IN THIS ISSUE:

Superior merit award winner 2005: SNHRA!

EFFECTIVE ADVERTISING FOR RECRUITment

Best Places to work: Nominated companies

Best Places to work: RSVP NOW!

New MEMBERS

HR Q&A with an snhra
member business

NEVADA EMPLOYMENT NEWS UPDATE

Legal Brief  |  HUMOR LINES

Welcome to the second edition of our newly redesigned e-newsletter, RESOURCES. We are excited to re-introduce this exciting forum for the communication of issues pertinent and relevent to HR Professionals.

We hope you enjoy the newsletter. It can only get better with your input and comments. If you have any articles for inclusion, comments or requests, please email them to Jim Guynup: KGJ906@aol.com.

Congratulations to the Board of Directors, Community Supporters and to all of the Outstanding Members of SNHRA for your (our!) outstanding accomplishments in 2005 as recoginized in the following announcement:

From: "Verrico, Karen"
Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2006 11:38:39 -0500
To: SNHRA
Subject: Superior Merit Award Winner

Dear Chapter President,
On behalf of SHRM, please accept our congratulations on your chapter receiving a Superior Merit Award for your scope of work in 2005. Your efforts as a chapter are testament to your commitment to the SHRM mission to Serve the Professional and Advance the Profession.

You will be receiving a more formal award letter along with a certificate of achievement and a podium banner with the year and your award printed on it. We hope you will display this banner proudly at your meetings and events.

Again, congratulations! We are very proud of your chapter's achievements!

Karen L. Verrico, CAE
Regional Director, Pacific West
SHRM

How do you effectively advertise to get the employee you want in the Las Vegas market? We posed this question to SNHRA member Chelle Bize of the Las Vegas Review Journal for some helpful insights into recruiting advertising strategies.

Today—make a resolution to hire SMARTER.
Ask yourself some questions….
What candidate qualifications are you looking for? You want the BEST applicants, not the MOST. Plus, you need employee longevity. Depending on the business, recent studies tell us turnover can cost your company in excess of $20,000 per vacancy.

Who’s your competition, and where are they advertising? Your hiring competition is NOT just your industry category. In other words, if you are a casino, your competition is Valley Health for hiring clerical positions, Client Logic who is hiring sales, and Wells Fargo hiring accounting personnel. With a 3.6% unemployment rate you will be “stealing” currently employed individuals. So, your advertising needs to be more creative—both with the products you choose AND in the appearance of the ads.

What products do the most self-promotion, are they getting the most “eyeballs”, so you get the best response? For example: are you buying a $100 low budget career fair booth with no promotion? It’s all about the response levels you get from the BEST applicants. These high quality applicants ALWAYS result from an effective mix of products and services. And, the advertiser gets the benefit of all cross promotional efforts provided by the medium.

87% of America reads or looks at newspaper advertising before making decisions. According to The Martin Agency in Richmond, Virginia (who works closely with the Newspaper Association of America), newspapers are seen as the most valuable in planning shopping and job search by 52% of all Americans. Direct mail and the Internet tie for second at 13%. These attentive, engaged, responsive, connected consumers are EXACTLY what advertisers are looking for. When it comes to buying "stuff" or finding careers, more consumers turn to newspaper advertising at their "moment of decision" than any other medium!

Some helpful hints:
Know the rate card (whether it’s ours or another product). We offer “outside” sales consultation to show each client how to maximize reach and budget. We also offer FREE creative and we’ll produce “spec” ads for any client. We see 150 clients per month and we’ll keep adding until we see all 47,000 in this market!

Take advantage of a yearly revenue contract that covers multiple products/ services, or multiple day advertising discounts.

Know your market’s products and services. You need to be where your competition is, but you also need a great mix of products with this market’s employment challenges.

You want LOCAL candidates. Not many companies are paying relocation fees for open positions. So, look for the job boards and print products that will deliver local, local, local.

Most importantly, we are here to help. The Review-Journal has been in Las Vegas for 100 years, and will be here for 100 more. Let us develop an advertising plan for your business. We know your competition, we know our product strengths—what a partnership!

Chelle Bize is the Recruitment Advertising Manager at the Las Vegas Review Journal. She can be contacted at cbize@reviewjournal.com

The Las Vegas Review-Journal has an audience of over 800,000 readers--and are "invited" into over 200,000 homes every single day. With thier print to web technology, they receive over 18 million views on their website every month, ReviewJournal.com, and 4 million views to the jobs site, JobsTodayOnline.com.

