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News and insight about working in and with today's contingent workforce.
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Workforce news and insight from Sean Rehder, a former Recruiter, 1099 Independent Contractor Compliance Manager, and Supplier Qualification Program Manager turned web developer.
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Tuesday, March 30, 2004
Sunday, March 28, 2004
Saturday, March 27, 2004
 Fending Off Corporate Raiders
By Rachael King
"The cost of employees leaving can be double or triple if they go to a competitor. As the economy continues to heat up, this will happen more often, and employers will have to defend themselves against competitors looking to raid their top performers. "
Full Article...
posted by Sean Rehder at 10:37 PM, (Permalink)
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Wednesday, March 24, 2004
What's Happening in Our World?
By Kevin Wheeler
"Kevin Wheeler is once again conducting his bi-annual survey on the state of the recruiting profession. Take his short survey on emerging trends in the industry, and read about what you missed if you didn't attend ERE's ER Expo 2004 West in San Diego last week."
Read the full article
posted by Sean Rehder at 8:17 AM, (Permalink)
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Monday, March 22, 2004
 Will Boston become a land of headquarters?
Can you imagine a hive with only queens? Silicon Valley is hiring again, but the workers bees are overseas.
"While some companies are doing things the old-fashioned way, an increasing number of jobs that once were the guts of valley life -- technical support, programming, even some computer-system design — are now handled in places as remote as Bombay, India, and Bucharest, Romania."
Will this happen in Boston, too?
(via Employment Digest blog)
posted by Sean Rehder at 1:37 PM, (Permalink)
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Sunday, March 21, 2004
 What’s All This About Diversity Recruitment?
Copyright 2004 Simon F. Meth
It seems that you can’t read a staffing industry, human resources, or business publication without seeing an article about diversity recruitment. Well, here’s another one with a different spin on what you’ve probably read before. We’ll look at diversity recruitment without trying to be politically correct or overly sensitive. There’s a great lesson in this article that will positively impact your recruitment effectiveness. Read on to learn it.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (www.eeoc.gov) lists the following types of discrimination: age, disability, equal pay, national origin, pregnancy, race, religion, sex, and sexual harassment. A large part of what is written about diversity recruitment and a large proportion of the time, money, and effort that is expended by corporations on diversity recruitment is done to avoid legal problems under the federal EEO laws. Thankfully we’re not going to spend any more time on this area.
There are other more compelling reasons to want a diverse workforce in our organizations. First, our population is diverse. Doesn’t it make sense that our organizations be just as diverse as our population? Theoretically it makes sense but reality isn’t that way. Most people know that white men hold most high-level executive positions. In fact the higher you go in most organizations the fewer women there are. How about people of color? Look around where you work. Are there the same proportions of people of color in your workplace as in the population as a whole? Not where I work and probably not where you work. Why is that? Well we all could probably come up with hundreds of reasons. We’re not going to talk about that either.
Let’s consider that one of the key factors in business is attracting, hiring, and retaining top talent. Does top talent only come in the form white male aged 20 to 40? Of course not! As our economy continues to recover from the challenges of the past few years, the demand for top talent will continue to increase. Perhaps top talent doesn’t look the way you think it looks? Perhaps top talent comes in all different shapes and sizes, colors, ethnicities, and religions? Perhaps top talent has the education, the experience, and the desire to make a difference?
OK. So we’re ready to diversify our workforce. We’ll let our white recruiters and our white hiring mangers get to work on it. They can recruit their friends and colleagues who are also likely to be white. Now is that going to work? Not likely! We’ll then, let’s advertise our open positions. Let’s get our advertising agency to create some great new campaign. Now we’ll have some white people dreaming up how to attract black people by advertising where white people hang out. That’s just nuts!
So by now you may be thinking that diversity recruitment is tough. Sure is. To have any chance of success the diversity recruitment program (DSP) and the people who run it must also be diverse.
