Hiring Manager FAQ

Synergistech Communications is a resourceful, reliable, informed source of qualified Bay Area technical communicators. We save you time, money, and frustration by introducing only those candidates with the skills, experience, and motivation you need. We also advise you on how to get the best value based on current demand for your requirements, keep our markups modest, guarantee complete integrity, protect your interests when hiring contractors, and readily refer you to better-qualified resources if we're unable to provide an optimal solution.

And everything we do costs you nothing unless you hire from us.

Synergistech's president, Andrew Davis, wrote API and system-administration documentation for Oracle, IBM, Borland, Informix, Network Equipment Technologies (NET), Silicon Graphics (SGI), and Verity for almost a decade. He also built and managed a four-person publications team. With an additional decade's tech pubs-focused recruiting experience and an excellent reputation among experienced technical communicators, we're confident we can help you find the right contract or "staff" (salaried, full-time employee):

• Technical Writers and Information Developers — for the computer software and hardware, medical, biotech, pharmaceutical, financial, and semiconductor industries
• Business Writers — for Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) and ISO 9000/9002 process compliance, as well as best practices and in-house operations
• Editors — copyeditors, production, and developmental editors
• Trainers — technical and otherwise
• Publications Managers and Publications Directors
• Online Help and User Assistance (UA) authors — for everything from tooltips to enterprise application online help
• Instructional Designers
• Illustrators and Graphic Artists
• Information Architects
• Web Content authors
• Electronic Publishing experts — for single-sourcing, knowledge base, XML/XSLT, DITA, structured authoring, and CMS (content management system) implementations
• Marketing communications experts — for white papers, proposals, data sheets, presentations, video scripts, and more
• Usability or 'User Experience' (UX) or Human Factors (CHI) Specialists
• User Interface Designers
• Indexers — for documentation, web sites, trade books, academic publications, and more
• Translators and Localization/Internationalization experts

Key to our role as your ally in the quest for talent is clarifying how we operate and sharing our advice. Here are our answers to your frequently asked questions. Got questions we haven't answered yet? Ready to let us get to work finding you great candidates?

Q1. Why does Synergistech include pricetags in its job and contract postings?

A. Unlike the vast majority of recruiters, Synergistech includes potential compensation figures in its job listings. This number is the one provided by you or your representative as the maximum base salary or hourly rate available to the ideal candidate. In our experience, this number has a significant impact on who applies for the position and how seriously they commit themselves to your goals. Out of respect for both you and our candidates, we post this information along with the position's responsibilities and requirements because:

1. we want candidates to know how much they can earn (net of our commission) in that position
2. we don't want to tease you with candidates who expect more money than your company is prepared to pay
3. we want to show you how much of your money a successful candidate will actually keep

We're aware of the arguments against our strategy, including:

• it can cause a company to lose leverage during negotiations
• it can contribute to salary or hourly rate inflation
• it can attract the wrong kinds of candidates (ie, the gold-diggers rather than the artisans)

In Synergistech's experience, the advantages to your company of stating what it is willing to pay in conjunction with well-defined job requirements far outweigh the drawbacks. Chief among the benefits of stating a position's maximum salary or pay rate are the following:

• it demonstrates an accurate understanding of what the person you seek is worth, which generates respect
• it demonstrates focus and commitment, which inspires the same from the right kind of candidate
• it demonstrates candor and confidence, which elicits trust
• it gets you noticed by candidates choosing between your listing and opportunities where potential pay is kept secret
• it attracts candidates who won't usually work through recruiters because of their reputation for gamesmanship, vagueness, and deceit
• it increases all parties' expectations that pay negotiations will proceed quickly and smoothly, and that no one will feel exploited

You can rely on Synergistech not to send you the gold-diggers' resumes, and to inform you fully about what motivates the candidates we present so you can make a more persuasive pitch once you meet the right match. And regarding your preference for retaining leverage during pay negotiations, remember that if the person you hire doesn't quickly prove that they'll earn your company a multiple of their total compensation, you can cut them loose and take advantage of Synergistech's refund policy.

Q2. Explain Synergistech's refund policy.

A. Synergistech's refund policy differs from our guarantee, which is explained here. Synergistech's refund policy is detailed in our recruiting agreement, but in summary specifies that Synergistech (like all reputable contingency recruiting firms) will refund our recruiting fee, or recruit a qualified replacement, if you hire a candidate we introduce as your salaried employee and then terminate that person within the first 90 days of employment for any reason except company downsizing or lack of work.

