freelancing

All posts tagged freelancing

Professional Staffing: The Possibilities Talent Clouds Offer

Professional staffing has always been a chore. The need to fill a professional staff role, no matter the position, triggers an exhaustive, often dreaded process: culling through stacks of resumes, identifying quality applicants, vetting the best candidates, scheduling and conducting interviews, and eventually making tough decisions that, after it’s all said and done, don’t always work out.

It’s a necessary burden: most companies need the muscle and institutional knowledge that comes with a full-time workforce. Still, many employers have the ability – and some might call it the luxury – of supplementing that staff with contract workers who offer, among other things, faster onboarding times and maximum flexibility. In fact, with the right partner – a proven third-party talent cloud – bringing aboard freelance talent can be one of the easiest aspects of a hiring manager’s job.

With a talent cloud, not only can the time and efforts of a human resources department be better focused on other duties, but the results of contingent-labor hiring and professional staffing are often more impressive. That’s because a talent cloud, like PeopleCaddie, focuses solely on contract workers, building networks of quality freelancers and sought-after employers, and, through intelligent technology, matching them in professional relationships that create the best fits for each.

Think of a talent cloud as a vending machine for professional staffing. It’s simple to use, and by building a vibrant and engaged online community, talent clouds build strong relationships with contractors. These relationships, ratings from previous employers, and the increasing scale of the online community offer a clear view of the best available freelancers and deliver a near-instant payoff. That speed is crucial. Companies are always chasing business, seeking the next opportunity, and they can’t afford to worry about whether their full-time staff is perfectly calibrated to take on new work. Having the flexibility to ramp up staff and quickly identify and hire skilled talent to fill specialized roles allows a business to meet whatever workforce needs that may arise based on new projects.

By alleviating the pressure point of modulating bandwidth, a talent cloud enables a company to not only scale up but also streamline at the close of seasonal work or after big projects wrap. One of the reasons employers have balked at new business or focused on slow growth in the past is to avoid workforce bloat during leaner moments. Instead of being on the hook to pay an exclusively full-time staff – not to mention laying out for insurance plans, 401ks, pensions – employers who supplement their workforce with a talent cloud can hire freelancers on contracts that align with the flow of business and, if necessary, make unforeseen adjustments on shorter timelines.

With PeopleCaddie, a company is always plugged into a network of carefully cultivated contractors and a platform that offers smart searching and sortability. Cutting through the clutter to get to your next hire – a pre-vetted, rated and reviewed freelancer with a transparent work history and skill set – puts a world of hiring possibilities in employers’ hands.

Find out how PeopleCaddie’s talent cloud works by clicking here.

Accounting Busy Season Provides Opportunity For Contractors

There’s never a bad time to think about your career goals, your professional path, and whether those two things align. A regular assessment of your current role, projects, and potential opportunities isn’t just appropriate – it’s the key to opening new doors and maintaining forward momentum in your career. This is especially true as we approach the accounting busy season, when many employers require supplemental and temporary labor to meet their seasonal needs, and when an array of opportunities present themselves to contractors seeking a new challenge or a firm foothold for their next step.

Not sure if you’re ready for it just yet? If nothing else, think of the upcoming accounting busy season as a chance for you to test the waters. In addition to potentially increasing your level of income, a short-term contract role could be used to help you achieve – or begin reaching for – those long-term goals.

Contracting for Busy Season

Ask yourself: Could a contract role help you transition from one function or competency to another? Are you a public accountant with an interest in investment banking – a notoriously competitive space? Maybe your current role is confined to external auditing but you have an interest in exploring work on internal audits. A contract role could jump-start your transition.

Have you had trouble getting a foot in the door with a desirable employer? During the busy season, many high-profile firms suddenly have a need for contract workers who can capitalize on that experience and exposure to make an impression. A contract role may be precisely the opening you need.

Make a Move

It could be that you have other reasons for considering a move. For instance, as the public potentially faces a new wave of the pandemic, you have significant concerns about returning to the office, which your employer has deemed mandatory. A short-term contract allows for a quick transition to a more flexible employer, a continuation of remote work, and a chance to test the waters in a new role.

