CWS 3.0: October 8, 2014

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Are your current engagement practices for contingent talent the best? Is there a way to tell?

There is now.

The Staffing Industry Advisory Group (SIAAG) compiled a guide on Contingent Workforce Engagement Best Practices, and it’s available to CWS Council members and Staffing Industry Analysts corporate members. It marks the first in a planned series of guides for contingent work engagement in an effort to drive standard best practices for the entire industry. It establishes best practices for typical contingent worker requests, sourcing, selection, onboarding, assignment management, offboarding, payrolling and independent contractors.

Here are a few of the best practices noted in the guide:

Requests

  • Use standardized global titles.
  • Use experience levels with job titles (e.g., junior, midlevel, senior)
  • Establish a minimum time to start for each segment of requisition (e.g. IT) based on past performance.

Sourcing

  • Facilitate a periodic meeting with high-volume engagement managers and suppliers to discuss work environment and successful worker profiles.
  • Share documented candidate eligibility requirements with suppliers (e.g. W-2 only, no H-1B, subcontracting, retirees, etc.) and exception process (if applicable).

Selection

  • Distribute résumés to engagement managers based on what is important to them for that requisition: first-in, first-out for quickest fill, end of submittal period if lowest cost or best quality fill to allow maximum time to find.
  • Provide a summary showing candidate qualifications for all professional requisition requirements.
  • Provide a regular update on requisitions to suppliers (e.g. number of candidates from all suppliers, number and dates of interviews from all suppliers, pending offers).

Onboarding

  • Share documented audit requirements or service levels that will be measured with the suppliers.
  • Provide an onboarding checklist outlining requirements for each requisition.
  • Pre-run background checks for candidates kept in an active pipeline.

Assignment Management

  • Document and share with engagement managers, suppliers and workers what time and expenses are allowed to be invoiced.
  • Perform a sourcing process and worker quality check within the first few weeks with the engagement manager.
  • Survey engagement manager, workers and suppliers on program satisfaction periodically.

Offboarding

  • Provide advanced notice to supplier if a worker’s assignment will be ended early with instructions on how and when to communicate to the worker.
  • Share documented procedures with engagement managers and suppliers for all types of off boards (e.g. skill match, cause, natural assignment end).

Payrolling

  • Establish an effective rate and review it periodically to account for thresholds on statutory costs in lieu of rebating.
  • Require a job description that will be used to conduct Fair Labor Standards Act exemption testing.
  • Follow the same procedures (e.g. financial approval) as a recruited worker requisition.

Independent Contractor

  • Define what an independent contractor is in your firm based upon a criteria of either annual revenue thresholds or number of employees.
  • Conduct a compliance evaluation for each engagement to determine proper classification prior to contracting and the start of the project.
  • Assess local laws of the country: Some jurisdictions impose outsourcing-restrictive laws. Also, clearly define co-/dual/joint employer exposure as define by each country.