Synergistech's goal is to give our client companies time to see the candidate in action, and assess his or her ability to perform, without being financially liable to us if the candidate does not live up to your expectations made explicit in the job description and during the interview process. Synergistech offers a full refund or no-cost replacement for the first 30 days of the candidate's employment. Thereafter, the amount of the available refund or replacement credit decreases linearly, beginning at 59/90ths on day 31 and decreasing by 1/90th for each successive day until it reaches zero on the 91st day of employment.

Note that Synergistech's refund policy does not apply to candidates retained as contractors (regardless of which company pays them), nor to candidates who begin work for your company as contractors and then transition to staff, salaried employee status. Synergistech regards contract engagements (regardless of their length) as the 'performance trial' phase of a working relationship with your company, and thus deems itself relieved of all obligations to provide a refund.

Q3. Explain Synergistech's guarantee.

A. Synergistech's "perpetual performance guarantee" supplements our refund policy (defined in our recruiting agreement, and summarized here), and provides peace of mind and protection from the consequences of any lapse in ethics, professionalism, or honesty for which Synergistech is responsible. Synergistech agrees to forfeit or repay 100 percent of our commission — for both staff and contract placements — if at any time your organization shows that we acted unethically, unprofessionally, or dishonestly during or after the actual recruiting process. Our guarantee does not expire, ever.

What does that mean? In effect, your company is eligible for a complete refund of any amounts you paid Synergistech if a scenario such as the following should ever occur:

• we fail to intervene, when you so request, to resolve problems created by a candidate we've introduced
• we deliver an inaccurate or fictionalized reference check
• we neglect to verify aspects of a candidate's background about which you've specifically requested confirmation
• we solicit a current employee of your company to accept work elsewhere
• we knowingly misrepresent a candidate's employment or earnings history

We designed this guarantee to give our client companies the confidence they deserve that Synergistech will surpass their expectations and that working with us will save you both time and money — or else it's free!

Q4. What is Synergistech's markup?

A. Synergistech limits its profit to no more than 20 percent of the rate your company pays to the candidates we introduce. Here's how our markup translates into dollars and cents:

1. For 1099-based contracts, if the candidate keeps $50/hr, Synergistech earns $10/hr and your company pays $60/hr for the worker's services.
2. For W2-based contracts, if the candidate keeps $50/hr, Synergistech earns $10/hr and your company pays $69.50/hr for the worker's services. Relative to a 1099 arrangement, the additional $9.50/hr — or 19 percent — covers all employment-related legal obligations, including state and federal payroll taxes, unemployment insurance, worker's compensation insurance, general liability insurance, and often other specialized coverages your company may require, as well as the cost of processing and mailing the contractor's paycheck and paying him or her at least a month (and sometimes as many as three months) before your company pays us.
3. For staff/salaried/FTE placements, if the candidate earns a base salary of $50,000/year, Synergistech earns $10,000 and is not entitled to a share of any bonuses or other incentives (such as stock options, extra vacation time, or relocation assistance) your company may grant.

If you hire a 1099- or W2-based contractor and seek to convert him or her to staff employment status, and the worker agrees, Synergistech earns a conversion fee equal to its negotiated staff placement commission (see 'c,' above) minus the amount we have earned in profit since the contract began. Due to its modest commission structure, Synergistech cannot agree to release its contractors prematurely for 'no-fee' conversions to staff employment status.

Q5. Who pays whom, when, and why?

A. Here is how, when, and why the money flows when you hire a candidate through Synergistech:

1. When we help you fill a staff/salaried/FTE job, your company pays us our negotiated commission based on the successful candidate's annual base salary. Our payment terms are usually net-30, and the refund policy clause of our recruiting agreement specifies the amount we will repay should the candidate not survive his or her probationary period.
2. When we help you hire — and agree to payroll — a W2-based contractor, the employer-of-record service that pays the contractor also pays us. If you opt to payroll the contractor yourself (or have an existing payrolling-and-contractor-compliance service such as Adecco, ManPower, WorkforceLogic, PrO Unlimited, or Spherion do it), we invoice for our fee against a separate purchase order, typically on net-30 terms. In both situations, our commission is contingent on your approval of the worker's timecard.
3. When we introduce your company to an unincorporated independent contractor whom you opt to engage on a 1099 basis (or to an incorporated contractor you wish to engage on a corp-to-corp basis), we are paid our commission from the amount we negotiate for you to pay the worker. The worker invoices your company, typically on net-15 or net-30 terms, and pays us when he or she receives your check.

