International Women’s Day: What it Means to Me

Amerit has an office located in Chandigarh, India. In honor of International Women’s Day, we asked some of our India team members what this day means to them and to highlight a few accomplishments within the last few years.

Recruiting & Staffing as an industry has a fairly strong representation from women. But for a long time, gender diversity had been lingering as a goal for us to be achieved, owing to certain cultural & environmental dynamics. We’re glad to say that in last 18 months, we’ve hired 4 successful females in our workforce.

Anshuma Thakur – Recruiter

• Came in at somewhat of novice experience level with ~1 year in industry. Her flair and penchant for everything recruiting is contagious.
• Before her, this particular office was an almost all-male outfit. It speaks volumes on how gender diversity, amongst its many benefits, also provides a tremendous positive spin to work culture, evidenced in that Anshuma fronted many suggestions around employee morale initiatives, even enacting them out. She is now a member of Social committee.
• Noteworthy to state that Anshuma is the primary breadwinner for her family including financially supporting her younger brother’s education.

Deepti Kalsi – HR Operations Coordinator

• Took a bold step of switching career from Recruiter to HR Operations when coming to us.
• It must be added that her new environment was such where she wouldn’t have any lead / immediate team-members in physical presence as her job entailed remote support to US department. Is a one-person team supporting her department & supervisor remotely.
• Striking a balance between rigors of professional & domestic life (carrying out responsibilities of a housewife) is never easy. But you won’t ever get to guess that as you’ll always be greeted with a contagious smile every time you run into her.

Jyoti Rana – Admin / Billing Assistant

• Has been with us for 18 months.
• Hails from a small town; what made the ramp-up even steeper was her coming from relatively easy-paced education industry into staffing industry with its time-sensitive deadlines all around.
• Has battled it out and now plays a pivotal role providing wheels to many parts of business, be it Office Admin / Housekeeping duties, Billing management, providing pace to recruiting personnel in variety of clerical roles.

Overall, I’d like to add that for all of these women, when joining our organization, they were walking into not only a new environment but one with male supervisors and so were vast majority of coworkers, which I’d emphatically state during their interviews, so they’re aware of the environment they’re walking into (call it a potential challenge). Not from one of them was there any question about it. In fact, their facial expressions were more along the lines of “so what!”

They have imbibed training from male supervisors and worked shoulder-to-shoulder with their male counterparts. They owe their success much to their own determination and grit. Their collective voice on reasons behind their success are a positive work environment – all they need is an equal platform for representation. After that, gender difference is very much a moot matter!

Positive Onboarding Experience

The goal of onboarding is to help new hires prepare for success in their new roles and get started on the right foot. With the unemployment rate at an all time low, it has created a difficult market for finding qualified candidates. This makes the onboarding process more important than before, ensuring that employees have a great experience. Employers will need to focus on creating a successful and efficient onboarding process.

For a lot of new hires, starting a job can feel overwhelming. Every company has its own rules, benefits, perks, and paperwork to complete. It can be a lot of information in the beginning. It is important to break down the process for them. This will help them retain the information better. A “Cheat Sheet” can be a helpful tool to lay out the important policies and procedures of a company.

New hire training is another great tool that can have a positive impact on the onboarding experience. Supervisors and managers are an integral part of a new hire experience and having them as a visible and accessible resource for new hires. They can help ensure a smooth transition for their new hires.

The benefits of taking time and properly onboarding a new hire will lay out the groundwork for long-term professional success in the company.

Why is Onboarding important? 

A positive onboarding experience can reduce the learning curve of a new hire and allow them to jump into their role faster and more efficiently. It also can reduce turnover and create long-term employee retention.

Amerit Consulting takes pride in onboarding an employee the correct way. We have a balanced workforce that keeps employees energized and engaged and helps keep their competitive edge. Learn how Amerit Consulting can help your business with this or any HR functions by contacting us today!

Security Awareness – Verifying Identities During Tax Season

With the tax season upon us, many employees are reaching out, asking for copies of their W-2’s. W-2’s contain sensitive information that can be used in many different malicious ways. It is important to identify the person requesting the W-2 or any sensitive data.

It is important to ask yourself, how do you know that the person you are communicating with via phone call, email, text message, etc., is who they say they are?  Sometimes you work with a person enough that you recognize their voice. That’s great, but what if you can’t recognize their voice? This is when you want to use information that you have on record to confirm a person’s identity. Many companies will have different ways in which they do this and have established policies to follow.

