Working With Constant Rotation of Contract Engineering Help 1

[kontiki99]

Our organization recruits contract engineering help for 11 month terms. Our projects sometimes last 6-7 years and support work requirements last for decades.

I've trainied 4 people for one of my projects so far. Honestly, 11 months dosen't even fully indoctrinate some folks when there is a background mismatch. One person had minimal AutoCad skills, which was a big training problem. I'm not in management, I'm in the trenches with constant incoming issues from the field too.

I'd be interested in hearing about sucessful strategies for making best use of talent here 11 month terms.

 

[berkshire]

Indme,
You wrote,

""The contract situation is pretty horrible for most people. It keeps you from obtaining a fair overall compensation""

I would not say that, in the 1970's and early 80's I spent a lot of time job shopping, and for the most part my salary was substantially higher than the guys I was working alongside.
Maybe by the year 2000 it had degraded to the situation you describe, but that was not my experience.
I did notice however that a lot of full time employees were not very helpful in a lot of the companies I job shopped at.
B.E.

The good engineer does not need to memorize every formula; he just needs to know where he can find them when he needs them. Old professor

 

[GTstartup]

Indme,

I have to agree with Berkshire. I am a contractor and have been for years as a matter of choice. I have turned down several offers of "permanent" (I use that term loosely) employment.

Actually one of the biggest problems I have is turning down jobs without letting people know that the main reason is that I don't want to take a 50% paycut. And yes, even contractors can have health insurance and benefits such as 401k etc. Shockingly I also have a SO and family.

Thankfully, all the permanent employees I have interacted with have teated me decently and I have never met anybody with an attitude like yours. By not supporting contract workers and trying to "decrease their effectiveness to nil" you are hurting your employer and costing money and I dare say that one day your management will figure this out and you might find yourself once again on the job mnarket.

 

[lacajun]

Some industries keep direct headcount low for specific reasons because of perceived performance indicators. If they add another x amount of stuff, they can increase headcount to maintenance, operations, etc.

I've managed contractors in the past and while it had its challenges, it seemed their performance was directly related to my management of them. I didn't expect miracles from any of them but a good day's effort and a bit of ownership of each project.

Some of the direct engineers didn't want them in the plant but we had to have them given the project load. I was glad to get them! I demonstrated my support of them and they supported me by doing their work. They had experience in the industry or related industries so they just needed help with company systems, culture, etc.