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Labor Shortages Necessitate Growth in Contract Workforce

If the past two years have taught us anything, it’s that building a business and maintaining a baseline level of operations during lean times requires a flexible workforce. Many companies shaken by the pandemic, as well as the accompanying government response, have lost both business and employees, prompting widespread restructuring and rethinking of corporate strategies in a still-unsettled economy and job market. The resulting labor shortages are expected to affect businesses across industries, possibly for years to come.

And although that may force a lot of companies to think long and hard about their operating costs, the only way to take advantage of a recovery is to participate in it. The opportunity to capture new business in the coming months and years can only be realized by growing a workforce to account for it.

Yet there’s the rub: Recruiting is one of the most labor-intensive and expensive elements associated with running a business. In this environment, how does a company forge ahead without taking too great a financial risk or falling behind?

The most logical place to start is with a contract workforce. Building a business is all about creating a system, a machine that will activate a specialist or bring a new resource online – even if only temporarily for a specific project. Maybe a company needs only a handful of new employees for a six-month contract. Maybe it’s one for three months to cover a maternity leave. Perhaps it’s a part-timer who can pitch in for a month. Hiring those workers as full-time staff would be grossly inefficient. Outsourcing the work could be expensive and lead to inconsistent results from vendors who lack the experience or understanding of a company’s unique challenges.

In a volatile market where labor shortages pervade, flexibility is one of the most chronically overlooked business assets. A talent cloud offers the flexibility companies need – plus plenty more. At PeopleCaddie, we provide a digital marketplace for professional talent, one that allows a hiring manager to easily and efficiently search for, identify and select proven contract workers.

A talent agency or headhunter may have access to freelancers, but PeopleCaddie maintains a network of contractors, building detailed and informative worker profiles and connecting businesses with the right people for the job – sometimes even contractors who have worked with the company before. Better yet, our platform allows a hiring manager to quickly identify available contractors by experience level, rate, skills and competency, cutting through much of the traditional hiring process in seconds.

During a labor shortage, a business doesn’t have to be defined solely by the availability of its permanent staff. Projecting talent needs into a murky future isn’t just difficult – it amounts to a commitment that can transform into a financial albatross. PeopleCaddie is a partner that can help build a workforce containing the desired percentage of contractors and make connections with other flexible resources for specific and finite projects and tasks. With access to a modern talent cloud, any company can design and adjust a business strategy for growth – even (and perhaps especially) when labor is scarce and at a premium.

Interested in learning how PeopleCaddie’s talent cloud and help your company in this labor market? Click here to see how we can help.

Canadian Contractors Have Lucrative Opportunities This Year

As we put more distance between us and the worst of the pandemic’s employment fallout, and as more businesses have come to learn the benefit of a remote workforce, the time is ripe for contractors everywhere to find better, flexible job opportunities. In particular, Canadian contractors are in a position to capitalize on a booming freelance market that offers them specific benefits.

Many American public accounting firms, for example, are in search of accountants familiar with U.S. GAAP. At a moment when labor scarcity and competition among firms have driven up pay rates (20-30 percent over the past two years), Canadian contractors have arguably never been more valuable. And given the favorable exchange rate, compensation from U.S.-based employers becomes even more attractive for contractors located over the northern border.

With that in mind, here are some roles in high demand that Canadian contractors are in position to take advantage of:

External auditors. Assurance busy season, which is right around the corner, is an annual right of passage that drives demand for contractors who can supplement internal teams at public accounting firms. The opportunities it creates tend to be contracts lasting roughly four to six months and typically requiring long work weeks. But unlike permanent (salaried) employees, contractors are paid for every hour they work, including overtime. A freelancer who puts in 60 or more hours per week during the busy season has a tremendous opportunity to make a lot of money in a relatively short period of time.

Financial due diligence consultants. The boom in SPACs and M&A transactions has led to strong demand for consultants to assist with preparing for or consummating those deals.

Internal and compliance auditors. Some U.S. accounting firms supplement their teams during the busy season with offshore talent. In the past, auditors from countries like South Africa traveled to the United States for the duration of the audit busy season – a work model that has been disrupted by travel restrictions imposed during the pandemic. This and strong demand for services have pushed accounting firms to look for additional ways to tap into the global talent pool. Now U.S. employers are increasingly looking to Canada as a nearby source of strong English-speaking, GAAP-knowledgeable, time zone-compatible talent. Employers generally feel more secure about their networks being accessed from Canada, and any necessary trips to headquarters or a client site in the U.S. will be shorter and less expensive than most other countries.

