The news focuses relentlessly on layoffs and the long-term unemployed. As unemployment remains high, people become anxious about job security and the stability of their employer. It appears as if the job market has crashed and burned, that no one out there is hiring. Reading the headlines, it is easy to believe this myth, but it is exactly that, a myth. Companies are still hiring. In fact, some human resource consultants say the number of job offers made during a recession remains about the same as in a more healthy economy. Even in a recession, innovation and entrepreneurship are still at work, and companies are working to bring new products and services to market.

But, reading the doom and gloom in the headlines sometimes makes people feel that it’s not even worth the effort because the economy is so bad. But this is not true. The job market still exists; it has just become more selective. People who are valued for their skills, experience and accomplishments will have little trouble finding a job, and can get a job offer in a relatively short period of time.

Those in the worst position during a recession, however, are the long-term unemployed. They stand little chance of getting a job offer during a recession. They might even have trouble gaining employment in a growing economy, because there is little value placed on their skills and competencies.

The economy doesn’t stop during a recession, it just slows down, and the same thing happens in the job market – it slows down. Companies make more effort to avoid risk, and so hiring decisions tend to take longer. But, eventually, hiring managers reach a decision – they must, because they need to continue their operations so that they can serve their customers.

So, if you are a job candidate, you can be pretty sure there is a company out there that needs your help; you just need to be smart and savvy in your job search. Network, persevere and look for the companies that are attempting to start new projects.

Working on short- and long-term temporary assignments with Bayside Solutions in San Francisco can be a great way for someone to keep skills current and learn new ones. Contact a recruiter today to learn more about the different type of assignments we have available.

You find yourself back searching for a job. You thought it wouldn’t take long, given your skills and experience. But what was supposed to be a job search lasting weeks has now become a year, and employers are beginning to express concern that your skills may have become outdated.

If you find yourself in this position, how should you approach the job search?

The first thing to look at is your resume. Since this is the first thing the employer will see, how you sell yourself and your skills is important, even more so if you have to deal with a gap in your employment history.

If your resume doesn’t address the issues that concern the employer, it will be put on the stack of rejected applications right away. So, in this case, you need to rework your resume, using a format that doesn’t fit the traditional mold.

In this case, you want to use what is known as a combination resume, which is geared more for people who have been out of work for a while, or for people who are changing careers. The combination resume is what the name implies, a combination of what you have done, along with when you have done it.

The first part is the introduction, where you give the employer a taste of what you have done and the value you would have to the business. You would highlight briefly your outstanding accomplishments along with your other qualities. It gives a checklist of qualifications.

The next section is accomplishments, where you highlight what you have done. This is an opportunity to show that you still have the skills and experience to do the job. Here you want to be as specific as possible about what you have done and include the achievements you are most proud of.

Then, only after you have highlighted your skills, accomplishments and experience, do you list your work history, giving a chronological listing of previous employment, with a short summary of your duties in each job.

Then, lastly, you would include your educational background, which would include college and any professional development training.

Bring your resume to Bayside Solutions! Many of the Bay Area’s top companies look to us to help them fill temporary, temp-to-hire and direct-hire positions. We look forward to hearing from you.

The survey showed that about 25 percent of workers are less involved with their managers than they were one year ago. The workers say their superiors do not communicate well with them, are disinterested and erratic in their management and play favorites.

Only about 10 percent of workers believed that their management would make the right calls in a time of crisis, according to the survey. Moreover, only about 15 percent said they thought their company’s leaders were ethical and honest. A little more than 10 percent thought that their leaders really listened to them and cared about them. And less than 10 percent thought their management was completely honest.

These figures are alarming, according to business experts, and point to a real need for management to take serious steps to get its workforce re-engaged. One of the ways companies can do this, they said, is to re-examine the organization’s values. Employees need to be able to believe in the values of the company. They need to feel that they share important values with their organization if they are to feel a loyalty to it and work enthusiastically for it.

The surveys revealed the strong connection between trust and shared values. In places where employees had more trust in their leaders, the survey showed a higher percentage that believed the values of the company reflected their own values.

Employee disconnect from a company can result in less production and hurt the firm’s bottom line. In the overall economy, employee apathy results in losses between $300 billion and $350 billion a year, according to experts.

Apathetic employees are less productive, have less loyalty to their organizations, are less happy in their personal lives, and are more anxious about their jobs and keeping their jobs.

A 2010 survey also showed that high-performing employees are more disenchanted as well and are looking at opportunities at other companies. According to the survey, about 25 percent were looking to leave their jobs within a year, compared to about 10 percent who said the same thing in 2006.