2006 Nominees

The Southern Nevada Human Resource Association is proud to announce its list of nominees for the 2006 Best Places to Work Awards, hosted in conjuction with In Business Las Vegas:

A-1 Janitorial
AAA Nevada
Accountants Inc.
Adecco
America One Finance, Inc.
American Media Corporation
Aristocrat Technologies
Astoria Homes
Best Rent Finders, LLC
Boyd Gaming
Cardsmart Merchant Services
Carpenter Sellers Architects
Cendant Timeshare Resort Group
Centex Homes
Centra Properties LLC
CHSI - NV
Clark County Credit Union
Colonial Bank
Consultants in Marketing
CORE Construction
Cox Communications
Custom Benefit Consultants
Desert Radiologists
Dolce and Deluca Investments, LLC
Enterprise Rent a Car
Ernst and Young LLP
Fremont Medical Centers
Geotechnical and Environmental Services, Inc.
Greenspun Media Group
Hooters Hotel and Casino
Impress Communications
JMA Architecture Studios
Johnson Jacobson Wilcox
Jolly Urga Wirth Woodbury & Standish
Las Vegas Clark County Library District
Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority
Las Vegas Publications
Lionel Sawyer & Collins
Lowe's
M&H Building Specialities
Mars Gourmet Chocolate Factory
Martin Harris Construction
Mass Media
Mercer Health & Benefits
MGM Grand Hotel & Casino
MGM Mirage
Millenium Staffing Services
Nevada Federal Credit Union
Nevada Power Company
Nevada Public Radio
Opportunity Village
Orgill/Singer & Associates
Palms Casino Resort
Payroll Solutions Group
Priority Networks, Inc.
Pulte Homes
Purafilter 2000
Quest Diagnostics
ReMax Associates
Republic Mortgage LLC
Robertson Wood Advertising
ScripNet
Shred It Las Vegas
Sierra Health Services
Southwest Title Company
Station Casinos
Sunstone Dental Care
The Tan Factory
TWI Global, Inc.
University Medical Center
University of Southern Nevada
Valley Health System

We're just 2 days away from our Best Places to Work Luncheon. Our finishing touches are being made to make this the best "Best" ever!!!

With more nominated companies and a new way to present the nominees, this year's awards will prove to be an exciting competition and an event for everyone "who's who" to attend and be seen!

Don't miss out. Although we cannot accept any more RSVP's for the event, we can usually accommodate walk-in's.

Come early (11:00 a.m.;) and pay at the door to attend this wonderful event ($65.00/ticket)

May 5, 2006
11:30 am - 1:30 pm

Where:
Stardust Hotel and Casino
Convention Area
3000 Las Vegas Blvd. South

Attendance:
Approximately 600 - All industries

(Effective with this issue and in all future issues we will be featuring Q&A with an SNHRA member business. If you would like your business to be featured in a future issue, please contact Jim Guynup: KGJ906@aol.com)

In this issue we are featuring Consolidated Resorts,Inc.  We asked David MacAlpine, Director of Human resources to interview with us this month.

David, Tell us what your company does and what has made it so successful?
Consolidated Resorts,INC (CRI) sells timeshare ownerships(or vacation ownership as we like to call it). The company has been in business for 26 years and is now the most successful company in the industry in Las Vegas.
CRI maintains high ethical standards and ,with the opening of Tahiti Village, offers a product that compares with the highest-end casino/hotels on the Strip

What are some of the challenges you have seen in working with the Las Vegas Job Market?
This is no surprise-recruiting and retention. With unemployment at 3.8% losing good employees hurts. Low unemployment means longer lead times to replace employees..This, in turn, makes it harder to manage the expectations of hiring managers. Our staffing people tend to get beat up during period of full employment, On the other hand, I enjoy it because it demands more creative recruiting and more thoughtful employee relations.

How has SNHRA membership impacted your business?
Having easy access to the local HR community is a tremendous benefit,especially for someone new to the area as I am. Denyse Wortham has been tremendously helpful in directing me to people and resources in the Las Vegas area,
Q What do you find has the most effective means of finding the workers you need:
Short term, good staffing agencies can be very effective. Long term,leveraging employee referrals is the most effective strategy. This is still a small town in many ways and people talk. Everyone knows and wants to work with the leaders in their industry.

Complete these sentences:
I wish Las Vegas would:
get serious about traffic safety enforcement.

My biggest pet peeve in human resources is:
the failure to comprehend the absolute cost of turnover

The min Wage in Las Vegas should be:
determined by the market,not politicians

The qualities that I look for in hiring a worker are:
Jack Binion taught me this: "Hire for attitude,train for skills."

