The Recruiter’s Contract Staffing Blog

If you are a regular reader Top Echelon Contracting‘s blog, you already know that the misclassification of W-2 Employees as 1099 Independent Contractors is a huge issue right now.  We’ve written numerous articles regarding the government’s continuing efforts to crackdown on misclassification.  A recent article by www.hrhero.com titled “Employers Facing Increased Scrutiny over Worker Misclassification” is just one of countless articles we’ve come across that have dealt with this issue and does a nice job of summarizing some of the basics.

Here is just a sampling of the government’s recent efforts in its war against misclassification:

E-Verify is an Internet-based system that checks employee information provided by employees on Form I-9 (Employment Eligibility Verification) against information from the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to ensure employees are authorized to work in the United States.  It was initially voluntary for employers to participate, but the passage of Federal, state, and local laws is making it mandatory for more and more employers. Plus, after September 8, 2009, Federal contractors and sub-contractors entering in new contracts that paid over $3,000 were required to use E-Verify.

The previous blog post in this series focused on how to navigate in an environment where employers are continually trying to reduce healthcare costs while job-seekers are placing affordable healthcare at the top of their priority list.  To further complicate the issue, the recently passed Healthcare Reform, with its additional administrative burdens and potential cost increases, is making benefits an even bigger thorn in employers’ sides.

An aging population, unhealthy lifestyles, and advances in medicine have all lead to one thing – higher health insurance costs.  On top of that, the recent recession is making these increases even more painful for employers.  As a result, employers are doing everything they can to reduce this burden, including implementing wellness plans, decreasing benefits, increasing deductibles and co-pays, and generally increasing the amount employees have to pay out of pocket for medical care.

In past blog posts, we’ve talked about how easy it is to market contract recruiting services and provided a few of the most common marketing methods recruiters use.  Since this is one of the most common questions we receive from recruiters, we thought it would be helpful to provide a few of the more unique tips that have worked for successful recruiters doing contracting:

Ok, so you’ve decided to add contracting to your business model.  Now what?  How do you get job orders?

Luckily, you don’t have to be a marketing genius to position yourself as a contract recruiter.  It can be as simple as letting curent clients know that you are ready, willing, and able to make contract placements, and you can do this in the course of your regular conversations with them.  You may be surprised to learn that they have already considered hiring contractors but weren’t sure where to find the best candidates.  And if they haven’t considered contracting in the past, you might suggest it as a way for them to bypass hiring freezes or test out candidates before making the direct-hire commitment.