If you don’t have any policies that tell you how to do this consider asking for 2-3 pieces of information to confirm the person’s identity. At least some of this information should not be public information. For example last four SSN and/or Date of Birth. In conjunction you could ask for someone to confirm their email address, phone number, mailing address that they have on record with this.

If you had any indication or concern that the person you are dealing with may not be who they say they are consider doing an even more thorough verification.  What is the name of the company they currently work for or worked for in the past? Approximately when did they start that assignment? When did their assignment end?

Another scam that is very common right now is where bad guys attempt to pretend, they’re our employees and ask for direct deposit bank account information to be changed.  This is another great example where you want to make sure you’re doing all that you can do to verify someone’s identity.

For more tips on security awareness in a workplace, click here. 

Amerit Supports Local Charities in San Ramon Area.

Every December, Amerit Consulting works with local charities to support during the holiday season. Philanthropy is one of our core values at Amerit. We believe it is an essential part of a workplace environment. We decided to work with One Warm Coat and Soldiers Angels.

One Warm Coat is a national non-profit program which works to provide a free, warm coat to any person in need.  Since One Warm Coat’s inception in 1992 they have worked with volunteers to host more than 27,000 coat drives and have given away more than 5 million coats. The best part of this organization is the ability to help someone else in need does not need to cost any dollars at all. The organization accepts clean, gently used coats/jackets as well as new items for all sizes from kids to adults. A lot of employees at Amerit had a couple of coats in their closets that have not been used for years. What better way to celebrate the holiday season than to give them away to someone who could really use them?

“May No Soldier Go Unloved” encapsulates the motivation behind Soldiers’ Angels. The volunteers of Soldiers’ Angels work tirelessly supporting our nation’s veterans, wounded heroes, deployed service members and their families.  Amerit adopted 3 families who each received gifts for both the parents and children. We all owe each military family a debt for the personal sacrifices that have been made to uphold and defend this country. Amerit was honored to have the opportunity to make this holiday season a bit brighter for the families we adopted.

Amerit also was able to donate to the following charities:

• Camp Del Corazon
• Helen Woodward Animal Center 
• American Cancer Society 
• ALS Therapy Development Institute  

Each of these charities provide support, awareness and funding for research. Click on the links and learn more about each of these charities.

Engineering Positions in a MSP World

Engineers are the building blocks of our future. They apply scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to solve all types of problems. The work of engineers lead to new scientific discoveries and advancement in all fields that help improve the quality of life.

However, recruiting for Engineers is a different ball game. Every year, many aspiring Engineers graduate with dreams of working at a reputable organization and it is the Recruiter’s role to find these Engineers a fulfilling position.

Amerit Consulting primarily is a MSP (Managed Service Provider) driven branch and in a MSP’s world, Recruiters don’t have the luxury of interacting directly with Hiring Managers because of vendor neutrality. Another challenging factor is varying submission limits for different clients. A basic expectation from a Recruiter is to handle 5-6 positions at any given time and prioritizing those positions accordingly.

MSPs usually have a standard template when they release positions on their respective VMS’ (Vendor Management System). In general, the first step a Recruiter takes is to review or at times re-write the Job Description in a simplified manner having sections such as Job Summary, Job Description, Job Requirement & Desired (if any). Desired or Preferred sections as the names suggest are just desired; it’s great if a candidate has those skills but not a deal breaker if they don’t. One needs to re-remind themselves that they are competing with several other vendors and do not want to lose the candidate if they don’t have every desired/ preferred skills.

For reference, say a Recruiter was currently working on a Design Control Engineer in Medical Devices industry. For an Engineering Recruiter who has worked on similar positions in the past, it’s simple, but for an individual who is green, this could be a tough cookie. Writing down notes and listing the required components from the Job Requirements section line by line is a fantastic way to start. Begin with writing down all possible synonyms; if you feel challenged then go to LinkedIn search & look for possible skills’ synonyms or WIKI or https://mentor.socialtalent.co. As you add new requirements, you are narrowing your search and by using synonyms you are adding different ways of saying the same thing which broadens your search. By narrowing, you are going to focus on great matches and by broadening, you are thinking of all the ways those great matches could have described their job titles or skills. Here is a sample for line by line items :

• Medical devices
• Design Control
• Risk Management

And here is a sample of various synonyms and a built Boolean string:

(“medical device” OR “medical devices” OR “med device” OR “med devices” OR “medical-device” OR “medical-devices” OR “med-device” OR “med-devices” OR “biomedical device” OR “biomedical devices”) AND (“design control” OR “design assurance” OR “design verification” OR “design validation”) AND (risk)

Once you have created your string, go to your job portals & use all the applicable filters which will help you to narrow down your search (e.g. location/ zip code, education level, experience level, etc). Recruiters must calibrate & manage their time accordingly on positions as speed is of great essence on MSP driven clients.

