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High-Tech Temps
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A new kind
of contract professional is filling the corporate ranks.
By William Poe
Don’t call her a Kelly Girl. And don’t call him a hired gun. For
that matter, don’t call either one of them temps. They are more
highly trained and earn more money, than ever before. They are high-tech
contract professionals: engineers, chemists, biologists, software
engineers and programmers, web designers, desktop publishers, quality
assurance officers, and more. They’re coming to your office, if
they’re not there already, and they are the personification of the
changing company and workplace.
“The old rules of how companies work, how work gets done, and who
does the work, are out the window. At the same time, talented people
by the millions have gone out on their own. They are creating a
completely new kind of work force—independent, uniquely skilled
and motivated,” says Cate Macier, who runs the St. Louis office
of Aquent, a national company that provides contract creative talent
for three-month and longer assignments usually at the client’s site.
More and more companies are, in fact, using temporary professionals
in high-technology positions, according to a contract staffing survey
of 500 companies.
“St. Louis is a hotbed for high tech,” says Sonya Daies, who heads
the local office of Scientific Staffing, which provides professionals
to companies in the scientific, manufacturing, consumer products,
medical and other fields. “With the diverse economic base and the
large number of Fortune 500 companies here, we have a really strong
market for contract professionals.”
“We targeted St. Louis for expansion,” adds Mike Mahorney, who a
year and a half ago opened a local office for Technisource, a professional
engineering and information technology (IT) staffing firm headquartered
in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
By all accounts, competition is keen among Technisource, Scientific
Staffing, PDS Information Services, ACT 1 Technical & Professional
Services, and other organizations that provide what the industry
calls “staffing solutions” to client companies.
Those staffing solutions may take many forms, including temporary,
temp-to-hire, direct hire, on-site services, and outsourcing. And,
yes, the companies providing personnel dabble in old-fashioned but
high-tech headhunting; what they call direct hire. After all, they
have a ready pool of resumes and consultant talent that a client
might need on a permanent basis.
At Scientific Staffing, Daies says she found the local demand so
strong for engineering positions that the company places more and
more mechanical, engineering and other engineers in permanent positions.
And she makes no apology for the headhunting. “We earn a more lucrative
fee, and we meet a pressing client need,” she says.
Most of the action, though, is in the contract worker end of the
business. Daies says Scientific Staffing currently has more than
75 consultants who are employed by her company and loaned to other
employers at an hourly rate.
Those consultants, Daies says, may offer their expertise in the
IT areas of telecommunications, robotics and computer-aided design
and manufacturing, software application programming, server and
network design and development and in engineering areas including
biochemical and biological, biomedical, chemical, pharmaceutical
and others. Some of her consultants, Daies adds, hold doctorate
degrees. At minimum, consultants hold two-year associate degrees
in technical fields.
Client companies that contract for professional staff augmentation,
says Technisource’s Mahorney, usually have a short- or long-term
project for which they need specific expertise in the engineering
or IT fields. “They know they might need an individual only for
the duration of the project, usually for at least three months and
sometimes for as long as two or three years,” he adds.
Companies that are employing temporary scientific and IT professionals
are doing so because contract labor is often the quickest and most
cost-effective way to fill needed positions, Mahorney says. He adds
that some employers find they can better assess performance before
making a permanent hiring decision, and other firms cite a reduction
in the turnover rate of new employees.
Large companies, Daies and Mahorney say, are more likely to use
contract professionals. And many large companies in St. Louis are
apparently doing it.
While Daies and Mahorney say confidentiality agreements prohibit
them from identifying specific client companies, they make reference
to companies such as “a large aviation and defense contracting company,”
“a large life sciences company,” and “an international electric
motor manufacturer,” which leave little doubt who some of the customers
are.
“The larger the company, the more apt they are to hire contract
employers,” Mahorney says, adding that his company serves employers
of all sizes.
Aquent, which began in 1986 as MacTemps, provides creative talent
including graphic designers, web designers, production artists,
writers, illustrators and desktop publishing experts. These creatives
handle projects for a full range of clients including local advertising
agencies that, according to Macier, need to “ramp up” short-term
creative projects. Prospective clients, Macier says, can find the
“best creative fit” for their project by on-line access to the portfolios
representing past creative work of Aquent contract professionals.
If a firm needs a Web developer to build a new site, a graphic artist
to design a new brochure or free agents skilled in desktop publishing
platforms such as Quark or PageMaker, Aquent provides the talent.
Moreover, nothing makes Macier cringe faster than calling Aquent
a temp agency.
“Temp agencies deal in commodities,” Macier says. “We are a talent
agency, and talent is a stock.”
William V. Poe is principal of Poe Communications, a St. Louis advertising
and marketing communications firm. |
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