TRUE Group

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

2011-12-20T11:37:00.000-05:00

Over the past few weeks our office building has started to look more and more like Christmas. Tree's are going up, wreaths are being hung on more and more doors each day, I even find myself searching for the "Christmas all the time" station on my iPhone during the day.

Pardon the fact that I haven't posted a blog since...September. The fourth quarter is the busiest time of year in the staffing world so we have been working away and time just seemed to pass right along. Now that we are in the week of Christmas I can't believe the year is almost over. Did 2011 move faster than any of you? It certainly moved faster than I had anticipated!

In the past year we have continued to grow the TRUE Group name and had the grand opening of our Upstate office in Spartanburg, SC. We are very excited for the economic grow in our industry and look forward to continuing to help so many people find work and provide our clients with talented staff.

Until 2012 we wish you all a very Merry Christmas from TRUE Group!

Halloween, 80's hair bands and Apartment Associations!

2011-09-29T15:45:00.000-04:00

TRUE Group attended the 2011 Apartment Association of Greater Columbia's Expo and had a blast! This year's theme was concerts. I know it gets your mind going directly to 80's hair bands, Madonna style TuTu's and crazy blonde hair right?!

This is a shoot of the Apartment Guide's awesome karaoke stage! No I didn't sing, but Matt really wanted too!

While there was plenty of that, TRUE Group went in a different direction and went full on COUNTRY STYLE! That's right I rocked my "Taylor Swift" look with cowGIRL boots & jean jacket and Debbie in her cowGIRL hat, we were quite the pair!

Matt enjoyed this way too much! He even brought his guitar!

Why did we decide to step outside of the 80's "fun" box? Well because we were giving away Trace Atkins tickets in the door prize! Congrats to a lucky winner who will get to sit floor center for the Trace Atkins show at the SC State Fair this year!

We had a great time and look forward to next year's AAGC Expo!

Building Relationships

2011-08-29T16:05:00.001-04:00

In recent years the term "building relationships" has changed drastically in what it actually means in terms of business. Many years ago when I started working in the staffing industry our sales procedure was face to face, as I am sure many companies believed as well. As the years have gone by and positions have expanded in responsibility due to economic crunch, not many managers have time for face to face sales meetings. Instead, they prefer email. I can talk on the phone and answer a emails at the same time! After all it is all about multitasking right? A couple of years back we were on the cusp of mass email updates to our clients... boy was that tough to keep up with! Now we have the wonderful world of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Blogging to reach our clients on their terms and at their convenience.

The idea of building a business relationship via Internet seemed very impersonal to me and my sales team at first. Coming from a girl who still enjoys receiving snail mail, but that is beside the point! It turns out this is the direction our future is headed. Given new technology people can communicate to several different outlets via Smart Phone technology. I can check all three email accounts, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook before even leaving the bed in the AM within about 5 minutes. How easy is that? Of course we love it!

So we invite you to join us in this crazy, fast world of social media and "Like" us on Facebook, "Follow" me and/or TRUE Group on Twitter, "Connect" with me on LinkedIn and get your RSS feed to our Blog!

Even though this is all new and exciting we do still love to get out in the community and away from our desk (every now and then) for some fun and face to face interaction. This past week Matt attended the Upstate Apartment Association in Greenville.

The Apartment Association has been a great networking tool for TRUE Group and given us the opportunity to meet some great people in our community as well as neighboring communities. Come visit us at the AAGC In Concert Expo 2011 hosted by the Apartment Association of Greater Columbia.

*Side note that I found funny!*

We also have moved to a new convenient way to storing our information and connecting through Cloud Servers with VC3 This concept blew me away to be honest at first because the idea of not having your server on sight and sharing it with hundreds of other people scared me (for confidentiality reasons). However, it's really cool and makes for a really simple I.T. solution. I have to laugh out loud at this moment, because as I am typing this we just had a power outage and I may be working in the dark, but I am still working with no problem thanks to my battery backup!

How clean is your social media "resume"?

2011-08-17T16:44:00.000-04:00

This week I, along with Matt, attended the Social Crush seminar at the Columbia Convention Center. When we heard they were coming to town, we signed up immediately! With the social networking world exploding the way that it is, I needed a catch me up! This also let me know exactly how much work I have to do in order stay up to date on my social media, I can't have people forgetting TRUE Group!

Matt with Columbia City Mayor, Steve Benjamin

So this brings me to my title question... How clean is your social media "resume"? Most people use Twitter and Facebook as a way to primarily communicate with their friends and family, but did you know that most companies will now "Google" you to find your social networks when you apply for a job? Seems like an invasion of privacy, wrong! Anything, and I mean anything you put on the Internet is fair game for employer's and many have had no problem using that as a hiring tool.

