Smith Family Funeral Homes has purchased Huson Funeral Home in Sherwood and will rename it Smith Sherwood Funeral Home, the company announced Monday.

Huson Funeral Home is at 7700 Highway 107 — the corner of Highway 107 and Club Road. Smith declined to disclose the purchase price.

The Smith family has owned Smith North Little Rock Funeral Home for more than 60 years. In 2015, the company served more than 500 families, almost half of whom were from Sherwood, according to a news release.

"For several years we have wanted a location in Sherwood to better serve our community," owner Jeff Smith said. "The purchase of Huson gives us a more convenient location for our loyal families in Sherwood."

Smith Sherwood has increased Smith's funeral operations to two cemeteries and four funeral homes, including Smith Benton Funeral Home, Smith North Little Rock Funeral Home and Smith Westbrook Funeral Home in Beebe.

Smith said he wants to continue to grow and improve the business.

"We want to be the premier firm in central Arkansas," Smith told Arkansas Business. "We don't have a strategic plan to open more locations in central Arkansas. But if there are opportunities we'd be interested."

Smith said the company would likely expand through acquisition, and not by building new funeral homes.

Included in the deal is Huson Funeral Home's Little Rock location, at 6400 Mabelvale Pike. Smith plans to rent the facility to Arkansas Cremation of Little Rock, which will use it as a branch office.

Arkansas Cremation is funeral home specializing in simple cremations.

"We currently are in a beautiful old home but have no chapel. Renting this location gives us a chapel and expands our presence," Arkansas Cremation Director Jill Carlan said. "Many of our customers have asked us for this, and we are happy we can now offer a chapel for their use."

Digital technology represents the fourth industrial revolution of the U.S., according to CEO of Citadel Securities Kevin Turner at the Northwest Arkansas Technology Summit.

The former Microsoft COO and Sam’s Club CEO was the keynote speaker at the summit on Friday at the Hammons Convention Center in Rogers. The third annual event had 44 breakout sessions featuring 72 business and educational leaders.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson gave brief remarks shortly before Turner’s keynote and encouraged technological companies to think about doing business with and in the state.

“Arkansas is the right place to do technological business,” Hutchinson said. “Arkansas produces entrepreneurs. Now we are producing them in the technological sector.”

Turner spent 20 years at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville where he was named a chief executive at age 29. He spent 11 years at Microsoft before joining Citadel, an investment firm.

“You think about the opportunity you have, no matter where you’re at — small business, big business, medium-sized business; every company aspires to be a digital company,” Turner said. “I think it is fantastic that you have a local coffee shop that has an app that you can use and it makes them look and feel like a Starbucks. It is the great equalizer. Whether you’re small or big, it’s an opportunity for you to punch above your weight. It’s an opportunity for you to really convey a business presence that is much more beyond your footprint. That has never existed like it does today in business.”

Turner said he believes five technological advances will soon disrupt the business environment including artificial intelligence, predictive analytics and machine learning that leads to deep learning.

The technological changes are forcing leaders to change. The challenge, Turner said, was how to change while continuing to perform, as he said Microsoft was not able to take a fiscal quarter off to work on its Cloud network.

“When you think about this idea that it is hard to do two things at once; it’s not if learning is at the center of what you’re doing,” Turner said. “It’s important in this era that companies move from being a know-it-all company to aspiring to be a learn-it-all company.”

Turner said he has learned eight key ideas about being a leader in this digital age. They included the idea that the future belongs to the fast, done is better than perfect and finding the balance between performance and learning.

When it comes to hiring employees, Turner said he has found that energy and a hunger to learn are more important than experience.

Maf Sonko founded LumoXchange in 2015 and serves as the startup’s CEO. He previously worked for six years at PepsiCo, first as a warehouse strategy manager then as a senior manager in supply chain operations. From 2008-10, Sonko was a systems engineer at Swisslog Logistics Inc. in Virginia and, from 2007-08, he was an industrial engineer for Milliken & Co. of South Carolina. Sonko has a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Manchester and a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from North Carolina State University.

Maf Sonko completed the Venture Center’s inaugural FinTech Accelerator held in Little Rock. His startup was one of 10 chosen from 150 applicants and is planning to move to Little Rock next year. Participants received a $50,000 initial investment for a 6 percent equity position.

Could you explain what your company does and why your service is needed?

LumoXchange is the Expedia.com for global money transfers. We help our customers find the best exchange rates when sending money abroad, reducing the cost of sending money by up to 50 percent versus the competition.

There are over 250 million people across the world who, combined, send over $600 billion in cross-border payments, and 40 percent is sent to developing countries. Our model helps reduce the cost to send money and helps millions of families who rely on the financial support get more for each dollar that is sent.

Why are you moving to Little Rock?

We choose to relocate to Little Rock from Atlanta, Georgia, for two reasons. First, we secured a partnership with Bear State Bank, which is one of the most innovative banks in Arkansas and the region to offer global money transfers for U.S. residents. So being in the same city helps in maintaining a strong relationship with our partner.

Second, we like the city of Little Rock because of the budding entrepreneurial environment. Support from the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, Venture Center and the business community has been great, from mid-level managers to executives at some of the biggest institutions.

What is a financial technology accelerator?

An accelerator is an intensive 12- to 13-week boot camp that helps FinTechs quickly validate, develop and scale business ideas into real ventures in a very short period.

What did you learn from participating in the first FinTech Accelerator that ended in August?

The program helped us navigate the regulatory hurdles that were barrier to entry into the market and, with their support, we were able to significantly increase our speed to market through partnerships we were able to make during the program.

What advice would you give to other financial technology startups?

My advice to any startup is to remain focused on your product or service and not to get distracted when you are in the early stages of your startup. Oftentimes, you find a lot of applications or parallel services you can provide with your startup, but you can’t go after them all. It is important to write those down, include it in your roadmap and focus on how you can quickly and most effectively enter the market with the biggest splash.

Why do you think FinTech is a promising industry?

Financial services is going through a transformation with what the industry calls the “unbundling” of banks, where auxiliary services outside of core banking are being disrupted by tech startups, and these are billion-dollar opportunities that FinTechs are going after. FinTech companies are innovating faster than banks, which means banks now have to think of new ways to generate revenue or innovate to keep more services in-house. So there is a lot of interest in this space because of large financial opportunity at stake.

How many times have you heard a phrase such as, “With all due respect …” or “I don’t want to scare you, but …” and you know nothing good is going to be said once the statement is completed? Sooo … I don’t want to scare you, but there is significant circumstantial evidence that union organizing efforts in companies of all sizes — from mammoth businesses such as Walmart to the local electrical or carpentry shop — are likely to rise at an alarming rate in the next year or two.

The increase in union organizing efforts is being driven at least in part by a series of National Labor Relations Board decisions as well as apparent recent changes in union focus. In addition, the NLRB changes have gathered significant support from current White House cabinet offices such as the Department of Labor and the Justice Department, whose rule-making and enforcement authority has provided teeth for the new NLRB regulations.

In the last four years, we have seen the following issues:

• Approval of micro-bargaining units for purposes of organizing workers. These micro-bargaining units and the potential problems they create for business are illustrated by a recent NLRB ruling that the cosmetics and fragrances department employees in a single Macy’s store were a distinct bargaining unit for the purposes of unionization and collective bargaining with the employer. This creates the possibility of companies having to bargain with multiple unions representing multiple small groups within one business.

• A new NLRB rule allowing what are known as ambush elections to take place within as little as 10 days of the filing of an initial petition for a union vote. Historically, it was about 40 days between the filing of the petition and the election — an amount of time that allowed the employer to create a strategy to fight the organizing drive and to counter union arguments (legally!) in meetings with their employees.

• An apparent shift in union strategies toward organizing smaller companies — and even subsets of employees within those companies — based on the allowance of the micro-bargaining units above. Again, an illustration here is the Macy’s unionizing drive above.

