Marijuana legalization is creating the same kind of problem regarding what to do about professional drivers who test positive for marijuana. For CDL drivers, it’s easy. It is prohibited for CDL drivers to use marijuana under any circumstances, even if the substance is legal in the state in which they reside. Even if a driver consumes a prohibited cannabis product in their off hours in a state where it is legal, if they test positive for it later, they may still be in violation of the Department of Transportation’s zero-tolerance policy at the federal level.

For non-CDL drivers, the employer testing is optional. However, if a driver with a CDL license tests positive for marijuana use, they are also prohibited from driving non-CDL vehicles until they pass the return-to-duty test: another drug test administered under direct supervision. Does that all sound confusing? That’s because it is.

Add to this already tangled web of marijuana laws and efforts to keep the roads safe from drivers under the influence the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Enforcement Assistance and Marketplace Modernization Act (NJCREAMMA), passed in February of 2021. Among other things, NJCREAMMA prohibits employers from taking adverse employment action against employees who test positive for cannabinoid metabolites in their blood or other bodily fluids.  In theory, this means that an employer cannot refuse to hire, fire, or discipline an employee who has been shown to have used cannabis. However, NJCREAMMA also upholds the right of employers to maintain a drug and alcohol-free workplace. Therefore, the regulation allows employers to make rules regarding the consumption, use, or influence of marijuana or marijuana products while at work.

At the time of the Act’s original issuance, employers could require employees to submit to a drug test under the following circumstances:

• Upon suspicion of impairment from cannabis/cannabinoid substances while performing work duties
• Upon finding any observable signs of marijuana/cannabinoid use at work
• Following a work-related accident

Under NJCREAMMA, the term “drug test” has been redefined to mean a process using reliable, scientific drug-testing methods administered at work, during work hours (blood, urine, saliva tests) AND an evaluation of person certified as a Workplace Impairment Recognition Expert (WIRE). If both the bodily fluid test and the WIRE evaluation show the employee is under the influence during work hours, the employer may then take adverse employment action. The problem? The state had yet to issue guidance or training protocols for the WIREs.

To that end, the state issued interim guidance in September of 2022 until WIREs can be identified and trained for each workplace. The interim guidance essentially upholds the previous legislation regarding prohibition of adverse employment action unless evidence-based documentation of physical signs of cannabis use or signs of impairment are present. This stop-gap guidance also provides suggestions to help identify signs of impairment due to marijuana use, according to SafetyNews Alert.

California has also recently passed similar legislation preventing adverse employment action against employees who test positive for cannabinoid metabolites. The New Jersey and California laws do not apply to those in certain industries (including CDL holders, as well as federal agency contractors and grantees) and cannot preempt any state or federal laws that require a clean drug test as a condition of employment. However, non-CDL drivers can theoretically use cannabis outside of working hours within these states.

Drug test manufacturers and concerned employers are looking for ways to test for actual impairment on the job, such as employee tests against their own baseline performance and tests for the presence of active THC, the compound that creates the high, in the blood. Until these testing methods have been established, employers must keep a watchful eye out for signs of employee impairment in non-CDL drivers in New Jersey and California.

Disclaimer: This document and any discussions set forth are for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as legal advice.

“Be honest in the application process, Interview the interviewer…ask questions. Share your interests and goals with your interview/prospective employer. Follow up after interviews….shows initiative, sets you apart from others that do not”

– Jeff W. , Branch Manager, Trillium Construction

 

“Do your homework!  There is so much information available at your fingertips.  Research the company you are interviewing with.  There is no excuse for not being informed.  Have questions prepared about the company and/or the position.”

-Anne M. , Regional Vice President, Trillium Staffing

 

“No matter how disenfranchised you may be with your current employer and/or situation it is important to accentuate the positive experiences you have had. Employers are just as interested in the “soft skills and attributes” you will bring to the position as they are the “hard skills” and education you possess. A positive attitude and bright outlook can do wonders in an interview to push you to the top!”

