Are Your Employees Disengaged?

Guest blog by Terry Stockham, Human Capital Advisor at OnForce

Are your employees productive, content, and motivated? How can you tell? Typically, employee engagement can be measured with surveys, assessment tests, and by simply observing your employees as they work. Do you see strong contributors, poor performers, or a bit of both? If you’re a manager and see less than par players on your team, beware, they are sabotaging your success and your bottom line. All it takes is just one vocal, influential, and disengaged employee to spread his/her discontent to other team members for your group’s productivity to plummet.

According to recent research (the Gallup 2013 State of the American Workplace report and the AON Hewitt Global Engagement Survey), the current global employee engagement level is at 60%, an increase from 58% in 2012. This level of engagement equates to $550 billion a year in lost productivity within American companies. Yet these same companies spend billions of dollars a year in an effort to improve employee engagement and performance, only to get very little improvement in either!

To further illustrate the negative impact that employee disengagement can have on productivity and the bottom line let’s take, for example, a service employee who completes warranty work for a large technology company. This employee’s weekly salary is $1,000 (based on a 40 hour work week, $25/hour) and receives health benefits, insurance, training, etc., all totaling $1,400 ($1,000 + $400) paid by the company.

During the 40-hour work week, the service employee performs approximately 10 hours of non-service work such as traveling to customer sites, completing paperwork, waiting between job assignments, attending meetings, taking training classes, and so forth. This means that the company is paying for 40 hours but actually getting only 30 hours of service performance, translating to about $750 ($1,000 – $250) of “lost” productivity time. But, wait, there’s more.

If we take the 30 hours of actual service work performed and factor in the global engagement level cited at the beginning of this blog, we get only 18 hours ($450) of targeted service performance (i.e., 30 hours x 60%, or $750 – $300 = $450). If we look at the bigger picture, the company is paying $1,400 for $450 of performance! This is equal to $49,500 of lost productivity per year for this employee alone. If this company has 25 service employees, it amounts to $1,235,000 in overpayment for performance!

The past two decades have shown time and again that traditional incentive programs are not working. It is time to look at innovative and flexible labor models (e.g., flex-staffing or an on demand workforce) that offer workers autonomy, while driving positive business results for you and your company. Which jobs within your organization would benefit most from these new labor models? Given the cost implications of traditional labor models, can you afford the status quo?

Reference: OnForce

Necessary Protections to Prevent Business Risk

Bill Price, COO of OnForce

OnForce was an early, and at times controversial, adopter of comprehensive risk mitigation and insurance coverage for our customers. We were the first variable labor platform to offer General Liability, Workers’ Compensation and Errors and Omissions insurance coverage for every service event. We knew that insulating our customers from these real-world risks was a very important part of helping them to take advantage of our workforce solutions.

So why be a pioneer? We had two key reasons. First, OnForce is a true solutions provider that offers a comprehensive suite of services, including protections that allow our customers to focus on their core businesses, while we provide peace of mind. Second, our Fortune 100 enterprise accounts demand comprehensive protection against business risks. Based on this, OnForce believes that providing insurance solutions that meet this standard for ALL of our customers – both SMB and enterprise accounts – makes sense. Our goal is to remove the burden from you, our valued customer, and place it on us. From investigation to resolution, OnForce handles the insurance claims and protects you from losses related to property damage or personal injury. This enables us to provide superior solutions with protection against risk for you and all of our customers.

Now we see other platforms attempting to imitate our solution offerings and protections. While we’re not surprised to see them come around to the idea, we encourage companies in the market for variable labor to dig into the details and read the fine print. We don’t just offer access to technicians who carry their own insurance – we insure every work event on our platform. Unless your provider is offering General Liability, Workers’ Compensation and Errors and Omissions insurance for all of the work that you do with them, then you are at risk. After all, we all know that accidents do happen. Can you afford to be exposed?

Reference: OnForce

Who Would You Trust As Your Business Partner – an Innovator or an Imitator?

Almost every day I see news articles that highlight the growing trend for freelancers and, in turn, the thriving independent workforce. For example, this latest article from Parade.com – 4 Reasons Why Freelancing is the New Career – offers very compelling reasons why freelancing works and is likely here to stay. With advantages such as having the flexibility to work locally or globally, being your own boss and determining your work schedule, there’s a lot to like!

Demographic data today shows that there are almost 17 million independent workers in the U.S. and that this is expected to grow to 50% of the American workforce by 2020. At OnForce, we clearly see this trend continuing within the IT sector. Our business forecasts continue to show growth opportunities demonstrating that freelancing is working and thriving in the IT space through the OnForce platform.

Whether you are a company looking into the benefits of leveraging independent workers or a seasoned veteran in the world of managing variable labor, there’s no question that the individual economy has arrived. Are you taking advantage of it?

Reference: OnForce

What’s Happening In the Labor Management World and Why I Joined OnForce

Bill Price, COO of OnForce, Shares His Perspective

For the last seventeen years I have worked in the IT staffing industry. I started out as a software developer and worked my way up to senior management positions in technology. Over the years the business has treated me very well but it has gone stale.

