Contracting CornerThe Perm Recruiter’s Contracting Resource

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Third Quarter, 2013

Tools for Sourcing CONTRACT CandidatesClients need them, and YOU should provide them . . . It’s easier than you think!

Copyright © 2013 Top Echelon Contracting, Inc.

Recently, CareerBuilder surveyed 6,500 hiring managers and HR people across all industries and company sizes. The results of that survey indicated that 40% of companies plan to hire contractors in 2013.

According to the publication Staffing Industry Analysts, between 40% and 50% of the workforce will be comprised of contract workers by the year 2020.

There’s a shift happening when it comes to hiring. It used to be that companies hired more contract workers during a down economy, and then they resumed hiring direct employees when the economy improved. That’s no longer the case. Companies are continuing to hire contract workers, and experts predict this major paradigm shift will continue. There are two key factors: Contractors offer greater staffing flexibility and cost savings!

You can take advantage of this shift if you are willing to take contract job orders from your clients. Historically, some direct-hire recruiters have been apprehensive about taking contract job orders for one primary reason: They did not know if they could find (source) qualified candidates who are willing to work on a contract basis. However, there has also been a huge shift in the mindset of workers, and many candidates now prefer to work on a contract basis. The good news is that contract candidates can be sourced the same way as direct-hire candidates.

In addition to traditional sourcing, recruiters are finding contract candidates through a number of tools:

· Website enhancements· Network memberships· Applicant tracking software

Let’s see how some direct-hire recruiters are using today’s tools and technology in order to locate contract

candidates for their clients so they can grow their contract staffing business.

Candidates Through Your WEBSITEBob Small is a partner at Carroll Technology Services (www.CarrollTech.net), an IT-oriented firm with a focus on Systems Software, Network Management, and other professional services. Carroll Technology Services offers both direct-hire and contract candidates to its clients.

Small uses Carroll Technology’s website, designed by Hiring Hook, to attract qualified candidates for his contract job orders by posting his open jobs on his firm’s website and also advertising them on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. This allows him to give these jobs more exposure in multiple ways, attracting job seekers and candidates to Carroll Technology’s website.

Once there, website visitors can apply for jobs and upload their resumes. Small has placed candidates who have visited his website and applied for contract openings. He didn’t have to go looking for the right

‘In addition to traditional sourcing, recruiters can utilize a number of tools and technology to

location conract candidates.’

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candidates to fill the job orders. Instead, they came to him because he uses his website to promote open job orders. Small also added a “Contracting” tab on the front page of his website, and he took advantage of Hiring Hook’s free video about contracting. This video, also located on the Carroll Technology website, informs prospective clients about the firm’s ability to do direct, contract, and contract-to-direct hire placements.

According to Small, he knew he only has one chance to make a favorable impression on candidates with his website. That’s one of the reasons he opted to use Hiring Hook (www.HiringHook.com), which focuses exclusively on websites for the recruiting and staffing industry.

“My website has become a critical part of my recruiting desk, and I’ve made placements that I never would have made without it,” said Small.

Candidates Through a NETWORKLarry Baker, president of Computer Careers, is a one-man recruiting office that specializes in IT positions, in addition to Accounting and Engineering. Like Small, his firm places both contract candidates and direct-hire candidates.

Baker uses his membership in a split-placement network (Top Echelon Network) to help find the candidates for his clients’ contract job orders. Not only is he able to get highly qualified candidates from his split partners in the network, but he also doesn’t have to add any staff or overhead to his business. Baker’s split partners provide both contract and direct-hire candidates, allowing him to present those candidates to his clients and make more placements.

After finding the contract candidates that his clients want to hire, Baker utilizes Top Echelon Contracting (TEC) as the back-office service provider. TEC takes care of the payroll and invoicing, plus they pay the recruiter profit to both Baker and his split partners. Baker doesn’t have to worry about any tedious, time-consuming paperwork. He just sources the candidates, makes the placements, and cashes the checks.

“Contracting is a core part of my business, and the TEC team is extremely patient and helpful,” said Baker. “They come right alongside me and get all the contract

issues handled. I used to run my own back-office, but the best thing I ever did was to outsource those duties to TEC. I’m also very thankful that I joined a network, because I know I increased the number of placements I’ve made.”

Top Echelon Network (www.TopEchelonNetwork.com) is the leading split placement network of recruiters.

Candidates Via an APPLICANT TRACKING SYSTEMJim Brown is the president and chief talent officer of Galileo Search, America’s leading acute care infection prevention and hospital epidemiology search and staffing firm. Galileo Search provides national search and staffing services in Healthcare Quality, Performance Improvement, Accreditation, Compliance, Patient Safety, and Risk Management disciplines.

Galileo is very much a data-driven firm with an extremely robust database of candidates, which is why Brown chose an applicant tracking system (Big Biller) that’s flexible and adapts to the unique way his firm conducts business. The functionality of Big Biller allows his team to efficiently track and communicate with both active and passive candidates within their specific areas of expertise.

With his applicant tracking system’s robust data capture, data management, and marketing capabilities—vital

to Galileo Search’s business model—Brown and the members of his team are able to find the candidates they need for their clients’

contract job orders. This saves them time, allowing them to present more candidates, fill more orders, and make more placements.