-Jennifer M. , Recruiting Manager, Trillium Staffing

 

“Sell yourself!”

-Becki O. , Branch Manager, Trillium Staffing

 

“If you do not understand a question during the interview, ask for clarification.  It is acceptable to ask the interviewer to rephrase the question if you are unsure of the meaning.   Take your time when answering tough questions.”

-Anne M. , Regional Vice President, Trillium Staffing

 

“When the job posting asks for a resume, please send one!”

-Stu C. , Project Manager, Trillium Construction

 

“Work with your recruiter understanding that they are your advocate. Be honest and straight forward about what exactly you are seeking in a new opportunity and what your expectations are in working with them. When all the cards are on the table you won’t have any surprises in the end!”

– Jennifer M. , Recruiting Manager, Trillium Staffing

 

“Be prepared to answer questions about your strengths. Focus on the attributes that set you apart from the crowd – such as ‘I’m excellent at time management;’ or, ‘I have a high sense of urgency when working on a deadline.’  Avoid generic statements that are often overused in interviews such as, ‘I’m a people-person.’ ”

-Jeannie B. , Regional Vice President, Trillium Staffing

 

“Your resume is the first impression of you and will determine whether you ever get the opportunity to sell yourself in person during an interview.  Be sure to proofread your resume carefully and do not depend on the spell check function.  Typos very well may prevent you from ever getting an interview for the perfect job.”

– Anne M. , Regional Vice President, Trillium Staffing

 

Stay tuned for more tips this month, straight from our team!

Want to learn more about how you can gain access to Trillium’s national network of top level talent? Contact us today! If you are a stand out in your profession and seeking contingent or long term career opportunities, visit our job seekers section for more information!

 

Trillium, a national leader in staffing and recruitment is a valued staffing partner to over 5,000 companies nationwide. Trillium is privately owned by Oskar René Poch.

 

 

 

While the hiring process involves crucial steps and processes, building a smooth system can eliminate costly downtime and turnover. Studies have shown as many as 58% of employees who take part in a structured hiring process are more likely to be with the company three years later. Here are just a few tools that can help you build a structured hiring program!

• Online applications
• Strong applicant tracking system
• A streamlined onboarding process
• A structured training program
• Regular performance reviews including in the new hire period

Are you a stand out professional, technical professional, driver, or skilled worker seeking contingent, temporary, or long term career opportunities?  Visit our job board  for more information!  Want to learn more about how you can gain access to Trillium’s national network of professionals and skilled workers? Contact us today!

Trillium, a national leader in staffing and recruitment is a valued staffing partner to over 5,000 companies nationwide. Trillium is privately owned by Oskar René Poch.

Whether you are seeking a new career path or are seeking to hire the newest talent for your organization, finding a recruiter who works for you, not with you will make or break your experience. A recruiter should work as your agent and should exhibit the same qualities that a sports agent provides their talent.

Not sure how to qualify your recruiter?

Here are some simple steps to get you started.

• Determine their qualifications. The recruiting industry has the highest turnover rate of any industry with approximately 90% turnover within the first year.  Recruiters makeup a large majority of the profiles on LinkedIn, if your recruiter does not have an active and complete profile with a large number of connections take caution.  A recruiter’s LinkedIn profile is an excellent place to pre-qualify them. Do you they specialize in your line of work? How long have they been in the industry? The longer they have been in their role the larger the network and career opportunities or top level talent they can connect you with.

• Conduct a mutual interview. A proven recruiter should be confident, almost arrogant about their abilities. If they aren’t able to sell themselves how can they sell your qualifications as a candidate or sell your position and organization to the industry’s top performers? Simple, they can’t. Be perfectly clear about what your priorities are and what items would make or break the perfect match for you. Inquire as to what their network in your industry looks like and what types of similar positions they have filled in the past.

