As the gig economy has gained steam in Canada, there’s been more attention paid to how companies are hiring and employing people. While there are many upsides to newer forms of employment, some advocates and government officials are concerned about employers taking advantage of uninformed workers.

One of the emerging concerns is employee misclassification. Some people worry unscrupulous employers are purposefully misclassifying their employees to circumvent their obligations. These might include paying employer portions of benefits or providing paid vacation and holidays.

While there are undoubtedly some employers who seek to take advantage of these “loopholes,” it’s much more common for employers to accidentally misclassify employees. Here are a few easy ways misclassification happens. Once you’re aware of them, you can take steps to avoid classifying your employees incorrectly.

1. The Most Common Mistake Is to Misclassify Employees as Contractors

Most concerns around employee misclassification have cropped up due to the increasing number of people who work as contractors. Often known as freelancers or self-employed professionals, these workers are not considered employees.

Contractors are considered to be businesses, and when they work with your business, it’s a business transaction rather than an employee-employer relationship. The contractor has increased freedoms, such as negotiating their rate of pay, determining their schedule, the ability to outsource work, and ownership of tools.

Since contractors aren’t employees, you aren’t responsible for withholding tax or offering paid vacation.

It’s relatively easy to misclassify employees as contractors. You may believe you’ve hired a contractor. However, you might determine their wage, when they work, and how the work is completed. If so, you may actually have an employee on your hands.

2. Misclassifying Permanent Employees as Temporary

As the staffing industry has grown, a lot of people have decried unscrupulous firms that take advantage of workers who may not know their rights. While many staffing firms are legitimate, these “bad apples” give everyone a bad name.

A supposedly common practice among these agencies and their clients is to define permanent employees as temporary for as long as possible. This usually means the “temporary” employee isn’t entitled to wage increases, benefits, or other perks that would be afforded to a permanent employee. The problem arises when the worker continues to be employed steadily, sometimes for years at a time.

It can actually be somewhat easy to misclassify a permanent employee as a temporary one. You may have a project continue on, so you renew an employee’s contract several times over. They may move to new positions within the company, so you believe they’re “temporary.”

A government official may have another view.

Many governments are now taking steps to make it more difficult to do this, such as forcing temporary contracts to have end dates. In some countries, employers are forced to make an offer of permanent employment if a temporary employee stays on for a certain period of time.

3. Misclassifying Full-Time Workers as Part-Time Workers

This is another relatively easy mistake for employers to make. You hired someone on and allocated them a certain number of hours or shifts per week. You believe they’re part-time workers.

This can depend on the industry you’re in. Some industries have higher or lower hour totals to be considered full-time or part-time. You may also run into a situation where a part-time employee begins working full-time hours regularly, but you don’t change their employment status.

Much like the temporary employee, a part-time employee may not be entitled to the same benefits as full-time employees. This is why it’s a problem when workers who are classified as part-timers put in full-time hours.

If employee misclassification is a concern in your firm, then you’ll want to carefully review the legal definitions and ensure your employment contracts use the same definitions. If you need help checking or maintaining compliance, get in touch with a back office service provider. They can help you avoid misclassification missteps.

Although 2019 has been around for a couple of months now, it’s not too late to start the new year on the right foot. In fact, many professionals in the staffing industry may feel the year is only just beginning.

The winter months can be slow for hiring, which means January and February are often quieter months at a staffing firm. You may also run your fiscal year to coincide with the end of the tax year, which means May 1 is the start of a new year for your business.

Either way, spring often heralds the beginning of a busy year ahead for staffing agencies and their employees. If you want to stay on top this year, consider working with a back office service provider.

What Is a Back Office Service Provider?

The first question you likely have is, “What is a back office service provider?”

This staffing industry partner provides administrative services, such as:

• Payroll management
• Bookkeeping
• Compliance
• Workers’ Compensation
• Financing

Most vendors act as consultants as well. You can collaborate with them on policy reviews, HR tasks, and more.

In short, a back office service provider takes the administrative side of running your agency off your hands. With your time freed up from these crucial yet time-intensive tasks, you can focus on your own areas of expertise.

Why You Should Get Help with the Back Office

Many people in the staffing industry see working with a provider as an additional expense. They may feel confident they can handle all their back office tasks themselves.

Stop and ask yourself if this is really the best use of your time. For all the hours you spend administering payroll, what other jobs could you be working on?

This is probably the best reason to work with a back office service provider. As suggested above, the experts can help you get back to your core jobs. In turn, you can focus on growing your business, improving client relationships, and more.