Level Up

Perhaps there’s a particular skill or credential that you’d like to add to your profile? Your options may be more limited in fulfilling those goals throughout much of the year, but employers’ needs during the busy season offer unique opportunities to stock your professional toolbox. A contract assignment could be the way.

Beyond career development, there’s the practical side of gig work to consider. Are there busy season opportunities that could lead to meaningful annual assignments, preventing you from having to constantly scramble to find new clients? As an independent contractor, it’s always wise to think about clients interested in making use of your services on a recurring basis.

Whether you’re content in your current role or searching for a new one at this moment, consider bookmarking the accounting busy season for an annual professional inventory. It’s typically the best time to try grabbing that next rung on the ladder – or to simply make a change that is right for you.

Looking for contract work? Join PeopleCaddie’s talent cloud to start finding assignments today.

Return to Office Not For You? Try Contract Work

It has been a long 18 months since the pandemic arrived in earnest, and by now we’re all yearning for more signs of normalcy – even if that means a return to the daily grind. But many of us aren’t quite ready to return to the office. Whether it’s health concerns, the discovery of remote-work benefits or something else, a lot of American workers are still hesitant about embracing office life again. Some may even look around at their new normal – extra time with the kids, no more brutal commute, schedule flexibility that allows for a workout or a nap – and wonder if they’ll ever go back to the old ways.

But as certain employers have begun mandating vaccines and more workers are faced with the prospect of a forced return to the office, it may be time to ask yourself a question: Would a remote contract role be right for me?

Perhaps remote work isn’t just a preference. Maybe you choose not to get vaccinated based on religious reasons, or over health concerns. If an employer draws a line at vaccination, you may need to begin considering alternatives. Conversely, an employer may have minimal COVID protocols, and it could be that you’re squeamish about going back into the office and risking exposure. In either case, contract work may be the best option for you.

Mandates are bound to have a cascading effect that leads employees to make tough choices and precipitates significant worker migration, in and out of office jobs and staff positions. That flux figures to create openings for skilled, experienced professionals who hadn’t previously considered contract work to begin making their marks as contractors. For lifetime office workers, the opportunity to break away and experience the freedom and flexibility of remote work and the contracting life has arguably never been easier or more compelling.

One of the simplest ways to get started, while building up the most exposure and driving the greatest demand for your services, is through a talent cloud. PeopleCaddie makes it easy to set up a profile, showcase your work history, projects and skills, and get connected with employers who are looking for contractors like you. And the longer you’re in the cloud, the more great work you put in for clients in the network, the more likely they’ll come back to you for more – and that others will respond to your glowing reviews and begin enquiring about your rates and availability.

Contracting success doesn’t occur overnight. But we’ve reached an inflection point for contract work, and with a true partner like PeopleCaddie helping to guide your independent contracting career, you can feel confident making the leap and start anticipating all the perks that come with the contracting life right away.

Looking to transition from a full-time role to contract work? Check out PeopleCaddie’s list of contract openings.

Labor Scarcity Hurting Workflow? Hire a Contractor While You Search

Too much business is a good problem for any company to have – but it is a problem. How does the work get done when your team is already at maximum capacity? Hiring permanent talent can be difficult in any market environment, but the process is positively brutal during a period of labor scarcity as dramatic as our current one. Identifying and vetting candidates then onboarding a new employee takes an increasingly inordinate amount of time – and that translates to lost business opportunities for your company. But as a hiring manager, you have options.

The most compelling among them: hire a contractor. Staffing up with permanent employees is a slog, but a contract employee can sometimes be brought on board in as little as a day – especially when that hiring is put in the hands of a talent cloud. By filling long-term roles with short-term solutions, you’ve addressed the most time-sensitive issue: your company has filled an immediate need that was causing pain and/or leading to lost revenue.

