Could Outplacement Firms Help You Recruit the Needle in the Haystack?

Have you heard about the HIRE Act? On March 18, 2010 President Obama signed the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE). The idea is to offer small business tax breaks and incentives for hiring employees who have been unemployed for at least 60 days prior to being hired.

There are some great tax incentives for businesses and here are some of just the basics for businesses to hire unemployed workers: 1. a payroll tax exemption of the employer’s share of Social Security taxes on wages paid to these workers after March 18, 2010. 2. An employer tax credit of up to $1,000 per worker.

In order to receive these benefits you must hire new employees that meet the following criteria: 1. an employee can be hired between Feb 3, 2010 & Jan 1, 2011 2. The newly-hired employee must have been unemployed during the 60 days prior to starting work, or worked fewer than 40 hours for someone else during the 60 day period.

The HIRE Act is aimed at providing hiring incentives to restore some of the jobs lost in the latest economic recession. The goal is to help put Americans back to work as soon as possible. Companies that hire qualifying workers sooner rather than later will get the most out of the tax credits, as the tax credits will decrease over time, and be completely gone by January 1, 2011.

The big question is how are you going to take advantage of these benefits? Where are all of these unemployed workers at? They are everywhere, which to me makes the idea of trying to recruit them seem overwhelming. So how do you find the needle in the haystack? Have you ever thought about adding outplacement firms as one of your recruiting sources? They are working directly with a large pool of transitioning employees that are skilled and ready to work, some of which have been unemployed for at least 60 days.

Now would be a great time to connect with various outplacement firms and your local workforce offices to maximize your exposure to this fantastic population of highly skilled employees!