I’ve always felt the professional staffing business was ripe for change. The process of manually capturing a client’s labor need, bringing that need to a recruiter, then sending resumes back to the client before finally (and hopefully) placing a candidate was outdated and inefficient. It felt like a fundamental change was needed and then the Vendor Management Services and Managed Service Provider business models were introduced. This was exciting at the time since technology could empower a service buyer and offer overall labor cost efficiencies through automation – a step in the right direction. But this wasn’t really a new model, it was simply an improvement on the existing model and certainly nothing revolutionary.

The primary functions of staffing agencies are sales and recruiting (with some cost saving benefits). At one time, staffing models made sense since they could retain teams of professionals that served their clients. However, as professional staffing companies grew nationally, and cost and profit pressures increased, these companies were not able to maintain a consistent stream of talent. At the same time we’ve seen the quiet rise of the independent contractor and the continued evolution of the transient nature of IT professionals. The result: staffing companies began vying for the same pool of talent! Where is the value add? What differentiates these staffing organizations now? Virtually nothing except possibly reach and maybe quality or speed to deliver but these aren’t enough. Next enters, commoditization, another step on the path to change.

During the last two decades we’ve seen many examples – eBay, Craigslist, Angie’s List…etc… – of how technology has advanced to match a buyer and seller. So why can’t we match the needs of staffing buyers directly with a network of labor resources using technology without the middleman? This would be a truly revolutionary idea. The answer is we can! This is exactly what OnForce does (and has been doing for several years). In fact, OnForce is a pioneer of this new business model. We offer our clients an on-site, W2-like experience for task-based assignments using independent contractors. This is exactly why I joined OnForce: to help lead the path as a pioneer, to be a game changer. With the rise of the independent worker and the shift into the individual economy, OnForce is well positioned to drive the revolution and I am very excited to be a part of it.

Reference: OnForce Inc

Technology Innovation in Field Service

New advancements in technology always amaze me. Promises of faster delivery from days to minutes, instant access to information and people, and the ability to get more done with far less effort -- become reality and effectively change how work gets done.

As technology continues to evolve, so does the field service delivery landscape. Smarter and faster tools like mobile solutions, for example, help to drive better processes that enhance your customer’s experience, and ultimately, your bottom line.

Current street buzz is on 3D technology. Is 3D technology the new wave that will hit the field service landscape? Quite possibly, according to Smart Van that highlights how 3D printers and scanners could very well be the next big thing.

Do you agree? Which of the latest technologies do you think will impact you and how you deliver field service today?

Posted By Diana Ermini, Director of Marketing, OnForce

Reference: OnForce Inc

Five Critical Skills That Can Help Service Technicians to Succeed In 2013 and Beyond

For most, a New Year brings the desire for change. It means re-evaluating your current situation, setting a goal, and then taking action. It’s a time that causes us to reflect on where we are and where we want to go. As a field services technician, what are your New Year professional goals? Where do you want to take your business in 2013 and beyond?

Whether you are a seasoned entrepreneur or are just getting started in your IT career, there are a number of soft skills (i.e., personality attributes) that I have often found with field services technicians who are successful.

As you embark into the New Year with specific business goals in mind, here are the top five soft skills that can help you stand out with customers and encourage repeat business:

Know your technology. With technology innovations coming out every day, it’s almost impossible to stay on top of it all. Regardless, do your best to be an expert in your particular area of interest. Is most of your work focused on mobile solutions? Make sure that you stay current with the latest trends and developments in the mobile space. The key is to complement your years of experience with the latest skills to help you navigate the latest IT terrain.

Set expectations. If a customer expects you to arrive at a specific time (and you have confirmed that you will) but then show up late, it’s not good. Of course, things happen that are out of our control (e.g., there’s an unexpected traffic jam, service event location details are inaccurate...etc...) but if the unexpected happens, then let your customer know as soon as possible. This will not only help prepare your customer accordingly, but also will demonstrate that you are proactively managing the situation.

Be a strong communicator. The ability to manage multiple service events and allocate resources, all while juggling a variety of customer requests requires strong communication skills. While it’s important to be able to effectively communicate what you want to say, it’s also about being a good listener, observer and being willing to ask questions.

Stay positive. No one likes to work with someone who views life with a “glass is half empty” mentality. Instead of focusing on what’s going on with the economy, direct your attention to where you see opportunities and go after them. Are networking skills in hot demand? Make sure you have them and indicate it in your service profile. Are you losing time between service events because you are getting bogged down with important, yet inefficient, administrative tasks? Use a mobile app to help you streamline processes so you can stay productive.

Love what you do. Life as a service technician involves dealing with a wide variety of tasks and challenges every day. It’s important to have the motivation and persistence to keep going even when things get complicated or when problems arise at a job site. If you don’t, customers can pick up on your lack of enthusiasm and choose not to work with you again. If you really care about your work and consistently strive to do your best, you are often called upon for repeat work.

Are these soft skills that you practice on a regular basis? Is there a skill that you would add to the list?

Posted by Diana Ermini, Director of Marketing, OnForce

Refrence : OnForce Inc