There is no better time to offer contract services to your clients.

In this challenging economy, companies are utilizing contract staffing more and more to stabilize as well as drive their business. Per the American Staffing Association, economic trends suggest that the staffing industry will continue to grow faster than the economy and overall employment that will create a tremendous amount of diverse contract opportunities. In simpler terms, this equates to millions of contract assignments in office clerical, accounting and finance, engineering, information technology, health care, management and in the light industrial industries.

For this reason as well as many others, independent recruiters and staffing companies should never turn down an opportunity to fill a contract or contract to hire position again. 

The difficulty arises when it is time to pay the contractor and everything involved in paying him or her. 

Onboarding, background checks, drug screens, I9 verification and payment methods.

Not to mention, carrying payroll for contractors for 30-60 days in many cases creates a cash flow problem for the staffing company. 

The actual processing of payroll and filing all of the tax reports, carrying workers’ compensation and general liability insurance, taking on the risk, ACA regulations and benefits for the contractors as well as invoicing and collections.

Here is the good news and it does not even come with bad news.  There are payroll funding companies out there for you to partner with that will do all of that for you and more so that you can focus on your business and create another revenue stream that will subsidize you income. 

I was an independent recruiter in the accounting and administrative areas since 1999.  I cannot tell how many times I was grateful for having contractors out when the executive search side was lean and yes, I utilized a payroll funding and processing company that specialized in the staffing industry.