Thank you for arriving on time, in the proper attire with a brilliant smile,
and ready to show why you are THE BEST IN CHARLESTON!

Our Client reported that the entire Now Serving Team demonstrated excellent
performance, attitude and willingness to accommodate the guests at the
event.

Once again, thank you and we appreciate all that you do!

Ter’ Ra and Kim
Innovative Partners

Claudia is an asset to our Now Serving Team! She is efficient, always on time and willing to accommodate our Client’s Food and Beverage needs with a professional attitude and a smile.

Erica is an outstanding employee with a clerical background. She achieved nearly perfect scores on MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint testing software. She just finished an assignment and our client reported that “she was very efficient and could handle any task that was thrown at her.”

Congratulations on a job well done!

If you need an excellent employee who has proven a strong work ethic and dedication to accomplishing our client’s goals, please contact us about having one or more of these Innovative ALL STAR start for you Monday morning.

Call Terra or Kim at Innovative Partners, Inc at 843-744-0404.

Our Goal is to exceed your expectations!

Gabriele, Chris, Paul and Nicolas are outstanding employees. These four are finishing a 9 week assignment and received excellent ratings from the client on all evaluations. They “checked in for their assignment on time and stayed late when needed. I would highly recommend all of them,” was the comment of their on-site supervisor.

Congratulations on a job well done!

If you need an excellent employee who has proven a strong work ethic and dedication to accomplishing our client’s goals, please contact us about having one or more of these Innovative ALL STARS start for you Monday morning.

Call Ter’ Ra or Kim at Innovative Partners, Inc. at 843-744-0404.

Our Goal is to exceed your expectations!

As you know, the complications of hiring and maintaining a productive workforce have grown over the years. The article below provided by the law firm of Parker, Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP, illustrates the importance of working with a company like Innovative Partners, Inc. that understands these complexities.

Company Using Temp Agency Worker Liable For Unpaid Overtime Under Title VII

Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, when a company uses workers assigned by a temporary employment agency, both the temp agency and the company using its services are considered statutory employers. However, because the temp agency typically controls payroll matters, it rather than its client is usually deemed liable for legal issues resulting from problems with pay.

Earlier this month, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals made an exception to this general rules for a worker who claimed that he was denied overtime pay as a result of race discrimination at his assigned place of work. In Johnson v. Manpower Professional Services, Inc., the plaintiff was an African-American temporary worker assigned by Manpower to work as a recruiter for a manufacturing company. After initially being paid overtime, the plaintiff claimed that the manufacturer reclassified him as exempt from overtime requirements. He alleged that this decision contradicted the FLSA, and was also based on his race in violation of Title VII.

Only the Title VII portion of the appeal reached the Fifth Circuit. The manufacturer alleged that because Manpower made determinations as to proper pay of its employees, only the temp agency should be liable for alleged pay classification claims under Title VII. The Fifth Circuit disagreed, remanding the matter for trial on the plaintiff’s Title VII claims.

The court noted that issues over Title VII liability between two statutory employers for pay discrimination rests of a hybrid economic realities/right to control test. While Manpower technically ran the plaintiff’s payroll, in reality the manufacturer made all important decisions that resulted in his classification for overtime purposes. The manufacturer made the overtime classification decision, and simply passed this information along to Manpower for payroll purposes. As such, it cannot escape liability for alleged discriminatory motives behind this decision.

Employers often believe that temp workers obtained through outside agencies are independent contractors not entitled to protections under civil rights and labor laws applicable to employees. In almost all legal situations, these temp workers are considered employees of the company using their services as well as the temp agency. Companies using temp workers should make certain that their policies, procedures and practices for dealing with these workers are consistent with their applicable legal obligations

Written by: Parker, Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP
401 South Tryon Street, Suite 3000 Charlotte, NC 28202 USA
This electronic publication of Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended and should not be construed as legal advice. © Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP 2009. All rights are reserved.

Please contact Innovative Partners, Inc. 843-744-0404 if you have any questions or need our service