Shifting the burden of the extra workload caused by labor scarcity on existing staff is neither ethical nor wise. An employee who is expected to pick up the slack when the organization is understaffed may become resentful. They’re also on a path to being some other company’s employee. Particularly in today’s job market, a good employee doesn’t have to put up with burnout or the indifference of an employer. And let’s face it: The last thing you need in this environment is more attrition.

The added benefit of a talent cloud is the ability to engage highly-skilled contractors who may have provided work for your company (or others like it) in the past. Even when hiring a full-timer, there can be a lag between their first day and the moment when they’re operating at peak performance in your organization. Imagine learning of a hiring need, filling it quickly with a contractor who knows your business backwards and forward, then turning your attention to finding the best long-term solution. No blip in production levels. Total peace of mind.

Perhaps you’re matched with a contractor who hasn’t worked for your company before. Because a talent cloud pools the best contractors and helps build their skill sets with appropriate projects, you may land not only an ideal temporary fix but someone who morphs into a gem of a long-term associate. There’s nothing that says a human resources department is required to contract-to-hire – but there’s nothing that says they can’t either.

Think of a talent cloud as a technologically-advanced staffing firm with both the power to provide a solution to your company’s short-term hiring needs and the potential to deliver the perfect long-term solution for your team. The digital hiring revolution has arrived.

Interested in learning more about PeopleCaddie’s talent cloud? Click here to watch a short video on how it can help you overcome labor scarcity.

Reach Contractors Using a Mobile Device

In many ways, the basics of hiring have remained unchanged for years: Prospective employees submit resumes or portfolios to an employer. The employer reviews them, vets the candidates and calls in the best applicants for interviews. The standout earns the job. Pretty straightforward stuff. Except that hiring never has been that simple. In fact, most companies aren’t very good at it. Which means employers should seek out every advantage that may give them an edge over their competition to acquire top talent and particularly reach contractors. One area they should consider leaning into immediately: mobile.

It might seem at first that there isn’t much for an employer to lean into. Every professional job applicant, almost without exception, has a cellphone, right? And roughly the same percentage of modern websites have been optimized for mobile. If you have every applicant’s mobile contact info, what more is there to do?

Start with a talent cloud. A platform like PeopleCaddie empowers an employer with the full scope of mobile capabilities to stay connected with, reach contractors and come to an agreement quickly.

When recruiting in highly skilled industries, it’s rare that an employer expects a contractor to begin work the next day. Still, every hiring manager should feel an urgency to plug into the contractor pipeline through on-the-go communications. Today, everything is geared toward the mobile experience. We all crave convenience, connectivity, quick response times – to the point that instant connection has become the expectation on both sides of the hiring equation.

If a client has a key deliverable they can’t miss, they need resources as quickly as possible. Seasonal cycles and increased demand for specialized talent can put pressure on hiring managers to act fast. And because modern job seekers are more open to sharing information and transacting business over the phone, it’s in a company’s best interest to make those options available to avoid missing out on desirable candidates.

A talent cloud offers that ability. Employers still rely on some version of the traditional vetting-and-interview proceedings, rarely deferring altogether to a staffing agency in that regard. But the talent acquisition steps preceding and following the employer’s interview have shortened. Although there remains a level of scrutiny on resources, contingent labor agreements are happening at a more rapid pace – including in the tax and audit spaces. The result: companies that can’t keep up get left behind. And that means relying on efficient ways to reach contracts can be a boon to a business’ bottom line.

There’s no reason for panic, though. The mobile revolution that has touched almost every aspect of business is little more than the latest optimization of professional processes, the next phase of technology adaptation. With a talent cloud, the tools are there for any hiring manager to pick up and put to use – and they’re simply too valuable to ignore.

Check out how PeopleCaddie helps businesses reach contractors using a mobile device.

Contracting Shouldn’t Be Fear-Filled

So you’ve reached the end of the line. For whatever reason, you’ve decided that you’re finished with the full-time professional grind. It’s time to make a go of the contracting life, to start enjoying all the flexibility and benefits contract work has to offer. You’re ready to be your own boss, make your own schedule. Time to take the plunge. Only one problem:

You’re freaking out.

