Agencies that specialize in trade skills have a ready pool of talent for him to review, which dramatically reduces the time it takes himto hire an employee. They’ve also already screened people for basic skill levels, and ascertained whether or not they are legal workers, Pineda says. There have been times that he’s gotten halfway through a screening process only to find that the candidate has a fake driver’s license. "If an agency has a good screening process, I don’t have to worry about that, and I can spend less time evaluating potential candidates," he says.

    Pineda works with several recruiting firms in the Houston area according to his specific employment needs. "Some firms are better at hiring for certain positions than others," he says. He uses Randstad North America for much of his recruiting because it’s a national organization with offices in areas where QuietFlex plans to expand. That’s a critical factor for Pineda because the start-up facilities don’t have an on-site HR person to oversee staffing. "When we open new offices, we contract with Randstad to provide the entire workforce," Pineda says. "They have the staffing expertise that our new managers don’t have." That includes conducting background checks, behavioral interviews, basic skills evaluations, and drug testing. "It allows the managers to focus on operation issues instead of spending their time on hiring."

    Pineda is amazed that some recruiting agencies don’t conduct even the most basic of these tests before sending candidates to him. When he has worked with other firms in Houston, it was not uncommon for them to send candidates who didn’t speak English or couldn’t read. "Those are critical skills for safety in the plants," he says. "If an employee can’t read safety instructions or communicate a problem, there will be trouble."

    Randstad also gives Pineda all the pre-hire data it collects from candidates if he decides to bring them on as full-time employees, including drug tests and background screenings. This saves him time and money. "If I want to hire someone, I don’t have to pay to redo those screening tests."

Workforce, July 2002, pp. 74-77 -- Subscribe Now!