• Prep yourself about the company before the interview.
• Be prepared with essentials. Take extra two or three copies of your resume, cover letter, references, college transcripts, professional documents, and anything else needed with you. Do this even though you already submitted them earlier.
• Dress appropriately. First impressions last. It is human nature to presume that a person turning up in jeans to an office job really doesn’t have their mind on the job and therefore really doesn’t want the job. Same for unironed clothing, clothing with obvious stains, disheveled clothing, and clothing that is too revealing or informal. Once the interviewers have a negative impression from your clothing, it’s hard to shake this. Don’t allow your clothes to let you down; this is one area in which you can excel. And be sure that over-dressing is always preferred to under-dressing for a job interview; it shows you’re serious about the job.
• Be punctual. Always arrive 15 to 20 minutes before the interview time. Allow time to park your car or for the public transportation to get you where you need to be. Go inside the building and use the additional time to relax until you are called on. Practice some deep breathing while you wait and go over interview answers in your head if you need to, otherwise just focus on peaceful thoughts. This way you don’t have to rush in, and you can stay calm and focused during interview.
• Greet readily and smile. When you enter the interview room and meet the interviewers, be respectful to them and greet them with a smile on your face. When you are asked to have a seat, sit up straight and stay confident. This way you will look professional and mature, as well as setting them at ease about your intention to listen and respond with eagerness.
• Stay calm. There might be situations when you’re asked something and you think you don’t have clue as to how to answer. Don’t be nervous – the fact is you think you don’t know but if you’ve done your research as outlined earlier, there will always be an answer, even if it has to be a lateral one.
• Be precise. When asked about your qualifications and why they should hire you, be specific. State in a way that catches interviewers’ attention and make them feel that they would make a mistake if you are not hired.
• Prepare for some delicate questions. Most of the time, interviewers ask some tricky questions because these are how they separate the people they want to work with from everyone else. And quite simply, if you’re not well prepared, you will get caught off-guard.
• Always be positive. Be positive about your past experiences and qualifications. Show them how much knowledge you gained by giving examples and how they can be useful to them if you are hired.
• Be professional about phone interviews. If you have a phone interview always remember the only impression your interviewer can get about you is the way you speak. Make sure you use right key words to create a good feeling. Smile when you talk and stay confident because interviewer can sense that even though s/he can’t see you.
• Be courteous. If you get the job you applied for, don’t forget to send a thank you email or a note. And even if you don’t get it, it can’t hurt to say thank you for their time. Going that extra mile even when you don’t get the job can be something that gets remembered when they do need someone with your skills base and they still have your notes on file. You might be their second choice, or tied for first and showing the appropriate professional courtesy may give you the advantage you need over their other choice. Never shut the door.
• Ask Questions. You will be given the opportunity to ask questions. Remember, you are interviewing them as well. The time to find out you don’t like the manager or the team is before you’re hired. Recall scenarios you didn’t like at previous jobs and ask how they handle the same situation. You may only get to ask one or two questions, so make them count. For example, if you like structure and documented processes, ask about their Procedures Manual. If they tell you their procedures aren’t fully documented, you might not be a good fit there (or you may be able to document their processes for them for extra points).

(An excellent post from WikiHow)

Join us for a Happy Hour on Thursday, June 9th, at Triangle Char & Bar!

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The list is attributed to Charles J. Sykes, best known as the author of “Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good about Themselves, but Can’t Read, Write, or Add.” Although paraphrased from Mr. Sykes’ original text by persons unknown, he deserves the credit for establishing the 11 rules below:

Rule 1: Life is not fair – get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will
expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You
won’t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they
are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try cleaning the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but
LIFE HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off
And very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually
have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.

If you can read this, thank a Teacher!

2) One page is plenty. Imagine you are the HR Manager tasked with reviewing 100 resumes received for one position. Would you read a multi page resume? The purpose of the resume is to get an interview. If you feel compelled to tell your entire life’s history, make two resumes; one short and concise that you can send out and the long version to hand over in an interview.

3) Avoid the hype. Often resumes tell more about what the person wants to be as opposed to what they are. Tell the truth on your resume. Also, consider the content of your resume for the position you are applying for. If you are sending a resume for a sales position, pontificating on your sales management experience will not be helpful. Spend a little time fine tuning your resume to describe your skills for the position you are applying for.

4) Lastly, avoid scented paper or pretty colors. I have received resumes coated with perfume that reeked so badly I had to take them outside to dispose of them. Your experience and education are the qualifications that will get you the interview.

5) Special Notes to first time job seekers. If you are looking for your first job, you might think the experience portion of your resume might be thin. It may help to consider your experiences in life to date. If you have never missed a day of school and have perfect attendance mention that. If you are making straight A’s or in college placement classes talk about that. Attending school every day and being there on time is a great demonstration of your ability to be where you are supposed to be and be there on time. If you are making straight A’s it demonstrates that you are willing to put the work in to get the job done. Smart employers will take note of those things.

6) Lastly, attitude is everything. Most employers I talk with agree an employee with a great attitude is the one they want. An employee with a bad attitude and all the right experience still has a bad attitude.

We focus our recruiting efforts on employees willing to put forth the effort to provide a level of service beyond our customers’ expectations.  We provide an office environment which demonstrates our appreciation for their efforts along with a benefit program they deserve.  People are always surprised to learn that over 84% of our employees are still working at the company we assigned them to after a year.  Our clients are looking for the best and when they find those “best” employees they keep them working.

Our client list is made up of companies that recognize the need for quality employees. Some companies are willing to except just a body to fill a position and that is great for them. But they are not our customers.  Our customers realize that the quality of the people they have working for them effects the quality of their product.  Having qualified, hard working employees can make the difference between success and failure in any business.  We partner with companies looking for great employees who they are willing to invest in, so that their business can grow.

If you are consider yourself a top 10% employee, please contact our office to schedule an interview for consideration. If you are seeking quality, screened employees who can make a difference, please contact our office to discuss options we offer.