Bayside Solutions can provide San Francisco-area companies with skilled employees on a temporary, temp-to-hire or even direct-hire basis. Contact us today.

The companies are emphasizing the things that make them good employers, based on surveys of their own employees. A smaller company, for example, may highlight the opportunities for advancement and working in different areas, things larger competitors might not be able to offer. Some even run ads in different media.

But even more important for a company is first coming up with a clear idea of what its strengths and weaknesses as a workplace are, and how these stack up against its competitors. The company needs to be able to set itself apart from the competition, and tell prospective employees what is unique about it.

Toward that end, the company needs to survey its own employees, and find out why they came and why they stay with the firm, and use their responses to come up with a concise brand, one that will make the company stand out from among its competition. Showing how a company is different from the competition is the key factor, the difference between success and failure in recruiting.

Companies are turning to marketing and advertising research to help them sell their employment brand. Some, for example, use focus groups.

Some companies also are using consultants to check out the competition. They will send people to the other companies to apply for jobs there and then tell about the kind of experience they had.

Other consultants recommend that companies, before they start advertising, test their employment brand with focus groups in their own company – if they are promising something to prospective employees, they should find out from their own employees if the company has been able to deliver.

In this age of information overload, companies also need to be continuously broadcasting their employment brand as well.

And businesses are broadcasting their brand in different ways. More are using social networking sites, with video and music to punch up the message.

Beneath all the hype, however, the experts say that companies need to make sure the message gives a truthful description of what it is like to work at the company, its culture and values. You can put together a terrific promotional effort to get the word out about what a great place to work your company is, but if the message does not reflect the reality, your new hires won’t be staying around long anyway.

When you’re looking for terrific employees, contact Bayside Solutions. We can source and hire some of the best Bay area employees for temporary, temp-to-hire and direct hire positions. Contact us today; we look forward to helping your company run smoothly and well within your budget.

This could have a devastating impact on your company in more ways than one — disrupted projects, overruns on schedules and budgets, quality issues, and loss of corporate memory — in addition to the time and expense of having to find replacements.

How can you increase commitment and decrease turnover among your valued IT employees?

First, you need to understand why IT professionals tend to leave an organization. You may think the most important reason is money, but that’s not the entire story. It’s easy for IT workers to compare their salaries to others doing the same work, both within your company and within their industry. If they feel they are not being paid competitively, pay is definitely an issue. However, infotech employees also appreciate other perks, such as:

• Challenging work assignments
• Favorable work environment
• Flextime
• Stock options
• Additional vacation time
• Family-friendly values
• Everyday casual dress code
• Cross-functional assignments, tuition and training reimbursement

One recent survey found that the second most important retention factor for IT professionals is quality of management – how well the IT staff is managed. Many bosses in IT aren’t strong on mentoring and team-building. They often received promotions themselves because they were technically strong, and not necessarily because they had strong people skills or instinctive leadership qualities.

In order to ensure that your managers are giving the IT staff what they need, try to ensure that they are:

Communicating about Career Development IT managers need to communicate frequently with their employees about career development activities. This should include assessing an employee’s competencies in terms of technical ability, project management and process skills, innovation, and effectiveness.

Employees also want to learn business skills, interpersonal skills and communication skills. They know that companies are looking for well-rounded individuals, not just “techno geeks.”

Conducting Employee Surveys In other words, managers need to ask their employees what they like about their jobs, and what they need in terms of training and mentoring. The amount of training offered is a critical consideration in an IT professional’s decision to stay or leave.

Training is too often seen as a perk when it should be viewed as an essential investment in a company’s intellectual capital. In IT, change is rapid and nobody wants to become obsolete by working too long in an unchanging environment. Strong training, coaching, job rotation programs, and opportunities for experimentation send a clear message that management is seeking to establish a long-term relationship with employees.

In order to retain your top IT employees, take a look at your salary ranges to see if they are competitive, ensure that you are offering other benefits besides salary and insurance, make sure your managers are providing a challenging work environment, and see that career development and training programs are in place.

To find out more about how you can keep your IT team intact, or how we can help fill your technical staffing needs, contact Bayside Solutions today.

No longer can a firm’s leaders take on the “top-down” style of management, where an executive barks orders to the minions below, expecting employees to carry them out without input. This type of organizational structure has gone the way of the dodo — to extinction.

And good riddance!

Instead, leaders today need to persuade (not coerce). Leaders need to be honest, not dictatorial. In addition, a companies leaders should come from all levels of an organization, of all ages so that leadership will be nimble and innovative and also wise and efficient.

Leadership best practices today call for a company culture where everyone has a say, where ideas are welcome. This will help spur employees to greater innovation.