Also, since Galileo Search focuses on both contract and direct-hire, its recruiters take advantage of a very unique feature of Big Biller that allows them to determine the financial components of a contract job order. That feature is called the “Ballpark Rate Sheet.”

Basically, when a member of Brown’s team is entering a contract job order into their applicant tracking system, they have the ability to easily request a Rate Sheet from Top Echelon Contracting for that specific job order.

“This is a great feature that quickly provides the estimated hourly Company Bill Rate, Contractor Pay

‘Contracting is a core part of my busi-ness, and the TEC team is extremely

patient and helpful.’

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Q&A—What are the key elements when outsourcing a back-office?

Top Echelon® Contracting, Inc. (TEC), the recruiter’s back-office solution, helps recruiters offer contract staffing to clients and candidates. As a contract staff-ing service provider since 1992, TEC becomes the employer and handles all of the employee paper-work, legal contracts, timesheet collection, payroll processing and funding, tax withholding, benefits, Workers’ Compensation, invoicing, collection of accounts receivables, background checks, etc. TEC does business in 49 states and special-izes in technical, professional, and healthcare contract placements.

For more information,

Call: (888) 627-3678

Web site: www.TopEchelonContracting.com

Blog:

www.TopEchelonContracting.com/blog

Email: info@TopEchelonContracting.com

Q—What are the key elements when outsourcing a back-office?

A—When adding contract staffing services to your existing direct-hire recruiting business, you must first decide if you are going to handle the back-office tasks in-house or if you are going to outsource them.

Most recruiters opt to outsource because it allows them to focus on contract placement opportunities without taking away from their direct-hire business.

A contract staffing back-office should be responsible for all the administrative, financial, and legal details associated with the placements. The back-office should also handle all the weekly tasks and actually become the contractors’ legal employer.

If you decide to outsource these tasks, you will want to find an experienced contract staffing back-office provider with a well-documented history, an impeccable reputation, and positive referrals and testimonials. Remember that your back-office is a reflection of you, the recruiter.

Here is a partial list of the critical tasks that should be provided by a contract staffing back-office:

· Bill rates and pay rates assistance· Contract generation and negotiations· Employee paperwork generation and tracking· Payroll funding and processing· State and federal taxes withholdings· Workers’ compensation coverage· Unemployment insurance protection· Invoicing and collections· Background checks (drug screenings if applicable)· Certificate of Insurance coverage· Benefits – medical, dental, vision, 401(k), etc.

If you use a quality contract staffing back-office, you can easily offer both direct and contract staffing services to your clients.

Rate, and Recruiter Income for a contract placement. But more importantly, it eliminates the margin for error when verbally communicating information for quotes,” said Brown. “It easily associates the incoming written quote from Top Echelon Contracting to the actual client/job order to further reduce misinterpretation. This is especially helpful when requesting multiple quotes simultaneously.”

In this manner, Brown’s applicant tracking system helps him with both the candidate side AND the client side of the contract placement equation. Big Biller (www.BigBiller.com) is the leader in online recruiting software for small to mid-sized recruiting firms.

Get the Candidates and Make PLACEMENTS!Companies need contract candidates. The evidence is overwhelming. A hiring shift has occurred in the marketplace, and your firm could benefit if you’re willing to accept contract job orders from your clients.

Once you have the job order and contract candidate, your work is almost finished. The only other thing you need is a “back-office” to handle the financial and administrative details so you can focus on the next placement. That can easily be outsourced to a company like Top Echelon Contracting (TEC). TEC is the “Recruiter’s Back-Office Solution” and has been helping recruiters make contract placements since 1992.

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Inside:

Contracting Corner

Sourcing CONTRACT Candidates!Clients need them, and you should provide them . . . It’s easier than you think!

Recruiters’ Roundtable: Contracting to be Focus at the NAPS Conference!

Q&AWhat the key elements when outsourcing a back-office?

You won’t want to miss the 2013 National Association of Personnel Services (NAPS) Conference! It will be held at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, the most desirable hotel on the Vegas strip, from September 10-13.

Four tracks anchor this year’s lineup: (1) Recruiter, (2) Owner/Manager, (3) Technology/Social Networking and (4) Contract/Temp. As always, the conference will feature top-notch industry speakers, including Greg Doersching, Rob Mosely, Amy Bingham, Jeannine Parise, John Walters, Steve Isenberg, and Christine Rice.

Bingham is part of the event’s focus on contract staffing. Managing Partner of Bingham Consulting Professionals, LLC, she recently spoke at a Top Echelon Conference about “The Changing World of Work” and how contract staffing plays a role in the new workplace environment. NAPS has been bolstering the Contract/Temp track more every year as interest in contracting continues to grow.

In addition, the event includes a Leadership Retreat, which will be held on Tuesday afternoon. NAPS has also added more opportunities for certification, including a Certification Immersion Class that will allow participants to receive their Certified Personnel Consultant (CPC) and/or Certified Temporary-Staffing Specialist (CTS) certifications.

They will also have the opportunity to earn Certified Employee Retention Specialist (CERS) certifications at the conference.

Since 1961, the National Association of Personnel Services has built a reputation as being the educator for the executive search and staffing industry.

Top Echelon Contracting is pleased to announce that we will be a sponsor for this year’s event.

For more information about the conference, including how to register, you can visit NAPS online at www.RecruitingLife.com