• A new joint-employer ruling by the NLRB that will require employers who use staffing agencies to enter into multi-employer bargaining agreements if the employees of both entities organize into a single bargaining unit.

The NLRB decision allows the contingent staffing company workers to join with the primary employer’s workforce in creating these bargaining units without consent from either employer.

While a Wall Street Journal headline earlier this year noted that “New NLRB Election Rules Haven’t Helped Unions Grow as Expected” yet, there is little reason for companies to let their guard down at this point.

So what does a company need to do in response to this activism at the federal level? The primary requirements are as follows:

• Train all managers and supervisors concerning what to watch for in their workforce that might give them advance warning of potential attempts to organize employee units, and remember that it doesn’t have to be the entire organization!

• Have at least a rudimentary plan concerning what information needs to be disseminated to your employees immediately upon learning of an organizing vote. Create the materials and have your attorneys ensure that those materials are within current legal limits.

• Help managers and supervisors develop talking points concerning the negative aspects of unionization that they can use immediately if union discussions come up at work. For example, the manager can note that skill level and performance will not allow employees to move up in the organization under most union contracts. The only determinant of promotion in many unionized organizations is how long the person has been at the company. So a hard worker won’t gain any advantage in a union contract-driven organization.

With all due respect, if you don’t prepare for the possibility of a unionizing drive at your workplace, you probably deserve what you get.

John Hendon is co-author of a human resource management book and a senior instructor in human resources and management at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Email him at JRHendon@UALR.edu.

A northeast Arkansas company, AutoMail, has been added to a new virtual exhibit by the Smithsonian Institution’s National Postal Museum in recognition of technology it developed in the 1990s that helped community banks save money through manifest mailing.

The exhibit is focused on the partnership of the U.S. Postal Service and private industry.

Automail is both the name of the business owned by Trinamic Corp. of Jonesboro and its flagship manifest mailing software. Trinamic also owns print-to-mail service provider Document Output Center.

Manifest mailing is the process of presenting bulk mailings to the post office in the same order that it would be delivered by a carrier, saving the USPS the middle step of sorting, according to AutoMail owner Harry Herget. The savings on postage can be as much as 25 percent, and banks were traditionally the largest users of first-class bulk mail.

AutoMail’s relationship with USPS began before the flagship software and company were thought of, when Herget and his partner, Steve Smith, were certified by USPS in 1994.

At that time, Herget owned an advertising agency and Smith owned a business that acquired mailing lists, printed, addressed and mailed materials for its clients. The year before, the two men had become involved in helping banks use a new technology called check imaging to convert the around 70 billion paper checks into digital copies.

So banks were already Herget’s and Smith’s main customers when they became certified business partners with the USPS, and their job as such was to encourage companies to use manifest mailing.

Aside from the discounts, another benefit of manifest mailing was accurate addresses so that each piece of mail actually had a delivery point, Herget said. That meant the companies who participated in manifest mailing not only paid less for it but could be more confident that their mail would be seen by the target audience.

But, when Herget and Smith tried to convince their bank customers to use manifest mailing, banks asked for a product that would do that. And there was the rub.

“The post office got ahead of itself,” Herget said.

One company, Group 1, sold programming language. The average price was $200,000, Herget said, and that was just the start.

“How many banks, you know, had developers on staff that could take programming language in and know exactly how to write interfaces? … It’s not going to happen,” he said. “Well, you’re not going to sell that to anybody but huge customers.”

So Herget and Smith decided to develop an affordable solution that every bank could use — AutoMail.

The software counts pages, weighs material to be mailed, allows for inserts into any given bank statement, codes addresses and sorts the items of differing weights. It eliminates the need for stamps by placing a specific imprint on the mail, Herget said, so banks also save on special inks and metering equipment.

AutoMail is still the only solution of its kind and has been used to process four to five billion pieces of mail since it was developed, he said. It has also saved banks over $1 billion in postage, mailroom labor, equipment and consumable costs. Herget added that 1,400 banks use AutoMail, including 16 or 17 of the 25 largest banks in Arkansas.

The company offers a return-on-investment pricing model, documenting for banks how much savings AutoMail creates and basing its fee on that. Herget said 10 months of postage costs equate to the licensing fee for the software.

Even with the stunning lack of competition, AutoMail has had its struggles. The Great Recession reduced the number of banks through failures and consolidations. Banking was no longer a growth market for AutoMail, in part because banks were ready to outsource the mailroom function.

To get in on that market, Herget and Smith in 2009 added a print-to-mail business called Document Output Center. They approached banks that had been using AutoMail and many signed up for the DOC service that has grown by an average annual rate of 146 percent in the past five years and processes more than 18 million items a year, Herget said.

Bank of the Ozarks Inc., the publicly traded bank that is the largest based in Arkansas, is the DOC’s largest customer, but DOC also provides print-to-mail services to utilities and medical billers.

Land for a corporate campus in west Little Rock was assembled in deals totaling $12.57 million.

Little Rock’s Bank of the Ozarks Inc. acquired about 46.2 acres of mostly undeveloped property in a series with:

• Ranch Properties Inc., led by Ed Willis, 23.53 acres for $7.88 million;
• FCC Tract D Partnership, also led by Willis, 13.41 acres for $3.11 million;
• Saddle Creek Church, the 8.18-acre church campus at 18020 Cantrell Road for $1.4 million; and
• FC Grass Farms LLC, led by Willis, 1.06 acres for $169,222.

The church property was purchased for $205,000 in June 1995 from the Pulaski County Baptist Association Inc.

The rest of the land was bought in August 1984 as part of a $2.15 million deal with Johnson Land Co., led by Glenn H. Johnson.

Industrial Transaction

A 70,000-SF industrial building in Jacksonville tipped the scales at $2.5 million.

Jacksonville Chamber Foundation Inc., led by Mike Wilson, purchased the 1809 Swift Drive project to house production of SIG Sauer’s elite performance ammunition. The seller is Meador Brother’s LLC Co., led by Greg Meador.

The deal is funded with a 10-year loan of $2.5 million from First Arkansas Bank & Trust of Jacksonville.

The 8.57-acre development previously was tied to an April 2008 mortgage of $2.7 million and August 202011 mortgages totaling $400,000 held by First State Bank of Russellville.

The land was acquired for $85,700 in March 2005 from the city of Jacksonville.

Convenient Buy I

A 4,742-SF convenience store in Little Rock weighed in at $950,000.

Han & Son Inc., led by Keong Suk Son, bought the Superstop project at 3100 W. Roosevelt Road and an adjoining undeveloped 1.76-acre parcel. The seller is Kim Properties LLC, led by Grace Kim.

The deal is backed with a three-year loan of $712,500 from First Arkansas

Bank & Trust and a one-year loan of $120,000 from Kim Properties.

The property was assembled in two deals totaling $180,000.

The sellers were McDonald’s Corp. of Oak Brook, Illinois, $120,000 in October 2003, and Razorback Bail Bonds Inc., led by Ronald Oliver, $60,000 in May 2004.

Warehouse Acquisition

A 38,000-SF warehouse project in east Little Rock sold for $835,000.

Ben Davis Properties Management LLC, led by Ben and Diane Davis, acquired the 3101 Dugan Drive project. The seller is ABP AR (Little Rock) LLC, an affiliate of Bluelinx Corp. of Atlanta.

The deal is financed with a five-year loan of $709,750 from Community First Bank of Pea Ridge (Benton County).

The 9.31-acre development previously helped secure a June 2006 mortgage of $295 million held by German American Capital Corp. of New York.

The land was assembled in two transactions with the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Co., $8,500 in January 1965 and $5,000 in February 1973.

Retail Purchase

A 5,440-SF retail project in downtown North Little Rock changed hands in a $650,000 deal.

Kiyen Investments LLC, led by Kiyen Kim, purchased the Argenta Market at 521 Main St. The seller is Old Silver City LLC, led by John Gaudin.