It’s a significant transition leaping from a structured, one-to-one employment relationship to a world in which you’re management, marketing agency, human resources and the IT guy – and all before you ever lift a finger for the work you’ve actually been hired to do. You have questions, concerns, anxieties. Maybe you’re no-bones-about-it terrified. The good news: you’re not alone. Most every former staff employee went through the same range of emotions before venturing out as a contractor. How, then, do you go about overcoming that initial fear of contracting?

Start by entering into contract work with a comprehensive plan. You won’t get far flying blind, and the more variables you address in advance will give you the peace of mind in your career as a contractor to successfully see it through. Here’s what to consider:

Rates. You’ll want to have a solid idea what the going rate is for a contractor with your skill set and experience. If you have expertise that’s in high demand or simply have a salary expectation in mind, you can adjust accordingly. Just keep in mind: pricing your services competitively is key to consistently drawing the interest from multiple clients that will keep you busy with work.

Preparation. As much as possible, contractors should be ready to hit the ground running when starting a new contract. Many employers pay top dollar for highly-skilled workers, so you should try to maintain the mindset of going above and beyond, overdelivering on a daily basis through the duration of a project. Be prepared to learn a company’s technology quickly, as well as any important protocols or best practices that may be unique to a business.

Relationships. Forge a strong relationship with the right staffing agency for yourself and your career. This can be instrumental in securing proprietary opportunities – often ones that other contractors will never know even existed. What’s more, agencies have relationships with clients who will trust them when they vouch for your skills, integrity, work history and ability to perform in a given role.

Focus. Think about the companies you’d like to learn from and the sort of work you’d like to be doing. Where will you make valuable contacts and pick up new competencies you can’t get elsewhere? Be deliberate about the contracts you choose and the agencies you choose to partner with on your contracting journey. Done correctly, contracting opportunities offer autonomy over your career, with more flexibility, pay and growth options as you get more contracts under your belt.

These are just a few of the considerations you’ll want to give some thought to before making the leap from perm to contracting. Not only can you overcome the apprehension that comes with any new and unfamiliar experience, but by creating a plan and carefully thinking through your objectives in advance, you’ll be able to land more of the projects that interest you, gain experience with desirable clients and keep developing a toolbox of skills that will help position you for more attractive contract work and better rates in the future.

With PeopleCaddie, it’s easy to make the leap to contract work. Check out our jobs page!

Contract Work Is More Lucrative

Most members of the current American labor force were raised during an age when long-term, full-time permanent employment was considered not just an aspirational goal, but the gold standard of employment. Beyond the reward of a regular salary, benefits and job security, the position offered a certain symbolic significance – a preferred status among employees. The reality for today’s workers, however, looks much different than that Norman Rockwell-era portrait of employment where contract work offers more upside.

Not only have some of the typical perks of permanent employment fallen by the wayside over the years, but at the same time options for contract work have improved dramatically. And although there may be advantages on each side, there’s an argument to be made that contingent labor has actually become more attractive and lucrative for some employees than traditional permanent employment.

Every company is different, of course, and certain employees will find value in a permanent position where others don’t. But by and large, today’s labor market favors the enterprising contract worker. Consider why:

Raises. Put simply, with contract work, you can raise your rates whenever you choose. That isn’t as easy for a staff employee who agrees to a salary, then finds their income shackled to annual reviews, company performance and who knows how many other whims. Often, a full-time employee deserves more, especially as they gain experience and build a quality portfolio – yet they simply aren’t aware of it. A talent cloud offers contractors a platform and constant negotiating flexibility, connecting them with interested employers and empowering them to earn what the market will bear at any given moment.

