SmartTalent is a locally owned independent Human Resource and Staffing organization that was established in 2001.  We are specialists in the placement of administrative, office, customer service and call center, accounting and finance, legal, mortgage, banking, technical, production, distribution, transportation, skilled labor and professional personnel on a temporary, temporary to hire and direct placement basis.

Companies who partner with SmartTalent are looking for employees that can deliver results. We use cutting-edge assessment tools to evaluate, recruit and hire employees.  But it is not our tools, but our people who are passionate about your success.

At SmartTalent each of us understands that the work we do is important work.  It is up to each of us to make an impact on our community, set a standard of excellence for staffing performance and provide substantial results for our clients and our assignment employees.  It is our job to make SmartTalent a seamless extension of their organization. It is our employees that really differentiate us from our competitors. Companies don’t do business with companies…people do business with people! And we are fortunate to have knowledgeable and dedicated employees who strive to exceed customer expectations every day.  “We’re Going To Make Your Business Day Better!” is not just our motto, but our way of life.

Position Summary:

Responsible for profitable revenue growth of the major account segment through-out Western Washington. Secure new business through active solicitation of existing and new prospect accounts. Deliver customized staffing solutions through a consultative sales approach. Deliver exceptional service and results to our business client, thus enhancing our market presence and reputation.

Basic Overview of Duties:

• Identify all accounts to be of focus that will contribute to the achievement of the revenue and profit budget.
• Prepare and present proposals.
• Ensure we win, keep and develop major account and local customers through building lasting relationships.
• Work with the various offices, managers and sales reps in each market to help strategize, secure new major account business as well as establish servicing criteria and plans.
• Meet with each new account to review general business terms and conditions, conduct safety tours and service evaluations.
• Responsible for market strategies, revenue targets, account planning and positioning.
• Attend networking, business association and community networking functions, as needed.
• Maintain sales records and complete reports, as needed.
• Any other duties deemed necessary.

Experience Required:

A qualified candidate must possess and be able to demonstrate strong written, communication, presentation and PC skills.  Previous sales and major account experience a must with a proven track record of achieving sales targets.  Experience selling a service product preferred.

SmartTalent offers a base salary, strong incentive plan and a variety of benefits.

Please send your resume along with your salary requirement and why you think you are the outstanding person we are seeking to careers@smarttalent.net.

Learn more about SmartTalent or visit our website.

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You would be responsible for manipulating 3D Revit architectural drawings to specify retail cabinet layouts, drawing finalization meetings with the customer and develop bids.  This requires high value collaboration with Sales, Customer Design, Engineering, Manufacturing and Vendors.

Other qualifications are:

• 2+ years of Revit 3D modeling experience in a custom manufacturing environment
• Ability to manipulate 3D Revit architectural drawings
• Highly proficient with Revit 3D, CAD 3D and SolidWorks, MS Office and ERP/MRP
• A working knowledge of BOM’s, Architectural take offs, drafting and drawings
• Estimating experience
• Manufacturing and construction knowledge and understanding

If you feel this is the position for you, then please contact or refer people to sarah@smarttalent.net.

Learn more about SmartTalent or visit our website.

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You’ll need a broad knowledge of materials applications (metal, plastics, wood, etc).

Other qualifications that will come in handy are:

• PDM, Autocad and Adobe experience
• Read and interpret blue prints and construction documents
• Understand the mfg process flow – design, engineering, BOMs, purchasing, planning, machining, building, shipping and installing
• Technical writing of assembly/construction instructions
• Hands-on work experience in a mfg environment, experience with wood products a plus
• Bachelor degree and a 3-month internship or 1+ years of related experience

This is a Temporary-to-Hire position.  If you feel this is the position for you, then please contact or refer people to sarah@smarttalent.net.

Learn more about SmartTalent or visit our website.

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This position repairs and maintains machinery and mechanical equipment such as motors, pneumatic tools, conveyor systems, production machine and equipment.

Some of the duties will be:

• Repairs and reconditions hydraulic/pneumatic systems
• Maintain, repairs and modifies extruders, pullers, calibration tables, saws and refrigeration equipment
• Repairs and maintain plant water systems
• Repairs and maintains material systems
• Fabricates and weld parts for repairs, retrofits and modifications
• Installs plumbing, air and electrical utilities necessary for machine operation
• Repairs or replaces defective parts
• Lubricates and cleans parts
• Installs special functional and structural parts in devices
• Set up and operates lathe, drill press, grinder and other metal working tools to make repairs
• Initiates purchase order for parts and machines
• Repairs electrical equipment

The company is looking for:

• 5+ years experience
• Formal training or OJT with electrical theory and mechanical applications is required
• Electrical school and mechanical experience is preferred

If you meet these qualifications, please contact the fife office at 253) 922-6770 or fife@smarttalent.net.

