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Afoul of Independent Contractor Rules: Training #2
| In my last post I tricked you -but it was for a good reason! I started with a seemingly simple common scenario where workers required training delivered by your organization. This scenario was used to illustrate how rules affecting independent contractors are not as clear as you would want them to be. The rule seemed to say that if you train workers in any way, they are employees and cannot be classified as independent contractors. That could be a problem. Perhaps not always, however. It would seem that there is training that independent contractors should complete that doesn't really control their behavior, only explains how to get work done in your organization. A couple of examples are:
In this IRS guidance document under "All of the following are examples of types of instructions about how to do work." you will find the following bullet: "What order or sequence to follow." That means that, if you tell workers the steps to do their work, you keep them from being independent contractors. This seems to put you in a bind. There are many types of training where you lay out specific steps for workers, For example, training on system development life cycle or project management process. For many organizations, the processes and procedures associated with these activities are pretty detailed and specific. An independent contractor being required to go through this training and following these rules will look very much like an employee. Very much. Here's another listed training topic that is for employees only: Training covering corporate strategy or IT organizational goals. Yet, your organization may desire to have independent contractors attend training of this type to ensure they are aligned properly. Giving independent contractors either of the above training types can be used by regulators (or in court) as evidence that your organization is misclassifying employees. Very bad. Yet training must occur on certain portfolio management processes such as tollgates where deliverables are submitted for review. Likewise you would expect contractors to create your organizationally-required deliverables - but on their own time and using their own expertise as independent contractors would be expected to. Consider this a risk to be managed. Involve legal, compliance and procurement experts. Industry standards have not been clarified at this time and your organization has to be protected. Remember this series will continue intermittently to help you remain aware of pitfalls in managing independent contractors. |
Posted on: August 20, 2012 10:27 PM
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Afoul of Independent Contractor Rules: Training
| As a project manager you may have to work with what the law calls "independent contractors." In recent years employers - and their attorneys - have been wrestling with the issue of who is actually an independent contractor and who is not. This so ironic because there has been plenty of time to sort this all out. You see years ago there was the famous "perma-temps" case where a well-known IT employer appeared to be hiring contractors in order to - you won't believe this - save money by not having to pay full-time employee benefits and other costs. The employer described certain employees as independent "temps." The point of the court judgement was that the employer did not treat these contractors any differently than full time employees. The conclusion was that there had to be a difference and the IRS was nice enough to codify a list of factors so that employers could identify both groups appropriately. It looked good on paper. In practice, however, it has been more complicated. I've worked as an independent contractor and an employer of independent contractors and I can tell you first hand that it is a difficult relationship to manage even with the rules and guidance. This will be the first of a continuing intermittent series on these rules and how you can take practical steps to avoid non-compliance. The approach will be pragmatic, and you will want to make sure you work with your legal and compliance experts to ensure you do right by your organization. According to the IRS: "The general rule is that an individual is an independent contractor if the payer has the right to control or direct only the result of the work and not what will be done and how it will be done." To start us off on an easy note, we can look at the rule on training. It says that if you train workers, they are employees not independent contractors. Wait, what? Do you mean we cannot train our contractors at all? What if we simply train them on our software development lifecycle and our tollgate set-up? What if we just give them compliance or security training? Did I say start on an easy note? I lied. There are no easy interpretations. Now you see where confusion can come in for any of the criteria. We'll apply several rules against this training scenario in my next post. Until then, make sure your independent contractors clearly label themselves as such in their standard email signatures. More guidance at this IRS site: http://www.irs.gov/publications/p15a/ar02.html. |
Posted on: August 07, 2012 09:53 PM
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Why Onboarding May Be Your Problem
| Think you have a problem going from needs to execution? Check out this disconnect with IT onboarding reported in this survey. IT Leaders say that onboarding programs are extremely important
IT professionals agree with leaders on this. So the next questions is: what attention has been paid to onboarding programs? An amount of attention that corresponds to "extremely important"? Apparently not. Most IT leaders and managers surveyed say that onboarding programs are not a top priority. Evidently they do not even get the attention they deserve. Only about 12-13% of IT leaders and professionals rate their onboarding programs as extremely effective. So chances are when you are a project manager and have to onboard new resources, you will be starting with an inadequate process. Plan to supplement the program in your project.