• Make sure their greatest strength is listening. If the recruiter is more focused on talking than listening, they’ll likely miss important details that are crucial to making the right fit for you. Make sure they ask you great questions, take notes, and have an attention to detail. Finding the perfect match can’t be done if they don’t have the details needed to make the match.

• They should be busy. Especially with the recent surge in staffing, if your recruiter is available to take your every call that may not be a good sign. The staffing industry has seen a consistent surge since the economic recovery, if your recruiter excels in their field they should be extremely busy balancing candidates and clients.  While they should be busy, they should also set clear expectations of when they are available and how best to reach them.

 As with any business partner, if you feel that you are not connecting well with your recruiter it may be time to look at other options. Often times the best way to locate a top notch recruiter is to seek referrals from others in your line of business. As many as 90% of companies have partnered with a staffing agency in the past for recruiting support, therefore it’s very likely that you know someone who has hired a recruiter in the past for recruiting services or that you know someone who has located a position through a recruiter.

Are you a stand out professional, technical professional, driver, or skilled worker seeking contingent, temporary, or long term career opportunities?  Visit our job board  for more information!  Want to learn more about how you can gain access to Trillium’s national network of professionals and skilled workers? Contact us today!

Trillium, a national leader in staffing and recruitment is a valued staffing partner to over 5,000 companies nationwide. Trillium is privately owned by Oskar René Poch.

Here are a few ways to consistently hire the wrong person for your organization:

• Be reactive in your recruiting methods. If your organization doesn’t employ a number of proactive recruiting measures, you’ll quickly find yourself scrambling to find talent when a vacancy hits. Creating and engaging in an employment brand that attracts the strongest talent in your industry, will quickly funnel a large pool of interested, driven, and experienced talent to you. Respond to applicants even if you do not have an available opening and keep in mind any growth or expansion that you may be facing in the near future.
• Don’t prepare yourself before recruiting. Take the time to reevaluate the job description, skills and experience required, and exactly what you’d be looking for an in ideal candidate. Not doing so ahead of time can quickly lead to you creating the role around someone based on your interviews, interviewing candidates who do not meet the requirements, or not finding qualified talent because you haven’t reevaluated the skills and pay scale that are appropriate for the position.
• Compromise your expectations. Hiring someone because they have years of experience while knowing they won’t be a good fit for your organization can cause more harm than good. Disrupting the department or organization’s culture or process flow to quickly fill a vacancy and you’ll quickly end up with a number of personnel and performance issues.
• Skip steps in the process. You’ve built your hiring process hopefully based on results. Skipping crucial steps such as reference checking, skills testing, and initial phone screenings can quickly cause you to miss key components in a candidate’s qualifications or disqualifications. If the position is worth filling, it’s worth filling with the right candidate.
• Don’t be transparent. Want to quickly hire someone who doesn’t fit the role or have an interest in engaging in the role? Mislead them about everything from the job details, company culture, to the work environment. It won’t take long for them to find out that they were never a good fit in the first place.

Hiring the right person is like preparing a recipe. Without preparation and forethought you can quickly find yourself settling for less than excellent results and substituting key components to get the task accomplished. As a hiring professional, take pride in your process, experience, and intuition. Unfortunately, our jobs are not always as quickly moving as an assembly line but our finished product should be nothing short of excellence in quality. If you still find yourself unsure about a hiring decision, enlist the advice of others. Consider having another department manager or HR representative interview your final choices or have your final candidates speak to a member of your department to see if they gain any additional insight. Many staffing agencies offer trial hire services which allow you and the candidate to try out the working relationship for a period of 90 or 180 days before committing to a direct hire role.

Want to learn more about how you can gain access to Trillium’s national network of top level talent? Contact us today!  If you are a stand out in your profession and seeking contingent or long term career opportunities, visit our job seekers section for more information!

Trillium, a national leader in staffing and recruitment is a valued staffing partner to over 5,000 companies nationwide. Trillium is privately owned by Oskar René Poch.

