From the President: 2 Years Post-Katrina
- The Staffing Challenges Continue

Responding to a community-wide call to accelerate workforce solutions, the Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce recently commissioned a workforce assessment from consultants Younger Associates and Wadley Donovan Group. Some observations found in the 2007 Baton Rouge Area Workforce Assessment include:

• Difficulties recruiting professional and other talent from outside the region
• Borderline satisfactory basic skills in written communication, math, judgment/problem solving
• Lower than average educational attainment in key areas

Employers face a challenge to find workers in many occupational categories over the next 12 months. Here are just a few:

• General technicians
• CAD Drafters
• Programmer/Analysts
• Customer Service (both CSR's & Managers)
• Engineers - associate, general, chemical, mechanical, electric and electronic

Where are all these workers going to come from?

The Workforce Assessment says that the Baton Rouge area has many key assets that will assist area employers in locating this talent. We have strong post-secondary educational opportunities with Baton Rouge Community College, Southeastern Louisiana University, LSU, and Southern University, and Our Lady of the Lake College. The relatively young population under the age of 35 can provide future labor resources. The Workforce Assessment also speaks of a "hidden labor supply" which includes recent college and tech schools graduates as well as "underemployed" residents who desire job training to upgrade their skills.

Frazee has continued to meet this demand for qualified talent by "stepping up" their recruiting efforts with newer methods and continuing education for our team of recruiters. "We realized long ago that we had to be better than the 'average' recruiting firm in order to meet client demand in the challenging staffing environment that currently exists," states owner Marianne Frazee.

Marianne Frazee sits on the Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce Economic Trends Council

Source: Workforce Assessment Baton Rouge Area Prepared for: The Baton Rouge Area Chamber, June 2007, Prepared by: The Wadley-Donovan Group and Younger Associates

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Over the past several years, Frazee Recruiting Consultants, Inc. has been a staffing partner with disaster recovery company, Unified Recovery Group. URG specializes in federally funded disaster recovery work, which means that cleaning up communities is the company's primary interest. When Hurricane Katrina came ashore two years ago, URG was already "on the ground," partnering with local government to remove debris and get communities back on their feet. They have been instrumental in assisting St. Bernard Parish in the demolition and debris removal of hurricane damaged structures.

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Carla specialties include temporary, contract and direct hire placement for:

• Bookkeeping, Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable
• Purchasing, Document Control, Project Secretaries and Paralegals

Many of Carla's clients have worked with her for years and value her good judgement and professionalism. Rhonda Magnolia, Office Manager with Industrial Fabrics, Inc., says, "For many years, Carla Anton has assisted us in hiring personnel in our accounting and inside sales departments on a temporary and temp-to-perm basis. It's great to work with a professional, friendly, and genuine person who truly cares about our staffing needs."

Her Personal Philosophy:
"I believe it is very important to ensure both customer and candidate satisfaction."

Frazee is pleased to have Carla as part of their recruiting team!

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Last week's data breach of job board Monster.com, has raised all kinds of questions regarding the identity safety of job seekers who post their resume online. According to Workforce Management magazine, the information, which "may have been used to blackmail individuals, is also a reminder that employment-related data can be vulnerable to identity thieves." After the theft of contact information from more than 1 million job seekers, Monster has worked to limit the damage and has promised to "actively investigate and take measures to address the impact of malicious software, called Infostealer.Monstres, on our resume database."

Although the internet can be a great place to search for job openings, it is important to take precautions to protect yourself against identity theft. According to Resume Butler, make an effort to "minimize your contact information; this makes it harder to steal your identity and harder for your employer to discover your job search...remove the normal contact info from your resume such as your name, address, phone number, business e-mail address, and personal e-mail address...use an alternative email address such as Hotmail.com or Yahoo.com in your job search." They also suggest that you "modify your employment history, especially your current job. Use a generic term for your current employers company name. For example; Microsoft can be changed to "a major multinational software manufacture...also, if you have a unique job title, be sure to change it to a generic one."

Be cautious! Do your research, and check employers out! Be wary if a prospective employer's email address doesn't correspond with the company's name. In other words, a company named SuperSoftware should have a domain name similar to SuperSoftware.com, and the email should be sent to that domain.

Although some information is necessary for an employer to complete a valid background check, the information should be given to the employer "in person" at their place of business. Be careful about providing personal information over the phone such as your social security number, credit card numbers, and bank account number. Many fraudulent job postings have been traced to companies and individuals in Eastern Europe so it's important that your are cautious when dealing with companies outside of your own country.

Technology dictates that employers and job seekers will be using job boards well into the future, so it's best to be safe and know the "rules of the road" before taking a "test drive" on the internet recruiting road!

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