As an ASA member, BCforward’s past, current and future clients can be assured that BCforward adheres to best practices in the staffing industry and is well-informed on subjects including employment law, industry information and education, and standards of conduct.

In fact, ASA members are the largest community of staffing professionals, industry experts and business partners in the nation. Joining this community is an opportunity to explore best practices, develop new ideas, share knowledge and discover solutions to daily challenges.

U.S. businesses turn to staffing firms to fill workforce gaps, augment their own staff and find new employees.

According to ASA market research, work force flexibility and access to talent are the main reasons clients use staffing firms. Now they can be assured that BCforward is committed to excellence and professionalism through ASA’s principles, educational opportunities and resources.

Why staffing services? We’re the jobs people. Staffing companies match millions of people to millions of jobs.

Staffing companies employ 2.8 million people every business day.

Staffing services are a vital option for many businesses. The industry offers flexibility to both employees and companies: People can choose when, where and how they want to work; Companies can get the skills they need to keep fully staffed during busy times.

It also allows for a trial period that benefits both sides prior to permanent employment. Significantly, 80 percent of staffing clients say staffing firms offer a good way to find people who can become permanent employees.

In fact, an ASA survey reported that nine out of 10 staffing employees would recommend staffing jobs and one out of five prefer the flexibility of a staffing job. Further, the majority of those employees who want permanent work achieve that goal.

Moreover, employees obtained through the staffing industry are quality employees interested in improvement. Sixty-five percent of staffing employees say they developed new or improved work skills through their assignments; 40 percent say they choose temporary or contract work as a way to obtain employment experience or job training.

In 2011, the staffing industry generated approximately $109.8 billion in sales. Of that total, $98.3 billion was from temporary and contract staffing, and $11.5 billion in search and permanent placement services.

If you’ve never been to the event, you can expect more Under Armour gear than you’ve ever seen in one place, as well as some unexpected running gear. Some of the unusual this year included police officers in full riot gear, a soldier in uniform with a packed rucksack, tutus, themed t-shirts, sombreros, and supportive signs carried by onlookers.

The streets this year were packed with more than 35,000 people and shortly before the race started, some of the sidewalks were jammed into a standstill while people rushed to their corrals or the best view of the starting line at Capitol and New Jersey Streets.

BCforward CEO Justin Christian is on the board of directors for the 500 Festival, and some of our employees, including general counsel Anika Calloway, director of IT Brian Williams and recruiters Therese Pierce, Lisa Meyer and Amy McLaughlin, ran the course. BCforward is also a corporate member of the 500 Festival program.

Amy, one of our rookie runners, completed the course with her father, Mike Canner, a veteran mini marathoner, while her mother cheered them on from the sidelines.

“It was awesome, especially having my dad by my side,” said Amy. “This would mark his 10th mini so he coached me along the way. And we do run together. Absolutely – it’s a pact we have – we stay together on every race no matter what.”

Amy and her entire family, including her six-year-old and three-year-old twins, are taking on the Rookie Run, another 500 Festival event, this Saturday, May 12.

The fair is the largest event of its kind in Indiana and brings together majority corporations and minority businesses. This year, the event included more than 100 exhibit booths, educational seminars, MBE matchmaking and networking opportunities.

BCforward, currently 14 years old, has been named the largest IT consulting firm in Indiana and provides consulting, outsourcing and staff augmentation services in systems administration, project management, software development and strategic IT planning. Justin Christian is the President and CEO.

Stafforward, a subsidiary of BCforward, was created to respond to the growing customer demand for talent acquisition in the administrative, industrial, healthcare and scientific fields. PMforward, another subsidiary of BCforward, provides core PMO external and internal functions, including Project Management Consulting Services and Centralized Management of Project Delivery, facilitating internal project audit reviews, coaching and staff training, identifying and incorporating process improvements and best practices, and managing PMO library and methodologies.

Pictured are Tim Bowyer, a business development and sales manager at Stafforward, and Leigha Landry, digital media and communications specialist at BCforward.