Be very aware of your biases. We all have biases and that isn’t a bad thing, it’s a human thing. One of the most common biases I hear from hiring managers is rejecting a candidate because they live too far from the job. Who knows what will work for the candidate? They may choose to relocate. They may be happy to travel further than the hiring manager would consider reasonable. They may live next door and use the address on their resume for mailing because their mother lives there and mail to their own address keeps getting stolen. You never really know what will work for people and what won’t. Here’s the great lesson in this article. Notice when you have a bias, be it positive or negative, and let it go. Just let it go. Ask yourself, is this candidate qualified to do the job? Give up your biases about people of color, people who are “too old”, people in wheel chairs, people who come from that country where they eat things you wouldn’t eat. Just let them go and focus, instead, on the candidate’s ability to do the job.
In summary, diversity recruitment is tough. It’s doubly tough when the people doing the recruitment are not diverse and the methods used don’t reach a diverse audience. And no matter how well intentioned you are, without giving up your personal biases, it will be nearly impossible to significantly impact the diversity of the workforce where you work.
posted by Sean Rehder at 4:42 PM, (Permalink)
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From the Center of American Progress...
"Despite 61% of Americans fearing more job losses due to outsourcing, the Bush Administration this week once again strongly reaffirmed its support for outsourcing U.S. jobs to cheap overseas labor markets. With more than 8 million Americans out of work, the White House sent Secretary of State Colin Powell to India to "assure Indians that the Bush administration would not try to halt the outsourcing of high-technology jobs to their country." At the same time, the President's Export Council – a panel made up of top Bush contributors whose companies are profiting from outsourcing – issued a report claiming the U.S. economy would suffer if even more outsourcing was not permitted by lawmakers. The report ignored the fact that millions of Americans are currently struggling through a jobs crisis and stagnating wages, while the White House seriously underfunds education and job training at home. As one temp agency executive said, "If people who are used to making $70,000 can't find work [because of outsourcing] our economy will ultimately suffer: They're the ones who buy houses, cars, and clothes.""
posted by Sean Rehder at 6:37 AM, (Permalink)
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Saturday, March 20, 2004
Jobs That Will Stay Here (airsdirectory.com)
As white-collar jobs begin to go offshore, it is time to think about the future job market and speculate on what kinds of jobs will remain at home. In general, it's people intensive jobs that are hard to offshore. Recruiters are among those professions, as are writers, actors and directors for the American film industry, and healthcare workers who have direct contact with patients. People that deal with death also do not have to worry about their jobs disappearing. Jack Brewer, director of the career center at San Francisco State University, said, "Morticians and crime scene investigators", would be hard to outsource. Teaching youngsters falls into the hard-to-offshore category, as well as front-end sales and negotiation jobs. Lina Melkonian, of San Jose State's career center, advises that the Bachelor's Degree is just the beginning. One needs to constantly upgrade skills and have the flexibility and resiliency to keep an edge in the job market.
Read more online: San Francisco Chronicle, March 7, 2004
posted by Sean Rehder at 7:12 AM, (Permalink)
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Recoup of Job Losses Predicted for 2004
"In 2004, the U.S. economy will recoup the more than 2.3 million jobs lost between 2001 and 2003, according to a report released by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. However, the report found that the jobs will have lower wages than the jobs lost during the economic downturn. "
More...
posted by Sean Rehder at 7:08 AM, (Permalink)
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Optimas Winners: A Study in Benefits
Flexibility Helps Companies Deal With Rising Healthcare Costs
The Optimas Awards presented by Workforce Management exemplify excellence in bottom-line oriented workforce management practices in a number of strategy-driven categories. This special section spotlights two past Optimas Awards winners, FedEx and Synygy, who have managed health care programs in a strategic or innovative way to provide quantifiable reward to their organizations.
Learn how senior-titled HR professionals at each organization are dealing with increases in health care costs, managing specific needs-based or competitive challenges, delivering special programs and addressing other real-life details.
