Purchasing professionals and HR professionals

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
re: Service, Delivery and Performance

See also: New Client Development and FAQ


1. Does Continental operate as a single provider of services for any other corporation or entities? What tools and systems have you developed to manage the process?
2. Describe Continental's abilities to provide nationwide manpower services for a Client with diverse global office locations.
3. Provide a profile of Continental's Technical Recruiting Team
4. Describe in detail one example of Continental's on- site management staffing services
5. How would Continental ensure that a New Client receives preferred treatment in selection and placement of high quality temporary employees?
6. Explain Continental's procedures for briefing contract employees before they start a new assignment (company ethics, confidentiality, conduct in the workplace, time tickets, expense reports, proper business attire, attendance, job specifications, etc).
7. Provide a list of benefits available to contract employees and the criteria for eligibility.
8. Describe Continental's policies for the following screening procedures; resume reviews, screening interviews, in-person Client interviews, character references, previous employee references, background investigations, and pre-employment drug testing.
9. Indicate the number of temporary employees Continental has available for clients and their period of employment with your company.
10. Describe the main techniques Continental uses to attract candidates.
11. Outline the turnaround time for filling technical and clerical open requisitions (new position, replacement, discharge, termination, etc.).
12. Describe one different approach Continental has used to implement an on-site management program.

1) Does Continental operate as a single provider of services for any other corporation or entities? What tools and systems have you developed to manage the process?

Over the past 18 years Continental has grown to become the preferred provider of staffing services (contract and executive recruiting) for Guide Corporation and Delco Remy International [preferred supplier for the past 5 years]. In both cases we have approached the level of being their major supplier as a result of our consistently superior level of quality, response time, cost and customer focus.

Internally we use the software tools of Vision, Apogee, ZyImage & EZAccess for "front-office"* and "back-office"** support for our full range of services. Our company utilizes a company-wide statistical tracking system that is monitored either weekly or monthly [as is appropriate] to track key production, financial and quality metrics. Our customer's engineering and staffing needs span a range of requirements, and our approach is to focus on these special requirements, and to develop systems in response to them, that improve productivity, and insure quality. With any New Client we would carefully evaluate the goals and objectives from the first week of our business relationship for the development of customer specific quality metrics.

* Front Office: Definition: This refers to the activities of the Recruiting Department. This includes recruiting activities, Interviews, Job Offers and the actual Hiring of candidates by a Client.

** Back Office: Definition: This refers to those activities that occur after a candidate is hired, and include Benefits (Medical, Holidays, Vacations, 401K, etc.), payroll, billings to Clients, Accounts Receivable, credit lines, and financial activities.

2) Describe Continental's abilities to provide nationwide manpower services for a Client with diverse global office locations.

Every customer's staffing needs are unique, and are driven by the specialized technologies inherent in their final valuable products. Phase One of any recruiting program designed for any New Client would include a careful study of these industry-specific requirements.

Continental has created significant internal staffing resources to form an effective team of managers, account reps, recruiters and support personnel. This group utilizes a range of candidate search resources that include internal candidate databases, external resume databases (30,000 different resume database sources with tens of millions of candidates), numerous web based technology-specific electronic job site postings, job fairs, university recruiting tours, university alumni placement services, technical associations (SAE*, etc.) and extensive referral resources created over the past two decades.

Currently Continental provides staffing services for a wide range of industries, at many diverse locations in North America, Asia, South America, Mexico and Europe. We have created a recruiting organization [as described in detail in section 2.3 below] with demonstrated capabilities of meeting a Client's global staffing requirements.

* SAE: Definition: an acronym for the Society of Automotive Engineers.

3) Provide a profile of Continental's Technical Recruiting Team.

A major emphasis of Continental in addressing a Client's needs would be the commitment to assigning a senior level manager to coordinate our response to the Client's technical staffing needs. Ultimately the Recruiting Team would be directed from the Anderson HQ by Bill Nagengast, Chief Operations Officer, who has directed many past successful major staffing programs.

