2014 was a big year for contract staffing. The “temporary help services sector” added jobs and broke records nearly every month. This growth continues even now that direct hiring has finally bounced back from the recession.…

It seems like we've been hearing about the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare) employer mandate for forever. If nothing changes, the provision will finally start to take effect January 1. With that in mind, let's review some critical facts about the law for staffing firms.

• If you have 50 or more full-time or "full-time equivalent" employees, you will have to provide healthcare insurance to full-time employees under the employer mandate. This includes ALL W-2 employees on your…

When it comes to background check compliance, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) gets most of the attention. However, there is more than just federal law to consider. More and more states and localities are creating their own criminal background checks laws that you must make sure are followed when checks are run on your contractors. Even if…

Can you believe it is the fourth quarter of 2014 already? For many recruiters, this is "crunch time," where they try to close as many placements as possible before the end of the year. But as clients continue to drag their feet on hiring…

Just as news about the economy is finally starting to take a more positive slant, companies face another challenge: the loss of experienced and knowledgeable workers due to Baby Boomer retirements.

Of course, this is no surprise. Approximately 76 million people were born between 1946 and 1964, placing them in the Baby Boomer generation. The financial crisis delayed the inevitable as many Americans found their retirement funds depleted and were forced to delay retirement. But Boomers…

Recruiting is all about relationships. Contract staffing is no exception. Getting contract job orders depends on your ability to nurture existing relationships with clients and creating new ones.

When it comes to building client relationships Linda Blakemore, President and Owner of the …

It looks like the highly debated employer mandate provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare) may really go into effect. Barring any last minute changes, the mandate will be effective on January 1, 2015, for certain employers. 

Employers have been preparing for this for some time. Some have instituted hiring freezes or cut employee hours…

Once upon a time, workers typically took contract staffing positions when they couldn't find a direct hire position. Those days are gone. Now, many workers WANT to be contractors. Contracting is not a last resort. It's a conscious choice.

Currently, 17.7 million Americans are identified as "independent workers (contractors, temps, freelancers, business owners, etc.), according to the…

As a recruiter, have you ever felt like your livelihood was at the mercy of economic whims? That you are travelling down a winding path without a map? If so, taking a look at recent statistics could provide the map you are looking for. All signs pointing to contract staffing in all economic conditions.

Forty-two percent of employers told CareerBuilder that they planned to hire contractors in 2014. If you look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs reports for the past…

It appears that Millennials (or Generation Y if you prefer) aren't just a part of the workforce, they are poised to take it over and make fundamental changes.

The most common age in the current workforce is now 22, followed by 23 and 21, according to …

If you outsource the contract staffing back-office tasks or are considering doing so, it's probably because you are trying to avoid the liability associated with having contractors.

But without a properly established relationship between you, your back-office, your client, and your candidate, you could end up stuck with employment liability and…

Incorrectly classifying 1099 independent contractors (ICs) as W-2 employees has been a risky proposition for quite some time now. But as government agencies increasingly work together to end the practice, the financial stakes keep getting higher. 

The government is very concerned about worker misclassification due to the loss of tax revenue it…

It appears that we are now entering a candidate-driven market in BOTH the direct hire AND contract staffing worlds.  As candidates increasingly choose contract staffing as a lifestyle, recruiters are becoming more concerned…

Don't you just love the feeling of closing a direct hire placement? That big placement fee reminds you that all the work you put into your placements is worth it.  Maybe you even splurge and celebrate with a fillet mignon dinner.

But what happens when the big placement fee runs out? Do you worry about when the next one will come? Do you start cutting back and…

In the not so distant past, the title question would have been a no-brainer.  Direct hire, right? After all, workers in contract staffing were often referred to as temps.  Certainly a work arrangement that is temporary by it's very nature could not be more secure than traditional employment.

But we are now living in a post-recession world, a world where there…

Recent statistics on the job market provide a positive outlook for both the direct hire and contract sides of recruiters' desks. But on the heels of that good news is a less positive statistic: it is taking companies an average of 25.1 days to fill open positions, according to the …

Finally some good news on the economy: The United States added 288,000 jobs last month and unemployment dropped to 6.1%, the lowest point since September 2008,according to the latest Employment Situation Summary for June…

The Internet provides so many ways to promote your recruiting firm and its contract staffing services. Are you getting the most out of it?  Here are some tricks on how to best utilize the most common common Internet mediums:

Your Firm's website

Can visitors easily tell that you offer contract staffing without digging too far into your site?…

What separates a highly successful recruiter from an average one? Well, over the past 20 years in the contract staffing industry, we have noticed one characteristic that seems to set the best recruiters apart from the rest - their keen ability to build strong recruiter-client relationships. Sounds simple enough, but what does that really mean? Specifically, we have found that recruiters who are successful in contract staffing AND direct hire do the following…