Get the full story
posted by Sean Rehder at 7:05 AM, (Permalink)
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 Human Capital Institute
The Human Capital Institute (HCI) announced the establishment of its first thought leadership panel entitled "Talent Management Technologies." The HCI learning track will be sponsored by Recruitmax, and includes industry thought leaders from Aberdeen Research, Human Resource Executive magazine, The Newman Group, DeFoe & Associates, and BearingPoint. Allan Schweyer, Executive Director of HCI, said, "I can think of no better group of people working together to explore this topic by sharing best practices and debating the emerging trends." HCI members will be able to follow the progress of the panel on an HCI forum.
posted by Sean Rehder at 6:59 AM, (Permalink)
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Diversity Recruiting & Retention Summits
AIRS and the New York Times Job Market completed its ten-city Diversity Recruiting & Retention Summits with smashing results. The summits were highly praised by the 850 attendees. Typical responses focused on the meaningful content on cultural nuances, knowledgeable speakers, and the excellent pace of the daylong sessions. As a result of the success of the summits, AIRS will present a series of Sourcing Summits in the fall, with dates and destinations yet to be determined.
posted by Sean Rehder at 6:51 AM, (Permalink)
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 Deploying A World-Class Employment Brand by Dr. John Sullivan and Master Burnett
March 30th, 2:00-3:00 PM, EST (11:00 AM PST)
The pressures to become more strategic in human resources are emerging from every angle these days. Senior corporate leaders today more thoroughly recognize the role human capital plays in establishing competitive advantage than they did just a few short years ago and as a result are increasing their scrutiny of human resource activities intended to recruit and retain top performers. The HR Scorecard Alliance, a joint research study of Watson Wyatt and Human Resource Executive Magazine, revealed in November of 2003 that Talent Management & Retention was viewed as the most important HR activity by line mangers, yet only 23% of those firms surveyed rated the performance of their HR department in this area as good. One of the key reasons behind this gap has to do with the absence of a formal business strategy within HR-enter Employment Branding.
Specific webinar topics will include:
- What is and is not employment branding;
- What are the major elements of an employment branding program;
- What actions are needed to start managing your employment brand; and
- How to measure the performance of employment branding initiatives.
Register online after downloading your copy of Dr. Sullivan's white paper.
posted by Sean Rehder at 6:43 AM, (Permalink)
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Business Development Through Online Networking
Business networking serves many purposes: general marketing, sales prospecting, recruiting, job-hunting, knowledge exchange, and business development. Of all these, business development is the one that it supports best. In fact, business development and business networking are closely related.
If you work for a large company, chances are that most of your business development activities are not local, and it is very likely that you already do a substantial portion of your business development work via e-mail and other internet technologies. Odds are that you’re already using these technologies yourself, and undoubtedly, you’re using e-mail. So, what do these online business communities offer beyond what you’re already doing?
Read more...
posted by Sean Rehder at 6:38 AM, (Permalink)
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Thursday, March 18, 2004
CareerBuilder.com
"A report from comScore Media Metrix says that CareerBuilder.com has taken the
lead in the online recruitment industry. The report indicates that
CareerBuilder had 14.7 million unique job-seeking visitors in February, making
it the most visited site for the second consecutive month, and shows a 127
percent increase over a year ago. CareerBuilder's job postings, which have led
the pack for the past 12 months, also increased 46 percent over last year, and
now has more than 400,000 jobs on the site."
posted by Sean Rehder at 1:40 PM, (Permalink)
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Human Capital Institute
"The Human Capital Institute (HCI) announced that the Center for Talent Retention has been appointed to its National Advisory Board. In addition, the Center for Talent Retention will lead HCI's "Retention Strategies" learning track. The Center will collaborate with HCI to facilitate thought leadership forums, original research, training modules and educational white papers focused on helping organizations engage and retain talent. "
posted by Sean Rehder at 1:37 PM, (Permalink)
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Wednesday, March 17, 2004
 Redeploy for Productivity
By Alice Snell, at iLogos
Many large companies shut down divisions and lay off workers, while at the same time start new business ventures. This firing-and-hiring trend seems to prevail regardless of the state of the economy. There is a perception among some that companies do not have the time for internal redeployment, so organizations turn to the external job market to fill the positions. However, the notion that external hiring is the most expeditious misses the fact that new external hires take longer to train and become productive. In reality, corporations must be nimble in assigning and reassigning talent to meet rapid product development cycles, accomplish project-based work, and otherwise respond to rapidly changing business environments.