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The Essential Duties and Responsibilities include, but are not limited to the following:

• Verify accuracy of data for AR, AP and payroll.
• Perform complex accounting reconciliations as assigned and within prescribed deadlines.
• Prepare statements and reports as needed for AR, AP, Payroll and General Ledger.
• Review and approve invoices and expense reports, following up with the applicable departments to clarify discrepancies and ensure coding accuracy.

Minimum Qualifications are as follows:

1. Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and the majority of the coursework being completed with a US institution and a minimum of 2-3 years of related GL experience required.
2. Solid knowledge of US GAAP and financial reporting required; experience consolidating foreign operations is highly desirable.
3. 2-year supervisory or lead experience required.
4. Experience with ERP accounting software required; experience or working knowledge of PeopleSoft accounting software highly desirable.
5. Experience working in a higher education setting preferred.
6. Experience with preparation of excise, personal property tax returns and 1099s preferred.
7. Payroll tax reconciliation experience preferred.
8. Experience working with multiple corporate bank accounts, international and domestic wires and foreign currencies preferred.

If you are interested and meet these qualifications, please send your formation to becky@smartttalent.net or call Becky at 425) 827-5111.

Learn more about SmartTalent or visit our website.

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Most people at work are good employees.  They do what’s expected most of the time.  They work hard, come to work every day and play well with others.  Some employees go above and beyond the normal expectations.  They arrive early, stay late and are nice to have around.  But then there are those few employees and occasionally good employees, when they do it wrong or not at all.

We have all asked ourselves at some point, “What’s going on?  Why can’t they just do what I asked them to do?”

 Here in this series, we will highlight 13 reasons that can affect a person’s performance and provide some ideas on how to handle them when they arise.  Many managers feel that they are just not motivated, which leads to non-specific answers to the problem.  In contrast, knowing what the problems are changes the question from, “How do I motivate them?” to “How do I improve their performance?”  Understanding this concept leads to specific actions that can be taken.

They Are Rewarded For Not Doing It

But what manager in his right mind would reward people for poor performance?  Mostly, it is done unconsciously.

• Employees who do difficult tasks poorly are given only easy tasks to perform.
• When an employee makes a mistake, the manager corrects the mistake.
• Employees who perform poorly receive a lot of attention.  Like buying them coffee or lunch to discuss things.
• Employees who are difficult to control are given assignments where they have a lot of freedom.

Performance that is rewarded will increase in frequency.  When a manager is asked to send someone to a company activity, on company time, at company expense – who is sent?  The manager will usually send the only person he can afford to lose – the poor performer.

If you repeatedly reward your employees’ complaining behavior with your attention, complaining behavior will increase.  Your intentions are not important; it is your attention that is the rewarding consequence.

What Can You Do?

• Consider if what you do to reward the employee is a reward from the employee’s point of view.
• Do not reward people for nonperformance.  Stop buying coffee.
• When an employee makes a mistake, make them correct the mistake.
• Reward employees for the opposite of what you want them to do.  Give them your attention for doing what you want them to do.
• When an employee does a difficult task poorly, manage them closely, but keep assigning the difficult tasks until either performance improves or remove the employee from the job requiring the task.
• You should apply the necessary management controls for difficult employees while communicating the consequence of continued poor performance, but also be quick to verbally reward improvements.

Learn more about Handling Employee Problems.

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It does help if the organization fosters different opinions. In these types of organizations, they want to take advantage of their employee’s talents, experience and skills to enhance not only the organization, but the business relationship with their customers.

Believe it or not, managers are human, too.  It may be hard to believe at times, but you need to determine what their leadership style is to be able to understand how much disagreement will be tolerated and how much will be appreciated.

How you approach a disagreement with your boss will determine whether you are seen as an asset or a problem.  A situation that is approached with respect versus aggressiveness will always win out in the end.   If you are able to bring facts versus conjecture, you’ll be more likely to be successful in your argument.  You’ll need to do some work and research ahead of time to support your opinion.  Your boss is not often going to reverse themselves without facts and pertinent data that supports your plan.

There will come a time during your conversation when you’ll know it is time to give up your point of view and you can go no further.  At that time, it is best if you tell your boss that while you might disagree, you’ll implement whatever they have decided and do the best to make it a success.