Working with a service provider can save you more than time. It can also save you money. Add up all the time you and your staff spend on payroll and other administrative tasks. How much are these tasks actually costing you?

It may be costing you even more than you think, especially if you need to contend with payroll errors, misclassification penalties, or remittance tax penalties.

Finally, working with a service provider streamlines your back office. You can rest assured tasks will be completed correctly and on time. With the back office running smoothly, you can get back to what matters.

Getting Back Office Support Can Propel Your Success

As mentioned, completing administrative work in house could be costing you more than you think. It may also be stalling the growth of your business.

A service provider uses the latest technology to complete tasks more efficiently. This frees up time and saves money. It also allows the provider to scale quickly when your business enters an expansion phase. Working with a provider lets you take advantage of all those opportunities when they come knocking on your door.

Discover What a Service Provider Can Do for You

If you’re still handling payroll and other similar work in house, it might be time to talk to a back office service provider. If you’re still wondering what these experts can do for you, get in touch with one. A provider can help you find the right service solution for your business.

With a new year comes new opportunities. As your staffing agency continues to grow into 2019, you may be wondering what the road ahead has in store for you. If you’re just thinking about jumping into this industry, you might be wondering if now is really the best time.

Here are a few predictions for what you can expect from the staffing industry over the next 12 months. Suffice it to say the outlook is bright.

The Staffing Industry Will Keep Growing

All signs point to the staffing industry continuing to pick up steam. Research for 2018 suggested the industry was experiencing growth over 2017, and it looks like the trend will continue holding for the year ahead.

All estimates have suggested the total US staffing market will top $150 billion, and growth had already picked up by October 2018. Demand and the expanding gig economy appear to be major drivers behind the expansion.

Unemployment Remains Low

One of the things driving demand is the historic low unemployment rates Canada and other countries have been experiencing. Employers are having a harder time finding the talented workers they need, and they’re turning to staffing industry experts to help them find the right people.

This is both good and bad for the industry. On the one hand, it represents an increasing number of clients. On the other hand, the tight labour market could mean recruiters struggle to fill jobs just as much as employers themselves. Competition is definitely heating up, which means you need to be on your toes to stay in the race.

One potential change is expected. Unemployment statistics do not capture those who are not actively seeking work, so there’s a high possibility that the inactive unemployed will re-enter the labour market. This would increase the number of job seekers, making recruiting at least a little easier.

A New Focus on Experiences

Another trend in the staffing industry right now is an increasing focus on both the client and candidate experience. Staffing agency owners like you are considering what they can do to retain their clients and attract more candidates. One of the answers has been to improve their experience.

What does this mean? You’re providing more support and customization. In many cases, it means offering something your competitors can’t or won’t. You must differentiate yourself in the market and ensure people enjoy working with you, so they come back again and again.

Look for staffing agencies to become increasingly experience-oriented in 2019.

Going Mobile

If your staffing agency isn’t already optimized for mobile, it’s time to get on board with this trend. Most job seekers today are using their smartphones and other mobile devices when they look for work.

In fact, mobile use has already surpassed the use of desktops and laptops in most countries, and mobile just keeps growing. If you want to be sure you’re reaching the right people, mobile is a must.

Updating Technology

Another change you can see in the staffing industry is the increasing concern about technology. Many industry professionals believe technology sets them apart from their competition, and they often agree that not using the latest, most up-to-date solutions harm their business.

Technology investments have been increasing in the last few years, and the trend is going to hold for 2019. You should expect to see the technological gap growing between staffing firms. Those who invest will gain a competitive advantage over those who don’t upgrade their systems. It would be wise to put the time and money into the technological side of your business if you haven’t already.

What’s the easiest way to stay on top of these trends? Working with a back office provider can ensure you’re one step ahead of the game.

Most agencies operate on a slim profit margin, with most of their gross margin eaten up by overhead expenses like payroll. Other administrative functions can add to your overheads. Some statistics suggest the staffing industry is incredibly capital intensive, with most of what you make going right back out again.

At some point, most staffing agency owners wonder how they can cut staffing agency costs and improve their profit margins. In an environment where rising labour costs are a reality, it may seem impossible. Back office support might be the answer you’re looking for.

How Can You Cut Staffing Agency Costs?

There are a few different ways you can go about cutting costs around your staffing agency. Some of them are more practical than others.

Labour costs are one common area staffing agency owners focus on. In an environment where labour costs continue to rise, agency owners may focus on curbing on-call shifts or overtime. Others may focus on limiting benefits like health insurance or vacation time.