For the full article, click here.
posted by Sean Rehder at 10:15 AM, (Permalink)
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From Workforce Planning to Workforce Logistics
By: Yves Lermusiaux
"Workforce planning is a popular topic of discussion, especially when an improving economy drives changes in corporate staffing needs. Although workforce planning is simple in concept, rapidly changing market conditions and the complexities inherent in large and global organizations may make it unrealistic to accomplish."
posted by Sean Rehder at 10:13 AM, (Permalink)
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Tuesday, March 16, 2004
Manpower: Spring hiring outlook best in years
"MILWAUKEE (AP) — People looking for work this spring could find the strongest U.S. job market in more than three years, even as companies remain reluctant to hire, a survey shows.
Roughly one in four employers plan to add workers in the second quarter of the year to keep pace with increased demand for their products or services, according to a survey of 16,000 businesses by Manpower Inc., released Tuesday. "
posted by Sean Rehder at 9:26 AM, (Permalink)
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Monday, March 15, 2004
 I added TWI Infotech, Inc to the directory of staffing agencies. Here is a brief overview...
TWI Infotech, Inc
1991 W. 190th St
Torrance, Ca 90504
Phone: (310) 538-3900
If you have any feed back on them for me, please let me know.
posted by Sean Rehder at 2:46 PM, (Permalink)
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I added Zion Partners to the directory of staffing agencies. Here is a brief overview...
Zion Partners
888 South Figueroa Street
Los Angeles, Ca 90017
Description: "Since 1999, Zion Partners has successfully serviced many top corporations within various industries in southern California. Our success is predicated on the simple fact that we are expert liaisons between employers and candidates for employment. We take the hassle out of the process by identifying only the most suitable candidates for you-think of us as the matchmakers of the IT industry. "
Phone: (213) 895-7111
If you have any feed back on them for me, please let me know.
posted by Sean Rehder at 2:34 PM, (Permalink)
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Tuesday, March 09, 2004
Dead Recruiter Walking
By Dr. Wendell Williams
"Dead man walking is a term given to a condemned convict walking toward the
execution chamber. It's also a very appropriate metaphor for today's
recruiting business. The profession won't totally disappear, mind you, but
it's on the verge of being decimated."
posted by Sean Rehder at 8:37 AM, (Permalink)
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Sunday, March 07, 2004
 News Articles
from Workforce Reporters
BACKGROUND check in a box offers businesses, consumers new choice
Charleston Post Courier (subscription) - Charleston,SC,USA
BY ADAM GELLER. NEW YORK--Beyond the gallon jars of mayonnaise and the office furniture, shoppers browsing the aisles at some Sam's ...
TEMP Jobs On Rise; Permanent Jobs Lag
Hartford Courant (subscription) - Hartford,CT,USA
By ADAM GELLER, Associated Press. NEW YORK -- Conventional wisdom maintains that once companies begin hiring temporary workers, a ...
ABOUT To Graduate? Don't Have a Job?
Fortune (subscription) - USA
... experienced executive, these five expert tips can help you succeed. By Anne Fisher. Q. I'll be graduating next month from a good ...
SCHMOOZE Your Way to Success
Fortune (subscription) - USA
Especially if you're a new boss trying to gain employees' trust. Why? Employees won't support your ideas if they don't know you. By Anne Fisher. Help!...
DOES Big Brother Software Treat Staff Like Kids?
Fortune (subscription) - USA
By Anne Fisher. I run a small division of a midsized manufacturing company. Last week word came down from on high that we are installing ...
SHOW Off, Without Being a Blowhard
Fortune (subscription) - USA
... By Anne Fisher. Suppose that your job were to open up today, and that you applied for it. Would you get it? Why—or why not? ...
COMPANIES continue to cut benefits and ask workers to shoulder ...
US News - USA
... The cutbacks partly reflect a shift in power. "When there were more jobs than people to fill them, employers had to sweeten their offers," says Carroll Lachnit ...