Whether a new job is a current priority or something in the distant future, networking now paves the way for a candidate. One way to grow your connections and become more visible to recruiters, who are privy to jobs and can guide candidates into positions where they will succeed, is to join  LinkedIn – or, if you’ve already joined, to use your account.

LinkedIn is an online, professional network with more than 150 million members reconnecting, meeting, networking and sharing industry news. According to the company’s online videos, 60 percent of LinkedIn members are passive candidates. In other words, they are not searching job boards and their resumes are likely not current. But these people are actively sought out for good opportunities by recruiters.

Why? Because recruiters want to send the best candidates to a hiring manager, and the best candidate might not be actively seeking new employment but open to a good opportunity.

“LinkedIn can be valuable to a recruiter and the recruiter’s firm for various reasons,” said BCforward Recruiter Adam Logue. “Not only does a recruiter have the ability to use a filtered search like other major job boards, but recruiters have access to view potential candidates’ connections. As a result, this gives recruiters the opportunity to expand their professional network, generating a higher quantity of quality submittals.”

So think of LinkedIn as an enhanced online resume, one that allows you to use your who-you-knows just as much as your what-you-knows. After all, your profile might attract a recruiter. But that recruiter could also find you through your connections.

Anika has served as General Counsel at BCforward since mid-2011. She is an alumna of Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia and Tulane University School of Law. Ms. Calloway was admitted to practice law in the State of Indiana in 2002 and has worked in the technology and legal industries since 1997.

Prior to joining BCforward, she was a Staff Attorney at Simon Property Group, L.P. and has served as an Attorney at Barnes & Thornburg LLP and as a Judicial Law Clerk to the Honorable Patricia A. Riley, Indiana Court of Appeals.

From the IJB:

Since she became general counsel for Bucher & Christian Consulting (also known as BCforward) a year ago, Anika (ah-NEE-ka) Calloway has taken control of the firm’s legal matters while learning the ins and outs of the Indianapolis-based IT and staffing company.

“I do anything from reviewing a contract to dealing with HR to trying to figure out if we’re going to get a new water cooler,” she laughed, clearly relishing her duties, which include advising the company on issues such as equal opportunity, diversity and immigration matters.

You can read the rest of the article and watch a video interview with Anika here.

Your company is launching a new project and your boss asks you if you think the new project would be a good candidate to work as an Agile project. Your company is rather traditional, branching out occasionally to try new things, but you are not sure if this project is appropriate for an Agile approach. You definitely want the project to be successful. What do you need to consider when making a decision of this type for your new project?

Here are some major factors to look at when considering an agile project approach.

• Is this project similar to other projects that your company has done, or is it a completely new type of project? Projects that are pioneering efforts are typically better candidates for Agile projects primarily because there is a great deal of uncertainty about the end product, and the Agile model is designed to address these shifting priorities.
• Is this project a large, medium or small project? Does it have an extensive number of elements that interact with other systems? Medium to small system projects that are relatively independent of other systems are easier to leverage with an Agile approach.
• Are your project requirements completely nailed down, or are they just defined at a high level? Agile typically is better at leveraging high level requirements.
• Is the management team at your company willing to let this project launch without imposing a project completion date immediately? One of the keys to an Agile project is that the first couple of sprints help to identify how much work is getting done during each sprint; this also helps to plan out the remaining backlog of work, and feeds an estimate for a completion date built upon a foundation of performance, not guesswork.
• Access to the right personnel is also critical. A product owner is a keystone element for an Agile project; as are the ability to put together a small co-located team of folks (8-12) that are experienced, self-reliant, and cross-trained.
• Can the product roll-out in increments to show progress, or must it all launch at one time? Likewise is continuous improvement feasible? If it can roll out incrementally, and continuous improvement is feasible, then it is absolutely a good candidate. If not, but all of the other elements meet the Agile criteria, then this can be worked out.