The deal is funded with a four-year loan of $536,000 from One Bank & Trust of Little Rock.

A 0.24-acre development previously was linked with a January 2007 mortgage of $690,000 held by Summit Bank of Arkadelphia.

The property was acquired for $350,000 in May 2006 from Bell Thacker Enterprises LLC, led by Ian Thacker.

Convenient Buy II

A 3,082-SF convenience store in North Little Rock rang up a $500,000 sale.

8701 Maumelle LLC, led by Mohammad Honarmand, bought the closed Citgo at 8701 Maumelle Blvd. The seller is J.N.H.L.M. Inc., led by David Jones.

The deal is backed with a five-year loan of $425,000 from the seller.

The 1.36-acre location was purchased for $494,000 in July 1987 from William Putnam.

Recycled Office

An 11,700-SF office building in Maumelle drew a $490,000 transaction.

Vision Outdoor Media LLC, led by William and Sharon Smith and Ronald and Glenda Smith, acquired the former Maumelle Athletic Club at 2 Country Club Circle from Centennial Bank of Conway.

The deal is financed with a three-year loan of $444,000 from Bear State Bank of Little Rock.

Karmmik LLC, led by Mark and Kim Bingman, forfeited the 2.37-acre development to Centennial in June 2014 in lieu of foreclosure.

The property was tied to a November 2008 mortgage of $1.4 million originated by Jonesboro’s Liberty Bank of Arkansas.

Mini-Storage Land

An undeveloped 4-acre parcel in Sherwood is under new ownership after a $300,000 sale.

Mini Storage Service Co. LLC, led by Terry Bean, purchased the land near the southeast corner of Manson Road and Jan Drive. The seller is Meyer Rentals LLC, led by Keith Meyer.

The property is helping secure a five-year loan of $1.2 million from First Security Bank of Searcy.

The Meyer family has owned the property for more than 36 years.

Prospect Abode

A 2,816-SF home in Little Rock’s Prospect Terrace neighborhood sold for $795,000.

Susanna Shermer and Mechan Vanderpool bought the house from David Weed. The deal is funded with a 30-year loan of $636,000 from Regions Bank of Birmingham, Alabama.

The residence previously was linked with October 2015 mortgages of $417,000 and $227,800 held by Simmons Bank of Pine Bluff.

The property was purchased for $449,000 in February 2002 from AC/DC Investments Ltd., led by Angie and Dennis Cooper.

Woodland’s House

A 4,925-SF home in the Woodland’s Edge neighborhood of west Little Rock changed hands in a $705,000 deal.

Nicholas and Jamie Booker acquired the house from the Michael and Valerie Moran Family Revocable Trust.

The deal is backed with a 30-year loan of $564,000 from Regions Bank.

The residence previously was tied to a November 2012 mortgage of $416,250 held by Arvest Mortgage of Lowell.

The location was bought for $58,000 in February 2012 from RLA Watkins Ltd., led by Robert and Lauren Watkins.

Courts Residence

A 4,680-SF home in The Courts neighborhood of west Little Rock’s Chenal Valley development rang up a $537,500 sale.

Nawab and Akhtar Ali purchased the house from Thomas and Jennifer Pledger.

The deal is financed with a 15-year loan of $417,000 from First Financial

Bank of El Dorado. The residence previously was linked with a June 2015 mortgage of $352,000 from BNC National Bank of Glendale, Arizona.

The Pledgers acquired the property for $450,000 in December 2013 from One Bank.

Foxcroft Home

A 3,366-SF home in Little Rock’s Foxcroft neighborhood drew a $530,000 transaction.

Michael and Sara Koger bought the house from the namesake revocable trusts of James and Meredith Hugg.

The deal is funded with a 30-year loan of $380,000 from Bank of Little Rock Mortgage Corp.

The residence previously was tied to a February 2013 mortgage of $367,000 held by BOKF of Tulsa.

The Huggs purchased the property for $375,000 in June 2006 from Jon Sharon Bailey.

Eight-Digit Construction

Landmark Apartments   $19,400,000
16000 Rushmore Ave., Little Rock
VCC LLC, Little Rock

Brandon Woodrome was a young man in a hurry: out of school early, married early, starting businesses early. He even ran for office before he was old enough to drink.

In 2013, the year he turned 26, his Fort Smith construction company, Behr LLC, generated $10.2 million in revenue, and Woodrome had a number of projects in the pipeline.

But things weren’t what they seemed.

“What happened was our growth outpaced our actual sales,” Woodrome said last week in an interview with Arkansas Business. “And instead of responding to a decline in sales by controlling overhead expenses, I just tried to push through and underbid projects. It compounded the problems.”

On Sept. 22, three days before his 29th birthday, Woodrome waived indictment and plead guilty to one count each of bank fraud and wire fraud in U.S. District Court in the Western District of Arkansas. He admitted to receiving more than $2.1 million from First Western Bank of Booneville and a finance company in Texas by submitting fraudulent invoices, crimes for which he faces years in federal prison.

While cooperating with federal law enforcement agents, Woodrome also was dealing with his own personal bankruptcy and one for Behr.

“It’s really painful,” Woodrome said in describing the bankruptcies. “I left so many people unpaid.”

In addition to interviewing Woodrome, Arkansas Business reviewed several lawsuits against him and Behr and delved into their bankruptcy filings to take a look into what happened to the young developer who grew up fast and quickly self-destructed.

Fast Start
Born in 1987, Woodrome said he didn’t have stable childhood.

“Since I was a kid, I’ve had to take care of myself,” he said. “My mom left when I was in the third grade, and then my dad’s rights were terminated as a parent when I was in my early teens.”

He spent some time in foster care and then was reunited with his mother.

When he was 16, he started working for a Fort Smith construction company. Within three months, he was moved into the front office and began learning about projects. “I was seeing all the different phases of the job,” Woodrome said.

Woodrome graduated from high school early by taking extra classes. He got married at 17, and he and his wife, Heather, now have four children.

Woodrome started his first construction business in 2007, when he was 19. He called it Heatherwood Homes LLC.

He said he obtained construction loans to fund his business model, which was simple: Woodrome would build a duplex and then rent it out until he found an investor to buy it.

He completed two duplexes the first year in business, five the next and 20 the following year.

“And it just kind of grew from there,” Woodrome said.

In early 2008, when he was 20, he sought the Republican nomination to represent Arkansas House District 64, which covered a portion of Fort Smith, but lost to Stephanie Malone by 23 votes.

Woodrome turned to commercial construction projects and created Behr LLC in 2010.

“The business model worked,” he said. “2010 and 2011 were good years, if I’m remembering correctly.” At its height, Behr had 45 employees.

But in the middle of 2012, he noticed a decline in sales, followed by another down year in 2013.

Behr had $10.2 million in revenue in 2013, which would have ranked it No. 26 on Arkansas Business’ list of largest commercial contractors in the state for that year. The next year, though, revenue plummeted to $6.7 million.

“Trouble really came in 2014,” he said.

Joplin Project
Woodrome said the roots of his financial crimes can be traced to a land deal that collapsed in Joplin, Missouri.

“Instead of just building things … I began to purchase property and develop it and try to sell the end product,” he said.

In 2012, Behr spent $370,000 for 6 undeveloped acres in Joplin with a plan to develop it into apartments. He thought he had lined up a buyer for the finished development, Heow Inc. of Sarasota, Florida. Although no contract was signed, it seemed like a done deal, he said.

But there was a glitch. The loan officer he had worked with left the bank, so his construction loan was delayed for several months.

Meanwhile, Woodrome said, Heow backed out of the deal. (No representative of Heow could be reached for comment.)

“That hurt me,” Woodrome said. “I went from (expecting to make) $1 million on an apartment complex to losing quite a bit of money.”

The project remains undeveloped.

He said he should have learned from that failure. “But I did it again,” Woodrome said. “And it didn’t work out, and it compounded some things.”