Overtime pay. Many of us have worked full-time, salaried positions for employers who expect us to put in whatever time is required to get the job done. Even if you are required to work 60 or more hours in a week, for most “highly-compensated” employees, you will not be entitled to any incremental compensation for the overtime. With contract work, however, employers are required to compensate you for each hour worked, including overtime. You could be working side-by-side with a salaried employee doing the exact same job for 60 hours in a week. They would get paid for 40 hours, but you would get paid for all 60, and most often, overtime is paid at time and a half. For jobs that customarily require employees to work overtime, it is not uncommon for newly-minted contractors to double their previous compensation solely on the basis of having to be paid for their overtime hours.

Ratings and reviews. Talent cloud performance reviews hold different currency – and tend to be more democratic – than those attached to full-time positions. A salaried employee, for instance, may receive glowing reviews for five years running and still be denied a raise based on their employer’s profits, department restrictions or any number of other factors. A contractor working through PeopleCaddie, on the other hand, has a profile that features all of their ratings and reviews from previous employers within the talent cloud – a profile automatically aggregated for every hiring manager in the network looking for a contractor like them. Talent clouds don’t just help contractors put their best foot forward – they’re on a constant search to find your next great gig.

Benefits. For many, the argument for full-time employment has been an open-and-shut case: benefits. But health insurance, short- and long-term disability and 401k matches are no longer the exclusive purview of companies offering salaried employment. Many talent clouds, including PeopleCaddie, offer benefits to contractors who work within their systems. Often, they’ll even set aside taxes from a contractor’s paychecks to make their annual filings with the IRS less of a hassle – and help them avoid any budgeting issues.

Some workers find comfort in the routine and familiarity of full-time employment, and that’s OK. But many of the internal and external pressures a contractor once felt to find “steady” or “stable” work as a W-2 employee no longer apply. For highly-skilled contractors, the professional job market is a bold – and more lucrative – new world.

Looking to take advantage of our talent cloud? Check out our jobs page.

Hiring Efficiency Improved By Digitized Credentials

Communicating and collecting work histories, qualifications and achievements is a critical component to hiring efficiency. The delivery method for those details – a paper printout handed to an interviewer or a static electronic file emailed to a human resources department – went virtually unchanged for decades. Recently, however, a new mechanism has emerged.

The resume is dead. Long live the resume.

The concept of the employee CV isn’t going anywhere, of course. But in order to keep up with modernization, and with the aim of improving hiring efficiency and organization on both sides of the worker-employer relationship, it has had to change. Digitization has supercharged the ability of hiring departments to identify, vet and bring aboard new employees, while providing candidates with a dynamic platform to communicate their value to employers.

Consider the limitations of the traditional resume. Its shelf life is short and its flexibility nil, diminishing its usefulness. Particularly in the contractor economy, it’s an enormous hassle for employees to update a paper copy of their work history every time they work with a new client or add a competency to their skill set. The old ways also assured employers that they’d wind up spending inordinate amounts of time filing away and later combing through reams of outdated CVs. Digitization allows for changes to be made easily and instantly, and shared universally.

Resumes of the past, frankly, were also easy to fudge. Candidates would occasionally embellish and, every so often, outright falsify information. The burden of proof lay on hiring managers, who would be stuck verifying which details of a candidate’s resume were true, false or possibly just outdated – all with the clock ticking.

LinkedIn, for one, attempted to address some of these problems. A web platform that allowed users to quickly update their profile, and which linked to the pages of previous employers and affiliated organizations, offered more flexibility and a format that could help employers improve hiring efficiency. But even this model was open to misrepresentations and, for the most part, provided only the nuts and bolts of users’ work experiences and qualifications.

The next step in the evolution of the resume has been a quantum leap: PeopleCaddie. Company-focused and built on a dynamic closed-loop model that incentivizes both employee and employer to operate within its network, PeopleCaddie acts as a comparative and verifiable database of contractor candidates, removing the hiring guesswork for employers. As a third-party talent cloud that helps connect contractors with new gigs and rewards them for good work, while directing employers to the right workers for their projects, everyone is motivated to work together. That closed loop allows PeopleCaddie to confirm and maintain accurate employee records, while leveraging feedback from previous employers to help other network clients make their own smart hiring decisions.

