We are excited to announce the roll out of our new website at www.hirevisiongroup.com. We hope you like our new look and appreciate any feedback you would like to offer. As well you will see archives of our old newsletters so that you may now refer to any information that we have shared with you in the past.

Please note our new email addresses as follows:

Tina@hirevisiongroup.com- Tina Hamilton

Tinaz@hirevisiongroup.com- Tina Zaun

susanh@hirevisiongroup.com- Susan Haydt

Amyb@hirevisiongroup.com- Amy Berg

Andreab@hirevisiongroup.com- Andrea Beltz

Any email that is routed to our old address- Tina@intersourcepa.com may be slightly delayed so please do change the address as soon as possible so that we can respond to you promptly. Eventually this email address will be phased out.

Thanks to your overwhelmingly positive responses to our new name. We are delighted that you agree that the hireVision name better reflects who we are as a company and best reflects our goal to our client partners….to help you reach your "hire- Vision".

We are looking forward to a lot of new changes and additions this year. We are in the process of expanding due to our tremendous growth and soon you will hear from some new additional members of the hireVision team. As well we are working on responding to requests for new billing procedures, the elimination of the hourly rates, so look forward to an update soon on this.

Have a wonderful month and thank you for reading our newsletter. We hope you learn from it and enjoy hearing what is new from the team at hireVision.

According to the 14th annual CCH Unscheduled Absence Survey, unscheduled absenteeism has rose to a new high of 2.4%. But the results show that employees may not be sick more often. Actually the survey found that only 38% of unscheduled absences are because of personal illness.

The costs to the employer of these unscheduled absences are outrageous. The average cost annually to the employer ranges from $43,000 for smaller companies to over $1 million for larger companies.

So, why are more people taking off even though they are in good health?

One problem is the use it or lose it frame of mind. When companies do not allow employees to carry over their sick time, some employees feel they need to take those days regardless of whether or not they are actually sick. According to the CCH report the number of employers allowing employees to carry over sick time dropped from 51% in 2000 to 37% in 2004.

Another factor is poor company morale. In companies that the morale was low, the unscheduled absences were higher. As we all know morale is a big issue, without a fast solution. But there are ideas that can work to improve your company's overall morale and lower the amount of unscheduled absences.

The first possible solution is an attendance incentive program. Why not reward your employees for their perfect attendance. I am sure some of you are thinking, I already pay them to come to work why do I need to offer more? Unfortunately with so much competition out there, you may need to offer some "extras" to attract and retain the best staff. This can be as simple as a gift card for perfect attendance.

Some other possible ideas to combat the unscheduled absenteeism is a flexible time off plan, paid time off (instead of sick days, vacation days etc…) and wellness programs.

If someone were to ask me where I shop for clothing in the Lehigh Valley, my first response would probably be the Lehigh Valley Mall. But if they were to ask me if I find the look I want at "the mall", I would have to say no.

If you are a women looking for a unique accessible boutique, we highly recommend you visit our client partner - Sage. In addition to beautiful stylish clothing, they also sell shoes, handbags, and jewelry. In fact the company actually started as a shoe store. George Haddad started the store in 1983. He had extensive knowledge of the shoe industry because his father had owned shoe factories in Allentown.

The building that Haddad rented became available to buy and it offered him the opportunity to expand as well. But he thought people wanted more than just shoes. So he added clothing and the accessories I mentioned above. Having a knack for hiring the right people, Haddad hired a woman that he eventually would marry. Now George and his wife Rachel own and operate the store.

I recently spoke with Rachel about their business. I asked her about the biggest challenges they face as business owners. She told me there are two areas, effective marketing and hiring. On the marketing end she stated it is hard to know what type of marketing works well. But she added you cannot be afraid to spend money on marketing and cannot be afraid to try new things.

She told me that finding quality employees is also a challenge in their business (of course I think this is true for most businesses). Sage, focuses very much on quality customer service above and beyond what is offered in a typical retail store. So in turn they are looking for staff that can offer a higher level of service. She did offer a word of advice about employees to other business owners (which is so true and wise) Rachel stated, " You should not hold onto bad employees, they only hold you back. Even though change is one of the hardest things for businesses it can be what takes a company forward."

HireVision relieves the small to mid sized business owner from the burden of the pre-hire process and finds solutions to employee retention challenges. HireVision helps companies move to the next step in their business by solving these and other employee focused issues.

HireVision is the only company in the Lehigh Valley providing Hiring Management Services. The company started as a cost effective alternative to staffing services and outside recruiters.

Tina I Hamilton, the owner of HireVision, is an experienced veteran of national staffing services and past owner of a staffing service franchise. Tina holds PHR certification from the National Human Resources Certification Institute.

The HireVision Group, Inc. Newsletter Abstracts are intended for use by subscribers/members to enhance access to relevant news and information. The Abstracts are provided with the understanding that the publisher, authors, editors and/or contributors are not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other professional advice or services. Their contents are not offered for the purpose of rendering legal advice in any form or matter. Laws, regulations, and legal interpretations are continually changing, and the application of any law, regulation, decision or policy to any particular fact, situation or problem should always be reviewed with legal or other professional counsel. Although we continually strive to ensure the accuracy and completeness of this information, the publisher, authors, editors, and/or contributors of the contents are not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the failure to report a change in any laws, decisions, regulations, interpretations or other pronouncements described in these materials. The documents on this server contain hypertext pointers to information created and maintained by other public and private organizations and authors. Please be aware that we do not control nor guarantee the accessibility, accuracy, relevance, timeliness or completeness of this outside information, nor do we endorse any views expressed or products or services offered by such organizations or authors. This statement is provided by and on behalf of HireVision Group, Inc. and all of its partners and affiliates.

(c) 2005 HireVision Group, Inc.