Your own agency operations are often more under your control. You can look for an office with lower rent, for example, or you can opt not to implement new staffing agency software. You might decide to turn down the heat or turn off the lights to save on your energy bill.

Some of these measures won’t be popular with your staff. Another strategy is getting the right back office support for your agency. This solution is likely to be much more welcome.

What Is Back Office Support?

Back office functions are the administrative functions you have to complete in order to keep your doors open. They include payroll and compliance monitoring.

They aren’t your core activities, and they aren’t usually revenue-generating tasks. As a result, they tend to take you away from those core functions, which limits your capacity to increase revenue.

Getting the right support can help you get back to those core activities. You can generate more revenue as a result. This is just one way back office support helps staffing agencies. It can also help you cut costs.

Saving Time and Saving Money

Think about your areas of expertise. Chances are you’re not an HR specialist or a payroll professional. You might manage the bookkeeping, but it’s a long, arduous process. You often make mistakes.

Not only are you being taken away from revenue-generating activities, you’re also increasing the risk of error. When it comes to bookkeeping, compliance, HR, and payroll, those mistakes can be costly.

Why not let the experts handle these tasks instead? Bookkeepers, HR specialists, and payroll professionals can streamline your back office functions. They’ll complete these tasks more efficiently, which saves you both time and money. It can also save you from making costly mistakes.

This is how the right back office support can cut staffing agency costs. It reduces the amount of time spent on activities that don’t generate revenue, and it also helps you avoid mistakes that might cost you otherwise. Completing tasks efficiently and correctly translates into lower costs.

It also improves productivity across all of your business activities.

Is It Time to Invest in Back Office Support?

For many staffing agency owners, getting back office support looks like an expenditure, rather than a cost-saving mechanism. As demonstrated, it could help you save even more.

If you’re looking for ways to cut staffing agency costs, consider the back office support you have. It may be time to invest in a support solution for your business.

The new year is right around the corner. The last few weeks of the year often put people into a more reflective mood. What did you accomplish this year? What didn’t you accomplish?

They then begin to look ahead and make plans for the future. What lessons did you learn from failures and successes this year? How can you turn those lessons into goals for 2019?

This is almost certainly true for anyone in business, including staffing agency owners. As you begin to look back at the year that was and the year ahead, take some of these tips to heart. They’ll help you get started on the right foot in 2019.

1. Invest in the Right Technology

If you’ve been putting off adopting a new system or upgrading your current software, January is a great time to make the change. Heading into 2019, technology is more important than ever before.

Those who haven’t yet adopted applicant tracking systems or staffing agency software should review their options. These types of technological tools can help you complete work with more speed and accuracy than ever before.

If you’re hoping to streamline your process in 2019, technology will be key to your success.

2. Consider Some Financial Resolutions

If growth is your goal in 2019, you may need to explore your financial options to help you achieve it.

If cash flow worried you in 2018, then you’ll also have money on your mind. Review the books and look at the financing options you used throughout the year. Are there other, better options you haven’t yet considered?

If you need to raise some capital, consider putting some work into your business plan now or filling out some applications. They could be the difference between having the funding you need on January 1 and starting the year behind financially.

3. Level up Your Marketing Game

If you’re hoping to grow your business in 2019, it’s time to consider taking your marketing game to the next level.

Be sure to do some legwork now and look at the big-picture strategy. Who do you want to reach? What new audiences or markets are you trying to break into? Answering these questions will help you as you devise a marketing plan designed to fuel brand awareness and business growth.

4. Consider Outsourcing

The end of the year is a great time to review your business processes and procedures. What are you spending too much money on? What’s taking up most of your time?

Repetitive processes and a lack of expertise could be holding you back. If you’re spending most of your time on administrative tasks around the business, it might be time to get a helping hand.

Consider outsourcing some of your business processes, particularly those back-office tasks that keep you from the truly important tasks in the business. With payroll, compliance, and bookkeeping in someone else’s knowledgeable hands, you can get back to hiring, networking, and more.

5. Review New Legislation

There have been many legislative changes in some provinces throughout 2018. As you head into 2019, take a moment to review them all. Are you still operating in line with the law, or do you need to make some tweaks to your policies?

This can also be a good time to take a peek at the legislative forecast for 2019. What bills are on the books? Which new laws are set to take effect in the next few months? Knowing in advance can help you prepare for the changes.

With these tips, you can work toward building a better agency in 2019 and beyond.