Tell me the best human resource joke (that we can publish)
I won't repeat the line here, but the funniest HR joke I have ever heard was a line from Dirty Harry when Clint Eastwood was told he was being transferred to the Personnel Department...

SNHRA member Thomas E. Hubbard ll, Area Director-Southern Nevada Region of Adecco updates us on the current labor market and advice for the future...

The recent drop in the unemployment rate matches a record low of 3.6% set more than 40 years ago coupled with high costs of living can mean good things to people living in Nevada.

Why? Because employers need to fill positions right away and are attracted to local candidates who can be immediately available to start work. Since they don't have to wait on a candidate to relocate and also save on those expenses,they might even more willing to offer a high base salary for the position.

So this might be a good time for Nevadans to "Spring Clean" their resume and think about changing jobs for higher compensation.

And if employers don't get the candidates they need, they might want to beef up their compensation package/annual salary to attract candidates to fill their positions.

Patrick Hicks of Littler Mendelson referred us to his associate Ryan P. Hammond to answer the following HR issue that haunts many employers at the time of an employee termination...

How should a Employer respond to a terminated employee who wants to retrieve personal property that the employee left at the work site during the time of termination?

Employees often forget to gather personal items once the company informs them of an unexpected or involuntary discharge. In potentially violent circumstances, the company may escort a discharged employee off of its premises without giving the employee sufficient time to gather personal property. In other circumstances, discharged employees take flight, and leave the company’s premises before ever thinking to retrieve personal property. Whatever the circumstances, there are preferred methods for returning abandoned items to discharged employees.

The company’s premises, with the exception perhaps of some public entities, is private property and discharged employees do not have a right to access the company’s property without authorization. To avoid the awkward or hostile scenario of discharged employees returning to their former workstations or lockers during working hours, employers are encouraged to contact the employee immediately upon learning that a discharged employee left personal property at work. A company representative can then inventory the discharged employee’s personal items and make arrangements to deliver the items to the discharged employee.

If the discharged employee prefers to retrieve his or her personal items themselves and this is agreeable to the employer, the employer can schedule a time during non-business hours or less-busy hours of operation for the discharged employee to return to the workplace to gather their items. Regardless of the chosen method, the employer should obtain a signed acknowledgement from the employee stating that the employee received or retrieved any and all personal items from their former place of employment. The employer should also act quickly, to avoid inadvertently discarding or damaging the discharged employee’s property.

On the flip side, when the employer entrusts employees with company property, the employer should try to retrieve all of its property in its employees possession at the time of discharge. Employers that issue employees company vehicles, lap tops or cell phones should take particular care to immediately retrieve these items. Embittered employees can sabotage company business or duplicate confidential information to later use under the employ of a competitor.

The natural tendency of employers that discharge employees who maintain possession of company property is to deduct pay for financial losses or withhold the employee’s final pay check until the company property is returned. Employers must expel these notions. Nevada law generally prohibits employers from making payroll deductions without written authorization. This prohibition does not contain an exception for theft or conversion. Nor does Nevada law requiring immediate payment of all wages due at the time of an involuntary termination contain such an exception. Rather, employers should timely pay discharged employees wages due, and then pursue other recourses, such as filing police complaints, to recover stolen property.

Employers and employees alike are intuitively protective of their respective property. Employers should take early action to return property of discharged employees and/or to retrieve company property entrusted to discharged employees. Inadvertently discarding or damaging employee property and deducting or withholding pay for damaged company property are pitfalls that every employer should avoid.

(Thanks to the freemaninstitute.com and the Las Vegas Business Press)

What the applicant is really saying:
I'm extremely professional - I carry a Day-Timer

I am on the go - I'm never at my desk

I have formal training - I'm a college drop-out

I know how to deal with Stressful situations -
I usually am on Prozac. When I'm not, I take lots of cigarettes and drink coffee by the bucket

I'm balanced and centered - I'll keep crystals at my desk and Chi in the lunch room


60% of those who feel pressured to go to work say it's because they're worried their work won't get done.

48% say it's because they feel guilty for missing work

33% of global executives say they leave their job because of lack of challenge or career growth

32% of employees in our country say they are very satisfied with their household income.

Note from the Editor:
I hope that you all enjoy and find the articles contained within useful for your HR enviroment. Many thanks to all of you who so quickly responded to my requests for this newsletter. Iff you have anything you wish to contribute to the next issue, please do not hesitate to email me at KGJ906@aol.com In the meantime enjoy all the great things of this great season of Spring!