Purchasing professionals and HR professionals
Requests for Quotation:
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Continental Design & Engineering is often invited to respond to Requests For Quotation
(RFQ) or Requests For Proposals (RFP) as new customers evaluate our capabilities and services,
and consider including our company in their Approved Supplier Listings.
To streamline the entire process associated with New Supplier Development and to help
accelerate the development of long-term strategic relationships, we provide the following
series of Frequently Asked Questions about our company. We feel that this will provide
opportunities for new clients to get to know us in-depth before making initial contacts
with our organization.
We never lose sight of our overall objective: fast, responsive technical staffing, design
and engineering -- the resources for success, delivered with continuously improved service
quality and responsiveness, while reducing client overall cost. These FAQs will help you
to better understand how to best utilize our technical capabilities, to expand or enhance
their existing technical resources.
New Client Development
- Continental Business Profile
- Describe Continental's experience in providing technical and clerical
contract labor to large organizations (5,000 employees or greater)
- How does Continental monitor the quality, service, cost, and delivery
of work for contract technical staff?
- Describe your Continental's policy to ensure compliance with applicable
equal employment opportunity and affirmative action laws (i.e. providing diverse pool of
candidates).
- Describe Continental's procedures that would protect a Client
from Co-Employment legal issues
- Does Continental qualify as a minority or Woman-Owned business
enterprise?
See also: FAQ re
Service, Delivery and Performance
Our New Client Development Process is designed to ensure that we target those clients
that we are best able to work with, so as to achieve a high level of mutual prosperity.
This process focuses on the need to build strong relationships with clients while providing
the best value. Our New Client Development Strategy includes the following:
- The potential of creating a Technical Partnership, based on the client's Technical
needs, Technical support opportunities, and their timeline for the implementation of such
a business relationship.
- Continental's ability to support a New Client in achieving their 5 year business goals.
- An economic assessment of the scope and range of the potential Technical Resources
we can provide, and the levels of Value Engineering*
that we may be able to provide to the Client.
- Commitment to achieving our Client's objectives for process improvements**.
- E-business is becoming a major part of the selection criteria utilized by Technical
firms. It is our intention to become a Technical Supplier who can provide a strong e-business
communication system.
* Value Engineering: also referred to as Cost
Savings. Generally described as the effort to reduce costs through the re-engineering of
a part design, or the assembly process, or the materials used.
** Process Improvements: Annualized improvement
targets for any parts, process or service.
Describe Continental Design & Engineering.
Continental Design & Engineering ("Continental"), a privately held*,
woman-owned company, is headquartered in Anderson, Indiana (at exit 22 along I-69, 22 miles
Northeast of Indianapolis, Indiana). Continental is dedicated to providing technical resources
and staffing services to manufacturers that improve their productivity and cost effectiveness
in the global economy.
"Our mission is to become an integral part of our customer's organization, constantly
striving for opportunities that enable them to focus their resources on their core technical
competencies**."
Judy Nagengast, CEO
Continental Design & Engineering, Inc.
Continental Design & Engineering was founded in 1985 and has grown to nearly 300
employees who are located at our Engineering Center and at numerous customer locations
throughout North America, Europe and Asia.
Our services include:
- Lean Manufacturing (Design, Engineering & Build)
- CAD Design (Product Design, Assembly Line/Special Equipment Design)
- Technical Staffing (Contract Employees, Executive Recruiting)
- Engineering Services (Bundled Services, Out-Sourced Departments, Supply Chain Management,
etc.)
* Privately Held: Definition: Not a
publicly traded company, with company ownership in the hands of one or a few individuals.
** Core Technical Competencies: The
key technologies and/or manufacturing processes that are associated with a manufacturer.
In simple terms, what a company does that makes their products essentially superior or
dramatically different from their competitors.
Major accounts for technical and clerical contract labor include Delco Remy International,
and Guide Corporation. Continental is also a key resource for Delphi Automotive Components
Group's staffing needs, and has become one of their top 10 staffing services providers.