STUDY: Fewer women execs in workforce
Albuquerque Tribune - Albuquerque,NM,USA
By KARIN RIVES. - Even as women joined the work force in record number during the 1990s, their overall share of executive and management ...
EMPLOYERS can set any rules, or no rules, for snow days
Raleigh News - Raleigh,NC,USA
By KARIN RIVES, Staff Writer. Winter weather has interrupted work at so many companies this season that the NC Department of Labor ...
posted by Sean Rehder at 5:32 PM, (Permalink)
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Friday, March 05, 2004
Jobs Crisis Continues
From www.americanprogress.com
"Just weeks after the President predicted the nation would add 320,000 jobs each month of 2004, the Department of Labor reported this morning that "America's unemployment rate remained stuck at 5.6% in February as the economy added a paltry 21,000 positions." Not only did the new jobs report fall short of the White House's explicit promise, but it fell short even of Wall Street's conservative expectation of 125,000 jobs. Also, nearly 8.2 million people remained out of work, and last month alone 400,000 of the jobless stopped looking for work because the economy has become so bleak. The average time they have been unemployed was 20.3 weeks – "the highest average duration of joblessness in 20 years." The already decimated manufacturing sector lost another 3,000 positions."
PRESIDENT CONTINUES HAPPY TALK
"President Bush visited Bakersfield, CA yesterday – a city with an unemployment rate of 12.8% that has added 4,400 workers to its unemployment rolls over the last 3 years – and "rhapsodized...about the possibility that a stock-car firm in [Bakersfield] will add two new jobs this year." Bush said that the prospect that chassis maker Les DenHerder would hire two more employees was "really good news" and "a sign a lot of people are confident about our future." The event, along with five similar "conversations" held by Bush this year, was an attempt "to make the case that his tax cuts were good for the economy even though they have failed to produce the jobs he forecast." But real economic indicators suggest a much bleaker jobs picture. Nationwide, the economy has still lost more than 2 million jobs over the course of Bush's term – virtually assuring that, by the end of his term, Bush will have "the worst record on jobs since President Herbert Hoover." As a column by American Progress economist Christian Weller notes, working families just aren't buying the Administration's rhetoric anymore."
PRESIDENT CUTS TRAINING MONEY FOR LAID OFF WORKERS
While the President has touted his commitment to job training, his latest budget proposes cutting funding to states used to retrain workers who have been laid off. The proposed funding level is 11% lower in actual dollars than it was in the 2002 budget. But, because so many more people are unemployed today than three years ago, the actual problem is even worse. The average dislocated worker program expenditure was $274 in 2001 but just $167 today. This means, at a time when long-term unemployment is at its highest level in 20 years, fewer people can obtain the training they need to reenter the workforce. The budget cuts come on top of the White House's efforts to slash more than $1 billion out of job training over the last three years.
posted by Sean Rehder at 11:40 AM, (Permalink)
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Thursday, March 04, 2004
HUMAN CAPITAL INSTITUTE
"The Human Capital Institute, an organization dedicated to generating creative ideas from a field of the brightest thought leaders in Human Resources and Talent Management, announces a list of founding sponsors. The companies include Recruitmax, PeopleClick, Unicru, Monster, Peoplesoft, the Center for Talent Retention, Brassring, HRsmart, and VirtualEdge."
posted by Sean Rehder at 7:43 AM, (Permalink)
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Wednesday, March 03, 2004
| Labor Market Indicators and Staffing Strategy |
Hiring is in the news. Every day articles cover the current state of employment and unemployment, along with analysis and predictions of future labor market trends. But with so many different accounts of market conditions, how do you determine which analysis is right?
For the full article, click here. |
posted by Sean Rehder at 10:48 PM, (Permalink)
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Companies Target Human Capital
A report co-sponsored by the Conference Board and Peoplesoft indicates that companies will be increasing their investment in their human capital over the next few years. The report is based on a survey of 110 HR managers in major companies in the U.S. and Europe. "The major reason that management lends increasing support to people metrics projects is that they help lower cost and improve the return on people investments while helping align these investments with business strategy," said Stephen Gates, a principal researcher at the Conference Board and author of the report. The report recommends that bonus plans be tied to human capital metrics, yet only 39 percent of the companies surveyed are utilizing metrics.
