Contractor Handbook
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DEWALT Wiring Diagrams Professional Reference (Dewalt Trade Reference) $10.25 The DEWALT Wiring Diagrams Professional Reference is a must for anyone who installs or replaces electrical wiring. Filled with hundreds of diagrams and illustrations that are clear and easy to find, this handy pocket-guide covers everything from outlets, switches, lighting, motors, and controls to power distribution, transformers, grounding, low voltage, and hazardous locations. Basic wiring gui… |
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DEWALT HVAC Professional Reference (Dewalt Trade Reference Series) $8.66 The DEWALT HVAC Professional Reference provides comprehensive coverage of compressors, duct sizing, heat transmission conversion factors, temperature and pressure, fans, air velocities, refrigeration characteristics, thermostats, and much more. Compact but powerful, this handy pocket reference helps service technicians on the job…. |
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DEWALT Plumbing Professional Reference (Dewalt Trade Reference) $9.95 The DEWALT Plumbing Professional Reference is an essential resource for anyone working with plumbing systems. It covers everything users need to calculate water demand, find installation requirements, size pipes, size pumps, design drainage systems, and much more. Helpful troubleshooting guides, charts, tables, and graphs assist visually oriented users in getting the job done right the first time…. |
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Pipe and Excavation Contracting $18.49 Shows how to read plans and compute quantities for both trench and surface excavation, figure crew and equipment productivity rates, estimate unit costs, bid the work, and get the bonds you need. Explains what equipment will deliver maximum productivity for a job, how to follow the surveyor’s stakes, check the grade and line with a level, transit and laser, clear the site, how to lay all types of … |
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Working for Yourself: Law & Taxes for Independent Contractors, Freelancers & Consultants $24.40 For the more than twenty million Americans who are self-employed and offer their services on a contract basis, Working For Yourself is the book to have. It tells the reader how to: successfully meet business start-up requirements,comply with strict IRS rules, draft solid consulting and independent contractor agreements, get paid in full and on time.Please see Consultant and Independent Contractor… |
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DEWALT Construction Estimating Complete Handbook (Dewalt Professional Reference) $15.88 A real-world guide to success in construction estimating, the DEWALT Construction Estimating Handbook is loaded with tips, checklists, worksheets, data tables, and tutorials that will provide readers with the tools they need to effectively navigate through every step of the estimating process. The book focuses on the construction estimating “how-to” essentials and provides on-the-spot answers back… |
As the general economy shows some signs of improving, everyone is interested in what they can do to retain qualified and dedicated staff. It is not an unwarranted interest since some job markets are beginning to open up a little and even though your workforce may have been relatively stable for the last several years that does not mean that employees are now happy and immune to attractive job offers from competitors.
For the last five years we have been involved with helping front line supervisors understand what their leadership responsibilities really are. We started doing this because we were convinced that poor supervision was the cause of a lot of staff turnover at the entry level. Supervisors were often promoted from the front lines and had little support from their employers in terms of the transition to supervisory responsibilities which usually put them in an uncomfortable new relationship with former colleagues. Indeed our convictions have been validated through our work, as we have seen real transformational change take place in those supervisors for whom we have served as teacher and mentor. However, we have also been impressed with a seeming disconnect between these front line supervisors and the organization’s recruiting and hiring efforts. Repeatedly we have heard about staff who were hired and were quickly deemed inappropriate for their job assignment. Lazy, unmotivated, uncaring, unable to communicate were words used to describe the staff they were given. At the same time we heard from HR people that front line supervisors seemed unable to describe the characteristics of staff they were looking for and had no appreciation for the hard work that HR went through to find the admittedly sub-prime employees.
All of this led us to conceptualize a process that would address some of these problems between HR and the front line staffing needs. In late 2009 we were named the sub-contractor on a grant from the NJ Developmental Disabilities Council focused on entry level turnover in residential settings. Undoubtedly the Council’s interest spurred our developmental work beyond what even we anticipated and now some six months following the inception of this pilot project we are ready to start putting some of these ideas to the test in a real life, real time, workplace situation.