Other customers include Allison Transmission, International, New Venture Gear, Borg Warner,
Thompson Multimedia, Valeo-Sylvania, North American Lighting (NAL), Magna-Decoma, II Stanley
Co., Koito, Hella, iPower, Cooper Standard, Federal Mogul, Cooper Wagner, Franklin Power,
Centex Homes, Trac Tech, Wheel to Wheel, Hayes Lemmerz, Ricardo, Guardian Automotive, Autocar,
Covance Central, Siemens Medical, Saint Gobain, Crown Equipment, Grote Industries, Wellman
Products, Ovonics Battery, Lenawee Precision Plastics, Hahn Elastomers, and many others.
There are several performance metrics that are vital to monitoring the quality, service,
cost and delivery of our contract technical staff. These metrics include:
| Productivity |
Customer Metric |
Employee Metric |
| Hiring Quality |
Turn-over rates
Assignment Renewals |
% Completing Assignments
Renewals & Reassignments |
Submittals*, Interviews,
Offers to Hires** |
Hires to openings***
Timely Hires |
Preferred Assignments |
Coverage of Jobs
(% of openings with submittals) |
Unfilled Jobs
No shows/backouts |
% employees resigning
prior to assignment completion, Backouts |
| Response Time |
% Customer terminations for cause |
Employee satisfaction |
New candidate
volume |
Customer evaluation
of employee performance |
Raises, new assignments, promotions, permanent job offers |
Continental utilizes internal systems to monitor the above metrics for quality. Key
internal processes are incorporated into statistical tracking system to help insure that
the quality, service, cost and delivery of our customer's staffing needs are met. Actions
would be taken as appropriate for contract staffing services that include commendations
for quality, pro-active training to remedy deficiencies, warnings, formal reprimands, suspension
of privileges, and -- for severe cases: Employment Termination.
* Submittals: Definition: Qualified candidates
submitted to a customer in response to their job openings.
** Offers to Hires: Definition: The percentage
of candidates who accept a job offer and are hired.
*** Hires to Openings: Definition: How many
qualified candidates are hired and how many job opening are remaining unfilled (sometimes
for lack of qualified candidates).
Continental has discovered that the growth and long term success of our company lies
in the utilization of the abilities of all individuals to the greatest extent possible
within the business environment. We have a track record of hiring, compensating, promoting
and in all ways possible creating a non-discriminatory environment for our employees.
Equal employment opportunity and affirmative action laws are designed to insure that
the work environment is representative of the ethnic balance of the company's community
or geographic region. Continental is conversant with these legal requirements and has the
capabilities to provide for the inclusion of minority candidates for our Client's review
and consideration in their staffing requirements. If required, we have experience in assisting
in the pro-active remedy of any temporary customer deficiency in meeting demographic profiles
that will conform with equal employment opportunity or affirmative action laws.
Toward the achievement of equal employment opportunity, we have implemented policies
that outline our responsibilities to:
1. Recruit, hire, train and promote personnel for all job classifications without regard
to race, color, religion, national origin, veteran's or marital status, the presence of
a non-job-related medical condition or disability, sex, or age except where sex or age
is a bona fide occupational qualification.
2. Base decisions on employment solely upon an individual's qualifications and interest
for the position being filled.
3. Make promotional decisions only on the individual's qualifications and interest
as related to the requirements of the position for which the employee is being considered.
4. Ensure that all other personnel actions such as compensation, benefits, transfers,
layoffs and company sponsored social and recreational programs will be administered without
regard to race, color, religion, national origin, veteran's or marital status, the presence
of a non-job-related medical condition or disability, sex, or age except where sex or age
is a bona fide occupational qualification.
Continental utilizes an extensive network of community, regional and national recruitment
resources to provide a wide range of applicants to meet our equal employment requirements.
We strive to maintain a balanced flow of qualified candidates covering a wide range of
nationalities, races, males, females, veterans and disabled Americans.
* Equal Employment Opportunity: Definition:
In theory, the ability of qualified candidates, regardless of race, religion, national
origin, age, sex or physical condition, to be hired as a direct result of their qualifications
for a job. A comparison of the ethnic mix of a geographic area to the ethnic hiring mix
of the workforce is used by government agencies to detect hiring inequities in some cases.
** Affirmative Action Laws: Definition: The
pro-active remedy of a work force demographic by the selective hiring of certain individuals.
Example: Preference being given to Afro-American or Asian race candidates so as to achieve
a certain level of minority employees in a workforce.
