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MAC MILLIONAIRE
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| "Most of our major managers have never worked anywhere else, so we've been able to create a homegrown vision." |
"We (MacTemps) have a unique advantage in our company, because when we first started, we had an idealistic vision of what a company should be like and we've been able to keep to that over the years," Says Chuang. "Most of our major managers have never worked anywhere else, so we've been able to create a homegrown vision. This is a very flat-structured company. There isn't a lot of hierarchy. We have only one manager in each market who deals with the clients, the employees and the headquarters. There is no middle person. What we try to do is replace control mechanisms with a lot of trust, not people looking over your shoulder all the time. Every manager, for example, has the ability to make monetary decisions without going through various levels of approvals. For example, if a customer is unhappy with the service for whatever reason, or if adjustments need to be made on any account, that staffer can take care of it right there." Any staffer can also see that a temp is reimbursed for any training he or she enrolls in.
Chuang wants to make Mactemps a very special place for people to work. Which is all the more important when one realizes that not everyone gets to work there. "Unlike a lot of temp agencies, we don't hire just everyone. The testing and screening is very tough. We want someone who has a mastery of skills, not just a cursory knowledge. Then we look for a certain attitude. Someone has to want to do this job, not just be looking for something in between other jobs."
"We also interview each candidate in person," he adds. "We know what our people can do, and we also offer services like a software library to help our temps improve their skills."
Though the original idea for MacTemps was to capitalize on the Mac graphics revolution, the company has since expanded to include PC/Windows experts as well. However, it's from the Mac that the company receives its unique flavor. The Macintosh and its software are the tools of choice for most of the leading design, graphics and multimedia companies in the world. Thus, if one hires a Mac-based work force, one hires a creative work force. No one really uses a Mac to do its spreadsheeets. They use them to create. A company filled with Mac experts will be filled with artists and people who bring a unique vision to any assignment.
"We want to treat our temps like employees and individuals," says Chuang, "not just names on a roster. We seek the best assignments and we want them to do interesting work, great design work, and learn and be challenged." Thus Chuang enjoys a very loyal work force. Oftentimes the company will sponsor daylong training sessions at no expense to the temps, to sharpen and hone their skills, or on the flip side, the company will simply schedule an impromptu get-together for its employees. Thus their loyalties are rewarded. "A while back," says Chuang, "we took all of the employees who'd been here at least 3 years (about 50 total) to Cancun."
In March of 1993, John Chuang revolutionized the temp employee industry by introducing the company's innovative health, 401(K) retirement and vacation benefits plans for its employees. The New York Times called the plan "..the envy of many permanent workers." Those employees working 300 hours in a ten-week period are eligible for conmprehensive long-term health care coverage, full disability insurance and complete dental converage for preventive care. MacTemps pays 60% of the cost for long term health care, and 100% of disabiliity insurance and preventive health care. Employees who manage to work 1,900 hours in a 52-week period will receive full health benefits at no cost. In addition, MacTemps offers family coverage as an option to its employees and in 1995, the company expanded its benefits to include a dependent care reimbursement plan.
"We wanted to redefine the staffing industry, not replicate existing practices," says Chuang. "The benefits program is a major step in that direction."
Obviously John Chuang has learned the lesson that a valued employee is a valuable employee and he has taken that idea and spread it across the nation, indeed around the world, redefining the word "temporary" in the process.
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