As The People Ticker is launching in Canada, it's the perfect time to take a closer look into what is going on in the Canadian job market. Technology jobs are on the rise with many opportunities in the field. This job availability may help slow the "Brain Drain" that has been much discussed in Canada in recent years. Many skilled workers have been leaving Canada to seek higher paying jobs in the US but more tech jobs can keep workers in the area.

So what are the other trends going on in Canada? Where is job market picking up and where is it slowing down? It looks like it's time for job seekers in Canada to head west. Statistics Canada has the following information about the current job trends in the Great White North:

"While employment was little changed in February 2007, a long term trend that continues to hold is robust employment growth in Canada's three westernmost provinces. Since February 2006, growth in Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia has exceeded the national growth rate of 2.4%. This is in contrast to Central Canada where employment gains in both Quebec and Ontario have been more restrained with growth below the national average."

In fact, our research reflects that Calgary is one of the fastest-growing markets.

A summary of the process goes as follows:

Notify Manager

It is good practice to alert the manager (usually via letter) that a rate analysis is being performed and that their input will be needed during the process. It is important to communicate to the manager that the goal is NOT to lose the contractor, but to determine, if any, the amount of savings that may be realized based on current market rates.

Market Rate of Job

This analysis will allow you to determine the market rate for the skill sets you require.

Market Rate of Worker

This analysis will allow you to determine the market rate for the contingent worker. This can be a valuable step in identifying potential retention issues prior to negotiating.

Discuss with Manager

This step in the process requires analysis and caution. Once you have the market information, you must compare it to the pay rates and markups of your existing contingent workers. Where differences are identified, discussions must take place with the contingent worker’s manager and a negotiation strategy must be agreed to. Strategies will be based upon the magnitude of any differences identified, length of assignment, ability to replace the contingent worker with a comparably skilled worker at market rates, any unique circumstances, etc. It is important to remember that any bill rate negotiations will take place with the agency representing the contingent worker and not directly with the contingent worker. The agency must understand that the Pay Rate and Markup must be kept separate in all negotiations in order to avoid negative impact on the contingent worker. By negotiating Bill Rates only, an agency may cut the Pay Rate for the contingent worker and not reduce its markup to yield the Bill Rate reduction that you target. By negatively affecting the Pay Rate, you may put yourself in a position to lose the contingent worker.

Discuss with Agency

During most renegotiation efforts, the goal is to reduce the agency's Markup rather than reducing the contingent worker's Pay Rate. Staffing agencies provide valuable recruiting and retention services to your organization for the contingent workers they provide. A competitive Markup, consistent with the services provided, will bring value to your company and incentive to your Staffing Agencies. You should expect higher markups from agencies that provide paid holidays and vacations, health benefits, training, bonuses etc. Therefore, it is important to understand the makeup of the markups that agencies are using. Many times agencies are willing to reduce markups without impacting the level of their services in exchange for higher volumes of placements.

Your company's Embedded Base of contingent workers is defined as those contingent workers who are currently on assignment. This may include individuals who have been on assignment for extended periods of time and therefore may have been engaged when market rates were substantially different than what they are in today's market. This is an area that is very often overlooked by companies due to the difficulty in tracking fluctuations in market rates. In fact, the longer these individuals are on assignment, the more likely it is that they have been granted increases to their pay rates and bill rates which may be in direct contrast to the realities of the existing market.

To effectively renegotiate your company's embedded base, you will ideally have the following:

• Contingent Worker Name and Manager Name
• Resume and job description for the Contingent Worker
• Contingent Worker Pay Rate
• Contingent Worker Bill Rate
• Date of initial placement
• Expected end date of assignment

The successful renegotiation of embedded base contingent workers will, except in very rare instances, result in real dollar savings to your company without losing the contingent worker as a result of such negotiations.

Much has been made of outsourcing, whether by supporters noting the economic benefits or opponents arguing that it takes away jobs. For a while now, everyone seemed to agree on one thing; outsourced labor can cost considerably less and India is one of the most attractive countries to choose. However, last month's Economist issue, "India on Fire," points out some startling realizations that may be the start of a trend toward finding workers closer to home once more.

