(Editor’s Note: This is the next in a series of guest blog posts about contract staffing, courtesy of Top Echelon Contracting, the recruiter’s back-office solution.  Similar posts will appear in future issues of The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog.)

While some employers have intentionally, and most likely illegally, shed their older workers in an effort to reduce costs, some companies are struggling to find experienced talent and are finding creative ways to find and retain it, according to a recent Washington Post article.

Older workers come with leadership and maturity that simply cannot be taught.  As they reach retirement age, they often want to cut back on work, but they don’t want to quit altogether.  Companies that can find ways to retain them or bring them back can benefit from their knowledge and experience.

One agency that has done this successfully is the U.S. Agriculture Department, according to the article.  Working with the National Older Worker Career Center, the department is hiring these workers on a temporary or part-time basis, often to complete specific projects.

As more retirees put off retirement, either due to the economy or their own desire to stay active, these types of retiree re-staffing arrangements are becoming more and more common.  We have even seen some recruiting firms focus their efforts solely on finding contract assignments for retirees.

If you have clients struggling to retain experienced talent and/or older candidates needing more flexible work, this is a niche you might want to look into.

— — —

888.627.3678
DFledderjohann@TopEchelonContracting.com
Connect with Debbie on LinkedIn.
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(Editor’s Note: This is the next in a series of guest blog posts about contract staffing, courtesy of Top Echelon Contracting, the recruiter’s back-office solution.  Similar posts will appear in future issues of The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog.)

A recent article by Harvard Business Review focuses on how employers can retain their Generation X talent, but it appears that many workers from this generation may be better suited for contract assignments.

According to the article, 70% of Gen Xers surveyed by the Center for Talent Innovation stated that they prefer to work independently.  Consider the following quotes from workers interviewed for the survey:

• “Once I’ve learned my job, I like to move on.”
• “I need something new to keep things fresh.”
• “If it’s the right thing, I’d jump. I won’t stop learning or growing just to have a job.”

The article recommends that, in order to retain these employees, employers should invest in mentoring programs and allow employees to rotate through different types of jobs.

Another option is for these workers to consider contract assignments.  Contracting would allow them to try different companies, projects, industries, and job functions.

Do you have Generation X candidates who have a lot of talent but seem restless and easily bored?  If so, you may want to encourage them to consider contract assignments.

By placing them in positions that meet their career goals, you could find yourself a quality pool of contract candidates that will come to you again and again for more contract opportunities.

— — —

888.627.3678
DFledderjohann@TopEchelonContracting.com
Connect with Debbie on LinkedIn.
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For years, The Cornerstone, the newsletter of Top Echelon contract staffing solutions, was sent to the Preferred Members of Top Echelon Network.  The Cornerstone was eventually discontinued in favor of another newsletter, Contracting Corner, which is now published once a quarter.

However, we still run contracting statistics in select issues of The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog.  These statistics include Non-Split Contract Placements, Split Contract Placements, and Non-Recruited Placements, among others.

Below are the most recent statistics regarding contract placements made by Preferred Member recruiters, courtesy of Top Echelon Contracting, the recruiter’s back-office solution.

Many of the Top Producers in Top Echelon Network have added contract staffing to their business model and have also taken advantage of the contract placement services provided by Top Echelon Contracting.

For more information about the benefits of contract staffing and the services that Top Echelon Contracting provides, call (888) 627-3678, Ext. 2.

(Editor’s Note: This is the next in a series of guest blog posts about contract staffing, courtesy of Top Echelon Contracting, the recruiter’s back-office solution.  Similar posts will appear in future issues of The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog.)

Do your clients know how to hire for attitude?

According to Mark Murphy, author of Hiring for Attitude, employers’ inability to successfully assess candidates’ attitudes during the hiring process is the reason why so many fail so quickly.

In a recent Forbes interview, Murphy said that of the 200,000 new hires his research company recently tracked, 46% failed within the first 18 months.  Attitudinal reasons, such as lack of coachability, low levels of emotional intelligence, motivation, and temperament, accounted for 89% of those bad hires.

Attitude is harder to assess than skills because candidates can easily be tested for skills.  But if a candidate doesn’t possess all the necessary skills, they may be able to gain them through training.  However, training can’t change a candidate’s attitude.