RTO Online, February 28, 2004
posted by Sean Rehder at 10:46 PM, (Permalink)
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 10 Principles of e-Recruiting, Revisited
By Kevin Wheeler
"Way back in 1999, Business 2.0, an Internet-age magazine that has managed to survive to this day, listed ten principles for the new economy. I wrote a column then that showed how those ten principles applied to e-recruiting. In reviewing them recently, I was surprised at how apropos they still are and how much they have become part of what we do."
posted by Sean Rehder at 10:34 PM, (Permalink)
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HRsmart Acquires CareerBoard
HRsmart, a provider of applicant tracking technology, has purchased Ohio-based Internet recruitment site CareerBoard. Terms and conditions of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition expands HRsmart’s capability to provide flexible, affordable recruitment solutions. “As HRsmart expands it product offerings, the addition of CareerBoard expands our customer base and broadens HRsmart's expertise in the talent management marketplace, as well as complements our plans for continued growth," said Mark Hamdan, president and CEO of HRsmart. CareerBoard.com is Ohio's largest Internet recruiting service with over 1,500 clients throughout Ohio and 150,000 job seekers visiting the site every month.
posted by Sean Rehder at 10:27 PM, (Permalink)
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Tuesday, March 02, 2004
News from AIRS Directory
AIRS RECRUITMENT POLL
Over the past two weeks, AIRS asked its news subscribers to respond to the question, "Has your recruitment budget increased or decreased over the last year?" While 51 percent said they had budgets increase or stay the same, a disappointing 40 percent saw their budgets decrease. Over the course of the next several weeks, AIRS will be asking further questions about budgets and staffing capabilities to try and shed some light on the challenges that recruiters will be facing this year. Read more online.
AIRS, March 1, 2004
COMPANIES TARGET HUMAN CAPITAL
A report co-sponsored by the Conference Board and Peoplesoft indicates that companies will be increasing their investment in their human capital over the next few years. The report is based on a survey of 110 HR managers in major companies in the U.S. and Europe. "The major reason that management lends increasing support to people metrics projects is that they help lower cost and improve the return on people investments while helping align these investments with business strategy," said Stephen Gates, a principal researcher at the Conference Board and author of the report. The report recommends that bonus plans be tied to human capital metrics, yet only 39 percent of the companies surveyed are utilizing metrics. Read more online.
RTO Online, February 28, 2004
JOB LEAD INTELLIGENCE
Job detectives look for signs as to whether a company may be in a hiring mode well before jobs are advertised or posted on an Internet site. Hellen Davis, CEO of Philadelphia-based consulting firm Indaba, says that companies who experience a drop in employment not due to a layoff are likely to be hiring soon. She also says to check company parking lots at 8 am and then at 6 pm. If most of the cars are still there there's a likelihood that staff is overworked, and a hiring spree is imminent. Another tactic is to look for disappearing "For Lease" signs, indicating that a company is expanding its real estate. Hiring in HR, recruiting, and customer service is a sure-fire indicator that a company is ready for a growth spurt and will be hiring in other areas. Read more online.
Boston Globe, February 29, 2004
WOMEN ON BOARD - CALIFORNIA #1
According to a report by Corporative Women Directors International, California leads the nation in naming women to corporate boards. Women hold 14.3 percent of the board spots of California Fortune 500 companies, compared with the national average of 13.6 percent. However, of the 53 Fortune 500 companies in California, 27 have no women on the board, including Apple, Gateway, Selctron and Computer Sciences. With women comprising 47 percent of the workforce, 47 percent of the investors, 38 percent of business owners, and 80 percent of consumers, the board membership numbers are shockingly low. In smaller companies (Fortune 500 to 1000) the percentage of women board members is even lower at 9.2 percent. Read more online.
