Independent Contractor Compliance Blog - by Collabrus™

Stocks have taken a nose-dive recently and changed Wall Street’s landscape-maybe forever.  You can turn on the radio, TV, or go to any news site and get reports such as, “S&P 500 plunged…the NASDAQ crashes…the NYSE composite dived 5.1%…rattled investors rush to dump shares…” The list goes on and on.

So what does that have to do with the topic I typically write about: The proper care and feeding of contingent workers and independent contractors? Perhaps quite a bit.

When the world changes businesses need to change with the times.

In troubled times, reinvention of your company’s products and services may be the key to surviving. There are numerous past examples of companies that have failed to heed the Law of Nature-adapt or perish-and have gone under. Everyone can cite examples so no need to do that here.

There are also examples of companies that recognize and follow this Law of Nature. These companies are probably at this moment reinventing themselves to stay on top of their game.  Some may be your competitors.

Google, eBay, CBS, Time Warner’s AOL, and Netflix are a few companies I can think of, without research, that have been successfully reinventing themselves, in the past couple years, to stay ahead in this changing world.

It doesn’t matter what you do.

• Companies that were producing analog systems have gone digital.
• Automobile companies have begun to develop alternate power sources-a long resisted change.
• Many politicians reinvent themselves after every public opinion poll.

The list goes from buggy whips to nano machines. The point is- whatever your business you need to adapt to survive.

Contingent workers and IC’s can be the solution to change and survival.

In my experience, the in-house staff knows how to do what you do today really well. However, the really creative workers don’t do well in an established-mature business environment, so they move on. When change is necessary-real change-you often have to bring in a new person or team. People with fresh ideas and new ways of doing things. These experts can help you develop a new service or product and establish your new processes. They can help save your business. The really top experts don’t stay around forever. They are expensive and want to take on new challenges, not run maintenance programs. So making them permanent employees may not always be your best solution.

Contingent workers and Independent Contractors are important during times of change. They can provide you with the fresh, cost effective expertise you need for real change and then leave when the job is done. This liberates you from unnecessary long term costs.

You need to be careful.

The problem comes when you don’t have the in-house expertise to properly onboard the contingent workers and IC’s, properly classify them, properly manage them, and then properly let them go. Mistakes in any of these areas can result in civil lawsuits, tax audits and violations under the Fair Labor Standards Act. All of these can create huge legal battles and unplanned liabilities.

Helping you to avoid those problems by doing it right is our job.