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“Try Before You Buy” for Employers and Employees
May 16th, 2014
Contract positions are becoming more and more commonplace in the employment world. In fact,
many industry experts believe that 50% of the workforce will be contract workers within the next 20
years. See J.T. O’Donnell’s Linkedinarticle “Underemployment is the ‘New Normal’ – Here’s how to
Beat it”. The reasoning is quite sound for both employer and employee alike.
The IDC reports businesses spend $85B+/year to make the hiring process more efficient and effective
with investments in comparative profiling, psychometric testing, research, and training. And, “in a
recent Career Builder Survey of over 6,000 hiring managers from the world’s ten largest economies,
more than half report making a bad hire that caused significant harm to revenues, productivity,
client relations, or morale costing more than $50,000 per bad hire”.See LexSisney’sLinkedin
article “How to Hire Like the NFL’s Best Teams”.
It stands to reason then, that efforts to cut the costs of making bad hires can yield significant cost
savings. Enter contract to hire. Contract positions are used by professional sports teams, businesses
contracting projects to other businesses, actors and actresses with production studios, etc., etc. It
protects both parties from being stuck in a position that one or both of the parties is unhappy with
by designating a specific time frame or other set of criteria by which the relationship can be
dissolved and each party can move on. Or, at this pre-determined point both parties can agree that
the relationship is a win-win and either a new contract over a specified time frame or a permanent
arrangement can be negotiated. It’s effectively a “try before you buy” arrangement for both parties.
When was the last time you bought a new car without going for a test drive first? Perhaps if you are
in the market for a rare exotic you might make the purchase without a test drive, but you certainly
have done your homework on such a rare find. This would be similar to the hiring of a top notch C-
level executive within an organization. Have you purchased a home without first at least stepping
inside and learning about the neighborhood?
The point is, a contract to hire arrangement offers a business a chance protect itself from making a
bad investment in it’s people. It also offers employees the opportunity to prove themselves as well
as get a feel for how they fit with the company culture before creating a more permanent bond.
There are additional benefits as well:
Benefits for employers:
The ability to fill short term staff needs due to maternity leave or work related injuries
Easy employment and administration of seasonal help
No hassle HR and benefits administration because the staffing firm who handles the heavy lifting
typically supplies the contractors
Protection from significant costs of overtime by using additional contract employees to step in when
overtime hours are approaching
Contractor employees are a great source of expertise for limited time project work and
implementations
A solid time frame within which a full evaluation of otential full time employees can be made. The
application of skillset to the work environment, work ethic, and the match with company culture are
areas that are difficult to gauge within the short and confined restraints of the average hiring
process
Benefits for employees:
The ability to gauge the fit with the company culture, the superiors whom one will report to, and the
fit for the work and work environment prior to making a long term commitment
In some cases a position is not deemed a good fit by either the employer or contract employee and
the arrangement ends at completion of the contract. The benefit to the employee is that “contract
position” can be used on the employee resume as opposed to “fired” or “wasn’t a good fit so I left”
to explain a short term run with an employer
In a situation where an employee made a significant contribution to the company within the
contract period the employee has extra bargaining power to negotiate the terms of a permanent
position
In certain circumstances the employee has the ability to work more than one contract
simultaneously. And the employee has the ability to work on arranging another employment
arrangement as he/she reaches the end of the current contract as opposed to being let go or
terminated out of the blue.
Eric Snethkamp
Business Development Manager
- See more at:

http://www.starktalent.com/2014/05/try-buy-employers-employees/#sthash.6jgCvGDv.dpuf
,mmm
1. In a situation where an employee made a significant contribution to the company within the
contract period the employee has extra bargaining power to negotiate the terms of a
permanent position

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Resources

“Try Before You Buy” for Employers and Employees

May 16th, 2014

Easy employment and administration of seasonal help

Benefits for employees:

Business Development Manager

- See more at:

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