One of our many challenges is to connect with you where you are. We’re constantly evaluating and recruiting new skilled workers- like you. So, we better be out on the job sites, in the malls, and on your computer- texting and tweeting to get your attention. Check out our latest opportunities and stay in touch. Alert your co-workers and friends about our postings, and share an opinion on ‘our’ opinions. Together, we will grow and succeed.

The Force Team

Personnel Force/Tech Force is pleased to announce that we have been awarded the Task Based Informatics Professional Services Standing Offer & Supply Arrangement, Tier 1, as of August, 2011. This vehicle, along with THS, PS Online, and Temporary Help & Testing Standing Offer for the City of Ottawa ensure that our clients have a multitude of resources and approaches that they can use to fill their staffing requirements. Progress & growth!

We’re proud of our relationship with you and are doing everything in our power to enhance career opportunities. Whether it’s an opinion on your strategies for success, a mutual ‘re-work’ of your resume to provide clarity and strength, or an offering of new employment venues to diversify and vary your portfolio, we are here to help. We thank you for working with us, and we thank our many clients for their continued support. If you like us, tell others- referrals are  key to our success.

Clients, friends and family gathered at the Stonebridge Golf & Country Club  on June 18th once again to celebrate our ‘dads’. All gathered ‘poolside’ later to share stories and tell tales while feasting on burgers, brats, and beers. Team MacCallum was the eventual winner- God bless the Peoria System!… just some of the pictures of a fun day shown here.

Force’s Romi was ‘cooling’ poolside- beats bank reconciliations- while the ‘young hunks’ pose by the Clubhouse Sign!

The festivities went well into the night… good times!

Life became a little bit different this week. The political landscape of Canada changed significantly with a Conservative Majority and the NDP forming the Official Opposition. The Liberals are starting over, and maybe the Bloc is gone for good!

On the world stage, Osama Bin Laden is dead and, hopefully, terrorism too.

I trust you all exercised your franchise and voted in the election. We congratulate the winners, thank all that ran for office, and take pride in the fact that we, as Canadians,  have the right to choose… this is a sacred trust never to be taken for granted.

Finally, we offer to our Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, our support and best efforts in furthering and strengthening this wonderful country. May the Government, in its policies, be fair and balanced to all Canadians and in particular to the National Capital Region which depends so much on the Federal Government for its economic viability.

I wish you all continued health and prosperity.

Paul F. Gillissie

All of us at Personnel Force/Tech Force wish you a safe and happy holiday season. We hope that the ‘Easter Bunny’ is generous with all those festive treats- calorie free of course!

Stay safe and make sure to ‘vote’ on Election Day, May 2nd. Best wishes to all.

PWGSC has informed us of rule changes that we must follow in the placement of our candidates in Government Offices. We have attached the text for your review. Best regards to all our employees and sub-contractors. I sincerely hope that, collectively, we all have an awesome 2011!

PFG

(The English message will follow)

J’aimerais aviser tous les fournisseurs de services d’aide temporaire (SAT) de changements apportés à la méthode d’approvisionnement des SAT qui seront mis en œuvre en février. Ces changements visent à faciliter l’expérience des fournisseurs et des utilisateurs ministériels des SAT, ainsi que des travailleurs temporaires. Plus de détails sur ces changements seront communiqués au début février, Cependant, je trouvais important de vous aviser à l’avance des changements à venir. Ces changements ont fait l’objet de discussions pendant les réunions du Comité consultatif sur les SAT. La raison qui justifie le changement est indiquée après chaque initiative.

1)Les fournisseurs ne pourront pas consulter les tarifs hebdomadaires des SAT. Les utilisateurs ministériels seront avisés que les ressources d’aide temporaire engagées par les ministères n’ont pas accès au système des SAT ni, plus spécifiquement, aux tarifs des fournisseurs. De plus, les utilisateurs ministériels seront avisés de diffuser l’information sur les tarifs des fournisseurs de SAT uniquement aux personnes du ministère qui doivent avoir cette information. Si une enquête permet d’identifier l’utilisateur ministériel responsable de la divulgation d’information sur les tarifs des SAT, les privilèges de cet utilisateur seront retirés.

Justification : La divulgation des tarifs des autres fournisseurs risque d’encourager une concurrence beaucoup trop forte et donc de causer des pressions à la baisse sur les tarifs.

2) Lorsqu’une commande subséquente est attribuée, une lettre de refus sera envoyée à tous les fournisseurs qui ont proposés des CV en réponse à une demande de disponibilité, et ce, au même moment où le fournisseur retenu sera avisé.

Justification : Courtoisie professionnelle élémentaire et diffusion rapide de renseignements opérationnels importants.

3) Les fournisseurs devront fournir une entente distincte de la ressource, spécifique au besoin. Cette entente écrite (en format électronique ou sur papier), constitue l’accord de la ressource pour la durée totale du besoin. Cette entente écrite doit être fournie avec le CV présenté par le fournisseur, en réponse à une demande de disponibilité.

Justification : Prévenir l’offre d’une ressource non autorisée et la proposition de tarifs excessivement bas pour garantir l’embauche.

4) Lorsqu’une ressource d’aide temporaire (qui a fourni son consentement par écrit pour un besoin spécifique) est proposée par l’entreprise qui possède le droit de premier refus et que cette ressource indique ultérieurement qu’elle n’est plus disponible, cette ressource ne pourra être proposée par aucun autre soumissionnaire.

Justification : Encourager les ressources d’aide temporaires à fournir leur consentement par écrit aux entreprises qui leur offre des salaires raisonnables, et protéger la méthode d’approvisionnement des SAT.