For over 18 years we have successfully insured that our customers are protected from
Co-Employment legal issues. Continental maintains internal resources who are constantly
updating these procedures, thereby maintaining this level of protection for current and
future staffing services. We also retain external legal resources who specialize in such
legal protection. Following is a breakdown of Continental's functions and duties to protect
ourselves and our customers from the legal issues associated with this issue:
Payment of Wages: This is Continental's function and we maintain complete control
of the time reporting and issuance of payroll. Continental is in excellent financial condition
and payment of wages to contract staff will not become an issue a Client.
Payment of Payroll Taxes: This is Continental's responsibility, and we have all
of the internal processes to ensure all legal documents are obtained and in proper order.
In addition to this, should there be a problem, the courts have held that if the staffing
company defaults on its obligation to pay these taxes, the customer will not be held liable
to pay them.
Worker's Compensation: In this area, co-employment clearly benefits the customer.
Continental covers all employees sent to customer's sites with worker's compensation insurance;
and should the worker become injured on the job, this coverage will take effect. Under
the "exclusive remedy" feature of worker's compensation laws, the employees are
then precluded from making any further claim against the staffing company. In addition,
by virtue of the "exclusive remedy" rule, the employee cannot recover more from
either "co-employer" than these benefits. Since the worker would already have
received full worker's compensation benefits under Continental's coverage, they are not
entitled to any further recovery.
Civil Rights: The courts have held that the party that does the discriminating
or harassing will be held liable for that unlawful action. This is an accurate assessment
of the situation as neither party should be able to "off-load" responsibility
for its acts of discrimination to another party. Continental trains its staff on a regular
basis to ensure we are conducting ourselves in a lawful manner, and we stay in touch with
our employees in the workplace to ensure we are providing our support to their management
staff in this area.
OSHA: The U.S. Department of Labor has determined that the customer controls
the workplace and thereby has responsibility for this area. However, Continental will ensure
that all employees will participate in safety training, safety equipment training and other
programs designed to offer education to workers to ensure that they are aware of Client
safety regulations and standards.
Benefits: This is the area of co-employment which bears the most scrutiny. Two
issues present themselves: Can temporary employees claim entitlement to the benefit programs
which a Client maintains for its own employees, and is a Client required to include temporary
employees in its pension plans? The answer to both issues is: No.
A Client is only affected in their periodic "test" of their pension plans. A
Client does not have to include "leased employees" (temporary employees who have
worked for that customer substantially full time for one year) in its qualified plans.
A Client only has to count them for testing purposes.
Summary: A Client should approach co-employment by agreeing to have Continental
perform as many of the following tasks as possible:
- Advertise for, recruit, screen and hire the employees.
- Negotiate compensation arrangements with the employees, and pay them per those arrangements.
- Record the terms of the employment agreement in an employment contract
- Assign the employees to specific locations with known job responsibilities
- Withhold and pay all payroll and related taxes, and worker's compensation premium/benefits.
- Make health insurance available and handle all related administrative claims issues.
- Pay and administer vacation and holiday pay and other applicable benefits.
- Pay appropriate, approved business expenses when they are incurred by the employees.
- Provide employees communications such as employee handbooks, and other information
as is appropriate.
- Permit general supervisory responsibilities over employees in areas such as performance
evaluations (performed in conjunction with input from a Client's supervisor of the employee),
negotiating compensation adjustments, arranging time off (i.e. scheduling vacations, overtime,
notifications of sick time off, etc.) and handling terminations of employment.
- Negotiating such things as working conditions, bill rates, nature of jobs, working
hours, length of assignment and related matters with a Client, and maintaining ongoing
contact with a Client regarding employee performance.
* Co-Employment: Definition: The determination
of the employer of a contract employee. In some cases there have been legal challenges
for contract employees that attempted to claim that the contract employee was not an employee
of the contract agency, but rather the employee of the client, and thereby entitled to
full client benefits (medical, retirement, etc.). A contract agency must conform to certain
legal guidelines so as to protect a client from legal challenges that would seek to create
a legal liability for a client (legal costs, potential retirement benefit costs, etc.).
The most optimum protection is the complete performance by a contract firm of all of the
normal employer - employee job functions, as outlined above.
Continental qualifies as a female-owned business enterprise (99% stock ownership), and
was certified by the state of Michigan and the state of Indiana as such. Judy Nagengast
is the owner of Continental design & Engineering, and has actively been the CEO of
Continental since 1987.
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