APRIL 2015
Volume 9, Issue 4EMPLOYEES OF THE MONTH
WWW.STAFFINGPARTNERSOH.COM
MARION OFFICE
It’s no April Fool’s! Congratulations to Terry Smith, Marion’s Employee of the Month! Terry has been selected because of his great attitude, wonderful attendance, and drive to succeed. Terry says his favorite thing about his job is the variety of responsibilities he has. He enjoys being able to do something different every day. His supervisor says that Terry is a hard worker, never misses work, and has a great personality!
Terry enjoys sports including bowling, slow pitch softball, and of course, The Ohio State Buckeyes! He enjoys the Spring (especially after this Ohio Winter!) and his favorite food is a T-Bone Steak! Terry is very dedicated to not only his work, but his family too. He takes pride in his family and says, if it wasn’t for them, he wouldn’t be where he is today. His plans for the future are to be hired in full time, attend college classes to pursue a degree in Human Services, and, most importantly, to marry the love his life; Tabitha!
Way to go, Terry! Keep up the good work and thank you for your dedication!
MANSFIELD OFFICE
Congratulations to Brian Mays, Mansfield’s Employee of the Month. Brian has been on assignment for a little over a month and has been doing a great job. He likes that he is very busy in this fast-paced environment and finds the people he works with to be very friendly.
Brian has 2 children, has been married for four years, attends Belmont Community Church, and considers himself to be a family man. In his spare time he enjoys hunting and fishing.
Thanks, Brian, for all of your hard work!
WOOSTER OFFICE
The Wooster office is pleased to announce that Maria Pardo has been selected as Employee of the Month. Maria has been working with Staffing Partners for 5 months and is always enthusiastic and has a great attitude. She is reliable and is a very conscientious worker. Maria is really enjoying her current assignment. She finds it to be a happy place with nice people and she is growing as a person by learning new things.
Maria loves to be able to work and provide for her family. To her, family comes first. She also enjoys working out in her spare time.
How to Manage your Online Reputation
If you’re worried about the information that’s available about you on the Internet, you’re not alone. A recent study from the Pew Research Center shows that most Americans feel they’ve lost control over the data available about them online.Keeping control of your online persona is important, especially if you are job hunting or trying to fur-ther your career. Potential employers often use the Internet to find out more about job candidates. Dozens of companies say they can help you protect or correct your online persona, often for a hefty fee. You can expect to pay anywhere from $200 to several thousand dollars for online reputation help. But, many experts say that most individuals can implement protections on their own, for free. Here are ways you can safeguard your online reputation:
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Search for yourself. To find out how you look online, go ahead and Google yourself. In addition, see if your name appears on information sharing sites such as Spokeo.com, BeenVerified.com and Pipi.com. Also check Topsy.com to see if people are saying anything about you on social me-dia.•
Clean up old information. Delete outdated social media accounts and websites such as Flickr or MySpace. Some of the information sharing sites such as BeenVerified.com al-low you to delete your personal information directly on the site. For those that don’t, send an email asking them to remove your personal data. If you find your Social Security or bank account number is published on a malicious web-site, email Google and ask them to delete the site from its search results. If you haven’t already, implement the pri-vacy settings on your social media accounts.•
Bury what you can’t delete. It can be difficult to re-move items from the Internet. But you can try to make sure these items will only appear deep into an Internet search. (Remember, few people click past the first or sec-ond page of search engine results.) Create online informa-tion that will come up first in a search. Build a website un-der your name using one of the free templates available. Open LinkedIn and Twitter accounts and spend some time each week keeping them updated.•
Find an expert if you still need help. You may not be able to squash unflattering news stories, details of a law-suit and other truly negative posts on your own. That’s when the advice of an online reputation management firm may be worth the cost. They sometimes have the technical tools that can bury bad news more effectively than you can. Look for a company that has handled cases similar to yours, and always ask for referrals from customers.- More Within Reach
3 Tips to Help Manage
Facebook Privacy Settings
1) Limit search engine visibility.To prevent your Facebook page from coming up on web searches with your name, go to General Ac-count settings. On the “Privacy” tab option for “Do you want other search engines to link to your timeline?” select edit to uncheck the box.
2) Monitor your tags. You can set your account so that you can re-view posts friends tag you in be-fore they appear on your timeline. (Click on the “Timeline and Tag-ging” tab in your account set-tings.) That way if someone tags you in a post that you don’t want to be mentioned in, you can hide it from your page before it hits your timeline.