Our project has involved working with an organization serving persons with developmental disabilities. Our goal is to reduce entry level turnover by 20% at the end of 90 days and another 20% at the end of the year. Most of these entry level staff work in group homes wherein reside most of the individuals served by this organization. Here is an overview of the project and it’s highlights to date.
1. We reviewed the project’s goals and objectives with a “Partnership Team” appointed by the Executive Director. Our work with the Partnership Team involved the following:
a. Completing a flow chart of the current hiring process and identifying several bottlenecks. We found out that to fill an entry level vacancy takes some 53 days.
b. We discussed and identified the culture of the organization so as to help us determine the “fit” of any applicant.
c. We identified nine competency areas that were important to entry level, direct care workers and selected a list of questions to determine an applicant’s ability to fulfill that competency.
d. We trained supervisors in “behavioral interviewing” and successfully changed their approach from asking “what would you do if…” to “in the past, how have you handled…” a specified situation. We developed a uniform way to rank applicant responses.
e. With the partnership team we established a turnover benchmark for the organization and most importantly identified the hard costs, soft costs and intangible costs of staff turnover. While not as high as some cost estimates, we determined that during the last year, the organization had spent, hard, out-of-pocket cash exceeding $50,000.
2. We researched various vendors who provided pre-employment assessments oriented toward identifying desirable personality and temperament features. The Partnership Team told us that applicants seemed to know what to say in the interview in order to get a job offer and that their true personalities began to come out only after they had started employment, and it was usually undesirable. Pre-employment assessment is designed to cut through to an applicant’s true temperament. We have recommended a particular vendor and expect that appointment to be made soon.
3. We developed an on-boarding process which will allow the organization to support new employees, facilitate their adjustment to their new workplace situation and help their learning of required skills.
What will be the end result of this project? Only time and a lot of hard work will tell. But we believe the planning process we have implemented is a positive beginning and so we wish to share it with our colleagues in human services. Essentially what we have done is to take a process which has over the years been developed in the traditional business community and adapted it to the human services industry. All of the project components we have addressed have well established ROI’s in prior implementation settings. Entry level workers in human services often turnover at a rate exceeding 30% per year and in some cases reach triple digit proportions. Entry level salaries being what they are turnover will always be higher than what would be ideal. But if even a small decrease can be achieved through this and other efforts, the effort will be worthwhile and the difference in program efficiencies will be remarkable. The worst thing that we can do is to throw up our hands in dismay and see turnover as just another cost of doing business.
A Plan for Staff Retention Through Better Hire Decisions
By Larry Wenger
Want to get your organization off of the “turnover treadmill”? Wishful thinking will not make it happen. You need a plan! We can design a customized plan for you and help you through the initial implementation. Put the money you save into program improvement. Have happier, more satisfied clients and staff. Contact us today: lwenger@workforceperformancegroup.net. 1-877-872-6195.
Read about Developing Accountability and other topics of interest to human service leaders. http://www.workforceperformancegroup.net
Can you always work 40 hours and be considered part-time in Texas?
I know that the law leaves classification up to the company. We do not have an employee handbook (or at least that I have seen) to classify part-time and full time.” I got hired as part time and after two weeks they slowly started making me stay longer and longer after the verbal agreement of my 6 hours a day. Until, finally i was working 40 hours a week consistently. (I know that you can work multiple consecutive 40 hour weeks and still be part-time) I enjoy the extra pay, but don’t like the fact that its at a part time rate, and without benefits provided to my “full-time” counterparts in the company, which I think is only 2 weeks leave. I also don’t know if they follow the federal guidelines of benefits, but that’s academic. Can employees work the same numbers of hours and one receives benefits where the other does not? Is there some kind of stress test to decide if an employee is full-time like there is to determine contractor status?
there are NO federal or state “guidelines” concerning benefits
there is NO definition of part-time or full-time in labor law.
there are NO laws that state employees must be offered the same benefits and in fact benefit packages are often a negotiating point and a way to entice certain employees to come on board or to continue their employment……….
the only laws that relate to differences in pay or benefits are those which relate to discrimination.
if you are treated differently SOLELY because of a discriminatory reason that is illegal, and it makes NO difference how you are classified…….
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