Why do some candidates look so great on paper but bomb when they are actually placed in a position? Many times it comes down to that elusive buzz phrase: "cultural fit."

Cultural fit means different things to different companies, but it is generally the shared values and principles that form the organization's identity and push it in a certain direction. While cultural fit is an intangible, not to mention hard to define, attribute, it is one of the most important. In…

It looks like the I-9 form may be staying the same for at least a little while. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently announced that no changes will be made to the current form as it issues a final rule adopting the…

Recruiters who want to get into contracting often ask us how they can get contracting job orders. Some recruiters we work with say the best way to start is to simply ask current direct-hire clients if they need contractors. They may be surprised to learn that you offer contractors, and you may be surprised how many contracting job orders you get as a result!

Here are five other questions that can help you get more contracting job…

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) began accepting petitions for H-1B visas on April 1 for fiscal year 2012, but there has not been the usual flood of petitions.

According to the Workforce Management article,"Demand for H-1B Visas Off to Slower Start,"…

There are probably not too many people who would turn down the chance to work from home. But how many do you know who would take a pay cut to do so?

Well, according to a recent NetworkWorld article, 35 percent of information technology workers would accept a lower salary to telecommute. In fact, they would take a cut of up to 10…

We've discussed in previous blog posts about how members of Generation Y, who are often called Millennials, make great contract candidates. But if you hope to attract the best talent from the upcoming crop of college graduates, you may run into trouble if you rely solely on traditional recruiting…

The E-Verify Self Check system we reported on a couple of weeks ago has now been launched, but only for users in specific states.

E-Verify Self Check gives individuals the ability to check their own…

The United States economy is growing faster than those of other large industrialized nations, according to a recent USA Today article.  So where are the direct-hire jobs already?

Well, according to the article,…

Negotiating a contractor's pay rate can be one of the most difficult parts of placing a contract candidate.  Where do you start, especially if you have had little experience placing the particular position in question?

Luckily, there are a couple of tools on the Internet that can give you a starting place for negotiations:…

For those of you looking for a little good news for a change, USA Today is reporting a huge hiring surge the technology sector.

According to the article, the United States stands to gain…

With the unemployment rate still hovering around 9 percent, it may seem like an odd time to talk about worker shortages. But many companies are fearing an upcoming technically skilled worker shortage, and others are already struggling to fill certain positions, according to a recent article by…

We asked recruiters who are successfully doing contracting to share some of their best marketing tips. The main thing to keep in mind when trying to get contracting job orders is that, while you may be used to dealing with human resources when filling direct-hire job orders, contracting job orders are more often coordinated through the hiring manager. 

Here are just a few things recruiters can do to sweep hiring managers off their…

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) appears to be on a big technology kick lately. Earlier this week, we reported on the agency's proposed advanced registration system for filing H-IB petitions. Now the agency is pursuing technologies aimed at making…

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has proposed a new rule that could prove to be a time-saver for businesses seeking to file H-1B petitions in the coming years. 

H-1B visas allow employers to temporarily…

A while back, we did a few blog posts on how recruiters placing contractors are using social media to aid their recruiting efforts. Most of the recruiters we work with have found LinkedIn to be the most useful social media tool for recruiting.  With that in mind, we thought our readers might find the…

The Department of Labor (DOL) recently recovered more than $219,000 in back wages and liquidated damages on behalf of 44 workers who were misclassified as independent contractors, providing a real-life example of how serious the government's crackdown on misclassification is.

The employer had moved a…

The recent trend we have reported on where companies refuse to consider unemployed candidates for their job openings has now caught the attention of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

While the practice of preferring currently employed candidates is nothing new, it gained national attention after several employers…

You would think with all the workers still out on the unemployment line, it would take companies less time to fill a position.  But recruiters recently told The Wall Street Journal that it is taking hiring managers up to four times longer to fill positions now than it does when there are fewer…

The times they are a-changing, and so are the workers previously known as temps.

A recent article by The Ithaca (New York) Journal talks about the rise in temporary hiring, stating that U.S. employers added 300,000 temporary jobs in 2010.  And that's just one of the recent changes the article reports in temporary…

Some of the most frequent questions we get at Top Echelon Contracting revolve around the proper classification of workers: When is it OK to classify them as 1099 independent contractors? What are the ramifications of misclassifying workers? When should they be W-2 employees? What triggers an IRS audit?

If you get these same types of questions from your clients, you may want to check out my video chat with…