Continental provides a skilled team of professionals in the area of administration, payroll, and recruitment to ensure that a Client's needs are always met. This team includes the following recruiters and support personnel of the Anderson office:

Additional specialized recruiters are often hired by Continental to address a client's staffing requirements, should we be provided access to that Client's staffing history, and after a careful assessment of that Client's future requirements.

4) Describe in detail one example of Continental's on-site management staffing services.

An example would be Guide Corporation, where Continental was first established in 1985. At Guide we maintained a working on-site manager for engineers and other technical staff in the Advanced Product Development for 10 years [1985-1994], to provide staff for product development, CAD* design, CAE** engineering, Optical engineering and Research & Development. The on-site manager then relocated into an adjacent office as Guide's staffing levels ramped upwards to well over 100 contract staff in the past 5 years. Continental has been able to meet all of the contract and executive recruiting needs in Guide HQ and manufacturing facilities in Detroit, Michigan; Anderson, Indiana; Monroe, Louisiana; and Monterrey, Mexico.

* CAD: Definition: This refers to the acronym Computer-Aided-Design, where a computer software is used to create a part design.

** CAE: Definition: This refers to Computer-Aided-Engineering, where software is used to simulate real world physical testing of parts before they are prototyped. In theory, if a part fails CAE testing, it will only be made after it is redesigned and retested in CAE. A part would not be made until it is "proven" by the CAE software. If done correctly, this reduces the number and severity of part test failures and thereby saves time and prototyping costs.

5) How would Continental ensure that a New Client receives preferred treatment in selection and placement of high quality temporary employees?

Continental has developed a system where recruiting resources can be prioritized as major account's staffing requirements dictate. We are not part of a national system where 1000 job requisitions from a range of competing customers or external regional offices would distract Continental's recruiting resources from focusing on a New Client's needs. We have a track record of designing our internal resources specifically to provide preferential treatment for major accounts in the selection and placement of high quality temporary employees. Our strategy is to focus on being strong in terms of response, candidate quality and employee satisfaction. Our investments in technologies have been focused where we feel they will impact the customer the most: On the desk of the recruiter. We strive to improve the tools and technology-driven fire-power of our recruiters in their continuous search for the ideal candidates for the client.

6) Explain Continental's procedures for briefing contract employees before they start a new assignment (company ethics, confidentiality, conduct in the workplace, time tickets, expense reports, proper business attire, attendance, job specifications, etc).

A new employee receives the following:

• Briefing on Continental Design & Engineering
• Client employee orientation booklet [parking, exits, security, etc.].
• Employee's job responsibilities/job description.
• Benefits Briefing covering Holidays, Vacations, Cafeteria 125 Plan, Disability Insurance (voluntary short and long term), life insurance, Direct Payroll Deposit, Credit Union, 401 (k) Plan, Medical /Dental Insurance briefing
• Company Policies briefing on the proper working attire, Internet policies, equal employment opportunity, working hours, pay periods, overtime, paydays, time sheets, expense reports, credit cards, paychecks, performance reviews, pay raises, terminations, changes in employee status, complaints, grievances and sexual harassment.
• Leaves of Absences per Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and non-FMLA leaves of absence are explained.
• Causes for discipline are reviewed, smoking policies are covered.
  State and Federal tax forms are filled out.
• Customer Intellectual Property Rights agreements are signed.
• Employee work information forms are completed.
• Customer safety policies, first aid procedures and fire safety procedures are reviewed.

7) Provide a list of benefits available to contract employees and the criteria for eligibility.

Continental has medical coverage available for employees through our cafeteria plan. We offer one week's vacation (5 days) after the first year, and 6 paid Holidays. Both Single and Family medical coverage are available after 30 days of employment, with open access for employee contributions to a 401K retirement plan.

8) Describe Continental's policies for the following screening procedures; resume reviews, screening interviews, in-person Client interviews, character references, previous employee references, background investigations, and pre-employment drug testing.