Here is the rest of the story about how Synergistech works with 1099-based independent contractors, why, and how you benefit compared to the (intensely risky) way every other recruiter of independent contractors does business.

Q6. What does Synergistech expect from my company?

A. In order to be effective on your company's behalf, Synergistech requires reliable, direct access to the person making hiring decisions. If that is not the departmental manager, then we at least need to know that our contact's decisions will not be overruled. In no case will Synergistech accept a recruiting assignment for which our only point of contact is a Human Resources representative, in-house recruiter, or onsite staffing service functionary.

Further, before presenting candidates for staff employment, Synergistech requires that your company sign our recruiting agreement or — should that not prove possible — that those communicating with our candidates agree in writing not to solicit those individuals for referrals to other resources nor to propose arrangements whereby our candidates or any individual or service they might refer be engaged in such a way as to evade Synergistech's representation. (Synergistech explicitly instructs its candidates to refer any such requests from our client companies directly to us, and to notify us immediately should they be approached for referrals or to help arrange 'un-represented' services.)

Q7. I want to hire a "team player". Why is that proving so difficult?

A. In our experience, the term "team player" is a euphemism. Unfortunately, in the context of a technical publications department, it's often a euphemism for many conflicting traits. We realize you don't want an obsequious dolt or a territorial misanthrope, but there is a lot of room in between those extremes for very different kinds of personality. In this era of corporate disloyalty, asking for selflessness is silly. And given that most technical communicators must work autonomously at least as often as collaboratively, candidates who express a preference for teamwork might be construed as a liability (and ditto those who acknowledge enjoying control over their deliverables).

Unless you'd prefer a diagnosed schizophrenic, please review and prioritize your needs from the following list of less-euphemistic phrases that hiring managers have offered by way of elaboration when we give them that puzzled look and ask "what characterizes a team player?"

• Possesses little or no ego even though their role might be vital
• Includes and motivates others to participate, shares credit whenever possible, and does not insist on acknowledgement
• Collaborates consistently and skillfully with diverse personalities and agendas without judging or requiring guidance
• Follows direction well without requiring explanations or justifications for course-corrections
• Offers help unselfishly, and seldom expects or requests reciprocation
• Respects authority and accepts criticism without getting defensive
• Seeks the same goals as the team and focuses his or her efforts on collective (rather than individual) success
• Focused on making his or her manager look good
• Does what he or she is told without making waves

The more you can clarify what this phrase means to you, the more readily we can help you hire the right kind of colleague.

Q8. I need a contractor but my budget's limited and management is afraid of 1099ers.

A. Management's fear of 1099ers (independent contractors) working through employment agencies is justified. There is ample precedent for companies to be audited for having misclassified workers they thought were independent contractors. The penalties due to IRS and your state's tax and employment development department — in California, the Franchise Tax Board and EDD respectively — can reach 50 percent of the compensation originally paid to the worker, and their audits can dredge up the cases of every 1099er the company has ever hired. Messy.

That said, companies can save money (often 20 percent or more) by hiring true 1099-based independent contractors because they don't have to pay payroll taxes, unemployment and worker's compensation insurance, or employment benefits. But those contractors must comply with the "20 Questions," the guidelines that IRS and its allies use to assess a contract worker's independence. And one sure way to fall afoul of the 20 Questions is to have that worker paid (and therefore controlled) by a third party — which is exactly what happens when an agency introduces the successful candidate.

Every agency, that is, except Synergistech. We protect you from reclassification audits and preserve the contractor's independence by doing one very simple, bold, and trusting thing — letting companies contract directly with workers. Essentially, we negotiate the pay rate and the proportion of that amount the contractor will keep, and sign a contract with him or her to pay us the difference when they receive your check. Then we disappear. We retain no control. We have no influence over the working relationship. But because of the respect we've earned among the candidates we serve, it has worked perfectly for over a decade. In fact, IRS, FTB, and EDD have explicitly endorsed ours as both a legal and pragmatic solution.

So if you want to save money and haven't found the right contractor on your own, call us. Synergistech has the safe solution, and we will save you money compared with every other agency on the planet.

Still unsure? View more details.

Q9. Will Synergistech work with my company's Contingent Workforce Staffing/Vendor-Management Service (VMS)?

