Writing Assistance Newsrooom

President of National Technical Writing Staffing Firm, Writing Assistance, offers Advice when Hiring Contract Workers in New Video

MINNEAPOLIS – February 8, 2007 – www.writingassist.com – Writing Assistance President, Scott Hartmann, is offering Human Resources (HR) departments the need to know information when hiring specialized technical writing staff.

Hartmann, who has led his technical writing staffing firm to a 60% increase in revenue year to date over 2005, is helping HR departments understand how to ensure a successful hire.

“Using a niche or specialized staffing service is often more efficient than working with a generalized staffing firm when hiring specialty staff like technical writers,” said Scott Hartmann, President of Writing Assistance. “Our customers, when working with our technical writers, have experienced a decreased ramp up time, hires require less supervision and take less time away from subject matter experts and staff. It is important to hire the right person as it is very expensive to hire the wrong person.”

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By Kerri Harris

Effective communication is a manager’s greatest tool in rallying groups toward a common cause. From the annual department address to daily email, careful audience consideration is vital in determining how accurately audiences receive messages. Even the most engaging statements lose meaning when barriers to effective communication foster misconception and confusion.

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by Whitney Potsus

Quick! Answer the following questions without putting a lot of thought into them. We want your instinctive, knee-jerk first response.

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by Karen O’Keefe

The technical communications profession involves a unique mix of technical and communication skills, which is not easy to find. Most managers have had the experience of interviewing and subsequently hiring a candidate who later turns out not to be the right person for the job. This situation begs the question of how to identify which candidate is a good fit for a given position. The answer is that there are five key activities that make the difference between a successful hiring decision and a not-so-successful one. We have all been on both sides of the interview, and this article will attempt to make you, the interviewer, more successful.

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by Kerri Harris

Today’s business climate of outsourcing, in-sourcing, virtual teams, and ROI-driven objectives can leave a manager at any level feeling powerless. Yet, we often see examples of those who can elicit unwavering support from their teams, driving highly effective projects, and getting the best performance from employees despite ever-increasing workloads. What is it about these individuals that makes them stand out as great leaders? Generally, the answer is the difference between a strict management model and one that includes basic principals of leadership. There are recognizable characteristics in great leaders and simple strategies anyone can adopt to improve employee performance and change the work environment for the better.

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by Aparna Datta

With our economy still on the down slope, it is difficult for technical managers to justify keeping an excessive amount of technical writers on their staffs, let alone hiring new ones. In many cases, managers feel they don’t even need writers, arguing that everyone has writing ability. Of course, today’s technical writers not only write, they also perform many other tasks: programming, web development, training, and so on. Add to that the fact that many are also highly trained and certified in other areas besides writing.

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by Robert King

When you first ventured into the tech writing ranks, marketing the department was likely the furthest thing from your mind. You already had work to do, so marketing was somebody else’s job.

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by Margie Yundt and Sherry McMenemy

It’s in the numbers. Creating documentation is not an exact science, yet as communication leaders, we are expected to provide real estimates for how much time we need to document a project, or what we can produce given a predetermined timeline.

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by Kerri Harris

Conflict is characteristic in any situation that brings diverse groups together to manage tasks and obstacles. Nowhere is that more apparent than in business environments based on hierarchical structures where teams are inherited and divergent objectives create barriers to effective teamwork. Conflict resolution is among the many tasks delegated to managers, yet it is often the most difficult to master.

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Writing Assistance’s focus on technical writing proves a solid strategy after 73 percent growth over 2005

Minneapolis – November 2, 2006 – www.writingassist.com – Writing Assistance, Inc, the leading contract technical writing firm, has been named a Twin Cities Business Journal Growth 50 firm.

Writing Assistance, ranked number 46 in the 2006 Fast 50, has experienced 73.49 percent growth in 2006 over the year 2005.

“Writing Assistance’ focus on technical documentation, in particular software documentation, plays a large part in our continued success,” said Scott Hartmann, President of Writing Assistance. “Our ability to remain focused on our core strengths has enabled us to become a leader in the technical documentation field and therefore gain more business.”

Writing Assistance contract technical writers are highly versed in the technology industry and offer documentation including:
• User guides
• Programmer’s Guides
• Software documentation
• ISO 9000 documentation
• Operator’s manuals
• Technical Reference manuals
• Maintenance Manuals
• Disaster Recovery and SOX documentation

To request a quote from Writing Assistance, please email sales@writingassist.com or call 877-392-9772.

About Writing Assistance
Writing Assistance, Inc., a leader in contract technical writing, copy writing, web content specialists and training developers is dedicated to the proper placement of contract writers nationwide. Founded in 1991, Writing Assistance now serves over 2500 clients. Writing Assistance offers the expert writing services of more than 15,000 writers nationwide offering both on and off location services.

www.writingassist.com