So how can employers find candidates with the right attitudes?  Murphy recommends asking better interview questions and getting referrals from their star employees.  But the only way to truly know if a candidate’s attitude meshes with the company culture is to see them in action.

Your clients can do that by initially bringing workers in on a contract-to-direct basis.  That way, they can assess a candidate’s attitude for a certain amount of time before making the risky, and often costly, direct-hire commitment.

There are some things that the traditional job interview just cannot tell an employer.  By allowing your clients to try-before-they-buy, you can help them reduce their bad hires and become their valued partner as a result.

— — —

888.627.3678
DFledderjohann@TopEchelonContracting.com
Connect with Debbie on LinkedIn.
Follow Debbie on Twitter.

(Editor’s Note: This is the next in a series of guest blog posts about contract staffing, courtesy of Top Echelon Contracting, the recruiter’s back-office solution.  Similar posts will appear in future issues of The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog.)

Most people in recruitment expect that when the economy recovers from a recession, there will be a spike in the use of contractors.  But is contract staffing’s current growth just a knee-jerk reaction to the recession, or is it something more?

Well, a recent Washington Post article suggests that it could actually be “a fundamental change in the way Americans work,” one that both companies and workers are driving.  Companies plan to increase their use of contractors by 26% in the next two years, according to Staffing Industry Analysts.

Meanwhile, more workers are considering themselves “free agents,” jumping from project to project.  While many may have turned to contracting out of necessity when they couldn’t find traditional, full-time jobs, many now prefer it because they feel like they have more control.

The article echoes what we have been hearing from recruiters and what Top Echelon Contracting has been experiencing as a business.  Last year, we saw a 22% increase in the number of commercial contractors placed through our back-office.  We have written extensively on employers’ shift toward contractors and why workers want to be contractors in our quarterly newsletter, Contracting Corner.

Only time will tell, but it certainly does seem that the traditional workforce is changing.  If you are only taking direct-hire job orders, you may want to keep an eye on this issue and how it may affect your business.

— — —

888.627.3678
DFledderjohann@TopEchelonContracting.com
Connect with Debbie on LinkedIn.
Follow Debbie on Twitter.

For years, The Cornerstone, the newsletter of Top Echelon contract staffing recruiters, was sent to the Preferred Members of Top Echelon Network.  The Cornerstone was eventually discontinued in favor of another newsletter, Contracting Corner, which is now published once a quarter.

However, we still run contracting statistics in select issues of The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog.  These statistics include Non-Split Contract Placements, Split Contract Placements, and Non-Recruited Placements, among others.

Below are the most recent statistics regarding contract placements made by Preferred Member recruiters, courtesy of Top Echelon Contracting.

These are Preferred Member recruiters just like you . . . proving that YOU can make contract placements, too!  All you have to do is let your clients know that you can provide contract candidates and then call Top Echelon Contracting.  They’ll take care of the rest.

Many of the Top Producers in Top Echelon Network have added contract staffing to their business model and have also taken advantage of the services provided by Top Echelon Contracting, the recruiter’s employer of record services.

For more information about the benefits of contract staffing and the services that Top Echelon Contracting provides, call (888) 627-3678, Ext. 2.

(Editor’s Note: This is the next in a series of guest blog posts about contract staffing, courtesy of Top Echelon Contracting, the recruiter’s back-office solution.  Similar posts will appear in future issues of The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog.)

Despite government funding, Healthcare organizations are struggling to obtain the Health IT staff needed to automate their processes.

The federal government is funding several initiatives to help Healthcare organizations invest in IT.  For instance, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is providing funding for implementation of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) through the The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act.

But according to the HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) Leadership Survey, money is not enough.  Twenty-five percent of respondents said that the main barrier to IT implementation  is inadequate staffing resources.  Additionally, two-thirds said that their IT staff will increase in the next year.

Sounds like this is an area that is in major need of Health IT recruiters!  In fact, we have been hearing from recruiters that we work with that Health IT is a very hot area right now for both contract and direct job orders, so much so that some recruiters are even switching niches to take advantage of this need.

If you’re considering switching niches, this may be an area to consider!

— — —

888.627.3678
DFledderjohann@TopEchelonContracting.com
Connect with Debbie on LinkedIn.
Follow Debbie on Twitter.

(Editor’s Note: This is the next in a series of guest blog posts about contract staffing, courtesy of Top Echelon Contracting, the recruiter’s back-office solution.  Similar posts will appear in future issues of The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog.)

