[Part 3] In-House, Agencies, and Beyond: A Guide to Talent Acquisition Solutions in 2022

Part 3: 1099 Contractors

Guide to TA solutions in 2022.

“If you are unsure of how your hiring volume may fluctuate over the next 6-24 months, 1099 contractors can give you the flexibility to scale your hiring resources up or down without having to suddenly lay off (or find/interview/hire) FTE recruiters.”

Another TA solution you have at your disposal is leveraging (1099) contractors. This form of a contingent workforce is embedded with your internal teams, granting you many of the benefits of an in-house solution, often at a lower cost. If you are unsure of how your hiring volume may fluctuate over the next 6-24 months, 1099 contractors can give you the flexibility to scale your hiring resources up or down without having to suddenly lay off (or find, interview, and hire) FTE recruiters.

“With that said, 1099 contractors have their disadvantages as well.”

With that said, 1099 contractors have their disadvantages as well. To name a big one, they can leave at any moment – and often do when they find a full-time opportunity with greater job security or another contract that may pay more or better align with their preferred work. The constant turnover associated with a TA workforce heavily comprised of 1099 contractors can severely hamper your hiring success by (1) overworking the resources that stick around, (2) shrinking the pool of institutional knowledge, and (3) severing valuable relationships between hiring managers and contract recruiters, which often take months to build effectively.

Another downside of 1099 contractors is that they often moonlight for other companies at the same time as they work for you – even if they claim to be working for you "full-time". And then, just like that, you’re paying for an embedded, exclusive resource who ends up splitting their time between you and another company. By the time you realize you've only been getting 20 hours of work out of them per week, you've already lost a considerable investment.

To learn about other talent acquisition solutions, continue reading Part 4 of this blog series.