It’s an employees’ job market and Recruiters must run strong email campaigns to attract strong individuals for their positions. They need to create a win-win situation for both candidate & client. At Amerit, Recruiters maintain a healthy relationship with their employees by sending QC (Quality Check) emails; as sometimes these hires provide strong referrals for open positions within their department. At the same time, maintain a good rapport with MSP coordinators by attending requirement qualifier calls & helping them with tough to fill positions.

 Sajag Bhardwaj, Lead Engineering Recruiter

In government contracting, a prevailing wage is defined as the hourly wage, usual benefits and overtime that is established by the Department of Labor and Industries for each occupation and skill set by geographic region.

Wage Determination Rates are established for each county and are determined based on research data, surveys, collective bargaining agreements and cost of living.

• Largest City in County – If more than half of the worker’s hours reported are at one wage for the city than this will become the majority wage rate. If there is no majority wage rate than the average of all the survey data will become the prevailing wage for that city.
• Existing Wage – If no data is found for the county than the old prevailing wage will be the new prevailing wage.

According to the Department of Labor, since August 28^th,, 2018, the Missouri General Assembly passed the following changes for prevailing wage:

• Any public works projects valued at $75,000 and under are not subject to the prevailing wage law
• Projects valued at $10,000 and below are not subject to competitive bidding process
• Hours worked during holidays will be paid twice the normal rate, including fringe benefits (OT Hours will be paid time and half the normal rate, including fringe benefits)
• Contractors may employ one Entry Level Worker for each Skilled Worker hired and pay them 50% of the pay (Including fringe costs)
• The Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations may investigate violations on its own or review complaints submitted

Important Dates on new provisions to law in 2019:

The Department of Labor will only use hours reported by contractor on non-resident projects in calculating annual wage which includes both public and private whether or not subject under the collective bargaining agreement.

• To find more information on how to calculate the prevailing wage, click here.

New Public Works Contracting Minimum Wage of 120% of the average county wage for counties where less than 1,000 hours were reported for a particular occupational title.

The initial Annual Wage Order that contains the prevailing wage and public works will be released March 10, 2019 with the final wage order released by July 1, 2019.  This will still continue to control on projects valued over 75,000.

The Importance of Computer Security

Living in the Digital Era, there are everyday risks happening around us. You often hear stories from a co-worker or friend about a personal hack such as stolen identity or they click on a link and get an infected virus on their computer. It is important to be cautious about your personal information and take steps to protect yourself.

In 2019, we will see a high demand for computer security jobs. With the amount of breaches that are becoming more and more frequent, companies are looking for an IT department that will spot vulnerability in systems and servers as well as make sure everything is highly secure.

Below are two common ways to be smarter with computer security:

Email: Email is the primary source of communication for most employees in a company. It is also the number one source a hacker will use to get in contact with you. It is important to make sure you are reading emails carefully and looking at all details such as email addresses, what they are asking for you to do, etc.  For a business, it is a great training opportunity to teach your employers what to look for and how to avoid clicking the wrong link.

Online: Many employees will search the web for online research. However, the more searches you make, the higher at risk you are for clicking on a contaminated link. Your IT Department should put up firewalls to prevent potential threats and prevent people from having access to pages that are unsecure.

Unfortunately, a common breach in this day and age is almost unavoidable. However, taking cautious steps and training your employees correctly will help solve some of the smaller issues. Even if you have the strongest security, human risk will always remain.

For more tips, Click Here. 

Why Philanthropy is Important in a Workplace

A lot of leading employers are finding ways to be more charitable to drive more employee engagement and productivity. Philanthropy is one of our core values at Amerit Consulting. We believe it is an essential part of a workplace environment.

Below we asked some of our employees why philanthropy is important to them and in a workplace.