San Francisco Business Times, February 26, 2004
posted by Sean Rehder at 7:47 AM, (Permalink)
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Monday, March 01, 2004
Journal Entry
CareerBuilder Forms Partnership With Tribe.net
Online career network CareerBuilder.com has formed an alliance with Tribe.net, the first classified service to combine social networks, groups and listings. Through the agreement, Tribe.net's users will be able to access CareerBuilder.com's job postings from over 25,000 top employers and leverage their own social and affinity networks to maximize job search efforts. "CareerBuilder.com is always looking for new ways to extend the reach of our users," said Matt Ferguson, president and chief operating officer of CareerBuilder.com. "We were impressed with Tribe's innovative approach to the classifieds model, and we expect our service combination to be exciting for job seekers and employers alike."
posted by Sean Rehder at 10:57 AM, (Permalink)
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 | Tax Time Doesn’t Have to be Taxing
From Sue Becker at www.PilesToSmiles.com |
Do you start to panic this time of year as you think about preparing your tax return? If that panic is due to something other than disorganization, I’m not sure I can help you. But if you spend hours pulling apart your file cabinet, clearing out your car, emptying your wallet, and dismantling your paper piles looking for tax-related receipts, I’m here to tell you there’s an easier way. Now is the time to get ready for next year’s tax season. With some advanced preparation, you won’t have to spend hours finding, organizing, and adding up receipts.- Keep tax-related information together. Some people are lucky (and organized) enough to have their tax records in a filing system, yet they are filed separately throughout their file cabinet in such files as “Bank Statements,” “Investments,” “Credit Cards,” etc. Others have papers scattered throughout the house, or dumped in a shoebox. Whichever of these systems you use, you’ll spend hours digging through the files or piles to gather, sort, and organize your tax records. However, by keeping all the tax-related information in the same place, you’ll be able to quickly find and organize your information. Use a divided accordion file, file folders, or even envelopes to store all of your tax-related information in one place.
- Categorize your tax storage device. Review your most recent tax return and determine what types of information you needed to prepare it, or what information your accountant asked you to provide. Based on this review, label the sections of the accordion file, the file folders, or the envelopes with the corresponding categories.! For example, you may need a section called “Charitable Contributions” for cancelled checks, receipts, and letters from recipient organizations. Other possible categories include “Dividends and/or Interest”, “Real Estate Taxes,” “Medical Expenses,” “Child Care Expenses,” etc.
- Organize your receipts and cancelled checks as you spend. Rather than tossing them into one big pile, place these items into the categorized sections you’ve established. This will save you a lot of sorting time at the end of the year. You may even want to total the expenditures by category each mo! nth so that by year-end, you can quickly come up with the amounts for the entire year by category.
- Keep your receipts organized while you travel. You can adopt a similar sort-as-you-go routine while you’re on the road. Purchase an accordion “wallet” about the size of a letter-sized envelope and create appropriate categories as described above. Carry this wallet it in your briefcase or in your car and use it to sort your travel-related rec! eipts for such expenses as gas, hotel, and meals.
- Clear out your sorting system at the end of the year. Paper clip, staple, or rubber band receipts together by category and file them with your tax return. You can then reuse the sorting system for subsequent tax years.
- Organize prior year’s information. According to current regulations, the IRS can audit you for three years from the date your tax return was due. For example, 2000’s return was due in 2001, so the 3-year period ends in 2004. They can audit you as far back as 6 years if they believe you’ve underreported your income by more than 25 percent. And there is no limit on how far back they can audit you if they think you’ve committed fraud. With this information in mind, determine how long you’ll keep your tax information. I suggest you keep the returns themselves forever and discard the supporting information after whatever period of time you’re comfortable. If you have room, keep the prior year’s returns and supporting information in the same area as the current year’s return. If you don’t have enough room there, keep prior information in another place that is accessible and won’t be forgotten. Remember to toss old tax information once it’s reached the age your comfortable discarding it. You can check the IRS! website at http://www.irs.gov for more information on how long to keep tax records.
- Consider discarding information you don’t need. Many people save every piece of paper that has a number on it, thinking they may need it if they’re auditied by the IRS. Speak with your accountant, or review the IRS website to determine what you really need to save, and for how long. Then get rid of what you don’t need, unless you’re saving i! t for some reason other than taxes.
