As the biotechnology industry grows, interest in contract staffing among both companies and workers in this area is also increasing, creating a hot new niche for contract staffing recruiters.

Biotechnology professionals are those who are involved in the use of living organisms to create certain products, such as engineered crops and pharmaceutical drugs.  These include a wide range of analysts, scientists, engineers, technicians, and specific titles such as biomedical engineer, medical scientist, biochemist, and more.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in this area is expected to increase by 31% between 2010 and 2020.

Due to the nature of the work and the unique characteristics of the industry, some recruiters are noticing that a lot of that hiring is happening in contract staffing, so they’ve started to offer contractors to biotech companies.  One of these recruiters is Jim Davidson of Human Capital Resource, LLC.  Davidson’s firm has provided biotech and pharmaceutical companies with direct hire candidates since 2005, but just recently started to provide contract staffing to meet his clients’ need for cost savings and flexibility.

“Many companies in this niche are older companies with very rich benefits packages,” he said.  “It costs them a tremendous amount of money to hire on a full-time basis.  Not only that, but they could be working on a $7 billion drug that could end up being a bust or approval could be delayed, in which case they would have to scale back.”

When these companies do have to hire on a full-time or direct hire basis, they tend to be very selective.  As a result, Davidson is also noticing a growing demand for contract-to-direct services, which his firm can now provide.  Contract-to-direct arrangements, often referred to as temp-to-hire, allow clients to try a candidate before they make a direct-hire commitment.

Recruiter Raymond Gooch has noticed a similar trend.  Gooch and his firm, Spectrum Career, LLC, recently provided job search skills training to college students who received grants funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for workforce development in bioscience.

“Even though the individuals participating in the bioscience training often had transferable skills, they usually had no experience in the industry,” Gooch said.  “Hiring temps/contractors gives the employer an opportunity to evaluate the worker prior to making a long-term commitment.”

It is also an attractive option for many biotechnology professionals.  According to the recent Randstad Pharma Engagement Study, the most important factor that drives the engagement of pharmaceutical/biotech professionals is flexibility.  Contract staffing provides the ultimate in flexibility, often allowing workers to take on project-based assignments with flexible schedules.  They also have the opportunity to take time off between assignments. This is particularly popular with older workers, Davidson said.

“Those in the later stages of their careers enjoy it,” he said. “There is a lot of flexibility. They don’t have the same financial pressures as younger workers, so contracting becomes more attractive later in their careers.”

Davidson feels the sweet spot for recruiters wanting to place contractors in the biotech niche is smaller companies.

“A lot of the larger companies are very well organized when it comes to contract staffing and have vendor managers involved in the process,” he said. “It becomes very difficult.”

As the products produced by biotech companies become more and more important, we’ll be keeping an eye on this hot contract staffing niche!

New York City has become the latest area to pass a law banning what has been called “unemployment discrimination.”

So just what is unemployment discrimination?  It refers to denying candidates employment based solely on the fact that they are not currently employed.

It’s no secret that companies have probably always preferred actively employed candidates, but some companies took it a step further in the wake of the recession by stating in job postings that unemployed candidates would NOT be considered.

The practice had people crying foul because many workers on the employment lines were victims of the recession’s mass layoffs and were not necessarily poor performers.

As a result, three states have passed laws against unemployment discrimination.  In general, these laws prohibit companies from posting ads stating that current employment is a job requirement or that unemployed candidates won’t be considered.

New York City has become the first city to pass such a law, which took effect on June 11.  The law makes it illegal to base employment decisions (hiring, compensation, terms, etc.) on a person’s employment status.  According to the Associated Press, NYC’s law is the most far-reaching of the unemployment discrimination laws, since it is the only one that allows applicants to sue for damages.

While it may not be spelled out in writing, many companies have a strong preference for currently employed candidates.  They might even go as far as to tell recruiters not to present any unemployed candidates.

Recruiters should make clients aware of the laws against unemployment discrimination and of the drawbacks of arbitrarily discounting the unemployed.

Even if it’s not illegal where your clients do business, overlooking candidates based solely on their employment status is not the best business strategy.  There are a number of reasons a candidate could be laid off that have nothing to do with their quality of work.

If you have a candidate you feel strongly about, but who is being overlooked due to their employment status, you may want to consider offering that candidate on a contract-to-direct basis.  This allows clients to “try-before-they-buy.”

If the candidate doesn’t work out, they can simply end the contract and try someone else.  But if they have found a great worker, they can extend the direct hire offer, and in most cases