Here are a few tips that employees have done to make a successful disagreement with their boss.

1. They had a great relationship first, thus when there was a disagreement, they started from a good place from the beginning.
2. The boss already had some faith in the employee because they had a track-record of delivering results, which makes the boss look good.
3. The employee was committed to the company and not just their personal agenda.  The history of suggestions tended to be for the betterment of everyone versus just their particular job or department.
4. The employee had a history of speaking out for the good of the company.  They didn’t disagree about everything, but only on the occasions they felt strongly about.
5. The employee doesn’t play games.  They are straight and to the point.
6. Name calling and sarcasm has no place when you are trying to speak-out in disagreement.  Making the boss look like an idiot is not a good idea for your long-term prospects of growth, learning and success.
7. No matter how often they might disagree with the boss, they seek this person out as a mentor so they can learn and spend time talking about issues and approaches to other business situations.
8. Their relationships with others and ethics in business were solid.  Would you get behind someone who you couldn’t trust or unsure of reprisals if things don’t go their way?
9. The employee was able to communicate clearly, concisely and rationally to make their case understood.  The employee was able to present the data and facts of the plan versus speaking in terms of “I think” or “I feel.”  They were able to demonstrate they did their homework on the subject.
10. Not a good idea to go around the boss to plead your case to their boss.  See the point above again about not making your manager look like an idiot.  They should never be blind-sided by your actions or learning about your point of view for the first time from their boss.

Most bosses want this type of relationship with their employees.  If you have prepared yourself using some of these tips and the day comes when you need to disagree with the boss, you’ll be ready and will build a strong effective relationship with your boss.

Do you have any tips to add?  Let me hear about them in the comment section.

Learn more about SmartTalent.

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We have all asked ourselves at some point, “What’s going on?  Why can’t they just do what I asked them to do?”

Here in this series, we will highlight 13 reasons that can affect a person’s performance and provide some ideas on how to handle them when they arise.  Many managers feel that they are just not motivated, which leads to non-specific answers to the problem.  In contrast, knowing what the problems are changes the question from, “How do I motivate them?” to “How do I improve their performance?”  Understanding this concept leads to specific actions that can be taken.

There Is No Negative Consequence To Them For Poor Performance

Do you have an employee that came from another department and was described as a trouble-maker, doesn’t follow the rules or is not a team player?  Do you have an employee who doesn’t like certain parts of their job so he/she just doesn’t do them?  Do you have an employee what when you administer disciplinary action you are told you are being too difficult and then back-off?  Then you have an employee that because there is no consequence for their behavior there is no need to perform.

Do you have poorly performing people who have received a raise?  Files that are full of poor performance evaluations and write-up and yet they are still performing below acceptable standards?  If there is no consequence why should they do what you want them to do?

What Can You Do?

• You must make sure that there are negative actions taken for people who are not performing and are willfully choosing to do so.
• You need to check on people and let them know they are not performing up to the standards expected.  Sometime, they don’t even know.
• Assign work that an employee does not like to do if they are performing badly on things they like to do.
• Put the employee in a less desirable work location.
• Stop giving poor performers the same privileges as good performers.
• Demote the poor performers.
• Deny or delay a pay increase until performance is up to standards
• Increase your time around their work space when they are not performing.  You might be surprised at the increase of productivity.
• If all else fails and you have coached the person, terminate them.

Make sure that when their performance does improve, that you give positive reinforcement to maintain their progress.

Learn more about handling employee problems.

Learn more about SmartTalent.

Follow SmartTalent on Twitter and Facebook today!  Be one of the first to receive new job openings that will interest you or someone you know, job hunting tips, announcements and news. http://twitter.com/SmartTalent Want more? Join us on our fan page on Facebook www.facebook.com/smarttalent.

Face it, no one else will care as much as you do about the relationship you have with your boss.  No one can help you reach your career goals or give you needed information as much as your boss.  At the same time, your boss needs your help to accomplish his or her goals as well.  You both share a real interdependence with each other.

Bosses come with a variety of levels of skills and effectiveness.  Some are just plain bad; unaware of your needs or uncaring for you as a person and your dreams and aspirations.  There are some that will view you as a one-way street for them; you give and they take.  Managing them can be quite the challenge, but worth your time if you expect to be successful, learn and move forward.

So, how do you develop an effective relationship with your boss?  Here are some tips that can help you, your boss and the organization.

