So You (don’t) Want To Be A Contractor?

Contract work with CRB and Maureen Winkler!

If I bring up the word contractor, you’ll immediately think of the person who took six weeks to fix your kitchen sink when they promised it would take three days…or a job that offers a paycheck but no security, benefits or health insurance.

Either way, most people want no part of it. 

And while we don’t do housework (much to the chagrin of our significant others….), we definitely do offer our candidates contractor roles!

When we first speak to a candidate about the possibility of becoming a contractor, their first instinct is to tell us they’d like to pass.

However, once our ace account director Maureen Winkler explains all of the perks and benefits that go along with these roles, that hard no often becomes an enthusiastic yes!

________________

Q: What does it mean to work as a contractor through CRB Workforce? 

MW: The first thing for candidates to know is that these are all long-term contracts. They’re not project-based. They’re coming in as a key contributor, and they don’t need to worry about the job ending once they’ve completed a specific task or objective. So there is more stability to these positions than the contractor title implies. 

Also, our clients treat contractors as if they’re regular employees. They’re on all the same calls and meetings as everyone else, and they aren’t excluded from anything or made to feel separate. 

Q: If that’s the case, then why hire people as contractors at all?

MW: The big thing with most of our clients, and a lot of other companies as well, is that in order to get the budget for a permanent position, managers have to go through a very lengthy approval process that can sometimes take months. So if they need a new worker quickly, it’s much easier for them to work with CRB directly and have us provide them with a contractor. 

We also take on the responsibility of payroll, HR, onboarding, background checks – all the things that cost companies money and time, so by hiring us to find a contractor, we can deliver the worker they need faster than they could hire one themselves.

Q: Do CRB contractors receive health insurance or any other kind of benefits?

MW: Yes! The contractors that work with us receive the exact same health benefits as regular CRB employees, and our benefits package is really great. Our silver plan is 100% covered, and gold is 90% covered. We also offer contractors 401k matching, so they don’t miss out on their retirement planning which is not industry standard. I previously worked for a major tech-recruiting firm, and they didn’t offer anything like that to their contractors.

Another significant benefit is that as a contractor, you’re paid for every hour you work. So even though these are 40-hour-a-week full-time jobs, if you’re asked to stay late or need to spend extra time working on a project, you’ll be paid for every minute that you’re at work.

Q: Do contractors ever become full-time employees?

MW: I would say that the vast majority eventually do convert to full-time. Sometimes it only takes a few months, but on average, I’ve noticed that it usually happens between the first and second year. The pattern is usually that someone over them will be promoted, and then when that spot opens up, the contractor is in a great position to take it. 

And sometimes people learn that they actually like being contractors. Just this month, I was speaking to a woman who isn’t sure if she wants to convert. She was hesitant to start as a contractor, but now she loves it because she works a lot of hours, and she’s getting paid for all of them beyond just her regular salary, so she’s actually struggling with whether or not she wants to become a full-time employee and lose that.

Q: Once candidates take these contractor jobs, how do they like them?

MW: They love it. They truly love it. What I consistently hear in feedback is that they like having the support of two different companies because, of course they have a relationship with their manager at our client, but we also check in with them at least monthly to see how they’re doing and what kind of support they need, and there are a lot of advantages to that.

A lot of contractors like how we can act as a spokesperson or an advocate for them within the company, so if they want to ask for a raise or bring up an issue with their manager but aren’t sure the best way to approach it, we’re able to act on their behalf, provide some guidance and even speak directly with their manager to help resolve whatever problem they’re facing.