Sure, there's sometimes a substantial difference in wrap rates, since contractors don't get bennies. So even a highly paid contractor can cost less than a direct employee on a contract, but not always.
The more experienced contractors have raised their rates to compensate for the lost bennies and there is often parity in cost between contractors and direct.
OK, our merit rises were determined by a forced ranking procedure. I'll tell you how it worked in theory.
The company decides how much the peasants will get as a pay rise.
This forms the pool of money that is to be split amongst the peasants. Somebody splits this pool into a smaller pool, for each department. Each peasant is then ranked against various objective measures by their managers.
Each department then gets all the rankings for its employees, puts the best ones at the top and the worst ones at the bottom. They then look at how much each person is paid, and gives a raise from the merit pool to adjust their pay in line with their performance in the department.
I will leave the deduction of how this worked /in practice/ as an exercise for the reader.
Since we peasants aren't quite as stupid as HR thinks we are, we gutshot this procedure a few years back.
Cheers
Greg Locock
Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.
Surprising how often management would go into a cycle of "downsizing/rationalisation/etc." and lay of a bunch of blokes who would turn up for work the next day as contractors.
Since both management and contractors seemed happy, I wonder who really ended up with the short end of the stick?
Contractors are there for the money. They are far more reliable and smart managers recognise the fact. If they were paid more money they might even like the manager!
GregLocock:
you wrote
"...we gutshot this procedure a few years back."
what does 'gutshot' mean in this regard? I heard this term for poker "drawing to inside straight", little fuzzy on the meaning here.
The company decides how much the peasants will get as a pay rise.
This forms the pool of money that is to be split amongst the peasants. Somebody splits this pool into a smaller pool, for each department. Each peasant is then ranked against various objective measures by their managers.
Each department then gets all the rankings for its employees, puts the best ones at the top and the worst ones at the bottom. They then look at how much each person is paid, and gives a raise from the merit pool to adjust their pay in line with their performance in the department.
IRstuff,
Contractors do get unemployment, paid by the jobshops and reflected in the rate that they are paid. So, indirectly, the customer company is paying for unemployment insurance for contractors.
![[cheers]](/data/assets/smilies/cheers.gif "[cheers] [cheers]")