Contracting Corner The Perm Recruiter’s Contracting Resource
Second Quarter 2014
How to Get Contract Job Orders
Marketing tips to help recruiters take advantage of the hot contract staffing market There are a number of other easy ways to promote your new service. Let’s explore five proven marketing techniques that have helped recruiters establish and grow the contract staffing portion of their businesses: 1. Existing marketing messages 2. Your website 3. Social media 4. Blogging 5. TEC’s Contract Staffing Marketing Center Your Existing Marketing Messages As a recruiter, you already have several ways of reaching out to your clients. An easy way to get contract job orders is to add contracting information to these existing vehicles: · Email signature file · Business cards · Standard fee schedule · Newsletters or brochures · Automated “on hold” phone message
‘Getting contract staffing job orders can be as simple as asking your current clients if they use contractors.’
These are the most common ones, but you can probably think of many others on your own. The point is, you want to publicize contract staffing just as you would your other services.
Contract staffing is breaking records every month, most recently achieving record market share of 2.06% and exceeding 2,800,000 active jobs for the first time ever. There is no other way to say it – contract staffing is HOT. Any recruiter can take advantage of this trend without any upfront financial investment or additional in-house staff.
Your Website Perhaps your most important marketing vehicle is your website. If companies and candidates are searching the Internet for recruiters who place contractors, you want to make sure they find you!
If you are apprehensive about the back-office tasks and obtaining contract job orders, let us dispel your fears. Getting started requires very little time and effort when you outsource the employment of the contractors and the associated employment tasks to a contract staffing back-office service, such as Top Echelon Contracting (TEC). Getting contract staffing job orders is also much easier than recruiters may think. Companies are increasingly making contractors part of their permanent business strategies. Therefore, getting contract staffing job orders can be as simple as asking your current clients if they use contractors. You may be surprised how often the answer is a resounding YES! So now you simply let them know that you can do direct hire and contracting. Copyright © 2014 Top Echelon Contracting, Inc.
Be sure you have a prominent contract staffing page that lists all the advantages of utilizing YOUR contracting services. Many recruiters have TWO contract staffing pages – one for clients/employers and another for candidates. To help you promote contract staffing on your website, we offer a contract staffing video “plugin” that explains to clients the advantages of contract staffing and why they should utilize your firm when they need contractors. You can learn more about the video in the “Contract Staffing Marketing Center” portion of this article. 1
Social Media Social media offers plenty of ways to spread your contract staffing message even further. Here are some of the most popular social media networks and some easy tips to help you get the most out of them: · LinkedIn—Make sure you mention contract staffing on both your personal and company profiles. You can also join and participate in LinkedIn Groups in your niche. By participating in discussions and posting relevant content in Groups, you set yourself apart from your competition by positioning yourself as an expert. You can even start your own Group to further expand your name recognition. Just be sure to provide useful information rather than being selfpromotional. · Twitter—Think beyond job postings. Just like with LinkedIn, you want to establish yourself as an expert by posting relevant, useful articles. And don’t forget to use hashtags by putting a # in front of phrases you think people will search on. Hastagify.me can help you find hashtags trending in certain industries. · Facebook—Again, the theme is to post relevant information that your target audience will want to share. The difference here is that Facebook is a little more lighthearted, so you can be more casual and humorous as long as it is still professional. Incidentally, Facebook’s new “Open Graph” search also assists with sourcing by allowing you to search publically available data from the network’s vast database. · Google+—This site is still the new kid on the block when it comes to social media. It has some good features and will have an impact on your search engine rankings. Plus, it allows you to segment connections into customizable Circles. You can tailor different posts to candidates and clients and even segment contacts into different industries if you have multiple niches. Google+ also has video chats called Hangouts, which could allow you to conduct candidate interviews virtually. This is especially useful for contract placements that need to be made quickly or when the candidate is remote. Google+ is very visual, so be sure to use eye-catching images. · Pinterest—This is the last social media network many would think of when it comes to recruiting. It may not be the best way to reach clients, but it may be helpful in sourcing and marketing to candidates. Creative contractors, such as Graphic Artists and Web Designers, often share work on Pinterest. You can find them by searching for terms such as “resume,” “cv," and “portfolio.” Pinterest can also be a branding tool if you provide useful information to your audience. You will want to think a little “outside the box” and figure out what tools or information candidates can use to do their job better. For instance, if you recruit Web Designers, they may enjoy posts with uniquely
designed pages. People in education may appreciate classroom tips. Blogging If writing is not your forte or you are short on time, you may be tempted to discount this idea. But you should give it serious consideration. If candidates and companies are running Internet searches for recruiters who can place contractors, you want to make sure you show up on the search results. Search engines like blogs because their content is updated regularly. Plus, you are once again positioning yourself as an expert and setting yourself apart from the competition. Blogs also give you something relevant to post on your social media networks. You don’t have to be a Pulitzer Prize-caliber writer to have a blog. The most popular blogs are often written in a more casual, conversational tone. Basically, you can share your own knowledge and expertise. Therefore, maintaining a blog may not be as daunting as you think.