Fateful Decision
Woodrome said his cash flow would have allowed his business to survive losing money for a few consecutive months. But without a correction, “eventually it comes to a head,” he said.

And that’s what happened in 2014.

“At that point, I should have closed the books on Behr,” Woodrome said. “I should have said, ‘I’m done.’ ”

Instead, he pushed ahead, hoping that in six to eight months he could have his financial problems worked out.

“And there wouldn’t be a bunch of people holding the bag,” Woodrome said. “So that’s when I decided that I was going to do what I did.”

What he did was this:

In October 2014, Behr obtained a $795,000 construction loan from First Western Bank to buy undeveloped land at South 31st Street and Phoenix Avenue in Fort Smith. He was going to build a medical clinic there, according to the information filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Snyder in the Western District of Arkansas.

Behr started construction the following month. The loan agreement called for Woodrome to submit subcontractors’ invoices to the bank as work was completed. But Woodrome started submitting phony invoices.

Woodrome received more than $300,000 from First Western between November and December 2014 based on fraudulent subcontractor invoices.

And he wasn’t done.

In January 2015, Woodrome created a line of credit with a factoring company, Rioux Capital of Austin, Texas. The arrangement with Rioux allowed him to sell his accounts receivable in exchange for 80 percent of their value.

In February 2015, Behr began building a strip center at 5400 Phoenix Ave. in Fort Smith for a company that owned the undeveloped land. Woodrome, however, submitted invoices to Rioux that were not actually receivables. They were invoices for work that had already been paid for by the landowner.

Between February and July 2015, Woodrome received a total of $7 million from Rioux, with $1.8 million of it coming from fraudulent invoices.

In a Nov. 15 bankruptcy proceeding, a recording of which Arkansas Business reviewed, Woodrome said he used the money to pay bills. And while the influx of money didn’t stop the financial bleeding, Woodrome said he was 60 to 90 days from getting back on track in the middle of 2015.

“At this point, no one knew what was going on,” he said.

Instead, he became suicidal “because what I was doing was in contradiction to what I believed,” he said. “It messed with me a whole lot.”

Woodrome said he decided to confess to Bill Rioux, president at Rioux Capital.

Woodrome took a plane to Texas and met with Rioux in the summer of 2015.

“I confessed to him what I had done,” Woodrome said. “The meeting ended, in my mind, as good as it possibly could have ended. He expressed a willingness to work through this.”

But it wasn’t worked through. Through the first nine and a half months of 2015, Behr’s revenue was just $4.2 million. A year ago this week, Woodrome decided to file for bankruptcy reorganization instead of a liquation.

“Behr was being picked apart by two or three larger or more aggressive creditors to the point that there was going to be nothing left for anyone else,” Woodrome said in the November bankruptcy proceeding. “In the end, [to] provide a distribution of something to more people instead lots to a few, that was the ultimate decision.”

Behr listed $5.7 million in debt and $3.9 million in assets.

Shortly after filing Behr’s bankruptcy, Woodrome confessed to federal agents, who began investigating the case.

Meanwhile, the bankruptcy reorganization didn’t go according to Woodrome’s plans.

In February, the acting trustee, Daniel Casamatta, pushed for Behr’s bankruptcy to be converted to a Chapter 7 liquidation. The company was no longer in operation. It had revenue of a little more than $31,000 between Oct. 14 and Dec. 31 — and about a fourth of that went to pay Woodrome.

“The primary party that benefits from the case remaining in Chapter 11 appears to be Mr. Woodrome,” Casamatta said.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ben Barry agreed and ordered the conversion on March 30.

By that time, Woodrome also had filed for personal bankruptcy. In May, Rioux sued Woodrome to block him from discharging the $2.8 million he owes to the finance company. Rioux alleged in the lawsuit that Woodrome committed fraud to obtain the money. Some of that $2.8 million is legitimate debt that would be able to be discharged. How much that is, though, was unclear as of last week.

Rioux said in the lawsuit that Woodrome, through Behr LLC, provided “documents which he created or altered which established false and inflated proof of accounts receivable in an [unfortunately successful] attempt to secure continued financing from Rioux.

“Woodrome, at all times, was the managing member of Behr and was personally responsible for the creation and alteration of the above-described documents.”

A hearing on that issue is set for Nov. 14 in Judge Barry’s courtroom.

In Woodrome’s personal Chapter 7 filing, he listed debts of $4.2 million and assets of $670,000. He reported a gross income of $93,400 in 2014 and nearly $200,000 in 2015. The biggest asset listed was a six-bedroom, 3,600-SF home with three-car garage on 1.2 acres in Fort Smith.

Woodrome said he initially claimed the house as an exemption. His plan was to eventually sell the house so his wife could use the proceeds while he’s in federal prison.

Then he said he decided to hand the house over for foreclosure to help repay creditors.

“So there’s no cushion for my family,” Woodrome said. “But I guess there never should have been.”

A sentencing date hasn’t been set. He has agreed to pay restitution to his victims, and the terms of his plea agreement suggest the young man in a hurry will likely serve three to four very slow years in prison.

Access Control Devices Inc. of Little Rock and Harco Constructors of North Little Rock on Wednesday marked the start of construction for ACDI's new 18,000-SF headquarters at 403 Main St. in downtown Benton.

ACDI sells and supports software and hardware products for print management. According to Marketing Director Pete Taylor, the company's employees have been split between two sites: one in Little Rock, shared with another business, and another in Benton.

Taylor said the new Main Street office building in Benton will house its entire workforce for about 50, and that the firm plans to hire 20 to 30 people this year. The new headquarters is set to be complete in 10 months.

Taylor told Arkansas Business that ACDI is moving to Benton because most of its employees, managers and owners live there and want to be engaged in the community.

BPK Investments, a company led by ACDI owner Josh Lane, purchased property for the new headquarters in September. The property included a vacant Harvest Foods grocery store, which the new owners razed as part of a plan to revitalize the block. 

The company did not disclose the total cost of the project. Real estate records show BPK Investments paid $485,000 for the property.

ACDI envisions a modern, state-of-the-art office building that incorporates natural materials, natural landscapes and green space. Black Corley Owens & Hughes of Benton is the project's architects.

ACDI has been active in the community, partnering with the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and other local schools on programs to educate students on career opportunities in technology. It recently donated $40,000 for naming rights to the "Large Technology Center" room at the new Boys & Girls Club under construction in Saline County. The club is scheduled to open in the spring.

A Morrilton pet supply company has its fur standing on end after seeing a cat scratcher for sale at Big Lots Stores Inc.

Cat Claws Inc. said the cardboard cat scratcher “is virtually identical to” one that Cat Claws has a trademark for, according to a civil suit filed in U.S. District Court in Little Rock.

Cat Claws has been designing, making and selling cat scratchers under the trademark name “Cat Claws” since the 1980s.

One of its cardboard scratchers has a cartoon picture of a fishbone on both sides of the product, which has been for sale since 2008.

Big Lots, the lawsuit says, has been selling a cardboard scratcher with a fishbone on its sides from Pet Luv Products LLC of Peninsula, Ohio, that is “confusingly similar” to Cat Claws’ product.

Cat Claws is suing Big Lots and Pet Luv for patent and trademark infringement and unfair competition. It also wants a temporary restraining order that stops the defendants from selling the product.

Cat Claws is seeking an unspecified amount of damages. Big Lots didn’t immediately return a call for comment.

A representative from Pet Luv couldn’t be reached for comment. As of Thursday, the company hasn’t filed its response to the lawsuit.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has partnered with McLarty Capital Partners of Little Rock to launch a private investment fund the two groups said could inject $100 million in rural small businesses.

The McLarty Capital Partners Rural Business Investment Company will be the fifth RBIC that USDA has helped start since 2014, part of the USDA's goal to attract private capital to investment opportunities in rural America.

"Innovative small businesses throughout rural America need the same access to capital as their urban business counterparts," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a news release. "McLarty Capital Partners is an important ally in USDA's efforts to reenergize the rural economy, help small businesses grow and strengthen local communities."