Cybersecurity and IT risk consultants. With the increase in high-profile data breaches and ransomware attacks, senior technology leaders have been aggressively seeking to shore up their security solutions. This has driven steep growth in demand for cybersecurity and IT risk professionals. U.S. companies have often looked to offshore resources and/or skilled non-U.S. residents with green cards or work visas, and the pandemic has forced more reluctant employers to embrace remote work models. Once employees demonstrate the ability to work effectively in a fully remote or hybrid environment, the minds of leadership are often opened to the viability of leveraging the global talent pool.

Recruiters. With so many firms struggling to land good talent, skilled recruiters are in very high demand – particularly those with relevant industry experience. According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, the hardest job to recruit for is recruiters, and monthly U.S. job postings for recruiters have more than doubled since February 2020 to nearly 148,000 in September.

Are you a Canadian contractor interested in working in the U.S. market? Join our talent cloud.

Global Talent Markets Fueling Present Opportunity for U.S. Companies

The business world has become a much smaller place in a relatively short period of time. With the proliferation of broadband internet and high-speed cellular networks, business has become virtually borderless, and even small-scale companies are able to participate in global talent markets while also searching far and wide for new customers.

Given that so many U.S.-based companies are actively pursuing international clients, it stands to reason that there is an opportunity – and possibly even a moral obligation to local citizens – to seek labor beyond U.S. borders. Rather than think of globalization as a dirty word, or a political cudgel, managers hiring knowledge workers should consider all the ways that staffing a diverse group of domestic and foreign workers can benefit a business.

First, and most simply, companies that open their doors to international labor exponentially expand the talent pool available to them. No longer limited only to employees who happen to reside in the U.S., businesses who consider talent abroad can gain an advantage over competitors who may not have similarly expanded their search.

Additionally, many of these workers offer language skills, knowledge of regional bylaws and customs, as well as the soft skills that may allow them to create cultural connections that would elude Americans . Even if your company doesn’t do business outside the U.S., chances are that many of your clients do – or hail from other countries themselves. Building a geographically-diverse workforce equips any operation with superior capabilities to address a wider variety of business scenarios.

And because the best and fastest way to expand any company is through a conscious global strategy, hiring contractors operating remotely outside the U.S. should be considered essential for businesses with a growth mandate. By onboarding contractors from the regions that are being targeted to help drive new business, a company builds the necessary staffing infrastructure to connect with and meet the needs of these new regional opportunities. Moreover, this hiring strategy allows a company to tap into those workers’ contacts and networks, which is critical for immediately cultivating new customers and, in some cases, helping legitimize a U.S.-based business on foreign soil.

Why place artificial limits on the scope of any hiring search? Why hire and train American contractors to do business with international clients when a company can remotely access the local knowledge of foreign nationals? And why wouldn’t any company with designs on growth explore global markets – both clients and labor – as a means to drive new business?

It can only benefit companies to at least be open to the idea of hiring international contractors. Even for those starting small, there are benefits to taking a bigger swing and trying to reach global talent markets. Thinking locally? Hire globally. And for businesses with something grander in mind, the labor search must match that vision in scale. Go global.

PeopleCaddie’s offers a global talent pool that could help scale your business. See how it works here.

Increase Your Pay Through Ratings

No matter our chosen profession or political affiliation, most of us look for one thing above all from any employment relationship: ways to increase your pay. Some combination of benefits, a pension and additional perks may also be important to the average worker, but even those elements fall somewhere under the umbrella of compensation.

Put simply: We just want to be paid what we’re worth.

Seems fair enough. But democratizing that process is another story. Factors such as a lack of pay transparency, insular networks, discrimination and even just bad luck can keep talented, productive and experienced workers from climbing to rungs on the pay-scale ladder that are commensurate with the value they deliver.

In the meantime, PeopleCaddie is helping to level the playing field. Our digital talent platform allows professional contractors to set their rates, previous employers to post ratings of those contractors, and prospective employers to decide whether those figures jive. The idea: Good work leads to good ratings, which ultimately leads to higher compensation from future employers.

The traditional hiring process is clunky. Contacting references that are cherry-picked by the candidate takes time and bears questionable fruit. Verifying the professional relationship between the candidate and the reference can be tricky, and the objectivity of the assessment depends heavily upon the specific relationship between the reference and candidate. LinkedIn, for instance, offers the ability to request reviews from fellow members, but that function operates independent of the professional work history or nature of the relationship between two members.

At PeopleCaddie, employers searching through our database of candidates can be assured they are always seeing ratings from that candidate’s direct supervisor at a given position. This brings a level of standardization to reviews, allowing employers to compare apples to apples during the hiring process and ensuring contractors that they are being assessed based on criteria that is consistent from candidate to candidate.