• Resume: Every resume is reviewed in depth by the recruiter for the Rolls-Royce job requisition.
• Screening Interview: Calls are made by recruiters to qualified candidates. This is followed by a screening process (reference checks) that eliminates candidates with short comings relative to necessary skill sets outlined in the job requisitions. Candidates are only presented after this pre-screening, pending successful conformance to a Client's job requirements.
• In-person interview: An in-person interview is arranged on-site at a Client's location, at their direction, from those candidates submitted for open job requisitions.
• Background checks and drug tests: These are contracted to firms specializing in these services, and are performed after successful interviews, prior to formal job offers.

9) Indicate the number of temporary employees Continental has available for clients and their period of employment with your company.

Continental maintains a database of technical and clerical personnel across a wide spectrum of technical capabilities that reflect our customer's staffing requirements. This database is maintained daily and all new recruiting efforts that uncover quality personnel are included in this database. The approximate size of our database is 50,000 candidate resumes. We have contracted access to large technical and clerical candidate resume databases (30,000 databases), which are activated as our customer's specialized requirements dictate, should our internal resources prove unable to provide suitable personnel.

10) Describe the main techniques Continental uses to attract candidates.

Continental utilizes a primary source as a 'tool' for locating candidates: Our internal candidate database and referral network. Our next source of candidates has always been to approach those candidates who are not in national databases {Monster, etc.} actively searching for new positions. Our internal database has grown over the past 18 years from on-going recruiting activity and three strategic acquisitions of other recruiting firms. Another "tool" for our recruiters is the contracted access, on a case-by-case basis, to a wide range of very specialized web-based databases (30,000 sites with 40+ million candidates). Other 'tools' include job postings, job fair participations, university recruiting tours, current employee referral bonuses, technical association memberships (SAE, etc.), alumni placement offices, industry downsizing opportunities, and other placement techniques.

11) Outline the turnaround time for filling technical and clerical open requisitions (new position, replacement, discharge, termination, etc.).

The turnaround time for technical and clerical openings varies with the special job requirements, experience needs, job location needs and compensation negotiations. Continental can fill between 250 and 500 job positions annually in a range of technical specialties with existing in-house resources.

The turnaround time would include the time requirements for progressing through the following:

• Thorough understanding of the job requisition
• Development and implementation of a strategic search strategy
• Utilization of a number of effective candidate search referral systems
• Candidate qualifications review and assessment
• Calls, emails, faxes, etc. for prescreening process
• Submissions of only qualified candidates
• Responses to customer inquiries of candidate submissions
• Scheduling of Client-Candidate interviews
• Interview feedback/Responses as required
• Offers, counter-offers/negotiations
• Pre-employment tests/background checks
• Employment "Starts" [back-up candidates for back-outs/counter offers as required]

Continental is known for quick responses and short turn-around times for customer staffing priorities.

12) Describe one different approach Continental has used to implement an on-site management program.

At Guide Corporation we discovered the need to support the personnel needs of the Exterior Automotive Lighting Division ($700 million in annual revenues) in 1985-1995 time period, during which the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS 108) expanded to cover an entirely new product line of automotive lighting. Our on-site manager at Guide was Bill Nagengast, who directed searches for key technical specialties (CAE Engineers, Systems Engineers, Optics Engineers, Software Development Engineers, Alias/Maya Software Applications Engineers, CAD Designers, Program Managers, Product Development Engineers, R & D staff, and others). The approach to Guide was based on a detailed understanding of the customer's technical requirements by the on-site program manager. The program manager was able to direct and focus external recruiting resources to address those needs effectively, and to interface directly with the hiring managers in the screening, interviewing and hiring of technical and clerical staff. The automotive lighting component product line has grown since 1985 to become the most regulated component on the vehicle, and Continental's headcount at times has risen to over 100 Technical staff. We continue to provide technical personnel to Guide [Contract Engineers, Executive Recruiting] as a preferred staffing supplier.

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