The USDA said the MCP Rural Investment Fund will ensure that businesses in smaller communities have access to the money they need to accomplish their goals.

"We are pleased to partner with USDA in this innovative public-private partnership to propel and sustain small business growth in rural America," Franklin McLarty, McLarty Capital Partners co-founder, said. "With roots in America's heartland, McLarty Capital Partners is committed to ensuring that small and medium sized enterprises have the means necessary to achieve their business goals, and this endeavor only furthers that mission."

McLarty Capital Partners was founded in 2012 by co-presidents McLarty and Christopher Smith. It provides financing to small- and medium-sized enterprises in the U.S.

The USDA formed the new fund under its Rural Business Investment Program.

The Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub of North Little Rock, which is now part of Winrock International, will host its first Makers Summit on Thursday in support of the White House's Nation of Makers.

The day-long discussions will begin at 9:30 a.m., with a coffee reception starting at 8:30.

Topics for the planned panels and discussions include: 

• The maker movement, an overview of the maker movement, including its beginnings, influences, impact and place in the new economy;
• Maker education, a discussion of hands-on education and the influences of the maker movement;
• Maker to manufacturing, a discussion about tools, workforce development, fast prototyping and the impact of makers on manufacturing; and
• Maker cities, a look at the economic development impact of supporting a community of artists, educators, entrepreneurs, small businesses and manufacturers.

There will also be breakout sessions on arts-based making, makerspaces in the classroom, scaling your maker business and more. 

Registration for the summit is free and open to everyone. To register and see a full conference schedule, click here.

For more information, watch Gordon talk about the summit in this video.

"We're not in crisis; we're getting back on our feet," economist Jim Glassman told a small gathering of business professionals Wednesday at an economic outlook luncheon sponsored by Chase, the Little Rock Regional Chamber and Arkansas Business.

Glassman is managing director and head economist for Chase Commercial Banking.

He spoke at the Capital Hotel in Little Rock about how layoff levels and the unemployment rate are low, and said job growth is strong. GDP growth is also on pace with layoff levels, Glassman said.

He also lamented the lack of policy discussions in this year's election cycle.

Glassman said that while the U.S. House of Representatives is likely to remain in Republican control, there's a possibility that the Senate will go to the Democrats. But whoever is elected president will not have data to support another stimulus package like what the nation saw during the Great Recession, he said.

Glassman said that while many people blame manufacturing job loss on globalization — a feeling Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump taps into — innovation has been more disruptive. 

For example, planes now have the technology to practically fly themselves, he said, and although there are still pilots, the value of those pilots is lessened. Glassman added that innovation also creates jobs that require workers with more skills.

But the economy is not as bad as it might seem to the general public, Glassman said.

He called the nation's recovery from the Great Recession "beyond normal," although he said history books would likely label it as a normal recovery. Glassman said the Federal Reserve should raise interest rates to avoid dislocations and back off from stimulus to avoid long-term dislocations and to balance the economy.

When the housing bubble burst in 2007, economists said recovery would take decades, and Glassman said his 10-year estimate was the among the most optimistic.

But he noted that, after only nine years, housing prices are back to what they were in the spring of 2007; unemployment has dropped from about 10 percent to around 5 percent; 2 million people in their 20s and 30s are returning to the job market after going to school when opportunities were scarce; and a record number of people, about 15 million, are employed.

The automobile industry is also back to normal, Glassman said, to the surprise of those in the industry. And although the country is in debt, its debt is not growing faster than the economy.

But one concern the next president must address is the rising cost of health care and the imbalance in entitlement programs like Social Security, he said.

Glassman said that for every $1 paid into Medicaid and Medicare, $3 is taken out — a reality that's difficult to talk about politically.

The Venture Center of Little Rock on Friday announced that dates for its 2017 FinTech Accelerator have changed.

The center said the dates changed so that the participants can engage more with senior executives of global banking technology services provider FIS of Jacksonville, Florida, attend an FIS conference and interact with the FIS API Gateway technology. 

Startups can apply through Oct. 31 to participate in the program, which has been extended until 2018 to the tune of $2 million.

Apply here.

The accelerator is being funded with $500,000 each FIS Arkansas discretionary funds.

The 2017 program will begin May 8, a kick-off open to the public is set for May 11 and a demo day is scheduled for July 27.

The job applicant had a brilliant resume and precisely the technical skills the company wanted. But when her interviewer asked how she handles conflicts with co-workers, the surefire prospect lost her sizzle.

“She says, ‘I just send them a text’; I say, ‘Next!’”

That was the assessment of Tim Orellano, president of the Human Resources Team, a Little Rock-based consulting firm, playing a hypothetical interviewer. “This is how companies identify people with so-called soft skills, in the interview process,” he said.

“Skills gap” discussions often pivot on abilities or qualifications that employers find in short supply, but broader communication and human interaction traits are more likely to determine success or failure on the job, human resources experts say.

“Companies ask behavioral questions, and the interview is key,” said Orellano, who spent years as an HR executive. “An employment application basically tells employers what they want to know; a resume tells them what the applicants want them to know. To find out about teamwork, dedication, flexibility or handling a rude customer, you have to ask questions that can’t be answered yes or no.”

Though soft skills aren’t often listed on resumes, a CareerBuilder survey found that 77 percent of employers find them just as important as hard skills, and 16 percent see them as more important. A 2015 survey of 750 business managers by Instructure, a software company, discovered that most prefer hiring people with strong interpersonal skills and training them in technical areas rather than vice versa. Eighty-five percent listed a strong work ethic as the most desirable attribute in job candidates.

“The best-practice companies are willing to take a hardworking person with people skills and say, yes, maybe you don’t have the experience in a certain area that would be ideal, but we have a training program for you, or they step up in some other way to get that person,” Orellano said, using Southwest Airlines as an example. “They’ll hire more for attitude than just skills. Now, if you’re a pilot, you’re going to need to know how to fly a plane. But if you have a good work ethic and a great attitude, for most jobs they can train you the Southwest way.”

The National Soft Skills Association lists some of the most highly sought-after people skills, including speaking and listening well, excelling on a team and managing conflicts, adapting in changing environments, and working diligently with a sense of self-reliance. LinkedIn evaluated valuable soft skills by analyzing attributes listed by its members who changed jobs between June 2014 and June 2015. The four most in-demand traits were communication, organization, teamwork and punctuality.

Basic traits like good hygiene, regular attendance and punctuality are considered soft skills, but they aren’t the stuff of MBA programs. “We flunk them if they don’t show up,” said Jane P. Wayland, dean of business at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, laughing at the idea.

Still, colleges and business schools take soft skills seriously. “We’re stressing more development in communication skills, not just writing but in presentations,” Wayland said.

In UALR’s MBA program, a boot camp measures communication skills, leadership qualities and critical thinking and works to improve them. On the undergraduate level, UALR’s Career Catalyst program stresses soft skills as one of many job-hunting tools in its resume and interviewing workshops and networking events. It even offers tips on how to dress as a job applicant. “Students come in with different levels of ability. Not all are great or terrible at communication, but everybody does better with some practice,” Wayland said.

Kathleen McComber, who oversaw thousands of employees as assistant vice chancellor for human resources at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences until her retirement in June, teaches soft skills in a Webster University graduate course in career management.

“We help students focus on skills associated with behavioral or situational interviewing,” said McComber, now president of the Heart Group, a human resources consulting firm. “Today’s workplace is very complex, and having a job means dealing with people; customer service and the service industry are the big areas. Some prospects find these social situations difficult to navigate, and that’s why businesses are offering courses on teaming, customer service, telephone skills and those sorts of things.”

‘A Double-Edged Sword’
While older workers certainly aren’t known for perfect interpersonal skills — every experienced worker seems to have had colleagues who made sexist comments or threw tantrums with subordinates — younger employees bring a different interpersonal dynamic to work, Orellano and McComber said.