For decades, scale-tippers such as the old boys’ network, the Ivy League pipeline and run-of-the-mill nepotism would often unfairly reward or penalize candidates. Even if a deserving prospect were hired on, they might be compensated at a lower rate or receive fewer career-advancement opportunities based on any number of subjective factors. With PeopleCaddie, contractors are better able to understand their worth in the market and can set their rates accordingly. At the same time, employers can pinpoint candidates based on ratings (as well as experience, skill set, etc.) and move forward with the confidence that a contractor will deliver on expected value.

Annual in-house reviews typically have been a thing for workers to dread. Supervisors could make arbitrary assessments to justify denying a pay raise or promotion, and salary bumps are often highly controlled and barely keep up with the cost of living. But a ratings system like PeopleCaddie’s offers full transparency, solicits reviews after a contractor has moved on from an employer, and establishes a rewards system in which a freelancer is more likely to be noticed while creating demand for their services.

Increase your ratings, increase your pay. That’s all any of us workers could ask for.

Looking for ways to increase your pay? Join PeopleCaddie’s talent cloud, set up a profile and allow employers to consider you. Here’s how it works.

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.

Hiring Practices in 2021 Require Modernization

It’s no secret: The future of work differs materially from its past. Whereas workers once strived for steady employment and a secure pension – with “lifer” status at a single employer representing the brass ring – they now move fluidly (and willingly) from one company or gig to another, all of which challenges hiring practices today.

And there’s a flip side to that equation. Most large companies no longer boast a workforce made up solely of permanent, salaried employees. Today, full-time staff hires typically make up an organization’s core employee base, but the workforce is rounded out by part-time employees, temps, contractors and even remote freelancers. The corporate landscape has changed, and so too have the expectations of both employees and employers.

In the public accounting space, in particular, many large firms are increasingly turning to contingent labor to fill time-sensitive resource needs. For the employer, it’s a cost-control advantage: contractors are paid at an attractive rate, but the firm only pays them for billable hours – no salary, no benefits. In a seasonal industry, understanding the nature of contingent labor and its variable costs are critical to successfully leveraging this workforce and optimizing revenue.

Admittedly, that’s easier for larger firms. A more robust workforce, greater capital and internal systems that expedite the hiring process create more flexibility and better conditions to accommodate the ebbs and flows of seasonal labor needs. But in this environment, how can smaller firms compete? Here are some ways smaller firms can advance hiring practices in 2021:

Find recruiters that are experienced in hiring contractors

Recruiting for permanent positions tends to be very different from recruiting contractors. The resumes of contract workers indicate more movement and don’t always contain the quality cues that recruiters look for in good permanent candidates – such as long stints with employers and methodical career progression. Inexperienced recruiters who apply those standards to short-term contract roles won’t have much success. You’ll want to move fast – and because contracting typically moves quicker than permanent hiring – you’ll want recruiters who understand that working on your behalf.

Work only with industry-seasoned recruiters

Public accounting firms are always looking for specialized talent. Only internal human resource departments and agencies focused on the accounting industry, which understand and have their fingers on the pulse of the market, will be able to consistently deliver high-caliber talent when and where needed – particularly during audit and tax busy seasons, when the war for talent is most intense.

Enlist the services of a digital talent platform

The Big Four have created their own private talent clouds, such as Gignow and the Flexibility Talent Network, to efficiently tap into the contingent labor market, which has modernized their hiring practices. But few mid-sized and small accounting firms have the scale, capital and technological expertise to build and manage their own private talent clouds. That also requires focus and time to establish awareness and credibility within the highly-dynamic contractor community and to build strong relationships with a critical mass of desirable contractors.

Instead, these other firms should consider partnering with an existing talent cloud – one that is open to all employers and has already done the heavy lifting for them. Talent clouds such as PeopleCaddie have a demonstrable network of proven contractors and a track record for delivering. By building what amounts to a toll bridge to the freelance market, a talent cloud provides firms outside of the Big Four with the ability to meet their seasonal needs without having to overcommit to permanent hires or heavily invest in resources to recruit contractors themselves.

The upshot is developing a robust pipeline of contracts is critical. But more importantly, it takes specialized expertise and investment. Whether it’s an internal recruiter, traditional staffing agency, or PeopleCaddie’s talent cloud, it’s important to develop the capability to consistently deliver talent when it’s most needed.

Want to modernize your hiring practices? Check out how PeopleCaddie’s talent cloud works.

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.