Outsourcing, outplacement and contract workers are all terms being used interchangeably in today's changing corporate climate. Basically, good firms which provide these services provide a company with qualified candidates to fill or perform a job function for that company in either a temporary or permanent capacity.
Why bother using an outsourcing firm when we can just do it ourselves? It is a question companies commonly ask. Many companies find it difficult to justify paying an outside firm to do what they believe is a relatively simple task. Generally, because money is often tighter, the younger and smaller the company, the more prevalent is this thinking. So then, why use a firm like Albin Engineering Services to augment or even serve as your company's Human Resource (HR) Department?
To answer this we must first address what services an outsourcing firm can provide a company. In doing this, the many advantages of using Albin Engineering Services become evident.
An outsourcing firm performs several functions for its clients. First, it finds a client-company new and valuable talent-valuable as being defined by the client-company's needs. In order for a company to remain competitive, it must constantly improve, upgrade and broaden its employee talent base. A company's employees make or break a company. In most cases, today's managers have their hands full solving the challenges of running a single or group of projects or even a whole business. They have neither the time or expertise for finding new and talented individuals. Because the task is both time consuming and tedious, in most cases it serves to divert the manager/owner's attention away from the business of doing business. "Just as in professional sports, coaches coach and leave the finding of talent to the scouts, an outsourcing firm serves as the talent scout for a company. At AESI, we are constantly interviewing, searching for and identifying those individuals with special skill-sets in demand by today's high-tech companies. We do all the leg work involved, eliminating the need for our client-companies having to waste time interviewing and evaluating individuals not suited for a particular opening," says Mark Weston, a senior recruiter at AESI.
Second, an outsourcing firm orchestrates and executes the long and arduous hiring process. Executed correctly, in theory, the hiring process begins with an interview and ends with the right person in the position. Today's interviewing, background checking and general hiring process are more akin to a legal minefield than to acquiring an employee, with regulations and requirements in a constant state of change at the federal, state and local levels. Often managers simply feel overwhelmed which can lead to simply giving in and hiring the easiest person, rather than the right person. A good outsourcing firm can become the company's guide and a place for the manager to turn.
After a manager has identified a need and described a position, your outsourcing firm then can draw on its resources. It drafts a proper job description, interviews potential candidates properly, extracting the right information and still remaining within the confines of the mountains of regulatory red-tape. Further, your firm can get that information to a decision making manager quickly. At AESI we supply our client-companies with a written analysis of each candidate focusing on education, experience, assimilation into the company's culture and suitability for the open position.
Once the decision has been made to hire an individual, your outsourcing firm can then provide all the necessary background checks, drug screens and tests, in full compliance with the law. All of these can be done without taking your manager's time and attention away from the business at hand. At AESI, we have all the necessary procedures in place to perform any variety of checks and tests, quickly, efficiently and legally.
Third, an outsourcing firm administers and maintains all aspects of the employee's records, payroll and benefits. The client-company simply cuts a single check to the outsourcing firm. The outsourcing firm then takes care of the time consuming headache of dividing the funds among payroll, taxes, worker's comp, health or dental insurance and other employee benefits and requirements. In addition your outsourcing firm eliminates the need for your company to file worker's compensation and employee wage tax returns.
Finally, if it becomes necessary to downsize the company's workforce or terminate an individual's employment, all it takes is a notice to your outsourcing firm. The terminations and lay-offs are done by the firm. In addition, your outsourcing firm handles and pays all unemployment claims directly. It also takes responsibility for the termination, helping to shield the client company from many common legal exposures associated with terminations and downsizing.
Other less evident, but equally important advantages of using an outsourcing firm have to do with headcount and cost. Using an outsourcing firm does not contribute to a company or department's headcount. Since the individual is an employee of your outsourcing firm, he or she is not part of your company's count. In addition, generally, a good outsourcing firm like AESI does not charge its client unless the position is filled, whereas using an internal HR department requires paying people regardless of the outcome.
In summary, a good outsourcing firm can augment or function as a
full-service HR department. It recruits, hires, maintains, and if necessary,
terminates individuals performing work for your company. Best of all, it
does this without interfering with the company's business, allowing it
to focus on what it does best, keeping it healthy and competitive. At AESI
we pride ourselves in our commitment to excellence in being the answer
to your HR questions. Give us a call-we'll be glad to discuss your needs.