Contract Staffing Marketing Center TEC was established in 1992 to help recruiters make contract placements. Because marketing is such a critical component of contracting, we have added a Contract Staffing Marketing Center to our website at www.topecheloncontracting. com/contract-staffing/marketing This Marketing Center provides a number of free tools to help recruiters promote contract staffing services if they are utilizing the back-office services of TEC: · Customized Marketing Documents—These documents can be customized with your firm’s name and contact information. There are documents for both clients and candidates. · Contract Staffing Video—As discussed above, this 2-minute video can be added to your website to show clients how “Contract Staffing Offers the Ultimate in Flexibility.” You can see a sample contract staffing page with the video at www.topecheloncontracting. com/contract-staffing-sample-page 2
· 20 Tips for Marketing Contract Staffing Whitepaper—This whitepaper answers the question “How do I get contract job orders?” by sharing tips that have worked for successful contract staffing recruiters.
have all been proven to be successful by recruiters who have added contract staffing to their direct hire business. Consider which techniques may work for your specific firm and audience so you can expand your business, create another revenue stream, and even increase your direct hire business as companies begin to see you as a sole-source provider who can satisfy ALL their staffing needs.
Every recruiting firm is different. Some of these marketing ideas may work better for one group or another, but they
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How Can I Market Contract Staffing to Clients Through Cold Calls? Top Echelon® Contracting, Inc. (TEC), the recruiter’s back-office solution, helps recruiters offer contract staffing to clients and candidates. As a contract staffing service provider since 1992, TEC becomes the employer and handles all of the employee paperwork, legal contracts, timesheet collection, payroll processing and funding, tax withholding, benefits, Workers’ Compensation, invoicing, collection of accounts receivables, background checks, etc. TEC does business in 49 states and specializes in technical, professional, and healthcare contract placements. For more information, Call: (888) 627-3678 Web site: www.TopEchelonContracting.com Blog: www.TopEchelonContracting.com/blog
Email:
[email protected] President: Debbie Fledderjohann
While the techniques we suggested in the previous article can enhance your marketing efforts, there often is no replacement for the good old cold call. But you may want to consider a different approach for contract staffing cold calls than you use to get direct hire job orders. Contract staffing recruiters have found success utilizing the following questions: Do you have a special project or critical deadline? These situations often require extra staff or specialized skills that won’t be needed afterward. With contractors, your clients can bring on the talent they need and simply end the contracts when the work is done. Do you have a backlog you can’t address due to budget issues? Companies can utilize contractors to pick up the slack, even during a hiring freeze, because the funds for contractors don’t come out of the capital budget. Plus, contractors do not create a long-term financial commitment. Are you concerned about potential tax risks associated with 1099 independent contractors (ICs)? The government continues to step up enforcement and the penalties associated with worker misclassification. Therefore, if there is any chance that a company’s ICs are misclassified, it is critical that they evaluate the IRS guidelines and reclassify those ICs as W-2 employees. You can help by offering to convert their ICs to W-2 employees who are employed by a contracting back-office. This allows your clients to escape the high costs and administrative burden of employment without the risks of audits, back taxes, and penalties that come with worker misclassification. Are you concerned about making a direct hire commitment? You can reduce that fear by letting clients “try-before-they-buy” through contract-todirect arrangements. They can initially bring the candidate in on a contract basis so they can evaluate the worker’s skills and knowledge on the job. They can then decide whether to extend a direct offer or to end the contract and try someone else. With these questions, you are approaching companies with solutions to specific problems rather than trying to sell your services. Find out what obstacles the companies are encountering and then recommend contract staffing as a solution if it makes sense for their specific situation. This is how you go from being just a recruiter or a salesperson to a true staffing partner to your clients. 3
Recruiters’ Roundtable: NAPS—Great Content at a Discounted Price Through Top Echelon, recruiters have the opportunity to join more than 400 attendees at the NAPS 2014 Conference at a discounted rate. Known as the premier educational opportunity for the search, recruiting, and staffing industry, this year’s event will be held September 15 – 17 at the Westin Galleria in Houston, Texas.
Aaron Wandtke, David Searns, Amy Bingham, Debbie Fledderjohann, Judy Collins, and Scott Wintrip. The conference will have four concurrent tracks representing Direct Hire (Back to Basic), Direct Hire (Masters Series), Temporary Staffing and Best Practices, and Company Leadership.
Attendees will learn best practices and methods to improve their business through case studies while expanding their professional networks. Keynote speakers include Jamey Rootes, President of the Houston Texans, and Fred Haise, Apollo 13 Astronaut and Recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
In addition, there will be a number of panel discussions, including a Healthcare Panel Discussion highlighting the Affordable Care Act and implications.
Breakout speakers will include Jon Bartos, Jonathan Thom, Greg Doerssching, Mike Gionta, Chris Schoettelkotte,
Inside:
Attendees will also have the opportunity to earn the following certifications: Certified Employee Retention Special (CERS), the Certified Personnel Consultant (CPC), and Certified Temporary Staffing-Specialist (CTS). Please visit www.naps360.org to register. Be sure to enter the Promo Code TopEchelon at checkout to receive a 10% discount on all registration levels.
How to Get Contract Job Orders
Q&A
We share marketing tips for taking advantage of the hot contract staffing market!
How can I market contract staffing to my clients through cold calls?
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