1. Relationships are based on trust.  Do what you say you are going to do.  Keep your boss informed about projects and timelines.  You never want your boss surprised with problems that you knew about and could have been communicated.
2. Put the needs of your boss first.  There is more to your life at work than your success.  Learn how you can help.  What are the boss’s priorities?  What would success look like with the department and/or the company?  What can you do to help?
3. Tell your boss when an error has been made.  A cover-up didn’t work for Nixon and it won’t work for you either.
4. Try to get to know your boss as a person.  He or she shares the same human experience as you do.
5. Focus on the best parts of your boss.  Each boss has good and bad attributes.  If you focus on the bad parts all the time, it will cloud your happiness at work as well hinder as any success you might have with the organization.  Make your boss feel valued.  After all, you want that from him as well, right?
6. Your boss will most likely never change.  Who they are has helped them in the past.  It is what they have become and their past actions and success from their previous bosses reinforced what they do and will do.  Your boss might change, but instead of waiting that out, try to understand your boss’s work style.  The more you understand their preferences and style of work, the better you will be able to work with your boss.
7. Listen and learn from your boss.  There will be days where you doubt that there is anything you can learn from this person, but the company found many things about their work, business style, etc., and promoted the person to their current position.  Promotions are usually earned and a consequence of delivering results and successful contributions to the company.  Listen more than you speak to develop a successful relationship.  But sometimes, disagreements do occur.  Don’t hold a grudge.  Don’t make threats about leaving.  Disagreement is fine; discord is not.  You are unlikely to always get your way and after all, your boss will always have more authority than you do.
8. Learning to read the mood of your boss can be helpful to be able to communicate effectively.  There are good times and bad times to introduce new ideas.  If the boss is preoccupied with the budget your idea for long-term improvement of something may not be timely and given full consideration.  Also, if the boss reacts to your ideas the same way each time, find out if there is something fundamentally the boss likes or dislikes about your proposals. When presenting ideas, try to keep the bigger picture in mind.  There may be good reasons why an idea might not work into the organizations overall goals.
9. Your boss can be a very busy person.  Keep that in mind.  Schedule a weekly or at least a monthly meeting for a discussion.
10. Let the boss play the role of coach and mentor.  Ask the boss for feedback.  The boss can’t read your mind.  Make sure the boss knows of your contributions.

Do you have any tips?  Let me hear them in the comments section.

Learn more about SmartTalent.

Follow SmartTalent on Twitter and Facebook today!  Be one of the first to receive new job openings that will interest you or someone you know, job hunting tips, announcements and news. http://twitter.com/SmartTalent Want more? Join us on our fan page on Facebook www.facebook.com/smarttalent.

We have all asked ourselves at some point, “What’s going on?  Why can’t they just do what I asked them to do?”

Here in this series, we will highlight 13 reasons that can affect a person’s performance and provide some ideas on how to handle them when they arise.  Many managers feel that they are just not motivated, which leads to non-specific answers to the problem.  In contrast, knowing what the problems are changes the question from, “How do I motivate them?” to “How do I improve their performance?”  Understanding this concept leads to specific actions that can be taken.

They Anticipate a Negative Consequence for Doing It

Here the problem is that the employees think there will be a negative consequence for performing appropriately:

• I was afraid to ask you because I thought it might be a dumb question.
• I was afraid to tell you I don’t know how to do it because you might think I was stupid.
• I didn’t disagree with the rest of the executives because they might think I was not a team player.
• I didn’t try what I thought was better because if it didn’t work, I would really be in trouble.

Employees may not express their real fears to you.  Not only might they not speak to you, when they do, they may not tell you the truth or give you any ideas.  The problem of fear usually appears with new situations or doing new things.  It is reasonable for people to be concerned about their performance, but when people believe they will not be able to perform successfully, or they think the consequence of failure is important, they will perform badly or not at all.

What Can You Do?

Explain early in their employment that there are no consequences for the things you want your employees to do.

• It is okay to argue with the manager.
• No question is a dumb question.
• Rather than do the job wrong, it is okay to ask for input or directions several times.
• To improve things, employees should try to be innovative, as long as ideas are cleared with you ahead of time.
• The next step is to prove that you will respond in the fashion in which you have indicated by controlling how you will respond.

Learn more about handling employee problems.

Learn more about SmartTalent.

Follow SmartTalent on Twitter and Facebook today!  Be one of the first to receive new job openings that will interest you or someone you know, job hunting tips, announcements and news. http://twitter.com/SmartTalent Want more? Join us on our fan page on Facebook www.facebook.com/smarttalent