Organizing your tax records will make it possible for you to complete (or have your accountant complete) your return more easily and quickly. You won’t have to make a last-minute appointment with your accountant, and you’ll be able to avoid the “excitement” you’ve experienced in past years wondering if you’d get your taxes filed in time. And organizing your tax information not only makes it easier to prepare your return, it will it make it easier to substantiate items on your return if you happen to be audited by the IRS. |
posted by Sean Rehder at 8:05 AM, (Permalink)
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Sean Rehder is a Contingent Workforce Developer who administers this site and specializes in building online solutions for workforce issues. Also, a former Independent Contractor Compliance Manager and Program Developer for such companies as Oracle, Cisco, Seagate, Inktomi, Ariba, CommerceOne, etc.
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Sue Becker is the owner of From Piles to Smiles™ professional organizing service. She is a C.P.A., and spent 20 years in various auditing, accounting, finance, and marketing positions at a variety of companies, including The Quaker Oats Company and Ameritech. The organization and time management skills that she used in these positions led to numerous accolades, including a prestigious leadership award. She started From Piles to Smiles early in 2000.
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Alice Snell is Vice President of
iLogos Research, a division of Recruitsoft. As a leading industry analyst, Ms. Snell has authored numerous
articles and reports on recruiting technology issues including best
practice staffing management methodologies and jobseeker behavior online.
Ms. Snell has been frequently called upon to provide expert commentary and
analysis regarding staffing management technology issues and is quoted in
leading media including The Boston Globe, Chief Executive, The New York Times
, PC Week, IT Recruiter, Chicago Tribune, and CNBC.com.
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Simon Meth builds rock-solid staffing systems. Incorporated are all facets
of the recruitment process including recruiting, identifying, behavioral or
competency based interviewing, selecting, and hiring the best-and-brightest
candidates for his clients. These people make a difference each-and-every
day.
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James R. Ziegler, Ph.D. is author of the "Contract Employee's Handbook", a free,
online resource for technical and professional contractors. Dr. Ziegler is also the Founder and Executive Director of
the Professional Association of Contract Employees (P.A.C.E.),
a unique employer of record service for Contract Professionals.
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As a Passion Catalyst (sm), Curt Rosengren helps people discover their passions and create careers that ignite them. His work is based on the Occupational Adventure Guide (sm), a passion pursuit / career development model he created to offer people an easily understood and effective approach to finding the career of their dreams.
Curt shares his thoughts daily at the Occupational Adventure Blog, "an ever-unfolding mixed bag of nuts, loosely clustered around the the central theme of Occupational Adventure - that is, a career that really gets you juiced." He also writes a monthly passion pursuit e-newsletter called Passionkey (sm).
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Jason Butler is the editor of numerous workforce related sites including "The Job Blog" and "The HR Blog" on the BostonWorks.com website. He has also written for the past three years on his personal blog, at jpbutler.com. Jason has worked in the Internet space since 1997, as a project manager for PlanetAll, as a program manager for Amazon.com, and as Director of Product Development for Abuzz, a division of New York Times Digital.
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Allan Schweyer has been involved in Internet recruiting since 1994 when he pioneered e-recruitment solutions for Human Resources Development Canada. He also currently consults with large organizations on HR strategies and specializes in e-recruitment projects. Alan is a senior researcher and analyst with HR.com and the guest editor of the HR.com staffing vertical.
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Tom Mochal is President of TenStep, Inc., a methodology development, consulting and training company. He has published a book on project management called Lessons in Project Management (Apress 2003). He has also developed a complete portfolio management process for companies called PortfolioStep (www.PortfolioStep.com), a project management methodology called TenStep (www.TenStep.com) and a framework for implementing and supporting project management within companies called PMOStep (www.PMOStep.com). Tom has over 23 years of IT experience, at Geac Computers, The Coca-Cola Company, Cap Gemini E&Y and Eastman Kodak. Tom has published hundreds of columns, and has presented and trained on project management and life-cycle topics around the world.
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