3) Restrict who sees your past posts. It is possible to restrict all past posts made to your Facebook friends such that friends of friends or the public will no longer be able to view them. On the “Privacy” tab for “Limit the audi-ence for posts you’ve shared with friends of friends or Public?” click “Limit Old Posts.”
HEALTH REFORM WILL COMPLICATE TAX RETURNS
Filling out 2014 tax returns will be more complicated for
many, thanks to President Obama’s signature health law.
Start with the premium tax credit for insurance bought through an exchange. Filers will use new Form 8962 to rec-oncile subsidies they got in advance to pay premiums with the actual credit they are entitled to based on their income. The individual mandate makes tax filing tricky for those without
insurance. They’ll owe a tax unless they qualify for one of the
numerous exemptions. Some exemptions can be claimed when filing the tax return, but others must be approved by the exchange before the return can be filed. Folks without coverage will have to complete a confusing worksheet to figure the penalty tax for each month they and their dependents were uninsured and not eligible for exemption.
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Year-End Tax Planning and AMT
Don’t forget the alternative minimum tax as you make year-end tax-planning moves. Taking certain types of deductions will make you more likely to owe the AMT. Many write-offs, such as state income taxes, property taxes and most miscellaneous deductions, must be added back when calculating AMT liability. So popular tax-reduction moves to accelerate deductions into
2014 might not save you any tax if you’re subject to the AMT. For example, prepaying your
fourth-quarter estimate of state income tax in 2014 rather than in January 2015 won’t help.
-Personal Finance Advisor *********************************************
TAX IDENTITY THEFT
Identity theft has hit online tax filing in a big way. The newest band of identity thieves file taxes online under stolen names to get fraudulent returns. The IRS issued about $3.6 billion in refunds for fraudulent returns in 2011, according to a report from the US Treasury Depart-ment.
If you become a victim, you can dig out from identity theft, tax-related or otherwise. It takes patience and
solid information. Thankfully, there’s plenty of help
online from the government to sort out, battle and pre-vent these crimes. Check out these two useful websites: For more information and help with tax identity theft, go to the Internal Revenue Service’s site.
For more on all types of identity theft, go to the Federal Trade Commission’s site.
- More Within Reach
IMPORTANT DATES IN
APRIL
1—April Fools Day
5—Easter
The New Revolution In Selling
By Lori Williams, CTS, CPC, CSPThe times they are a changin’ … I’ve been in sales my entire professional career and for the most part, sales was sales. Yes, we went through some
minor changes and buzz words but the process was still a process and nothing was that radical. But, to-day, today it’s so very different and I’m not really sure what the final outcome will be but, I do know it’s all different now. So much so, that it makes me think about how we train new sales people, how do we re -tool the existing, how do we tweak the sales process and how do we stay on top of all these changes? The first thing that is different – sales people need to be skilled in connecting with people. And I’m not talking about your traditional networking or the old school method of cold calling! No, this is far more in depth and a complete change in thought. I’ve recently done some research on the concept and compa-nies are now hiring what they call “Super Connectors”. Super Connectors are people with more than just a strong social media following and lots of friends. They’re people who are making high-level connections on a regular basis through methodical and well thought out — albeit “simple” — introductions. A connec-tor is someone that almost acts like a broker, putting people together that can help each other or work together in some way. So, it goes against the old networking style of you asking for something – you’re now offering to help others. You know, the Golden Rule. It’s not about you but, how can you help them. There are so many reciprocal benefits to this concept! The law of reciprocity does work. Think about it. In the consultative sales process the most important step is diagnosing the needs of the buyer. This is as-suming that the buyer doesn’t understand their needs. Today, the buyer has the internet – they under-stand and they know what they want! By the time the buyer talks to a sales person they are more than halfway through the traditional sales process. They’ve already done the research via the web, social me-dia, and their friends on Facebook and received referrals. This “connecting” happens way before the sales process and you need others to connect these buyers to you.
Once the connection has been made the sales person just needs to demonstrate an understanding of their needs. For example, today if we don’t feel well the first thing we do is surf the internet for informa-tion. By the time we go to the doctor we have a good idea of what’s wrong, we just need confirmation of our problem, help, guidance and the authority for the prescription! Same goes for your Buyers.
It is now up to your ability to persuade the buyer that you’re the best option because they do have lots of options. I mean, why you? What makes you different? How can you increase my return on investment and minimize my risk at the same time? How can you help me?
The final step is collaboration. This is the new buzz word used in everything but buyers want you to work
with them in the process. Educate them. Provide options, alternatives. Acting more as their tour guide.