“Technology has become a double-edged sword,” Orellano says. “Millennials have technical abilities you wouldn’t believe, but many would rather text than talk.”

Direct discussion is important, he said, because text messages can lack nuance and lead to misinterpretation.

“Texting rather than talking, even among two people who are sitting right next to each other, I think has hurt teamwork. Talking fosters collaboration and a willingness to learn from one another.”

McComber noted another downside for those raised in the age of computers and mobile devices. “They’re great at short responses, but if they need to state a position, define a situation or describe something in detail, their ability to put that into writing can be lacking.”

Mike Harvey, interim president and CEO of the Northwest Arkansas Council, urges high school students to get into “project-based learning environments where they’re picking up some of the soft skills that all employers want: the ability to effectively communicate with others, problem-solving, working in teams, how to collaborate. All employers want that.”

The council is holding its Northwest Arkansas Workforce Summit on Nov. 7-8 in Springdale, bringing together business leaders, educators and more than 700 students, including sophomores and juniors from every school district in northwest Arkansas, at a Career Exploration Expo. Soft skills will be part of the agenda.

“You have to have good work habits and understand how to work,” Harvey recently told Arkansas Business. “I tell kids that’s the DNA of success. If you have good people skills, you can do just about anything.”

Orellano suggests that job applicants put their soft skills on display rather than putting them on a resume. “I’ll let you in on a secret: People have been known to lie on resumes.”

So it’s better to show, not tell, he says. “If you can’t smile in an interview or can’t make eye contact, or if you’re checking your phone in an interview, you’re not going to get the job. These cases sound extreme, but they happen. And you’re not going to be the applicant they want.”

In order to remain competitive with other retailers, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced early last year that it was going to start paying its workers at least $9 an hour and raise the minimum to $10 this year.

At the time of the announcement, a number of the Bentonville retailer’s competitors were already paying at least $9 per hour, and in some cases more. Turnover was becoming an issue for Wal-Mart as workers left for higher-paying jobs.

The increase in pay and improved training for workers, though, has paid off for the retailer, said spokesman Kory Lundberg. The stores are performing better on a number of metrics, including same-store sales and customer traffic.

“This is a journey, and there’s still a lot more work to be done,” he said. “But we feel like we’re on the right path.”

Wal-Mart certainly wasn’t alone in losing workers to companies that pay better.

All industries, from health care to manufacturing, have faced a shortage of workers, said Kathy Deck, director of the Center for Business & Economic Research at the Sam M. Walton School of Business at the University of Arkansas.

Deck said that increasing pay would be the first action she would suggest when companies can’t find the right workers to fill positions. “I’m going to say compensation matters a great deal,” she said. Workers start searching the job boards if they feel that they can’t get paid more at their current company, she said.

Kara Simmons, vice president of the staffing division at The Hughes Agency of North Little Rock, agreed that companies may need to raise their pay to attract qualified candidates. Simmons said currently there’s a demand for industrial workers, such as machine operators, welders and forklift operators. But some companies are willing to pay only $8.50-$9 per hour for those positions, she said — at or barely above the state minimum wage.

“And we have to give them that pep talk of, ‘OK, you get what you pay for,’” she said.

In addition, the labor market is tight in Arkansas. For September, the latest data available, the statewide unemployment rate was 4 percent, while it was 5 percent in the nation, according to the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services.

In northwest Arkansas, the unemployment rate is less than 3 percent. “There aren’t lines and lines of unemployed people waiting to take those jobs,” Deck said. “And so this should be the time economically when we see employers under pressure to raise wages.”

When the companies raise their employee wages, they “absolutely” find better workers and keep the workers they have, Simmons said.

TJX Cos. of Framingham, Massachusetts, which operates T.J. Maxx and Marshalls stores, raised its minimum wage to $9 an hour in 2015. And workers who have been with the company for at least six months began earning at least $10 an hour this year.

“We believe our wage initiative has been well received and is helping us attract and retain talented store associates,” TJX spokeswoman Erika Tower said in an email statement to Arkansas Business.

Still, Deck said that she has heard from employers in the region that are handcuffed on raising workers’ pay. Those companies are part of national chains, which won’t let the Arkansas managers raise pay for their workers.

“That exacerbates the problem with turnover,” she said. “And it makes it very difficult for them to attract folks who are going to stay for any length of time, particularly when you do find very large companies like Wal-Mart increasing pay.”

For the jobs that are available, the potential candidate isn’t going to take one that represents a pay cut from unemployment benefits, Simmons said. Or workers would prefer to stick it out at unsatisfactory jobs rather than take otherwise more fulfilling jobs that pay less. “Money has a strong influence,” Simmons said.

While money is an important element, it’s not the only way to attract and retain workers, said Ellen Davis, senior vice president of the National Retail Federation, a trade association. Retailers also are looking at ways to improve the training and education of employees.

Those efforts should show up on the bottom line. “They’ll either help you because it’s reducing turnover, or it will help you because it’s increased sales in your store because customers are having a better experience,” Davis said.

Wal-Mart’s Finding
With about 1.5 million workers in the United States, Wal-Mart is the country’s top private employer.

But in 2014, Wal-Mart was coming under attack by unions over its worker pay. Making matters worse, its same-store sales numbers in the United States were flat at best. Same-store sales are considered a key retail metric because they offer a comparison unaffected by new store openings.

Lundberg, the Wal-Mart spokesman, said coming up with a strategy to improve U.S. sales included quizzing some 23,000 employees about what they wanted from their employer. The top answers were higher pay, more consistency in scheduling and better training. Wal-Mart decided to spend $2.7 billion on its domestic workforce to target those areas.

In addition to the increase in pay, Wal-Mart made adjustments in scheduling and broadened training.

Wal-Mart has opened three training academies for department managers and will have 200 across the country by the middle of next year, Lundberg said.

The training academies are two-week programs that teach managers about retail and their departments. So far, 8,000 people have graduated.

The entry-level employee also receives more training. “They are being exposed to understand where they could go from an entry-level job to wherever they’d like to go at Wal-Mart,” Lundberg said. “That’s been something that’s been very successful as well, to help people see that there is a path for a career at Wal-Mart.”

In about 650 of Wal-Mart’s Neighborhood Markets, the company is testing a program giving the employees the same hours and days every week.

The initiatives have helped in Wal-Mart’s recent success, Lundberg said.

Walmart U.S. has had eight straight quarters of positive same-store sales. For the fiscal year that ended in January, same-store sales at Wal-Mart’s U.S. stores increased 1.2 percent over the previous year.

In September, Wal-Mart said 99 percent of stores received performance bonuses based on how well they performed. The company paid out more than $201 million in bonuses.

In September 2014, only 76 percent of the stores received performance bonuses, resulting in $128 million being paid out.

With the programs, Wal-Mart has created “the right type of work environment,” Lundberg said. “We think we really make a difference for both our associates and our customers.”

More companies are embracing the notion that on-the-job training is good business. Under that banner, members of the central Arkansas construction community are banding together to fill employment gaps in their ranks.

“We see a trend where we’re losing skilled labor,” said Scott Belt, superintendent with Little Rock’s CDI Contractors LLC. “Experienced workers are aging out, and it’s harder to get younger people to take a look at construction.”

The general contracting firm is helping coordinate a construction training program with subcontractors through Pulaski Technical College. Meredith Williams, an intern with CDI, is helping develop the program.

“The construction trade is struggling to find people,” said Williams, who is pursuing a double major in construction management and architectural engineering at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

“This is an opportunity to restructure what people think about construction. It’s skilled labor for people who don’t want to be in an office and want to do something with their hands.”

This year marks the second run for the construction trade program at Pulaski Technical College, also known by its abbreviated name: CTP@PTC. Ramped-up marketing efforts through social media have drawn 90 applications to participate in the free program.