You’ve been working in the staffing industry for some time, and now you’re wondering about striking out on your own. Perhaps you’re still relatively new to the industry, and you’re not entirely sure which steps you should take to become an independent recruiter.

This guide is intended for you. It will walk you through the steps you should take on the road to becoming an independent recruiter. You may find yourself already part of the way through the process, or you may discover you’re standing at the very beginning of your journey. No matter where you are along the way, the path to becoming an independent recruiter is always open.

So You Want to Become an Independent Recruiter

The very first step in becoming an independent recruiter is to decide this is the path you want to take. Many people consider it, but most never take the plunge. It becomes something of an idle fantasy.

Making up your mind will allow you to take the next steps. This is the big problem for most people. They remain undecided, so they don’t follow through with any of the subsequent steps.

Gain Experience before Going Independent

The next step for those who want to become independent recruiters is to gain relevant experience in almost all areas of the staffing industry. You might already have some of the requisite experience, especially if you’ve been working in the industry for some time.

Operating as an independent recruiter, however, will see you handling tasks beyond mere recruitment. You’ll also be responsible for administrative tasks, payroll, online marketing, and more.

If you can, learn about all of these areas and gain experience in them. Developing your skills under someone else’s guidance will serve you well.

Build Relationships with Candidates and Potential Clients

>Now you have the experience necessary, so you’ll want to focus on networking. Having a large web of potential clients and candidates will help you immensely when you do decide to go independent.

Keep in mind that you cannot “poach” clients and candidates from your current employer. Even former employers may have restrictions on who they can contact and when.

You should start networking early in your career. Be sure to network outside of your organization, and do so more intensively as you get ready to launch your own career as an independent recruiter.

Consider the Financials

Now you’re moving into the realm of possibility. The dream of becoming an independent recruiter is no longer just a dream.

You’ll want to put your new career on a rock-solid foundation, so the next thing to do is look at the financial situation. Forecast costs and determine what you’ll need as a startup. Can you work from home or will you need an office space? Will you need new office equipment or staffing agency software?

All these considerations will affect your budget. Think about what kind of financing you can supply to your new business, and then about what kind of funding you’ll need. You may need to apply for loans or other financial products to assist you in building the foundation of your new business.

Set up Your Business Operations

This is the final step in the process. Now, you’ll begin to set up your business operations. You may incorporate the business or leave it as a sole proprietorship. You’ll register for a business number, and you’ll create banking information and accounts.

You’ll also begin your marketing efforts, reaching out to potential clients and building a brand identity.

Once this begins happening, you’ve become an independent recruiter. The process can be long and arduous, but if this is truly what you want, you’ll find all challenges on the road to success conquerable.

As a business owner, you keep a careful eye on your expenditures. Overhead costs can make or break your company, which is why you try to keep costs as low as possible and reasonable. Additional costs can cut into your profits, which is another reason you want to avoid them.

It’s one of the reasons you’ve hesitated to outsource any of your business processes, including human resources functions like payroll, compliance, and other administrative tasks. You have a talented team of HR professionals working for you anyway, so you’re sure they can handle it.

Take a good look at your operations, however, and you’ll start to see numerous reasons engaging a back office services provider is more than worth the cost.

1. You Need Flexibility to Fuel Growth

The staffing industry in Canada is growing exponentially right now. Many firms have found it necessary to expand in order to accommodate the demand created by the gig economy.

In order to fuel this growth in your own staffing agency, you need flexibility in almost every aspect of your business. One of the most difficult to come by is cash flow flexibility.

You need cash flow flexibility in order to finance your growth. A back office services provider can help you achieve this by providing additional financing options.

2. You’re Having Trouble Keeping up with Compliance

Government relations is another area in which you could benefit from a back office services provider. You may not have the expertise on your own to deal with the various government agencies you’ll be required to interact with.

You also may find it difficult to keep up with changes in government legislation. A back office services provider can help you monitor compliance, advise you of changes, and even help you plan policy changes to ensure your business is compliant.

3. You Need Guidance as You Expand

Are you looking to expand your business into a new province or territory? It’s an exciting opportunity, but you may quickly find you’re a bit out of your depth.

There are many differences in provincial jurisdictions to be aware of, so you and your HR team may find yourselves learning and re-learning employment law each time you enter a new provincial market.

Let a back office services provider guide the way as you move into new territories and provinces. Their expertise can help you avoid costly mistakes.

4. You Want to Streamline Your Processes

Another reason back office services providers are more than worth the cost of services is that they can actually help your business become more efficient. They often provide technology designed to ease workflows, making time-intensive tasks simpler and easier to complete than ever before.

