Recent articles posted on the Web regarding companies who are making current employment a requirement on their job postings have drawn a lot of attention and discussion over the past few weeks, including a recent blog post by FoxHire. There have been arguments regarding whether this practice is right or wrong, but in a recent www.examiner.com article titled “Recruiters Respond to ‘The Unemployed Need Not Apply,” recruiters take a different approach, focusing on how candidates can overcome, rather than change, employer’s “unemployed mindset.”
The main point recruiters quoted in the article make is that candidates need to do something to fill their employment gap, specifically taking consulting or contracting jobs. One of the biggest errors unemployed workers make is turning away “less-than-perfect contract offers” because they assume they can’t get benefits or they won’t make as much as they are making on unemployment. In the article, recruiter Marc Golden states in no uncertain terms what a mistake this is.
“We are looking for performers, not coasters,” he said. “Anyone who would rather do nothing for a fractional paycheck vs working and accomplishing things for all the marbles will be noted and not contacted for future positions.”
Not only will temporary/contract jobs help fill resume gaps, they may also help a candidate get his/her foot in the door at a company for a future direct/permanent position! So if you have unemployed candidates who are reluctant to take contract positions, you may want to point them to this article to help them understand the benefits of not holding out for the perfect direct position. And if benefits are their top concern, you can use FoxHire as your back-office service provider so that your contractors will have access to a full menu of benefit options.
