IES Blog

Business

Empty office space with no employees
July 31, 2020 Read time: 3 minutes

Thanks to COVID-19, the future of work has suddenly and unceremoniously become the present. Organizations that once prided themselves on their office space have gone entirely remote, and the contingent worker is now an integral part of the way work gets done. According to a recent Gartner survey, 32% of organizations have hired contingent workers to replace…

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Diverse group of professionals together
July 30, 2020 Read time: 3 minutes

Increasingly in the last decade businesses have prioritized diversity in the workplace as a business strategy that maximizes productivity, creativity and loyalty of employees while meeting the needs of their clients or customers. If a company is only as good as their employees, then it stands to reason that a great deal of energy should…

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Blurred room full of people working
July 6, 2020 Read time: 1 minutes

In a contingent workforce program, front-end metrics like fill rate and bill rate provide a surface-level view of the partnership built by the program manager and vendor, but they don’t necessarily illustrate the long-term effectiveness of the union. Back-end metrics shed light on the big picture, giving insight into how effective your program truly is.…

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Business woman and man working together reviewing paperwork
July 1, 2020 Read time: 1 minutes

For many companies, relying on a contingent workforce to get tasks done is a relatively new phenomenon, a result of the growing gig economy. While this increasingly popular workforce mindset is beneficial to both workers and companies, it includes its own set of managerial challenges. A risk assessment can help solidify that approach by identifying…

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Co-workers looking at a computer together
June 30, 2020 Read time: 3 minutes

The coronavirus pandemic has been hard on small businesses. The virus and its fallout have caused more than 60% of small operations to lose revenue and about 40% to reduce employee hours to avoid layoffs, according to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). With these factors working against small businesses, simultaneous efforts to make business- and…

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Business Continuity Plan for Company
June 26, 2020 Read time: 3 minutes

COVID-19 has thrown countless lives and industries into upheaval. It probably should come as no surprise that 83% of employers have modified their business practices in response to the coronavirus. These modifications may be little more than an inconvenience for larger companies, but it’s a different story for smaller businesses. On average, small businesses only have enough…

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casual youthful coworkers engaging in a meeting
June 5, 2020 Read time: 3 minutes

Measuring the performance of your contingent workforce program is crucial to its success. Traditional hiring metrics such as fill rates and other front-end measurements are helpful, but they provide very little insight into the program outcomes or the relationship between vendors and the program managers or HR executives in charge. To assess the actual effectiveness of…

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Woman working from home on a group video conference
May 5, 2020 Read time: 4 minutes

The COVID-19 pandemic is sending shockwaves through the economy. As of late March, a Bain/Dynata weekly survey reported that nearly 60% of Americans had experienced cuts in pay or hours, layoffs, or closed their businesses because of the virus. The fallout of these losses creates an unprecedented situation for HR crisis management. Many businesses have transitioned their…

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Wiping down keyboard with disinfectant wipe
April 29, 2020 Read time: 1 minutes

The impacts of COVID-19 and the measures governments and organizations are taking to contain it right now are unprecedented. The hourly breaking news headlines of outbreaks and cancellations have our heads spinning and have kept the wellness of our families, friends, and co-workers top of mind. Organizations should follow CDC guidelines to keep their employees safe…

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Smiling group of professional business people
April 21, 2020 Read time: 3 minutes

In years past, companies looked at contract work as a way to fill temporary voids. They used it for seasonal work, during leaves of absence, or as administrative support. For generations, contract workers have helped companies remain profitable and competitive, and their ranks are only set to increase in the coming years. Research from TrueBlue and Emsi suggests that hiring contract…

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