A. When you need a contractor, you need the right person quickly. Unfortunately, If your company uses a vendor-management (or 'contingent workforce staffing') company such as ManPower, WorkforceLogic, PrO Unlimited, Spherion, Adecco, or Kelly Services, you will likely have to find your solution on your own. That's because — even though these services claim to be full-service employment agencies — they specialize in contractor-compliance verification and payrolling, not on recruiting.

Can you turn to Synergistech to find someone with the specific skills you need? If you ask Synergistech, the answer is an emphatic "Yes."

But if you ask your vendor-management service (VMS), you'll get a more equivocal "Maybe."

Why? Even though they have no expertise in recruiting hard-to-find talent — nor any interest in improving their understanding of their hiring managers' needs, nor in being accountable for filling the vacancy with a well-qualified, fairly priced candidate — VMSs do all in their power to dissuade external recruiters from introducing candidates to their clients. In short, VMSs have turf to protect.

How do VMSs deter recruiters? In these ways, primarily:

1. imposing oppressive financial burdens on any independent contractor (even an incorporated one) seeking to work directly with their client company — even if that contractor easily passes the 20 Questions test
2. insisting that any external recruiter (such as Synergistech) legally employ the contractor(s) it introduces, including carrying full insurance coverage that is, wherever possible, tailored (at additional cost) to benefit the client company
3. refusing to allow an independent employer-of-record service to employ the contractor(s) introduced by the external recruiter

A hiring manager who approached Synergistech in early September, 2008, was eager to hire candidates from us but couldn't because its VMS insisted on the following coverages both from independent contractors and, if the worker(s) were to be payrolled, from Synergistech:

• worker's comp insurance
• $300K of auto 'owned and hired' insurance (unless the contractor is a partnership or corporation, in which case it was $1M)
• general liability insurance of $1M per occurrence (unless the contractor is a partnership or corporation, in which case it was $2M)
• $1M of errors-and-omissions (also known as 'professional liability') insurance

In addition, the contractor or Synergistech would have to wait 45 days for payment of its invoices.

It is worth noting that errors-and-omissions insurance is almost impossible for small companies to purchase these days, and even when it is available the cost is astronomical. This is the case in spite of the fact that all parties acknowledge — in the case of technical communicators in the software industry — that the service provider has no final control over what is produced and thus minimal accountability for errors or omissions in that content.

Ultimately, by placing such one-size-fits-all legal and financial burdens on third-party recruiters, VMSs exclude all firms unable or unwilling to spend $2000-$4000 up-front simply for the opportunity to introduce candidates to the VMS's client company.

To be fair, VMSs have a contractual obligation to their client companies to make sure all contractors rendering services there are either legitimate independents or are payrolled. Synergistech certainly does not advocate allowing any candidate who prefers to work as an independent contractor to do so; the majority are insufficiently diligent about conforming to the 20 Questions, and thus represent a contractor-compliance audit risk.

However, when it comes to interacting with prospective vendors who can — in their hiring managers' view — resolve significant staffing challenges, VMSs are much more motivated by protectionism than by any desire to provide quality recruiting services.

In practice, VMSs' conflicted motivations make their client's hiring managers' lives much more difficult. By their refusal to interact pragmatically with external vendors who specialize in providing services the VMS has proven themselves unable or unwilling to handle itself, VMSs add substantially to hiring managers' workload and thwart their client companies' ability to hire talent on demand.

Is there any legal or financial justification for VMSs' effective exclusion of external recruiters? We can't think of any, and in the ten years since the advent of these gatekeeping services, we've yet to hear an excuse that didn't boil down to "you're our competition, and we got here first, so drop dead."

In response to VMSs' insistence that external vendors bear the employment-related insurance and payrolling costs of those they introduce, that's a fruitless duplication of cost and effort. Insuring and payrolling contractors is the role of the VMS.

And in response to VMSs' refusal to payroll the successful candidate and also pay their recruiter a commission (as negotiated with the client company), the VMS should allow the recruiter to rely on a third-party payrolling service or negotiate a 'parallel purchase order' from which the recruiter can be compensated as the contractor logs hours. In both cases, VMSs object loudly and introduce unwarranted roadblocks.

As a hiring manager, if you see such activity from your VMS, Synergistech strongly encourages you to let your company's senior management know that you would be much better served — and your company's competitiveness improved — if the VMS in question were required to collaborate productively with hand-picked external vendors. As long as VMSs act anti-competitively, your company's interests will suffer (and your hiring woes will linger).

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