“As an organization, we partake in various different Philanthropic events year-round. I’m so lucky to be part of a culture that promotes the welfare of those in and out of our communities. Philanthropy is so dear to my heart because an act of kindness can leave a long-lasting impression in someone’s life. Why do I volunteer and give back to those in need? If I can provide that act of kindness, to change the course of someone’s life for the better; that to me is my ‘Why’.  I’m so fortunate to have been brought up in an environment that promotes compassion, kindness, and humility and I feel that it’s my constitution in this life to share that with others. Let us continue to uplift each other and promote selflessness and kindness because you may never know who can benefit from it.”

Ashleigh Meza, Manager of HR Operations & Compliance

“My parents strongly believed in giving back to our schools, church and community – it was just what we did, a part of who were as a family.  I have carried that sense of purpose and motivation into my adult life.  I will admit however that I am continuously challenged to match the number of hours that I want to volunteer with the amount of time I have available to do so.  I love that fact that Amerit not only provides one paid day per quarter for volunteering but also that that community service is one of our core company values.  We are able to give back while also fueling a sense of teamwork and comradery with co-workers all at the same time!”

Lisa Cvecko, Vice President of Finance

“Philanthropy is a priority to me because it helps me to see the bigger picture and take my focus off of myself.  I also can’t help but love feeling that I’ve made a difference, even when it’s small. I have been so blessed and I love to be able to be a blessing to others.”

Amanda Vonderheid, Jr. Accountant

The Importance of Empowerment in a Workplace

According to Business.com….Employee empowerment is described as giving employees a certain degree of responsibility for decision making and allowing them to have a voice. Empowerment is key to having full motivation in a workplace. It can be described in a number of different ways. It allows us to give employees more responsibility and power which can create value for your business and the employee.

Empowerment is considered a “new” management style for companies to help foster new career goals. It helps framework an employee’s expectations and sets goals to accomplish their main purpose of their work. It will enable an employee to take control of their job and use skills they never knew they could use. Empowerment is one of our core values at Amerit. We believe it is the key to any work environment. It will allow you to eliminate any drawback and give the ability for an employee to grow and learn.

Below are 4 different ways to emphasis employee empowerment.

1. Confidence:Let employees know you believe in their work and can handle challenging tasks. It is crucial for an employee to know you have respect for them and care about their opinions.
2. Listen:It is important to listen to your employees and try to understand their struggles and concerns. This will allow them to trust you and feel like they have a voice.
3. Growth Paths:A career development path creates assurance for an employee. The career plan will focus on the employee’s needs for growth and what it takes to make it to the next steps in a job position.
4. Responsibility:Let an employee take on new projects. By giving an employee power, it will enable them to achieve new responsibilities and goals.

For more tips on creating a successful workplace environment, click here.

How to Embrace Disability in the Workplace

October is National Disability and Employment Awareness Month. This month is a great month to advocate across the United States the importance of educating others on hiring people with Disabilities. According to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 5 adults have at least one kind of disability. There are several people who are successful business men or women with ADHD, ADD, dyslexia, autism, etc. that you may not be aware of. Many workplaces have a culture that is not friendly to the idea of mental health.

What can you do as a business to embrace it? A lot! Below are ways to be more informed about disability in a workplace.

The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) and Disability IN offer company’s organization scores using the Disability Equality Index (DEI). The DEI is a tool that shares businesseswith a score from 0 to 100 on their disability inclusion practices. They benchmark six categories: Culture/Leadership, Employment practices, Recruitment, Retention, Accommodations and Community Engagement. This tool is very transparent to all business leaders and will allow you to better understand where you are at as a company.

Having a better understanding about disability will empower your workfare to create a friendly environment. The Learning Disabilities Association of America is a great resource/guide to help support and learn more about people with disabilities. Investing in trainings and classes will help gain more insight for your employers to know how to be open and communicate properly in a work environment.

Employees with disabilities can bring unique skills, understanding and experiences that can enhance your products or services. Working alongside a person with disability can create ideas that you may never have considered before because you may never have seen it as a challenge. It can teach co-workers to teach other co-workers in a different and creative way to solve solutions to a problem.

Companies such as CVS and Microsoft have found people with disabilities are more loyal, detail orientated and reliable. Microsoft has hired 50 people with autism in the past three years. They have seen that people with autism pay more attention to detail and can spot patterns quickly and efficiently.  CVS has said the same thing and that they are more accurate with data and can do it for longer periods of time because they don’t get bored easily.

By ensuring your workforce embraces disability in a workplace will allow you to have a culture that is transparent, diverse, and all-around inclusion environment.