The program, housed at Pulaski Tech’s Business & Industry Center at 3303 E. Roosevelt Road in Little Rock, yielded jobs for nearly everyone in last year’s debut. Average age of the 17 participants: 30.

One was unable to overcome a scheduling problem to allow her to work a 7 a.m.-3 p.m. job. “She would’ve gotten an offer, but she couldn’t work out morning day care for her children,” Belt said.

Luis Arroyo landed a job with Little Rock’s Platinum Drywall after completing last year’s construction trade program.

On one recent day, he was installing doors at the Robinson Center.

“It’s a good job,” the 22-year-old carpenter said. “You get to learn a lot of things.”

Arroyo discovered the construction training program through Facebook. He described the online posting as an opportunity to connect with prospective employers and build on his basic construction skills.

“I’ve always liked working with drills and putting things together,” said Arroyo, who has called Bryant home since his family moved from Mexico 10 years ago.

Willing to Learn
The 16-week program is split into two phases with Monday and Wednesday meetings 6-9 p.m. In this go-around, training classes begin Oct. 24 and run through Dec. 14. Phase two classes meet Jan. 4-March 6.

The first eight-week session is akin to a Construction 101 class.

Instructors provide an overview of construction while delving into topics such as basic math, communication skills, construction terminology, how to read plans, how to look at a specifications book, resume writing and safety training.

At the end of this first phase participants can emerge with a new line item for their construction resume: Safety certification through course work set to Occupational Safety & Health Administration standards.

The initial phase classes also serve as a testing ground to measure how dependable and motivated a student might be.

“Are they committed?” Belt said. “Are they willing to put in the time and be engaged? If we have that, we’re ahead of the curve.

“We understand things come up, and they might not make every class. But did they call or just not show? That says something about how responsible they are.”

Phase two is essentially a career fair with a new company making a presentation each week, with a hands-on demonstration of what they do.

Eight central Arkansas companies participating in this upcoming program are Harness Roofing of Little Rock, Middleton Heat & Air of Bryant, Sherman Waterproofing of Conway, Ace Glass Construction in Little Rock, HDMS architects and interior designers of North Little Rock, Action Mechanical Contractors of North Little Rock, Arnold & Blevins Electric Co. of North Little Rock and Arkansas Automatic Sprinklers/United Fire Suppression of Cabot.

“As a general contractor, we want to have strong subcontractors and help make them successful,” Belt said.

Both he and Williams are pleased with the one-year jump in numbers and the quality of the applicants. But they want to see the program grow even more.

“My main concern is ‘This is great, but let’s blow it up to this size,’” she said. “I’d like to see four classrooms of 35 with 20 to 25 subcontractors.”

Some months back, several standing banners appeared in the offices of Arkansas Business Publishing Group — quotes from JFK, Vince Lombardi and the like. At first I dismissed them as the kind of rah-rah stuff aimed at salespeople, not cynical journalist types like me, but some of them have started to grow on me.

One of them is an unattributed list of “10 Things That Require Zero Talent”: being on time, work ethic, effort, body language, energy, attitude, passion, being coachable, doing extra, being prepared.

Now, the cynic in me wants to point out that there are people — even people who have boasted of great success and developed large popular followings — who display few of those abilities. The kind of person who isn’t coachable because he’s already the greatest at everything, even things he’s never attempted. The kind of person who can’t control his body language even when it matters, who finds it impossible to prepare even for the biggest tests of his life.

For the rest of us mere mortals, these are known as “soft skills” — learned behaviors that are important in all business settings and which add tremendous value to harder skills and innate talent.

Most of us who have been in the workplace for a while have encountered the most frustrating kind of co-worker: the one whose hard skills are good, or good enough, but whose soft skills create tension. Years ago, I worked with a talented reporter whose attitude was so poor, so combative, so toxic that several of us literally cheered when our editor announced that he had been fired. The news product suffered slightly and temporarily while his replacement got up to speed, but the work environment improved tremendously and permanently.

In this issue, we’ve taken a look at the problem of the “skills gap,” the catch-all phrase being used to describe the problem employers are having in finding the right employees to fill the jobs that are available. While nothing we’ve written is remotely like “breaking news,” the experts our reporters consulted with may at least validate what the Arkansas Business audience is experiencing on the front line. And maybe there are some tips here that can help you find better candidates in the first place and then make them more productive sooner.

One of the articles, No Surprise: Higher Pay Helps Attract, Retain Employees, is the one that managers are most loath to accept: You get what you pay for. During the Great Recession, people only left jobs involuntarily. Few businesses were hiring, so you could count on keeping your best people without having to fight off poachers. Or, if you were hiring, you could count on having the field wide open. (I personally waded through 105 resumes for a single job opening on my reporting staff a few years back, a truly humbling exercise.)

But those days are over, thank goodness. Unemployment is low nationally and even lower in Arkansas. The Census Bureau’s report that median household income surged by a record 5.2 percent in 2015 has been heralded in ways that make me uncomfortable — most Americans did not get a raise that big — but it certainly is more evidence that the fundamentals of supply and demand are changing the job market.

Which reminds me of another one of the signs in our office, a quote from John F. Kennedy:

“Change is the law of life. Those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.”

My favorite of the signs is a long quote from Theodore Roosevelt, one I’ve read many times before but which has taken on new meaning in this ugly political season — and in an age when those of us who put our names on our work are regularly attacked online by those who have only the fierce courage of anonymity:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Gwen Moritz is editor of Arkansas Business. Email her at GMoritz@ABPG.com.

It seems to be a common complaint: Online employee recruitment efforts produce lots of resumes but few great prospects.

PC Magazine reported last month that the percentage of new hires coming from job boards and board aggregator sites has dropped to between 27 percent and 37 percent as the job market has tightened.

And, even more ominously, recruitment software maker Lever looked at 4 million “candidate considerations” during the 12 months that ended in July and found that only 1 in 100 candidates gets hired. The ratio is slightly lower at small companies and slightly higher at larger ones, but 52 percent of candidates who applied directly through a company’s website or online job posting were “underqualified,” Lever said.

Automated job-match programs — like Monster, Indeed, Glassdoor, Career Builder, Dice and the state-run Arkansas JobLink — are still useful, but experts say employers have to use them smartly to get the best results. And that starts with knowing what you want.

To avoid poor yields from the automated programs, employers should be specific and share the culture of their companies when posting jobs on online boards, experts told Arkansas Business.

“Company job descriptions should be more specific about telling who you are as a company and the types of people who will be successful,” said Cameron Smith of Cameron Smith & Associates in Rogers, an executive recruitment firm.

He also said employers should keep track of real metrics that gauge whether candidates are taking desirable actions so they know what content is resonating with job seekers. “It helps you to see what is working and what isn’t and how you can improve if something isn’t working.”

But there is point at which an ad can be too specific, Allison Ramsey warned. She said it could have the adverse effect of not attracting enough applicants.

“I wish I had the magic answer,” said Ramsey, who has been a local area manager for Staffmark of Cincinnati since 1993 and is communications director for the Arkansas Society for Human Resource Management State Council.

Accurate and complete job descriptions are also necessary to ensure that posting on boards is helping an employer, said Daryl Bassett, director of the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services.

The department operates Arkansas JobLink, an online job bank that also receives postings daily from the national Labor Exchange, other states’ job banks and USAjob.gov. The service is free to employers and job seekers.

Bassett said some 290,000 local and national job openings have been posted with Arkansas JobLink so far this year, and the most common mistake he sees employers make is submitting incomplete descriptions with erroneous or missing salary information. “These errors could lead to missing matches with potentially good candidates,” he said. “Additionally, some employers fill job ads with a list of ideal requirements most applicants won’t meet, resulting in low match rates and fewer candidates.”

Bassett said employers should work with their local workforce center to improve job postings, while Ramsey suggested listing mandatory and desired skills separately.

But Ramsey also finds fault with flawed filtering systems and job seekers being indiscriminate.