Here are some great tips we learned to clean up your act:

1. Keep your profile picture respectable. Your profile picture is the first impression that anyone sees of you online, don't start off on the wrong foot. This doesn't need to be a professional head shot image but a bikini pic or you holding the trophy from the beer chugging contest you won certainly isn't the best impression!

2. Follow the right people. Twitter and Facebook are widely used as a way to talk to your friends, but when looking for a job they can be a great networking tool without leaving your computer, or smart phone. If you are looking for a job, follow local business owners, the chamber in your area or local non-profit organizations so you can get involved and create more engagement on your Twitter and Facebook. Following Lady GaGa isn't going to be someone who helps you further your potential career!

3. Watch what you type. Remember every time you post a comment, status or picture that you aren't sabotaging yourself by presenting a false image of who you really are professionally. Using foul language or slang could make you seem very unprofessional and can hurt your online following of professional who can help you meet the right people.

4. Use pictures. People love pictures! Do deny that if you see a bunch of text on a site you are less likely to read it. If you see pictures you want to know what it is or if you know someone in it. For example if you are attending a function of a non-profit organization, add a picture with your check in or your tweet. This could be anything... of the massive crowd who attended or the sign at the entrance just use your imagination and draw more attention to your posts!

5. "Social Media it up". Even though you may think, "who cares if I am attending a conference right now?", people do and you are making impressions by showing up on their Twitter or Facebook feed. Use your #tags and tag people in your post to create more engagement for as many possible networking opportunities.

Go get your tweet on!

Welcome to our new home!

2011-08-06T07:58:00.000-04:00

Well I promised a new blog post once a week (at least) and I must admit I am getting this in right under the wire on a Saturday morning! We have been in our new office for right at a month now and are almost settled in. Being so busy doesn't make it easy to unpack but I will never complain about our business being too busy! It's a great problem to have and we love being able to find great applicants , great jobs!

I had a little time to snap a few pictures of our new home for those of you who haven't had a chance to come visit yet.

Personally this is my favorite spot even though I haven't had a chance to visit it yet, but I could see a TRUE Group sponsored happy hour here, what do you think?

What we're all about...

2011-07-28T16:17:00.003-04:00

The Really Useful Employment Group, or better known as TRUE Group is a Columbia, SC based employment agency. We have combined over 30 years of experience in the staffing industry.

TRUE Group is committed to creating better businesses by providing systems, solutions and employees therefore making businesses more productive, lean and profitable.
TRUE Group provides the best employees for our employers by offering solutions that develop better businesses. With more than 30 years experience, our staff can design a wide variety of HR Solutions to help your company excel.
TRUE Group offers contract and contract to hire staffing as well as professional placement services. We will streamline your employment processes, decrease turnover, maintain your unemployment rate and workers compensation experience rating as well as offer payroll management. These are just a few of the business solutions we have to offer.

Offices are located in Columbia, SC, Atlanta, GA, and Greenville, SC
TRUE Group builds Better Businesses, Better Lives

Now that the brochure plug has been completed, I'll elaborate on the purpose of our blog! I'll be honest this is my attempt to keep up with the fast pace technology and make sure you guys are up to date on the day to day working of our business. If you have never worked (temp or perm) for an employment agency, let me tell you... it is fast pace and we tend to get a little crazy busy ~~sometimes~~ most of the time. So I am going to go ahead and apologize if my posts aren't consistently on the same day each week, but you will get one each week to keep you in the loop!
A little bit about me... I began working for TRUE Group in 2006 and have been working away to give hard working people jobs, meeting a lot of great people (clients and employees) and most of all learning a LOT. Blogging is just one of my many hats these days, but I truly enjoy being a part of the TRUE Group team (I may even be a little spoiled by them).

Our company has expanded as well, in the past year TRUE Group has opened an office in Atlanta, GA and is currently in the process of developing our Greenville, SC office for grand opening (stay tuned). If you are in the Atlanta area and looking for temp labor or a job check them out at 1625 Pleasant Hill Road Suite 215 Duluth, GA 30096.

In the past month, which I can't believe is over already, TRUE Group got a new home! We moved our Columbia office from Colonial Life Blvd. to downtown Columbia.

Jim even contributed to the moving efforts! Matt watched Jim... haha

We've given up our retail store front for a beautiful new office in the Pavilion Office Centers (at Pavilion Towers... with a pool and gym!). For those of you who haven't stopped in to see us or pick up a paycheck, COME SEE US! We love visitors and our new address is 5000 Thurmond Mall Suite 114, Columbia, SC 29201.