Stamford recruitment consultants Taylor Grey Inc. has taken to restructuring the company, at least for now, with the view some work is better than none.
“It”™s no secret to anyone that no one is hiring; people in fact are laying off,” said Jodi Fournier, president and CEO of Taylor Grey Inc. “The good news is that there are still clients hiring a little bit and are using us for temp and contract.”
According to Fournier, companies are becoming keen on the idea of temp-to-hire and Taylor Grey has shifted its focus in that direction from direct-to-hire.
Fournier said it enables companies to keep head counts slim on the books through lean times and continue to get work done.
“We can assist them by giving them a temp and we”™re getting our candidates out to work and our employees out to work, so that”™s the good news,” said Fournier. “In the meantime, let”™s try to get these people off of unemployment and at least get them a day, a week, a month assignment.”
Scott Witkin, managing director of Taylor Grey said a temp role could prove to be as important as a full-time position for those out of work in the downturn.
“In your next role you don”™t have a large gap in your resume,” said Witkin. “Your bills don”™t stop coming in just because you don”™t have a full-time job. A lot of the temp positions are temp-to-hire; if they become indispensible they get hired. A temp used to get a bad rap. Now it”™s like the second strategy to getting full-time employment.”
Taylor Grey”™s restructure has been applied to both the company”™s Stamford and New York City offices. “It”™s been brutal in both places,” said Fournier.
Fournier said the last time her industry experienced a dry spell like this was immediately after 9/11.
“Then we were able to hedge our bets and one office took care of the other,” said Fournier. “This go around is both offices.”
Taylor Grey has also turned its formula from salary to commission, on the suggestion of the company”™s employees.
Fournier said switching to a commission basis has created a diplomatic method of weeding out the strong recruiters from weak.
“The good sales people are willing to work on 100 percent commission,” said Fournier. “They”™re the ones who suggested it to me; some of these people have been with me since 1996. In essence, someone who”™s working on commission only is going to be hungrier. It”™s in their best interest to get this person work.”
Witkin said the business was traditionally founded in a commission model.
“As a company, we can pay a much higher commission payout when a person”™s commission only,” said Witkin. “Since direct hires have been so slow across the board they”™d rather get paid more on less in exchange for sacrificing the draw or the salary they used to get.”
Witkin said hiring has only shown life in specialized careers in industries like IT, medical software and accounting.
Witkin said the restructuring decisions have forced the company to adopt efficiencies.
“We”™ve looked at our staff, we”™ve looked at accounting, payroll, IT, infrastructure; there”™s so many online service you can use now to do that we never would have looked at before,” said Witkin. “Software as a service is the future. You might say no one is growing; well, if you”™re doing it more efficiently, faster, better, cheaper, you”™re going to do well in this environment.”
Witkin said the Stamford office has been reduced from ten people to six by eliminating duplicate positions, and ineffective employees.
“Most of the functionality that we”™ll lose will be picked up because the other people aren”™t as busy,” said Witkin. “It”™s unfortunate, but it”™s something you have to do right now; if you wait too long, you”™ll be out of business.”
Witkin said the company”™s database, Web management, online marketing, payroll and invoicing operations have all been outsourced to Web services.
“Being more efficient and learning how to live in this environment and this economy will only make us stronger when the economy does come back,” said Witkin.