These days, you may not have to talk candidates into taking contract assignments because more candidates are actually seeking out contract work.  But if you do encounter a candidate who is reluctant to consider contract staffing, you may want to point them to a column titled “Why Temporary Work is Worth It” in Forbes magazine.

According to the column by Kerry Hannon, more than a third of American companies are operating with smaller staffs than before the recession.  No surprise there.

But what might surprise your candidates is that 36 percent of companies plan to hire contract/temp workers this year.  For candidates who have been out of work for a long time, this represents a whole new crop of job opportunities . . . IF they are willing to think outside the normal direct-hire box.

Hannon’s column gives candidates plenty of reasons to consider contract staffing (nine of them, to be precise):

1. Try different careers, industries, and companies.

2. If a candidate is unemployed, contract staffing gives them something to do, which builds confidence.

3. Contract work may eventually lead to a direct-hire position (temp-to-direct).

4. Make good money.  Hannon says many companies pay generously for contractors because they can solve a problem quickly without the usual “hand-holding and learning curve.”

5. Build a professional network.

6. Get new references.

7. “Keep resume alive.”  Contract work can fill the gaps in a candidate’s resume in between direct-hire jobs.

8. Keep skills current.

9. Get excited about a project without long-term expectations.  Hannon points out that knowing the job is temporary “can be tremendously freeing.”

— — —

888.627.3678
DFledderjohann@TopEchelonContracting.com
Connect with Debbie on LinkedIn.
Follow Debbie on Twitter.

For years, The Cornerstone, the newsletter of Top Echelon contract staffing recruiters, was sent to the Preferred Members of Top Echelon Network.  The Cornerstone was eventually discontinued in favor of another newsletter, Contracting Corner, which is now published once a quarter.

However, we still run contracting statistics in select issues of The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog.  These statistics include Non-Split Contract Placements, Split Contract Placements, and Non-Recruited Placements, among others.

Below are the most recent statistics regarding contract placements made by Preferred Member recruiters, courtesy of Top Echelon Contracting.

Many of the Top Producers in Top Echelon Network have added contract staffing to their business model and have also taken advantage of the services provided by Top Echelon Contracting, the recruiter’s employer of record services.

For more information about the benefits of contract staffing and the services that Top Echelon Contracting provides, call (888) 627-3678, Ext. 2.

(Editor’s Note: This is the next in a series of guest blog posts about contract staffing, courtesy of Top Echelon Contracting, the recruiter’s back-office solution.  Similar posts will appear in future issues of The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog.)

One of the most popular industries for contract staffing is Information Technology.  It is also one of the trickiest to navigate in terms of overtime requirements.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires that most employees have to be paid at a rate of 1.5 times their regular pay rate for any hours worked over 40 during a work week.  However, the FLSA allows for certain job classifications to be exempt from these overtime regulations.  In most cases, in order to be exempt, employees who fall into those classifications must be paid on a salary rather than hourly basis.

Not so for those in “Computer-Related Occupations.”  The FLSA does allow qualified workers to be exempt from overtime even if they are paid on an hourly basis, as long as their hourly rate is at least $27.63.  To confuse matters further, the required minimum rate is different for those employed in California, and it can change annually.  The required minimum rate in California increased from $37.94 to $38.89 on January 1.

Changes may also be on the horizon for the federal law.  According to Business Management Daily, the Computer Professionals Update Act (CPU) has been introduced in the Senate with the goal of updating the FLSA in light of professions that have emerged as the Internet has grown.  Previously, the FLSA specified that those employed as a computer systems analyst, computer programmer, software engineer, or another similarly skilled position were eligible for the Computer-Related Occupations exemption.

The Act would more broadly define computer professionals as “any employee working in a computer or information technology occupation (including, but not limited to, work related to computers, information systems, components, networks, software, hardware, databases, security, internet, intranet, or websites) as an analyst, programmer, engineer, designer, developer, administrator, or other similarly skilled worker.”  They will still have to be paid at a rate of $27.63 per hour or greater ($38.89 or more in California) to be considered exempt from overtime.

If you place IT contractors, you may want to be familiar with these developments and keep a close eye on the progress of the CPU.

— — —

888.627.3678
DFledderjohann@TopEchelonContracting.com
Connect with Debbie on LinkedIn.
Follow Debbie on Twitter.