Think of how other companies have used digitization to dust off and soup up an old model: Uber made standing in the rain to wait and hail a cab a thing of the past. Amazon allows you to shop from your bathtub and enjoy direct-to-door delivery. Recent shelter-at-home restrictions opened the door – or in this case a window – for Zoom to reimagine the traditional office meeting.

By harnessing the powers of digitization, it’s already been proven possible to bring similar innovation to the hiring process. With an elegant platform featuring a deep pool of contractors with updated and accurate work histories, comprehensive ratings and detailed reviews, a talent cloud like PeopleCaddie saves time, instills confidence and puts the right candidates at the fingertips of hiring managers.

Are you in need of contingent labor? Reach out to our team and get your job posted.

How Contractors Can Get Paid Every Two Weeks

There was a time when you couldn’t hold a conversation about freelance work without a few key phrases popping up: “side hustle”, “supplementary income” and “temp work” come to mind. If you’re a full-time independent contractor, you’ve likely received your share of confused looks and worried glances from friends and family, along with some version of the usual question: “Wait, you want to do this?” Much the trepidation comes from the inconsistency of payment. Contractors are treated like vendors and have to wait on payment. But there’s an alternative wherein they enjoy the same, steady payment cycle as W-2 employees, and PeopleCaddie has developed a framework for how contractors can get paid every two weeks.

Our concept of contract work has changed dramatically in recent years. We’re now living in a freelance world, with an estimated 1.1 billion independent contractors making up more than a third of the global workforce – and it’s growing. As more workers in the U.S. and around the world embrace the gig economy, they aren’t blind to its pitfalls. Yet, even those are changing.

At PeopleCaddie, we aren’t just a staffing agency that sends our clients a bunch of resumes – we’re a conduit connecting independent contractors with the right companies and offering a no-hassle alternative to the traditional grind of gig work. The way we see it, it’s our business to provide contractors with all the benefits of freelancing while reducing or eliminating their most aching pain points.

Consider the typical freelancer-client transaction from the contractor’s perspective:

Create a vendor profile for every client, filling out and tracking paperwork each time a project begins with a new client
Submit an invoice for each project completed
Wait for confirmation from a client’s accounting department, sometimes trading emails or phone calls to ensure that an invoice is being processed
Often wait another 30-60 days for a check to be sent, as many companies follow a Net-60 policy for contractor payments
Gather documents from multiple clients for tax purposes at the end of every year

Paperwork will never not be a pain for freelancers, but PeopleCaddie significantly eases the usual frustrations by handling much of the heavy lifting for contractors. All transactions (and thus all paperwork) funneled through one central office, which is how contractors can get paid every two weeks. The advantage of receiving a steady, paycheck (direct deposit) – no matter when the client pays – is an enormous benefit.

And contractors aren’t the only beneficiaries. In addition to offering companies access to a wide network of skilled professionals, PeopleCaddie’s talent cloud helps them maintain their client-vendor relationships – often reconnecting the two parties – which helps businesses manage fluctuating labor needs, reduce training costs and time, and lighten the administrative burden by cutting down on the overall number of vendors used.

There are good reasons more workers are choosing to freelance: flexibility, variety, opportunity. Skip the commute. Work from home, in your space, at your own pace. See the world, working for nine months and traveling for three. Or cross borders through the work, signing on with bucket-list clients who would have been impossible to reach if not for the freelance economy. Even if your motivation for contract work is at a nuts-and-bolts level, a gig worker has inherent abilities that, collectively, feel like a superpower: find more opportunities while avoiding project burnout and diversifying an employment portfolio to optimize job security.

PeopleCaddie is glad to help contractors meet those goals. By teaming up with skilled vendors and working with good companies, we’re able to help freelancers take full advantage of an increasingly preferred freelance economy, achieve a healthy work-life balance and avoid many of the usual pitfalls and inconveniences of contract work.

Interested in a project on our jobs page? Contact us at [email protected].