above:

"The second thing that happens is that you place yourself in a prime position to scale the corporate ladder and rise to positions of greater potential. This happens not because you’re a nice person or because you deserve it or because you’re recognized for trying really hard; it happens because the exceptional value you provide to the business and its customers cannot help but be noticed. Right away? Most likely, no. In time? Most likely, yes."

The value of value many times comes as the normal course of business because once you recognize HOW to provide value and you dedicate yourself to working to provide said value instead of just to get paid, it comes naturally.

To wrap it up from the post:

"There are a lot of people in corporate America today working with a mindset that is not particularly productive. They’re looking at trading time for dollars, as opposed to trading value for value. Of course, like anyone working for an hourly wage or yearly salary, you put in a certain amount of time and earn a certain commensurate amount of money. When your aim is to add extreme value, when your focus is on giving even more in value than what you’re getting paid to do, you will create a cycle of advancement that will sooner or later see your position, pay, and influence all increase-and increase significantly."

So, I ask you…did you provide value today or did you just clock in to make what is owed to you?

After 3 years of listening to my husband rant and rave about his numerous Fantasy Football teams that he manages each year (typically 3 or 4), I decided that this year I would finally try to join in on the obsession instead of getting frustrated with him for checking the computer 150 times on Sundays to see how his teams were performing.  Not to mention I received a little peer pressure from a colleague to join in their league.  So…I took the plunge…my team name is "STACE!!!"…and my star player is Drew Brees (quite fitting for being a former Boilermaker myself).  I have to admit I, too, am now a Fantasy Football addict!  I even scolded my husband one Sunday because he played Brandon Marshall instead of Lee Evans and my total score was significantly less than it could have been.  So how does this relate to you…the job seeker, you might ask?  Well, let me tell you!

1.  The success of your Fantasy team starts with your preparation for the draft.  If you don’t carefully select the right players, you will likely be doomed to a losing season.  In your Indianapolis job search, you must carefully select the companies and the positions you are going to pursue and you must do extensive research before your career search season begins.  If you make a move that is not well thought out and deliberate, you could end up in a very bad situation.  You don’t want to get into a position that’s not the right fit for your experience (just like if you tried playing 6 wide receivers and no running backs) because you could be set up to fail. 

2.  The success or failure of your Fantasy team continues when plan your attack each week based off of who you are playing in the league and who your players’ teams are playing in real life.  The same is true for your Indianapolis job search.  Each week you must carefully plan out how you are going to approach your search this week.  Do you need to make changes or trade players?  In other words, do you need to pursue new job boards and networks?  Or do you need to consider a new career path ro develop a relationship with an executive recruiter?   All of these decisions and moves will help you determine how you seed in the playoffs.

3.  Finally, of course, how well you perform in the playoffs determines your overall success for the year.  When it comes to crunch time (a.k.a. the interview), how well will you perform?  You’ve been preparing yourself all season for this moment, so make sure you are ready to execute and prove to the potential employer why they are making the right decision to "put you in the game". 

Admittedly, perhaps comparing the pursuit for Central Indiana jobs and Fantasy Football is a bit of a stretch, but given my current obsession, I think it’s a fun way to make sure you are constantly evaluating your game plan and determing if it is set up to yield the result that you want. 

P.S.  My Fantasy team is 5-2 and I would be 6-1 if I hadn’t forgotten to set my lineup one week!  Which brings me to my last point – make a checklist and stick to it, day after day, week after week, until you WIN!

Currently, our company is in the midst of our Strategic Planning process for 2010.  I am really impressed with our leadership and their enthusiasm and inclusion of the full staff to develop the most comprehensive and effective plan possible.  Planning and goal setting is never an easy task, particularly when you are coming out of a very difficult and challenging year as we all know 2009 has been.

To help put this process into perspective, it is always helpful to see the world through the eyes of a 6 year old.  My son, Nate, recently went through some goal setting of his own.  It is red ribbon week at school and they are learning about setting goals to improve themselves.  Here is what Nate came up with.  (Forgive the grammar and spelling, I am writing down exactly what he wrote)

Nate’s goal is to…

"Explore my dads farm. It has 140 acers of land."

Three steps I need to take to achieve this goal are:

1)  "I need to put long pants on so I do not get poked by the prickels"
2)  "I need transportation to get arownd the place"

Combine this with what children do naturally, (working within their strengths), and you have a no fail plan for success in the coming year.  No one explains this concept better than Marcus Buckingham:

"Back when you were young, your strengths were to be trusted. You might not have had a name for them … but when you were a child, you listened to them.  Then, somehow between then and now, your childhood clarity faded and you started listening to the world more closely than you did yourself."

My advice in this crazy economic topsy turvy job market with wavering hiring trends and uncertainty in all industries, (not just Indianapolis staffing) is this:  Go with your inner child, identify and respect where your strengths lie and remember to wear long pants so you don’t get "poked by the prickels".

As hiring trends focus more and more on effective screening and background checking, job seekers with questionable pasts are becoming more savvy. Oh, if those folks would only use their powers for good instead of evil!

For Indianapolis Staffing companies working to fill Government jobs, Administrative jobs, Accounting jobs and many other Indianapolis job openings, this is another step we need to take to ensure candidates are who they say they are.

If you Google "fake references", websites like fakeresume.com pull up citing the following”

o         How to fill the gaps in your employment history

o         The best way to get fake references

o         The main reason good liars get job offers and honest people don’t!

o         How to get College transcripts from ANY University with any GPA you want!

o         How to rig your resume so it gets picked by the new automated Human Resources systems

ABC News reports on two companies that provide fake references:

CareerExcuse.com, a Web site that says it can fill in gaps on your resume by pledging to "act as your past employer" and provide job references, complete with working phone numbers and people on the other end of each line ready to answer questions posed by prospective employers. Schmidt, who started the Web site after being laid off from his job as a human resource manager in February, said he got the idea after perusing posts on the micro-blogging site Twitter. He was surprised, he said, by how many Twitter users were asking strangers for job references.  

ABC News also reports on AlibiHQ.com, another website which boasts: Assistance with obtaining employment, providing employment and personal references, providing verification of employment, providing verifiable cover’s (alibis) for unexcused absences from work or home, Caller ID spoofing, mail forwarding, untraceable phone numbers, virtual phone numbers, novelty Dr. Notes, faxing services, fax Caller ID spoofing, virtual fax numbers, e-mail spoofing, e-mail services and covers, spoofed E-Ticket reservation, fake travel agency confirmations, virtual hotel services, virtual doctor’s office, virtual business office, telephone alibi service (we pretend to be anybody you need us to be and place outgoing calls or receive incoming calls), personal assistant services, novelty document services, fake trade show invitations, fake confirmation services and much, much more.

What do Indianapolis Staffing Companies Need to Do?

o         Always check the company’s website to make sure they are a legitimate company

o         Use reverse lookup http://anywho.com/rl.html to verify the number you are calling

o         Request a copy of a candidate’s W-2 if to verify employment with a company and their salary.

Stay tuned for more information on the lengths job seekers with questionable pasts will go to!