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By BRIAN YOUNG; Times Leader Staff Writer
Sunday, July 18, 1999 Page: 1E
Unemployment is low and jobs are plentiful.
What’s an employment agency to do?
Carve out a niche in the tight labor market by offering perks or services
to attract workers and then keep them, that’s what.
Some offer incentives such as activities. Others give referral bonuses to
people who bring in more workers. Yet another gambit is cash drawings. Others
haul workers to temporary assignments. And some do it all.
Norm Gavlick, owner of Gavlick Personnel Services Inc. in Kingston, says
with the unemployment rate near 5 percent, fewer people come off the street
for jobs.
“The number of just casual walk-ins are down. … We’re forced as a company
to do a lot more things as an employer and offer incentives.”
Some incentives for temporary employees include outings, softball games and
other activities to make them feel like part of the company. Gavlick also
recently held a cash drawing to generate more foot traffic and interest.
The ideas apparently are working for Gavlick’s firm, which just moved to a
larger suite of offices and added staff to expand services. The 5-year-old
firm places temporary, temporary-to-hire workers and professionals.
Gavlick says an employment trend illustrates how hard it can be for
companies to find good workers on their own in the tight labor market.
“There’s a lot more temp-to-hire right now. The employer brings in a temp,
and if everything works out well, they’re hired,” he says.
Jerry Seibert co-owns Norrell Services franchises in Wilkes-Barre and
Dickson City with his wife, Joan. The company places mostly temporary clerical
workers from its Wilkes-Barre office.
“We haven’t gone into offering transportation or anything like that,” Jerry
Seibert says.
“But in addition to newspaper advertising, we do pay referral bonuses.” The
bonuses vary, and workers must complete a certain amount of hours to qualify.
Debra Zurawski, business manager of TNT Management Services Inc. of
Wilkes-Barre, says referral and attendance bonuses help recruit and retain
workers.
“But one of the things we do is treat the people who come in here
courteously and professionally so they come back.”
Zurawski adds some temps hired by the firm, which was founded in 1991, also
are paid by the day.
“We try to keep the employee as happy as the customer we’re sending them
to. That seems to work because we have a lot of employees come back to us
after an assignment or after taking a job and re-entered the job market.”
In addition to temps and temps-to-hire, TNT also places professionals.
Joseph Langan Associates of Wilkes-Barre has carved out a niche just doing
permanent placement of sales, accounting data processing and engineering
professionals.
“No temps, no contract jobs,” says Joseph Langan, the president and owner
of the 21-year-old firm.
He says it’s also a tight labor market in Northeastern Pennsylvania for
professionals.
“It’s hard to find good people,” Langan says. “Most people are satisfied
with what they’re doing if they have a good job.”
His company has been able to thrive because it specializes, covers a large
area, travels and often can guarantee a placement for six months.
“If you’re in business long enough and your reputation is good, people will
find you,” he says.
Transportation is a topic that comes up sooner rather than later in
discussions with the agencies that place temps and temps-to-hire.
Donna Williams, manager of Snelling Personnel Services in Wilkes-Barre,
says many clients who ask for clerical or light industrial jobs lack
transportation.
“The web is spun so tight around the ability to drive that people who can’t
afford to get on the road want something local,” she says.
Gavlick says his company experienced the problem firsthand so decided to
take temps to their jobs, a service also provided by other local firms.
“We started in 1996 with our own cars. Pretty soon we saw there was a need,
so we got a van,” Gavlick says.
The service benefits the employees and the companies where they work by
ensuring the temporary personnel are reliable, he adds.
Seibert, Norrell’s co-owner, says transportation is a major problem when
employers are off the beaten path- and the bus routes.
“If they’re in an industrial park and that employee doesn’t have
transportation, then it’s a problem,” he says.
“I can’t think of any jobs that don’t require some kind of transportation.
Unless you live downtown and can walk to a job, you need some kind of
transportation.”
Zurawski says TNT provides transportation information to its workers.
“We’ve posted the bus routes on our bulletin board. We take note of people
on the public bus routes and try to give them the jobs they can get to.”
As for the firm offering its own transportation …
“We’ve looked into maybe purchasing a van. But sometimes you can’t depend
on filling those vans with employees to justify having a van,” Zurawski says.
The Times Leader/BOB ESPOSITO
Norm Gavlick, owner of Gavlick Personnel Services Inc. in Kingston, says
his employees would take temporary workers to jobs in their own cars before
the employment agency bought a van.
The Times Leader/BOB ESPOSITO
Mark Szot, human resources director at Gavlick Personnel Services Inc. in
Kingston, conducts an interview. In the foreground are applications waiting
for job seekers.
The Times Leader/BOB ESPOSITO
Human Resources Director Mark Szot of Gavlick Personnel Services Inc.
speaks to a man seeking work through the employment agency in Kingston.