In our next issue: How to Choose an Outsourcing Firm
This issue's Client Corner features Motorola. With 1995 revenues topping $27 billion, Motorola has become a world leading provider of wireless communications, semiconductors and electronic systems. The company was founded in 1928 in Chicago, IL, under the name Galvin Manufacturing Corporation. Its first product was a "battery eliminator," which allowed consumers to operate radios on the A/C electrical power provided to their homes, rather than depending upon the D/C power provided by batteries.
In the 1930's and early 40's the company became the leading provider of radios to the auto industry. These radios were manufactured and marketed by the company under the name Motorola, a name chosen to mean "sound in motion." So successful was this venture, the company took the name Motorola in 1947. Through the 1960s and '70s, Motorola shifted away from consumer electronics and concentrated more of its resources on telecommunications and semiconductors. By the 1980s it was by far the dominant provider of cellular telephones, paging and two-way radio equipment, accounting for 60% of all sales in that market segment.
The 1990s have brought new challenges to the company. The telecommunications
consortium in charge has tapped Motorola as the prime contractor for the
new and exciting IRIDIUM project. With that charge, Motorola has turned
to Albin Engineering Services to fill many of its highly-skilled engineering
and technical positions. "During the course of the project, we've
had some very vital positions to fill which have required very specialized
skill sets. With Albin Engineering Services' engineering background and
resources, it has been able to fill these positions in a short time, saving
us valuable time and money, ultimately helping to keep the project on schedule,"
says Kelly Clark, a Senior Strategic Business Manager at Motorola. When
fully operational in 1998, using a series of satellites surrounding the
earth in a ring via polar orbits, IRIDIUM will be a global wireless telecommunications
network designed to serve the voice, data, fax and paging network needs
of the entire global community. Its goal will be to allow electronic communication
to and from literally anywhere on the planet. And Motorola knows it can
count on Albin Engineering Services.
Marc graduated from Eastern Kentucky University with a degree in Applied Physics, two years experience teaching mathematics and computer science and a year working at GTE Sylvania. Upon graduation he immediately began working at General Motors Delco-Remy writing software and designing hardware interfaces for test equipment. After three years experience doing this, Marc was offered a job at Lockheed and relocated to the Silicon Valley. It was 1987 and the Valley was still in the midst of the 1980's economic boom. Like many of the Valley's most talented engineers, Marc was involved in projects at various corporate high-tech giants located around the "Valley" and for the next eight years worked on a variety of cutting-edge projects at the likes of Lockheed and Hewlett-Packard. His work has involved satellite ground station data collection, tile data monitoring for NASA's space shuttle, satellite command and control systems, along with a variety of DSP, embedded and telephony applications. These positions were sometimes direct with the company and at other times as a consultant or contractor. It was the latter experiences which allowed him to see the need for an outsourcing & placement firm specializing in high-technology and staffed by people with high-technology backgrounds. Marc founded Albin Engineering Services in 1993 with seed money and one outsourced employee-himself. Today, AESI has over 40 active field employees, some as far away as Illinois and New Jersey, a full-time office staff and has placed more than a dozen engineers in permanent positions here around the Silicon Valley.
Marc is happily married and has one son. He lives in Sunnyvale and
in his spare time he enjoys family outings, water-skiing, scuba diving,
and backpacking.
MJ: What exactly led you to start Albin Engineering?
MA: Frustration. (pauses and then laughs). Let me explain. I had spent 11 years working for various outsourcing firms and several things about the way all of them did business bothered me. First was the way they interfaced between me, the outsourcing company and its client. There was always a non-technical person in the middle who did little more than get in the way. After going on four or five mismatched interviews, they would finally get it right - my skills with a position which fit those skills. Unfortunately, the blundering didn't stop there. Since typically this "middle-person," is many times also the outsourcing company's liaison to its client-there was no way to go around him or her. Each time something changed in the project for which I was hired, we had to stop and translate the impact of the change on me and my position to this liaison and when they finally understood, they could re-negotiate if necessary, and many times it was. All the while the project is on hold. When things were finally worked out, we could get on with the project. It was very wasteful since much of the delay was caused by having to translate to a non-technical person.