While creating and maintaining a marine workforce is no easy feat, those who excel in the industry can assure you it can be done and be done well. So what makes someone a leader in marine staffing? Here’s a few tips:

• You must be an industry expert. While experience in hiring skilled trades people for general construction and industrial work may give you some level of experience, it cannot compare to those who work solely in the shipyards. In order to staff a marine workforce, you must be knowledgeable in the skills and experience required for each position, the industry regulations, and be able to evaluate a candidate’s skill set quickly.
• You must be a marine talent expert. Understanding what it takes to complete a project and being able to identify the talent needed to excel at a project can be two different things. Hiring marine craftsmen successfully takes a strong knowledge base of the skills, aptitude, and knowledge needed for each role you staff in the project. Mediocre talent makes for mediocre project results.
• You must be able to locate and mobilize a marine workforce quickly. Marine contractors don’t have time to wait for you to build a pool of marine construction staff. Providing marine contractors with experienced skilled trades people quickly and efficiently is the key to maintaining a strong relationship.
• Be a maritime safety expert. Providing safe maritime construction workers is the key to keeping a job site moving. OSHA Maritime Safety Training should be a critical part of your on boarding process as well as pre-employment and random drug screenings. Making sure your maritime construction staff is equipped with the proper PPE can be a small step in saving costly injuries and down times.

Maritime construction requires extraordinary marine engineering and project management. Providing top talent marine craftsmen is not an easy task. In an industry where experienced talent and good wages are hard to find, more often than not maritime construction workers are not located near the job site. In order to excel at staffing maritime construction, you must excel at locating, qualifying, and dispatching local and non-local marine craftsmen.

Want to learn more about how you can gain access to Trillium’s national network of experienced marine construction workers? Contact us today!  If you are a stand out skilled trades worker seeking short or long term career opportunities, visit our job seekers section for more information!

Trillium, a national leader in staffing and recruitment is a valued staffing partner to over 5,000 companies nationwide. Trillium is privately owned by Oskar René Poch.

Before cutting back on your safety program and enforcements consider the following:

• Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of occupational fatalities in the country.
• A motor vehicle fatality occurs about every twelve minutes.
• Crashes cost employers $60 billion in 2000.
• Employers lost 3 million workdays in 2000 due to motor vehicle accidents.
• More than 90% of motor vehicle accidents are a result of human error.
• Annually, about 20% of a fleet is involved in a crash.
• Not including indirect costs, an on the job non-fatal crash can cost over $76,000.

There is a direct correlation between a strong safety program and lowered accident occurrences. With over 90% of accidents being caused by human error, employers have a strong ability to curb their organization’s accident rates. Employing a strong safety program, employee incentives for safe driving practices, and a strong employee screening process can go a long way in protecting your bottom line.

Want to learn more about how you can gain access to Trillium’s national network of professional drivers? Contact us today! Learn more about our Dedicated Driver Services here! Are you a safe and professional driver who is seeking a rewarding career? Visit us here to locate a driving career in your area!

Trillium, a national leader in staffing and recruitment is a valued staffing partner to over 5,000 companies nationwide. Trillium is privately owned by Oskar René Poch.

The Wall Street Journal reported that social networks accounted for 20% of time spent online in 2011. With the continued growth in 2012, it goes without saying those numbers are only continuing to climb. Their report also shows that social networks reach approximately 82% of the world’s online population, a great audience for those of us who are seeking high demand candidates who are hard to locate.

A recent study from Salary.com gives us some insight to the candidate perspective:

• 72% reported using social connections to find a job
• 38% reported that they were successful in finding a job through social networks
• 24% the largest group, reported that they seek career opportunities on LinkedIn
• 60% listed lack of response as their least favorite part of social networks
• 55% of candidates would prefer a mobile friendly process that takes 10 minutes or less to apply

Making your application process accessible to those on social networks, especially on mobile devices could greatly increase your exposure to technical and professional level candidates. If you are considering implementing social networks into your recruiting process, make sure your process is legally compliant with all local, state, and federal laws. Also make sure that your staff is properly trained and educated on how to remain legally compliant in the process. It is always a great idea to make sure your organization’s social media policy is well defined. For more information on integrating social media in your recruiting process, contact your Labor and Employment Law attorney.