Oh, and do your best to get onboarding moved up the list of organizational priorities. It's difficult to find good people and it would be a waste to delay their integration and disappoint them. |
Posted on: July 23, 2012 07:15 AM
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Key Workforce Motivators Are Available to You
| If you could be sure of key motivators of your workforce, imagine what you could get done. Check out this Dan Pink video which explains some of the science associated with worker motivation in an enjoyable way. A couple of the interesting study findings:
But can you guess what these factors are? Select the three from this alphabetized list:
Really, try to choose the key three before you see the correct answer. It will help you see how sophisticated you are as a workforce manager. Try to get as many as possible. You should know them if you are a regular reader of this blog. Ready for the answer? The key three are Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose. For details see the video. What you are interested in now is whether you can use these motivators when you are acting as a project manager. Sure you can. Here are some examples that will help you think of many others appropriate to your situation, especially if you work with a helpful human resource representative:
Get out there and motivate! |
Posted on: July 18, 2012 11:19 PM
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Coaching Resources Consolidated
| You cannot repair every worker performance problem in your project. But all is not lost, you can assist the team leads or managers who are responsible to fix the performance problems. We have discussed previously in the Eye that people are promoted for doing well in skills that are used less than their new position. (You may recall me describing a study showed that better results are achieved by promoting people at random as opposed to promoting based on how well they did in the previous job.) This just adds to the need for coaching. Read more about how important coaching is now for your career improvement here (registration needed). And see how ADM implemented a huge coaching effort ("Coaching to Win") to improve annual performance management here (registration). So add coaching practice for project team leads to your training plan. Recognize that this may be a stretch for managers or team leads. A long, long stretch. They will need customized preparation and real practice to get it right. And consider these ideas:
Your Big Move: Improve your career by becoming an excellent coach yourself. This is a critical skill and growing more so as organizations mature away from command and control and into a collaborative culture. Need more help? Here are many additional resources just from gantthead. This should keep you busy for hours. Don't forget to keep track of your project. More about coaching on my Eye on the Workforce blog Taking Advantage of Coachable Moments You may not know this, but you miss out on coaching moments every day. These moments together are way more powerful than your formal annual or semi-annual performance reviews. Way more. Pricewaterhouse ... Better Skill Development: It Plays in Peoria The winner of the 2011 Optimus Award for Managing Change goes to the city of Peoria. The one in Arizona. Why? They created a registered apprenticeship program to develop in-house talent. ... I was recently reminded how coaching is the universal immediate performance-improving technique. It is so good that it does not have to be executed perfectly to be effective. Yet there is one way you ... An Experience You Don't Want to Duplicate Jim Clemmer, training consultant, recently wrote about how he didn't like experiential learning like wilderness experiences. While there are many workers that project managers would like to abandon in ... OK, check your judgment with this question: Which of these four performance management strategies was found to drive far more “business impact” than the others? (1) Cascading Goals: aligning goa ... Elsewhere on gantthead... Step Up and Coach Your Teams for Success! from Extraordinary Leader Coaching and mentoring is one the many aspects of a project/program managers responsibility. Great project /program managers will use various tools and techniques on their projects to acquire swift ... Project HEADWAY: The Project Manager as Coach - What's the Game Plan?
Over the last couple of weeks, I have been thinking a lot about the traits that successful coaches have in common. Its probably because college football season started a couple of weeks ago, but as ... Individual Performance Intervention Planner ( Specifications/Procedures - Template ) Before you go into a coaching meeting with a worker, make sure you are prepared for an uneventful discussion--or a lively one. To be effective, coaching must blend a working knowledge of the mechanics of a skill set with experience of exercising that skill set in real-life situations. And sometimes, the better coach will always know when it is time to take out a player Project Manager's Coaching Process Start-Up Guide ( Template ) This template has been designed to assist the project manager to prepare for the coaching process of one or more individuals. |
Posted on: June 25, 2012 10:05 PM
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