In fact, leaders should come from everywhere in a company, not just from the executive suite. Workers need to be able to move up, down and sideways within an organization, depending on where their particular gifts are best utilized and where their aspirations take them.

Today’s leaders should be accessible to all employees. Leaders today should actively solicit input from the firm’s workers. Employees need to know they may speak their minds freely (within certain boundaries, of course), without worrying that they’ll be demoted, ostracized, ridiculed.

Company leadership today also must be completely honest with a firm’s workers. This is especially true with the prevalence of social networks, making it easy for workers to spread news, gossip or vent about bad management online. News of any sort, good, bad, indifferent, etc. can spread around a company — if not the world — in an instant. Since there’s no place “to hide” anymore, honesty from a firm’s leaders is ever more imperative.

How can Bayside Solutions help your company succeed? We offer Bay Area firms custom recruiting solutions, temporary staffing and other workforce solutions. Contact us today!

The HIPAA Security Rule specifically focuses on the safeguarding of electronic protected health information (EPHI). All HIPAA covered entities must comply with the Security Rule, which says the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of EPHI must be protected. Ensuring the security of all data that is created, received, maintained or transmitted is paramount.

Remote access is a high-risk issue for providers that have staff or contractors who use computerized PHI offsite. Permitting remote access to EHRs increases the risks of data theft and data tampering in two ways:

1) APPLICATION VULNERABILITIES: Hackers exploit vulnerabilities in network protection (e.g. firewalls), operating systems, and applications. When an application is made available online to remote users, vulnerabilities in the application become especially significant. Hackers can access the application with automated tools to exploit flaws in the design, logic and coding of the application.
This risk can be substantially reduced by allowing remote access only through a Virtual Private Network (or VPN).With a properly configured firewall, hackers are unable to send any data or commands to the application and therefore cannot access sensitive information.

In areas where a VPN is not a viable option, remote users can access the application using an Internet connection. Any application supporting Internet connectivity must be protected from design flaws and code faults that would expose it to intentional attacks. To reduce this risk:

• Verify the EHR application will support secure Internet access.
• Ensure that the vendor has a support person assigned to oversee security of the EHR system, who can be easily contacted.
• Make sure the vendor has a procedure in place for responding to security incidents involving the EHR system.

2) VULNERABILITIES AT THE REMOTE ACCESS LOCATION: Remote access exposes the EHR system and its data to risks associated with a compromised workstation. Home machines are often compromised. If they are used by multiple family members for both personal and business purposes, they can be infected by malware that provides opportunity for hackers to gain control of the computer or intercept user credentials and data. Other types of software may give the hacker complete control of the home machine and allow the hacker to access all aspects of the remote EHR session. These risks are significant because personal computers used for remote access are not subject to organizational control. There is no oversight for the computer’s configuration, usage, virus protection, or other basic security measures.

What can you do to protect against these risks?

• Implement two-factor authentication for granting remote access to systems that contain EPHI: users must input information, such as answering a security question, in addition to typing in a username and password.

• Employ a technical process for creating unique user names and performing authentication when granting remote access to a workforce member.

• Develop and employ proper clearance procedures and verify training of workforce members prior to granting remote access

• Establish remote access roles specific to applications and business requirements. Different remote users should have different levels of access based on job function.

• Establish appropriate procedures for session termination (time-out) on inactive remote devices.

• Install personal firewall software on all laptops that store or access EPHI or connect to networks on which EPHI is accessible.

• Ensure that the issue of unauthorized access of EPHI is appropriately addressed in the required sanction policy.

In general, HIPAA-covered entities should be extremely cautious about allowing the offsite use of, or access to, EPHI. Remote access to EPHI should only be granted to authorized users based on their role within the organization and their need for access to EPHI.

For more information on finding the remote access data security professionals you need, contact the IT staffing professionals at Bayside Solutions.

But what about viruses? Your company’s intellectual property? Confidential information about your employees? Those laptops and flash drives that your employees use?

When most people think of data security being attacked, they think of external breaches: network hacking, wireless packet sniffing, malicious codes. But internal breaches occur just as frequently, both intentionally and accidentally. Internal threats can include:

• Corporate espionage: employees recruited and paid by competitors to steal data
• Malicious/disgruntled employees: employees with a grievance against the company may wish to do damage to the network
• Unintentional breaches: employees install unauthorized software, open virus-infected email attachments or succumb to social engineering attacks
• Human error: employees may lose a company laptop computer off-site, use an unsecured wi-fi connection to perform work, or transfer files from a flash drive onto an unauthorized computer

Data security breaches are a very real problem for all companies, and the time to address them is before they happen.

So how can you protect your company? With knowledge and planning.

