(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.

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888.627.3678
DFledderjohann@TopEchelonContracting.com
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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.)

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.

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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.)

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.
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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.)

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.
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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.)

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.
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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.)

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.
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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.)

For various reasons, some workers prefer to be paid on 1099 instead of a W-2.  But it’s not the worker’s decision.  The IRS guidelines determine whether a worker is classified as a 1099 independent contractor or a W-2 employee.

Still, recruiters and their clients often get pushback when trying to convince their candidates that they need to be paid as a W-2 employee rather than a 1099 independent contractor.  So how do you convince them that they need to be paid on W-2?

For starters, you may want to point out the risks.  Independent Contractor misclassification audits have increased on both the federal and state levels over the past few years.  There has been a lot of focus on how this affects companies, but workers can also be subject to audits.  If it’s found they’ve been misclassified, they could be required to file amended tax returns, which could result in additional taxes and penalties.

Plus, there are many advantages to being classified as a W-2 employee.  By being a W-2 employee, workers will:

• Receive a weekly paycheck with the option of direct deposit
• Have access to medical insurance, vision, dental, and life insurance
• Have access to a 401(k) plan
• Be eligible for unemployment insurance
• Be covered under the employer’s Workers’ Compensation plan
• Not have to negotiate and/or write a client contract
• Not have to generate invoices to the client
• Not have to handle collection issues with the client
• Not have to float expenses while waiting on payment from the client
• Not have to do their own quarterly tax filings
• Have half of the Social Security Tax paid by the employer
• Have half of the Medicare Tax paid by the employer

By pointing out the risks of being classified as an independent contractor and the advantages of being paid on a W-2, you can convince even the most reluctant candidate that being properly classified is in their best interest.

— — —

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.)

You probably already know how hot technology hiring is right now.  Well, according to The Wall Street Journal, some of the hottest tech companies are also clamoring for interns, in additional to full-time hires.

Tech companies, ranging from start-ups to household names, are expanding their internship programs, including the following:

• Dropbox—Plans to hire 30 engineering interns
• Google—Hired 1,000 engineering interns this past summer
• Klout
• Twitter
• Facebook—Plans to hire 625 interns for this summer

Why the sudden surge in interns?  Internships allow these companies to get a jump on young talent—some internship programs even target high school students.

More importantly, internships allow them to “try-before-they-buy” and save money in the process.  Interns can usually be paid much less than traditional full-time employees, and they know from the get-go that the positions are temporary.

The tricky thing about internships is that companies sometimes think they don’t have to follow the typical employment laws with interns.  Some even try to implement unpaid internships, which are a no-no in most cases.

A better way to go would be to hire interns as contractors employed through a contract staffing back-office.  That way, companies can benefit from the “low cost, low commitment” tryout internships offer without all the hassles that come with employing those interns.

— — —

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.)

It’s a new year, and the usual predictions abound about what will be hot in 2012.  Based on what we’ve been reading and hearing, here are the recruiting trends we think recruiters should keep an eye on:

1. Social Media Recruiting Wars—The race is on to see which social network, if any, will unseat LinkedIn as the recruiter’s social network of choice.  When it was released last year, a lot of people had their money on Google+ due to it’s ability to separate contacts into “Circles,” allowing users to be selective about which contacts saw which updates.  But there is now talk that good old Facebook could emerge as a useful recruiting tool, especially with professional networking apps like BranchOut and BeKnown that help users find jobs through their Facebook friends.  As BranchOut GM of Enterprise told Fistful of Talent, 18.4 million Americans say they found their current job through Facebook, so it definitely seems like the potential is there.

2. Mobile Recruiting—MSNBC recently reported that 25 percent of people use their smartphones rather than their computers for most of their Web surfing, so you can bet a lot of job hunting is taking place on mobile devices.  This will most certainly only increase in 2012, so you might want to look at how your Web site looks from various smartphones and how mobile-friendly your application process is.  One possible way to make job ads more user-friendly is by using QR codes, which are those small, square, maze-like images that you might see in magazines or on billboards.  When someone scans one of these codes with their smartphone in one of your job ads, it could take them to additional information online.  For more ideas on how to use these codes, check out the www.ere.net article “QR Codes: The Next Big Thing in Recruiting Technology?”

3. Continued crackdown on independent contractors—This is not a new trend, but we expect it to be a big one, nevertheless.  Near the end of 2011, the IRS offered a forgiveness program for employers who voluntarily reclassified 1099 independent contractors as W-2 employees while at the same time vowing to be even more diligent about investigating worker misclassification.  Meanwhile, Congress reintroduced The Employee Misclassification Prevention Act.  It’s clear that this is an issue that’s not going away.  So if you have clients who are doing it wrong, you may want to urge them to make proper worker classification one of their New Year’s resolutions and offer to help them by converting their independent contractors to W-2 employees employed by a contract staffing back-office, such as Top Echelon Contracting.

4. Continued growth of contract staffing—The growth contract staffing experienced last year is no surprise.  Companies typically hire more contractors following a recession to test the hiring waters before they start hiring direct again.  But what we’re hearing is that there is more of a permanent shift where companies are maintaining a core of direct employees and supplementing it with a larger, more flexible outer ring of contractors.  We explored this trend in more detail in our Fourth Quarter 2011 Contracting Corner newsletter and expect to see this trend continue in 2012 and beyond.

— — —

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.)

Technology is changing the way we do almost everything, and it seems that job interviews are no exception.

With the advent of Skype and other Internet video tools, video interviewing is supplementing, and in some cases replacing, the traditional in-person job interview process.

But is it right for you and your clients?

You might want to consider the following pros and cons before deciding whether or not video interviewing is the right way to go:

There are a variety of options for video interviewing, ranging from Skype’s free service to fee-based services that offer advanced features (e.g., allowing a large number of people on the video call).  Typically, video interviewing options can be broken down into two types:

1. Live—These are the kind that are performed on Skype where both the interviewer and candidate are present and interact with each other on the video.
2. Recorded—Interview questions are sent to the candidate, and they record their answers online via their Web cams for the employer to review later. There is no interviewer present.  These are often used in place of phone interviews to pre-screen multiple candidates.

Video interviews may be worth a look, especially if you’re placing contractors.  Contract positions often need to be filled quickly, and the candidates are often remote, making video interviews an attractive option.

— — —

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