Ramsey said job boards search for keywords in postings. Job seekers are notified of openings posted that have those keywords in them and simply click yes to submit a resume without reading or only skimming the description. For example, Ramsey said, “I’ll post a job for a plant manager, and I’ll get a guy who has worked at Taco Bell.”

The other side of that, she said, is that, with a low unemployment rate of 3.9 percent, the few who aren’t working may be jobless because they have few job skills. As a result, they apply for jobs for which they are unqualified.

Arkansas JobLink uses the keyword-based filtering Ramsey mentioned. Bassett said it searches resumes for keywords, and job seekers whose resumes have that keyword are automatically notified of the posting. But he said this saves both employers and job seekers time.

The job bank also uses the Transferable Occupational Relationship Quotient, a software system that identifies and matches skills to related occupations and industries to expand and target job search opportunities. The system puts postings from other job banks into Arkansas JobLink and Arkansas JobLink postings into other online job banks, too.

Despite their flaws, Ramsey said job boards reach more people than traditional methods, and a 2014 Collegefeed survey of 15,000 young job-seekers backs up that statement. The survey concluded that around 70 percent of millennials say they hear about companies through friends and job boards.

Job boards are also beneficial because they can help fill non-specialized positions quickly, Smith said.

Ramsey added that posting openings online is cheaper than print help-wanted ads. The cost to post might be about $1,200 of the $4,000-$6,000 companies spend on recruiting, she said.

According to the PC Magazine article, job boards still represent 60 to 80 percent of what small companies spend on recruiting. Ramsey said the rest of her estimate is the cost of time spent searching for the right person.

And time is money, Ramsey said, so companies should post a job as soon as a position is available and leave it up for at least 30 days.

Social Media Aids in Recruiting
Bassett, of the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services, finds that efforts “to reach and attract young job seekers must include a robust use of social media in today’s society.”

Putting the word out that way, however, means employees must be prepared to receive responses by private message on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And Smith said engaging social media posts must include visuals. “Some companies have real, authentic photos and videos on their corporate websites,” Smith said. “Don’t just say what makes your company a great place to work; show it.”

Comparing Job Posting Costs
Online sites vary widely in pricing, features offered

	Glassdoor offers employers the ability to post 10 jobs for seven days for free. Then they can get a customized quote by contacting the sales department. Options include purchasing a customized company profile on the site, a single job posting or job slots that can be reused and display advertising that targets the best candidates.
	Monster offers one 30-day job posting for $299 to $599. The most expensive option includes advertising on other sites, 20 free auto-matched resumes, targeting through social media and the ability to search and find people by location and to email up to 200 directly. There are also discounts for bulk puchases.
	Single job posting pricing on CareerBuilder begins at $419 for 30 days, with discounts for the advanced purchase of more than one posting. All postings purchased must be used within 12 months. The posting will also appear in searches within a 30-mile radius of the city and ZIP code the employer selects as the location of the job.
	Simply Hired has been acquired by Recruit Holdings Co. of Tokyo, which also owns Indeed. While employers can post jobs for free to both, a paid listing is more prominently displayed. Employers can choose their own budget and pay each time someone clicks on their post.
	LinkedIn sells a 30-day job posting for $199, a five-job pack at a 22 percent discount and a 10-job pack at a 37 percent savings. Employers can also sponsor a post for an additional price per click and budget that they choose. The minimum bid per click is $1. The minimum total budget is $50.
	Dice caters to technical and engineering professionals with a 30-day single posting for $395. Prices go as low as $250 for five-10 postings. Premium products, like 60-day postings, require employers to contact the sales department.
	Craigslist charges anywhere from $15-$75 for a 30-day posting, depending on the location selected. Listings are posted in reverse chronological order, so a job an employer posts might get buried in just a few days and not show up until the job seekers have seen several pages of newer postings.
	Facebook offers those who operate pages, like businesses, the ability to boost a post for a minimum daily budget of $1 for up 14 days. Facebook says that post will reach 67-180 people. A company’s reach goes up the more it chooses to pay. It can reach a targeted audience, people who like the company’s page or people who like its page and their friends.

A judgment from 2011 continues to haunt a Hot Springs Village woman.

Linda Gauthier, formerly known as Linda B. Turner, has been accused of hiding assets to avoid paying the judgment of nearly $350,000 that Regions Bank obtained from Saline County Circuit Court in 2011, according to a lawsuit filed by Edgefield Holdings LLC of Miami, in U.S. District Court in Little Rock.

The judgment was against Gauthier and her son, Robert Shell of Rogers, and their Benton mini golf course, Vinson Paradise Golf LLC. Gauthier and Shell personally guaranteed the loans that were used for the attraction. In court filings, Shell said he walked away from the ownership of the golf course around 2008.

In January, Regions assigned the debt to Edgefield, which then began the garnishing process.

“Mrs. Gauthier received notice of Edgefield’s garnishments and immediately began to transfer, hide, and conceal her last remaining assets to avoid Edgefield’s collection efforts,” said the lawsuit filed by attorneys Andrew King, Frederick Davis and Pierce Hunter of the Little Rock office of Kutak Rock LLP.

The lawsuit said that she transferred property, including a $109,000 house in Bauxite (Saline County), to her husband, William J. Gauthier. The lawsuit also charges that she deposited her money into his account to keep it out of the hands of Edgefield. He also has been named as a defendant in Edgefield’s lawsuit.

Edgefield claims it is entitled to a judgment against William Gauthier and wants a judge to stop any more transfers.

William Gauthier disputed the allegations that his wife transferred property to him to avoid paying the judgment. “I really don’t know what they’re talking about,” he said.

He said Edgefield has been harassing the couple for the last year. “Everything should be settled,” he said. “But no, they’re going back again and harassing.”

As for Shell, in August he filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection listing $50,000 in assets and debts of $1.1 million. The largest debt is to Edgefield Holdings for $346,000.

History books may devote more pages to nearby Little Rock Central High School, but in the day-to-day life of the neighborhood it’s hard to imagine any landmark around here ranking higher than Uncle T’s Food Mart.

Generations of customers have walked through the door for a Coke, a fresh deli sandwich or groceries, served with a smile by generations of the Woods family.

"As far back as I can remember I was in that store," said co-owner Dr. Jerrye Woods. "We pretty much grew up in the business."

The original Uncle T — Tillman Green — opened a grocery store in the Arkansas town of Sunset, where members of his extended family learned the grocery trade. Years later, his twin nephews Dr. William Henry Woods and Willie L. Woods, and Dr. Woods’ wife Margaret, bought Braswell’s Groceries at West 16th and High Streets in Little Rock. In 1980, the family moved to its present address, which featured a larger space that included a deli counter.

Willie and William took another cue from their uncle in employing family members. It was more than just cheap labor; William was particularly insistent his three children — now the store’s co-owners — gain a real-world entrepreneurial education, starting in elementary school.

"That was something our father really instilled in us, as far as working for ourselves, doing something for ourselves," Ron Woods said. "I raised my kids the same way. Even though they’ve had a lot more than we had growing up, they know the importance of working."

Uncle T’s has celebrated the neighborhood’s ups and buttressed its downs over the years, and this steadfast commitment has forged a nearly unbreakable bond of customer loyalty. Theirs is not a complicated philosophy, but it’s effective.

"Staying true to your customers, what they want and what they need and being friendly to them," said William Woods Jr., the store’s general manager. "Our customer base is strong; ever since moving from that location on 16th Street, some of our customers followed us from there to where we are now and they’ve been with us all these years."

Five decades after it opened, Uncle T’s is just hitting its stride. In November, the family will open a Conway location in the first floor of the new Donaghey Hall at the University of Central Arkansas and additional locations are in the works. There are also plans to move the Little Rock store across the street as part of a larger development.

Meanwhile, life in the old neighborhood goes on one sandwich, one story and one smile at a time.

"It’s definitely taught us the importance of family. It’s been important working together to build something and be a service to people," Jerrye Woods said. "That’s what our father instilled in us the most."