India was once sought after as the location for phone banks and other outsourcing due to the low labor costs. However, last year rates in India have tripled and unexpected costs have proven to be significant. In India, there is a high job turnover rate and much time needs to be spent training replacement employees. This cuts into company efficiency and profitability.

So what is the future of outsourcing? India might not be the future. The overall costs for offshore workers is getting more expensive and it may be time to bring the work home through insourcing, especially when there are so many workers available nearby. Only time will tell.

In addition to understanding the negotiation environment and all related potential impacts, current and accurate information is the key to any successful negotiation. The People Ticker provides real time information to allow users to establish their overall negotiation strategy.

The People Ticker provides the most current information available that helps your company to:

• Define expectations for the current Pay Rates for contingent workers
• Define expectations for the Staffing Agency relative to Markups
• Define expectations for the current market Bill Rates relative to your contingent workers

This information can be vital in agency contracts and is of interest for renegotiating bill rates for your embedded base of contingent workers as well as new placements.

Everyone knows that a successful negotiation must be well planned and this requires a good deal of research. When controlling contingent labor costs, current market data is critical. Having the most up-to-date information will allow you to negotiate intelligently, leading to big savings. However, the monetary portion of the negotiation process is only one of a number of factors that must be considered when planning your negotiations whether for existing contingent workers or new engagements. It is important to understand some of the other parameters that may impact on any negotiations.

In most companies there are internal competing goals when it comes to the engagement or continuation of the services of a contingent worker that may significantly affect any bill rate negotiations or renegotiations. A typical scenario is that the Hiring Manager is concerned primarily about the availability of the contingent worker and meeting project schedules and cost becomes a secondary factor; Procurement wants to negotiate bill rates to save money; Human Resources is concerned about headcount, length of assignment and other co-employment issues, etc. Other typical concerns may be the financial viability of the agency furnishing the contingent worker and types and amounts of insurance coverage.

A well-planned negotiation process takes into consideration all of the above factors as well as the goals of all interested parties. Occasionally, the choice of losing a contractor mid-project and extending project deadlines through an unreasonable bill rate renegotiation may put all efforts to reduce a particular bill rate on the back burner. In most cases, necessity dictates approach and consequently, communication among all interested parties is essential for successful negotiations. And nextSource's services have enabled companies to have all the information for negotiation. Visit the success stories!

The People Ticker allows users to create a Rate Card. What does this do? It allows users to compile and track common job titles, skill sets, and experience levels. Furthermore, you can follow the pay rates and bill rates that currently apply to these job profiles.

Usually, rate cards are difficult to create and maintain. Challenging issues arise, such as:

• Every Company has unique lists of Job Titles
• Every Company has unique skill set definitions for titles
• Every Company has some level of internal banding for each skill set
• Data becomes obsolete quickly

The People Ticker addresses these concerns and makes rate cards easier and more accurate. It can automatically update the Rate Card when market activity results in changes to the pay and bill rate information for the user.

The goal is to define a Rate Card that is relevant to the company and responds to changes in the marketplace with minimum effort on the part of the user. Once a user has created a Job Title and associated skill sets, that Job Title may be saved to the Rate Card for future access with the click of the computer mouse. Each time a new Job Title is created, it may be added to the Rate Card. The People Ticker makes Rate Cards just that easy. So what are you waiting for?

As a way of controlling bill rates, a client company may negotiate a fixed markup percentage for the agency to be applied to the pay rate. This may be based on any number of factors including skill type, geography, competitive solicitation, etc. This approach has the billing rate going higher as the pay rate rises, which increases the agency's margin in real dollars. The principal drawback to this approach is the agency does not have any incentive to locate and place candidates at the lowest, competitive pay rates since they apply the agreed upon markup percentage to the pay rate.

This illustrates a need to understand and monitor the pay rates. A drawback of the markup approach, if not managed appropriately, is the loss of the most qualified talent since the staffing agencies may be inclined to place their most qualified individuals with customers with the highest markups. Therefore you can see the importance of competitive pay rates to attract the most qualified talent and competitive markups to insure the placement of the qualified talent with your company. The People Ticker allows users to make decisions in these matters by providing them with the most current market knowledge available today. Take a look at this sample market report.