Since they also have experts on staff, they can help you avoid costly mistakes. Their knowledge will help you streamline and complete tasks more efficiently than ever before.

5. Your HR Team Might Be Costing You More Than You Think

Many business owners opt to keep their back office administrative tasks in-house because they believe it’s more cost efficient. If you sat down and crunched the numbers, would the reality line up with this expectation?

For many businesses, the answer is no. Inefficiencies in processes, software, and even staff can mean your HR team costs more than you think it does. At the end of the day, the more economical option might actually be partnering with a back office services provider.

Working with a back office services provider might seem like an unnecessary expense, but more often than not, it truly is the more economical option. You can actually increase your revenue as you turn your attention back to other tasks that will fuel growth.

As a staffing agency owner, you need to think quite a bit about human resources. You may even follow some of the latest trends in HR circles. If so, you’ll know there’s plenty of discussion about the candidate experience right now. While most of the people discussing the subject are HR leaders in large corporations, the candidate experience is something a staffing agency should also be concerned about.

Why? Essentially, you’re in the business of hiring people. There’s no denying competition is stiff in this industry. There are many different agencies, and with unemployment at its lowest point in four decades, there are fewer job seekers out there. Your agency needs to focus on providing a great candidate experience so job candidates choose you over your competitors.

If you haven’t thought much about the candidate experience yet, now’s the time to do so. Take a look at your process, and then see how you can incorporate these five strategies to improve the candidate experience.

1. Communicate More Frequently

With the rise of artificial intelligence, many more tasks are being given over to automation. Communication is one of these tasks, and for good reason. Imagine if you need to stop to reply to each job applicant personally, just to tell them you had received their application and would be in touch if they were selected for an interview. 

While the automated reply streamlines your process and makes it easier for you to respond to each candidate, it doesn’t eliminate the need for frequent communication with those candidates you do select for interviews and eventual hire. 

Quality of communication is important, but so is the frequency of communication. Staying in touch with selected candidates can improve the candidate experience immensely.

2. Simplify Your Application Process

If a staffing agency application process takes a long time to complete, includes many different web pages or forms to fill out, or asks confusing questions, it isn’t providing the best possible candidate experience. 

While ensuring you get the right information is important, ask yourself if there’s an easier way to ask candidates questions or condense the application. If you use online applications, think about the website you use. Is it easy to navigate? You might consider upgrading your own website to make it easier to use.

3. Be Transparent about the Process

Most job candidates want a staffing agency to tell them what to expect during the hiring process. For that reason, you should be transparent about the process. Doing so can improve the candidate experience.

All you need to do is outline the next steps in the process. Give candidates an approximate timeline for when they can expect each step to take place. Finally, you should tell them what kind of communication to expect from you. If they don’t hear from you in two weeks, should they assume they didn’t get the job?

This can also help you as it will reduce the number of people following up with you.

4. Write Clear Job Descriptions

Clear job descriptions go back to the beginning of the process and let potential candidates know exactly who you’re looking for. A vague or unclear job description will likely attract unqualified candidates, who you’ll need to remove from the process quite quickly. This creates additional work for you. It also disappoints the job seekers who applied to your staffing agency.

5. Ask for Feedback

Give candidates a chance to tell you about their experience. You can use this feedback to improve the candidate experience at your staffing agency even more. Candidates will relish the chance to tell you about what they liked and didn’t like. It really is that simple.

The candidate experience is important because it encourages people to apply with you again and to tell others about your staffing agency. Taking these small steps will help you provide a better candidate experience.

It’s an exciting time to run a staffing agency. Canada’s competitive gig economy continues to expand as more and more workers, both new grads and established professionals, seek flexible work. Many companies in various industries are finding that the demands of today’s digital global market are better met via temp and contract workers. No matter your niche, you can stake a claim in the staffing industry.

You won’t be getting far, however, if you can’t overcome three common challenges all staffing agencies are met with. Those challenges are high-volume payroll, non-compliance issues, and cumbersome administration. These challenges can drown a staffing agency if not dealt with early on, but there are successful staffing agencies that have overcome them.

Read on to find out how to benefit from these agencies’ clever solutions.

1. Payroll Troubles

To grow a successful staffing agency, you must solve the conundrum of balancing your limited cash flow with payroll for potentially hundreds of temp and contract workers, while dealing with mismatched client payment schedules. If your staffing agency cannot harmonize its cash flow situation or protect itself against potentially long periods between received payments, your progress will take a swift downturn.