Second, was the way they all seemed to do business in general. I always felt I was being misled when I was told about a position-either intentionally or accidentally due to the recruiters non-technical background. Either way it didn't matter because I began to realize that the firm didn't really care one way or another-they were going for numbers. I had a technical skill-they had a technical opening. They sent me. They wanted to be able to say they had sent over X number of candidates. It didn't seem to matter to these outsourcing firms whether or not I was truly right for the job. Finally, after several years of having to hear the woes of the hiring managers and the complaints from the project leaders regarding whatever outsourcing firm they were using, I began to listen. The customer service and support services these firms were providing to their client-companies was either non-existent or close to it.
I've always enjoyed people and enjoyed helping them. I decided a
better job could be done in interfacing with client-companies by using
only recruiters with technical backgrounds and priding ourselves on first-class
customer service. So-here we are.
MJ: Where do you see the Outsourcing Industry in three years?
MA: All the studies and data I've seen and the trade seminars and meetings
I have attended indicate the industry is growing at a rampant pace. So
fast that it has been estimated that 40 to 50% of the workforce will go
through outsourcing firms by the year 2000-only three and a half years
from now. We are on the leading edge of a burgeoning industry.
MJ: What sets AESI apart from other outsourcing firms?
MA: Two very important things. The first is our technical and hands-on
engineering experience. We have it and they [the competition] don't. All
of our recruiters have this background and experience-so when we sit down
with a hiring or project manager, we really do [emphasizes strongly] understand
what it is the manager needs in a candidate. Our technical understanding
also allows us to assist some of our clients in determining what they might
need to round-out their project staff. Second, we sit down in a face-to-face
interview with all our candidates and do not only an in-depth interview,
but also perform real career counseling. Chiefly through this along with
reference and background checks and in some cases, drug-testing, we can
truly determine a candidate's character, core competencies, skill-sets
and goals.
These two things allow us to match the best candidates with our job
openings. In the end, we save our clients time and money and find our candidates
jobs in line with their education, experience and goals.
MJ: To what do you attribute the success of AESI?
MA: Our style of using technically savvy recruiters and our drive to satisfy
our client-companies. Our goal is to provide every client with the best
service and support possible and we strive to do that everyday.
MJ: Where do you see AESI in three years?
MA: Our corporate mission statement at AESI is "to be a model for
the outsourcing industry." By continuing to employ high ethics and
excellent service I think AESI is in a position to do that. We want hiring
managers to feel comfortable using us and we want our field employees happy.
This is what has made us successful so far and we believe it to be the
only [emphasizes strongly] way we can have continued success in the future.
In three years, we believe AESI will have over 400 field employees
with offices in all the major high-tech centers located around the country.
Of course, nothing is like the Silicon Valley and we are committed to being
number one here first.
So What's New With You? People: Recently AESI has added some new faces. Ms. Denise Usher has joined us as the new Office Manager and Mr. John Black has joined the recruiting staff. Stop by and say hello!
More Benefits: Recently AESI has added several new plans to its benefits package available to every full-time AESI employee. Direct Deposit, Life and Long-Term Disability insurance along with a Flexible-Spending Benefits Cafeteria Plan has been added to the already existing 401(k) Retirement Plan. Stop by and see the AESI administrator if you'd like to participate.
Plan Ahead: Mark your calendar now for the greatest Christmas Party of the season. December 7th at Il Fornaio in the Hyatt Sainte Claire in downtown San Jose is where the AESI Christmas Party 1996 will be held. Don't miss it!
This is the premier issue of Technically Speaking, a newsletter
for the friends, employees and clients of AESI. Future issues will include
exciting reports and information about the outplacement industry as well
as news and updates regarding AESI. We welcome any comments and/or questions
you may have. Direct such correspondence to the Editor, Michael Johnson,
at AESI.
Contributors:
Design, Diagrams and Photos:
Technically Speaking is published for the friends, employees and clients of Albin Engineering Services, Inc. Albin Engineering Services, Inc. is an outsourcing and outplacement employment firm specializing in the high-technology career fields, whose corporate mission is to become a model for the outsourcing and outplacement industry through the use of high ethical standards and outstanding customer service. We welcome any comments you may have. Feel free to send your correspondence to the editor via USPS, Fax or E-Mail. All material is c1996 AESI. Unauthorized reproduction of any material herein is expressly prohibited.
