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Your marketing plan is a success. People are even calling you before they have exhausted every other avenue. Your boss is impressed by the growth in your usage statistics. You are working 60 hours per week. You haven't had a weekend off in two months. You need help. The company is doing well and your budget has been increased. Shouldn't getting an assistant be relatively easy? Possibly not. For a variety of reasons, many businesses are increasingly reluctant to create new positions or, in HR parlance, to add a head. Finding the money is not usually the problem. Rather than fight the system, consider hiring a temporary or contract librarian. You will be able to demonstrate that the position is truly needed and that the additional person contributes to more than your personal mental health. You can "try out" a candidate without obligation and avoid a hiring mistake. You can work through the lengthy process of creating a permanent position without having to do the jobs of two people for months. While hiring a temp may be the ideal answer for your situation, there are a few caveats.
Dollar for Dollar
A temporary or contract librarian will not save the company money. Although the cost can be expensed from operating funds rather than a payroll account, a contractor will not actually be cheaper than an employee. The hourly wage paid to a contractor should be at least comparable to what the person would receive as an employee. It may actually be higher to compensate for reduced benefits. What you pay the staffing services company will be significantly more than what the contract employee receives. The staffing company charges will include the cost of providing benefits to the employee, social security and Medicare taxes, workers compensation premiums, unemployment taxes, liability insurance and, or course, a profit.
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Ducks & Taxes
Why not just hire an independent contractor without going through a staffing services company? You can do that as long as the contractor has his or her own company, works regularly for other companies in addition to yours, and works independently. If, however, the contractor works only for you, works at your site with tools (the computer) you provide, and works under your supervision, that person had better be someone's employee. The Internal Revenue Service has a checklist you can use to determine if a person is a contractor or an employee. What it amounts to is the "Duck Rule." If the person looks like an employee and acts like an employee, he or she is an employee. The IRS does not look kindly on companies that appear to be avoiding their payroll tax obligations by calling workers contractors. You do not have to hire through a staffing company, but hiring is a costly process. Most companies are reluctant to hire short-term workers directly.
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