Your IT professionals should not be the only ones who know your computer systems and networks. Company management should also have a basic understanding of them and how they could be exploited.
You must become familiar with the specific hardware and software that your company uses, the types of data and the manner in which data is stored on your networks, and the security systems that you have implemented to protect that data.

A successful data assessment plan will take into account the usage of all the individuals in your company, from those handling data collection and storage to those in human resources, to those in customer service interacting with your customers on a daily basis. It will also take into consideration all of the various forms of personal information that you collect and store from customers, consumers and employees as well as business information that should not reach your competitors. Companies should know what data is maintained, where that data is stored, and how it is protected.

Although your plan should be individually tailored to meet the specific needs of your company’s system security and data needs, any successful Data Assessment Plan should include a comprehensive strategy to investigate, remediate and respond to a data breach when it happens.

The time to protect your data is now. If you need help planning and executing a data security assessment plan for your company, call Bayside Solutions today. Our technology professionals can show you how to secure your network and keep your data safe.

Business experts said companies need to improve in this area.  One of the most essential elements of the long-range performance of a company is introducing employees to the corporate culture and to the outlook of the company.  Many companies look at this process as more of a chore than anything else, but they should look at it as an opportunity, according to business experts.  It is an opportunity to help new employees hit the ground running, to prepare them for their work at the company, and to inform them about the ways they can help the company reach its goals.

Companies that established effective hiring and orientation procedures had better employee morale and outperformed others financially, according to the study.  The study showed that 65 percent of the firms that had motivated employees provided training to their managers in interviewing techniques.  Companies with more motivated employees also spent more time getting the workers ready for their new jobs.  These firms spent an average of 35 weeks on such preparations, compared to only 15 weeks for companies that had employees with lower morale.

Other studies have also shown that helping to motivate employees and putting effective recruiting procedures in place also helped businesses financially.  These studies established a strong correlation between the financial situation of a company and the morale of its employees.  In a large corporation, a sizeable change in employee morale resulted in an increase of about $95 million in earnings.  Studies also showed that companies that filled positions more quickly – within one month – had a much better financial situation than those who took longer.

Business experts argue that having effective hiring and orientation programs is cost effective.  In order to implement these programs, no big changes are required.  It is mostly a matter of improving the channels of communication between managers and employees.
One very potent technique for improving employee morale, interest and involvement in their jobs is to tell them why they were hired.  More than half the firms that achieved outstanding financial results gave an explanation to employees of why they were hired.  In contrast, almost three-fourths of firms with poor financial results did not talk to employees about the reasons for their employment with the company.

Providing such an explanation establishes a bond between the new employee and the company and gives them a better idea of what the company is looking for from them and how they can use their skills, according to business experts.

If you’d like more strategies on how to best “onboard” your new employees for your Bay Area firm, contact Bayside Solutions. We can offer solutions that have worked for other companies and we can help you source, vet and place qualified and reliable workers for your temporary, contract and direct-hire assignments. We look forward to hearing from you.

Getting laid off is one of the most stressful events you can go through, but there are actions you can take to help you get through a trying time such as this.

Here are some examples of the things you can do:

• Apply for unemployment benefits right away.  If you wait to file, it is possible that you won’t be paid for the time that you were unemployed and did not file.
• Find out from your employer, or union if you are a member, what resources the company or union provides for people who have been hit with a layoff, and find out how to get them.
• Contact the labor department in your area and find out what resources it has to offer laid-off or unemployed workers.  Take advantage of these resources, which may include things such as job search help centers and similar programs.
• It’s also important not to make things up as you go, but to develop a written plan of the goals you want to reach and the actions you are going to take as you work toward another job.  Make a list of things you are going to do, prioritize them and then use the list as a way to budget your time.  This may be especially important when you are suddenly without a daily schedule centering around a job.  If you don’t have a plan or some type of structure to your time, you may end up not using your time effectively, increasing your unemployment period and the stresses that go along with it.
• Talk things over with your family about the changes and worries that also will affect them.
• Be careful about finances if you have been laid off.  You will have to make some changes to your spending habits.  Be careful about overuse of credit cards or drawing down retirement accounts, which will only create more trouble.  You will need to draw up a new budget that takes into account your situation.  You may need to go for advice to a professional financial advisor or groups such as Consumer Credit Counseling.

Other things to keep in mind – get professional help for depression, do career planning that begins with an evaluation of your strengths and weaknesses, and treat your job search like a full-time job itself.

One of the smartest things you can do in the event of a layoff is to bring your resume to Bayside Solutions. We can help you find your next full-time position and also place you in terrific temporary assignments with some of San Francisco’s best employers while you wait. Contact us today!