CONTRACTING - THE WAY TO GO

When CRS first began operations in 1996, it was established as an I.T. contract resourcing agency.  In other words, we managed a pool of technical people that we could call on for short and long term contract jobs with our clients.  This concept was big business in the UK and North America, so we felt sure it was needed here in Trinidad too. 

Well, we nearly starved until we decided to cater for the (then) much bigger demand for Permanent Recruitment Services.  Few Trinidadians were ready to give up the security of a permanent job for the occasional contract job that came along at the time.  This is all changing now.  

Many companies are now using contract staff for ad hoc project work ranging from business analysis of their IT needs, network design, installation and configuration, all kinds of programming jobs, project management, etc.  The same is true in the Oil & Gas sector where there is an increasing demand for engineers, geological expertise, HSE, drillers, etc. The trend is to have a core of in-house expertise and to outsource the project work requiring specific skills and experience.

 There are many advantages for a company to operate in this way, such as:

1)         Flexibility to hire just the right expertise for the job, knowing that their contracts can end without having to pay expensive severance packages.

2)         Hiring Contractors means less overheads in terms of paying taxes like PAYE, National Insurance and Health Surcharge, and there is no obligation to pay bonuses and provide benefits normally expected by permanent staff.

3)         Hiring contractors with the right skills for the job means a reduced need to spend money on training.

The T&T government is actively cracking down on those employers who hire permanent staff “on contract” to get these benefits.  Often, these “contractors” are working without proper contracts to protect their rights.  Employers now have to prove that their contract staff are working on temporary projects and are true freelancers, or else they must pay statutory deductions for these staff to avoid heavy penalties and fines.  This can be difficult to prove in many cases.

There have to be benefits to employees to choose to be contractors, and these include:

1)         Better remuneration than for permanent staff to compensate for less job security, extra costs for tax accounting, health and pension coverage, training costs, and in fact, all those overheads normally suffered by the employer.

2)         Tax advantages associated with running your own business.

3)         Greater variety of work as they work for many different companies.

4)         More control over their career path, e.g., the option of remaining technical rather than having to become a manager to further their career

5)         Freedom to manage their time to suit themselves, e.g., take time off for vacation, study, travel, etc, between contracts.

CRS is well placed to manage contract resourcing, for both the I.T. and Oil & Gas industries.  We are taking steps to ensure that our clients have no liability for statutory deductions for our contract staff.   We advise our contractors on their tax responsibilities as well as the tax advantages of running their own business.

CRS is continually adding to its large database of skilled people of both local and overseas nationalities.  We ensure that contracts are legal and fair to all parties.  The demand for contractors is increasing and we want to ensure that this business develops to the mutual advantage of all concerned.