It's no secret that organizations are increasingly relying on temporary talent to work on or complete tech-related projects. But when talking temporary employees, how do you determine which type of worker is best suited for the job?
For IT hiring managers, filling the candidate pipeline with technical talent is a job in and of itself. Finding the right candidate right now can be downright maddening; especially if your organization has a complicated matrix of talent suppliers in which to choose from. In Yoh's latest eBook, How to Hire Top Tech Talent Now, we provide relief to busy IT managers with a comprehensive staffing guide.
It all starts with identifying the type of worker needed. There are a number of non-employee engagements hiring managers can use to avoid headcount. However, each is structured differently and there are serious precautions to consider accordingly.
Temporary Employees & Other Non-Employee Types Defined
The first step is to understand how the classifications differ, how they impact your business, and how (if misclassified) they can put your organization at serious risk. While the eBook is specific to the IT market, many of the fundamentals can apply to industries that use high volumes of contingent workers. Here are three basic non-employee types defined, with more specifics covered in the eBook.
Temporary Employee
This is by far the most common. These are skilled professionals provided by and working through a staffing company (temporary agency, consultant, vendor, etc.). In most cases the professionals are working on an hourly basis, and the staffing company bills your company for any hours worked by the contract worker (also known as a temp or contractor). The staffing company pays the contract worker and takes care of all payroll taxes, any benefits, and all employment requirements.
Independent Contractors
Another common engagement for IT staffing is the use of independent contractors. An independent contractor is an individual or a very small business that contracts directly with your company to perform a certain task or scope of work. The name “independent” denotes that the individual is not part of a staffing company or other staffing provider. He or she is an independent entity that is able to make his or her own decisions about contract terms, work performance, and profitability.
Statement of Work Employees
An additional way IT work can be done is through a Statement of Work (SOW) agreement. The SOW sets out a scope of work to be completed by a third party. It can cover a broad range of hourly and fixed-fee engagements. In some cases, the SOW covers a single person performing a task or series of ongoing tasks with an associate hourly or fixed fee, along with some indication of acceptable performance, such as a Service Level Agreement (SLA). SOW can also apply to a team of individuals that is performing tasks under an SLA or metrics that measure acceptable performance. A project manager is either on- or off-site and supervises the work product and interaction.
In general, the first model — temporary staffing — is the most straightforward and typically is already established in other areas of the organization, such as clerical, finance, or corporate. Risk can exist in any of them if the contract worker seems to be treated, managed, or given the same benefits as a permanent employee.