5) Les fournisseurs qui falsifient des CV seront suspendus du système des SAT pendant un mois.Justification : Décourager les activités contraires à l’éthique par les participants à l’approvisionnement des SAT

Merci.

Rick Sztramko

Directeur, Direction des initiatives d’affaires liées à des services professionnels

Travaux publics et Services gouvernementaux Canada

*********************************************************************

I would like to advise all THS suppliers of changes to the THS Method of Supply which will be implemented in February. The intent of these changes is to reduce the number of irritants to THS suppliers, departmental users and temporary help workers. More details concerning these changes will be communicated early in February, however I felt it important to provide you with some advance notice. These have been discussed with the THS Advisory Committee. The rationale for the change follows each initiative.

1)THS weekly rates will not be available for viewing by suppliers. Departmental users will be advised that temporary help resources engaged by departments are not to have access to the THS system and, more specifically, supplier rates. In addition, Departmental users will be advised that THS supplier rate information is not to be shared with anyone other than those within the department who need to know. If release of rate information is traced back to a particular departmental user, then that user’s THS privileges will be suspended.

Rationale: Visibility into rates bid by other suppliers can contribute to hyper-competitive behaviour, resulting in excessive downward pressure on rates.

2) When a call-up is awarded, regret letters will be sent to all suppliers submitting resumés in response to a Request for Availability, at the same time that the successful supplier is notified.

Rationale: Common business courtesy and providing valuable, timely business intelligence.

3) Suppliers will have to provide a separate, requirement-specific agreement from the resource, in writing (electronic or hard copy), agreeing to be bid for the full duration of the requirement. This written agreement must be provided with the resumé submitted by the supplier in response to a Request for Availability.

Rationale: To prevent unauthorized proposing of resources and then offering excessively low wage to resource for guaranteed engagement.

4) Where it is found that a temporary help resource bid by the company with the Right of First Refusal, and who had provided his/her written consent to be bid by that company for a specific requirement, subsequently advises unavailability for the assignment, then that resource will not be considered a valid proposal from any other bidder. .

Rationale: To encourage temporary help resources to provide their written consent to companies who offer them reasonable salaries. Also to prevent the undermining of the THS Method of Supply .

5) Suppliers found falsifying resumés will be suspended from the THS system for one month.Rationale: To discourage unethical activity by participants in the THS Method of SUpply

Regards,

Rick Sztramko

Director, Professional Services Business Initiatives Directorate

Public Works and Government Services Canada

From all of us at Personnel Force, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy, safe and successful New Year. May 2011 be a joyous and special year for all of us!

Here’s Force’s Dia and Sara as they attended the charitable Gala for Lymphoma Canada held at the Sala San Marco Hall on Preston St. last Friday. Always elegant- always with a social conscious. The ‘sold out’ venue raised over $40 thousand for this   worthwhile charity. Well done!

The Ottawa Citizen, once again, published an uninformed article concerning the Federal Government’s use of temporary help. A colleague and a competitor, Kevin Dee, has written in his blog relevant comments which I would like to share with you.

PFG

The Eagle Blog
October 6th, 2010
Staffing Industry Myths the Press Perpetuate
Once again the Ottawa press is full of stories about the staffing industry.  The Public Service Commission released a report one more time questioning the use of temporary help in the government.  This, as always, gathers a whole bunch of comments from people who know even less about our industry than the authors of this report and the author of the Citizen article.

In April this year, in response to an Ottawa Citizen article I wrote a blog entry called Canada’s Federal Government and the Temp Industry.   I think that blog entry accurately represents my views on this subject.

Today I will focus on the issue of  increased government spending on temporary help … and the fact that the report seems to think that this is a bad thing!  The dollars spent seem huge but in reality it is a very small percentage of the cost of the  government’s payroll budget, which would be consistent with the private sector use of staff augmentation (the flexible workforce).

I would also argue that in uncertain times decisions become harder, and flexibility more important, so the use of a flexible work arrangement suits the government under these conditions;

•we have just been through one of the worst recessions in history;
•we have had a minority government for as long as I can remember;
•the Federal Government have had several “scandals” to deal with over recent years;
•there have been some very high profile “so called failed projects” in recent time;
•there have been and continue to be procurement reviews, procurement reforms and auditor general reports that put incredible pressure on the average public servant.
Public servants are expected to implement policy, meet their departments mandate, support ministerial directives in a changing world and with those kinds of pressures on them.  I say give the public servants a break, let them make business decisions that allow them to move their agendas forward and don’t hamstring them with bureaucracy that doesn’t work!  So what if they bring in a temp to do work that could be done by an employee … if the PSC could find and hire the employee in time to get the work done I’m pretty sure that’s what would happen.  Have you tried to get a Public service job lately, or as a public service manager have you tried to hire someone?  How long would you say that process took?

I said it in my previous article … the staffing industry provides a much needed service at incredible value.

What is more important to the Public Service Commission is that public servants are “getting it in the neck”from every quarter, and believe it or not, making this tool (a flexible staffing capability) more difficult to use will just make life that much more difficult for public servants.

Very often something needs to happen fast and the “full time hiring process” is not fast enough. There is nothing wrong with the use of temps by the Federal Government particularly in these trying times. There is however everything wrong with the process of government full time hiring, but I’m guessing the PSC wouldn’t want that to be the subject of scrutiny by the Ottawa press corp.

Kevin Dee is CEO of Eagle (a Professional Staffing Company)