If you can answer “Yes” to all of these questions then by all means your project is a candidate to use an Agile Project Methodology. If you can answer “Yes” to half, or less of these questions then I would advise you to stay with your current project management methodology. Staying true to the process, at least initially, will give you a much better idea if it can really add value to your organization.

Contact us to learn how PMforward Project Management Solutions can assist your organization.

PM Technical Knowledge:

You must be able to demonstrate that you know a little about most PM methods of management, and a lot about a couple. The ability to articulate project management methodology and the classic structured approach to managing a project instill confidence. That is, a good contract project manager MUST be able to articulate and demonstrate that they understand the mechanics of a structured approach to managing a project. This is important to any client who is purchasing PM expertise to supplement their workforce. The understanding of the mechanics instills the confidence that you can pull them through this project and have many methods to choose from in your toolbox. A PM who cannot debate the pros and cons of Critical Path, Critical Chain, Waterfall, Agile/Scrum is not ready to be put in a contract PM position. Secondly, the PM must be highly skilled in the software tools required to manage a project (MSProject, SharePoint, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.)

Confidence:

Contract project managers are not for the faint of heart and to do this well you have to have confidence in yourself. You have to have the ability to be thrust in a situation and say I can do anything given enough time and information.

Honesty:

Demonstrating consistent personal integrity is your golden ticket. Clients need to trust that you will provide what they are paying for. Respect their time and money by giving 110% during your work day. As well, the ability to provide honest information and feedback in a constructive way demonstrates your intention of integrity.

Personable:

As a contractor you are often looked upon as an outsider in the beginning. You require the ability to win the confidence of your team who might be initially threatened by your presence.  Personality and humor work wonders and are a necessary tool of all contractors.

Passion:

Having a passion for what you do and doing it well is another attribute that is key for contract PM’s.  As a contractor a genuine concern for serving the client and the project and making them successful is key.

Of course, there are other attributes that make up a great contract project managers but these are the top five in my, not so humble, opinion.

We got started in January with the creation of Stafforward, a wholly owned subsidiary that serves the existing BCforward presence in the administrative, accounting, clerical, warehousing, healthcare, manufacturing and industrial fields by providing staffing, outsourcing, managed service programs and payroll services. Stafforward was created in order to respond to the growing customer demand for talent acquisition in these fields.

In April, our President and CEO Justin Christian was named to the 500 Festival Board of Directors.

Later that month, we joined the IMSDC at their Indiana Business Opportunity Job Fair. BCforward is proud to be a certified minority-owned business. In fact, we’re the largest headquartered in Indianapolis.

In September, we launched PMforward: our project management solution offering. BCforward has always had a quite sizable project management office, with over 300 resources spread nationwide. We decided to create PMforward because it helps current and potential clients truly understand what our capability is. While BCforward will continue to deliver IT outsourcing, staffing and system solutions to our clients, we can now solely focus on project management as a discipline to better serve our customers.

In October, the Indianapolis Super Bowl Host Committee chose BCforward as an Official Emerging Business Participant, and a preferred partner for staffing services. In cooperation with Knowledge Services, Stafforward launched TouchdownJobs.com, a portal where interested individuals can apply directly to over 700 positions surrounding the Super Bowl.

BCforward has been providing full-service IT solutions for years. It’s what we do best. Clients choose BCforward as a proven staffing provider because of our track record in talent acquisition as well as our expertise in the IT industry. This year, not only did our company experience record growth, but we placed hundreds of IT professionals into a variety of job openings across multiple industries in 48 states.

Finally, giving back to the community is a major tenet of our philosophy at BCforward. This year, our employees participated in the 2011 Lilly Day of Service, provided holiday gifts to the United Way, mentored a Providence Cristo Ray student and competed in the ISC Corporate Challenge.

We can’t wait to see what 2012 will bring!

Giving back to the community is something we like to do at this time of year. Just like we did last year, we’re providing holiday gifts for two United Way families:

Everyone at BCforward wishes you and your family a fun and safe holiday season!