Want to learn more about how you can gain access to Trillium’s national network of top level talent? Contact us today!  If you are a stand out in your profession and seeking contingent or long term career opportunities, visit our job seekers section for more information!

Trillium, a national leader in staffing and recruitment is a valued staffing partner to over 5,000 companies nationwide. Trillium is privately owned by Oskar René Poch.

With Clark Hill’s Immigration Law Update from November 15th, at least four additional states with begin require use of the system as of January 1, 2013. Some individual states have listed requirements based on the number of employees or new hires as well. Here are some highlights:

• North Carolina- Use of E-Verify will become mandatory for private employers with 100 or more employees.
• Pennsylvania- Use of E-Verify will become mandatory for state public works contractors or subcontractors with contracts worth $25,000 or more.
• Tennessee- Use of E-Verify will become mandatory for private employers with between 6-99 employees.

Other states also have new requirements of use with the system next year, read the full report here for more information on  your individual state. If you have temporary or contingent workers that are required to be processed through the system please contact your staffing provider to make sure they are aware of the regulations and are in compliance. Staffing agencies well versed in construction and related fields should be aware of the regulations and requirements in their area.

Want to learn more about how you can gain access to Trillium’s national network of top level talent? Contact us today!  If you are a stand out in your profession and seeking contingent or long term career opportunities, visit our job seekers section for more information!

Trillium, a national leader in staffing and recruitment is a valued staffing partner to over 5,000 companies nationwide. Trillium is privately owned by Oskar René Poch.

Were you aware that the leading source of fraud is employee theft of personal information? While we all tend to focus on production, productivity in the workplace, and dealing with the day to day operations we may be missing critical information about our staff. While approximately 90% of employers implement a routine background check for new hires, a startling number do not perform background checks on their employees after their hire date for new convictions that are relevant to their position. Implementing a comprehensive background process is a great way to help ensure a safe, secure, and productive environment for staff, visitors, and customers. According to a 2009 report by the US Chamber of Commerce and Infortal Worldwide, as many as 75% of employees in all business sectors steal from the workplace and do so repeatedly.

Prior to completing any background check on a candidate or employee, be sure that you have obtained a signed release allowing your organization to conduct the search. Employees should be notified in the employee handbook if your organization conducts random or annual background screenings as well. Keep in mind that your employees and candidates are also entitled to several rights including:

• Employers are prevented by federal law from considering bankruptcy while making employment decisions.
• Employers are required to provide the candidate or employee with a copy of any consumer report and a copy of their rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, if information obtained from the said report contributes to dismissal or denial of employment.
• Employers must consistently apply the program to all employees and clearly document their results.
• Some specific states have laws that limit the employers use of credit reports to be used for dismissal or denial of employment.

While information that may be obtained through employment references, criminal background checks, and credit checks may have a large impact on determining an employer’s level of liability when hiring or maintaining an employee, the risks and liabilities due to employing an illegal background check process can be even greater. Partnering with an established and reputable staffing firm can often greatly assist you in the process. Speak with your staffing provider to determine what their current process is and how they may best assist your company with the screening of potential employees.

Before implementing or continuing a background screening process, it is highly encouraged to research federal, state, and local legislation. Consult with your labor and employment law attorney prior to implementing or making alterations to your background check policy.

Want to learn more about how you can gain access to Trillium’s national network of top level talent? Contact us today!  If you are a stand out in your profession and seeking contingent or long term career opportunities, visit our job seekers section for more information!

Trillium, a national leader in staffing and recruitment is a valued staffing partner to over 5,000 companies nationwide. Trillium is privately owned by Oskar René Poch.