While it can be tempting to invest in a short-term solution like a line of credit or bank loan, these options only leave you with more payment obligations and inflexible financing. Successful staffing agencies have overcome this challenge by getting payroll financing from a dedicated back office services provider. Payroll liabilities must be prevented if you want to retain the best talent and effectively manage client relationships.

2. Compliance

Successful staffing agencies also know the importance of staying abreast of updates to Canada’s business legislation. It’s never been more apparent how quickly Canada’s legislation can evolve.

Your staffing agency could face stiff monetary and legal penalties if you fail to uphold standards for your workers’ health and safety, employment standards, and more.

To overcome this challenge, established agencies have partnered with compliance experts that act as an extension of their teams. These experts update them the moment there’s a change to employment standards, allowing their firms to avoid issues with non-compliance.

3. Time-Consuming Administration

Your back-office administration is at best cumbersome without a robust solution that can deal with a high volume of paperwork and data associated with all your workers and clients. This data will exponentially increase as your agency grows, and if you’re not careful, your core business will suffer from major productivity slowdowns.

That’s why successful agencies have found automating their back-office processes to be ideal for overcoming this last challenge. When you have access to software to automate the most time-consuming of your back-office tasks, like applicant tracking, client relationship management, and compliant financial reporting, your recruiters aren’t hampered by double-duty anymore.

Digital transformation is vital for your agency. All-in-one software will improve and streamline your business practices for greater efficiency and cost effectiveness.

Successful agencies have all overcome these challenges that could have prevented them from competing with the big staffing firms in Canada. Follow their lead and watch as your staffing agency grows in leaps and bounds.

Ontario’s Bill 148 has brought major changes to the province’s employment standards, highlighting the need to keep current with Canadian business legislation. Compliance mistakes are especially common and costly for staffing companies offering diverse solutions governed by varying sets of rules and regulations.

To ensure ongoing compliance, staffing companies must learn the ins and outs of the new standards. Some of the more complex new standards include the changes brought to the “Equal Pay for Equal Work” prohibition. Under Bill 148, this prohibition states that employers cannot pay certain employees less than others because of their employment status.

Read on to gain a greater understanding of what this new prohibition means for staffing companies. This prohibition goes into effect as of April 1, so there’s no time like the present to brush up on compliance.

Defining Employment Status

The new legislation is similar to the Pay Equity Act, which ensures men and women receive equal part for performing similar work. Now, employers are no longer allowed to pay employees less because they hold a different employment status than their coworkers.

What is meant by “employment status” according to the new ESA?

The new ESA defines employment status as:

• A difference in the number of hours regularly worked as an employee
• A difference in the term of employees, which includes permanent, temporary, seasonal, or casual status

Essentially, this new prohibition applies not just to full-time versus part-time employee distinctions, but distinctions between employees hired for specific time periods as well. Staffing companies, whether they make placements for permanent, temp, or contract work, are affected by this prohibition.

What Qualifies as Equal Work?

Employers must abide by Equal Pay for Equal Work if the work performed by their candidates can be qualified in the following way:

• The performance of temporary and seasonal employees is substantially the same kind of work in the same establishment as full-time/permanent employees
• Their performance requires the same skill, effort, and responsibility
• Their work is performed under similar working conditions

If your candidates’ work is qualified this way, you’ll be required to pay them at the rate of full-time/permanent employees. To be more specific, when your client has a rate of pay that’s an exception to the prohibition, you’ll be required to pay your candidates the rate of your client’s full-time/permanent employees.

Exceptions and Right to Review Pay Rates

There are several exceptions to Equal Pay for Equal Work for specific payment systems, and they are as follows:

• A seniority system
• A merit system
• A system measuring earnings by quantity or quality of production
• Other factors that govern earnings other than sex or employment status

As a related aside regarding exceptions, there are transitory provisions put in place for employers who have a collective agreement that’s in contravention of the prohibition (i.e., unionized employers). These provisions will remain in effect until the earlier expiry of the collective agreement or until Ontario’s due date of January 1, 2020.

There’s also a new allowance for employees to request a review of their current pay rates from their employers. If employees at a staffing company believe they are not receiving the same rate of pay as a full-time employee their work is comparable with, you will be obligated to review their pay rate and make adjustments if necessary. If you disagree with the pay rate review, you are allowed to respond via a written statement explaining the reasons for the disagreement.

If you want to be certain you’re fully compliant with the new Equal Pay for Equal Work legislation, you should consider partnering with a back office service provider. Ideally, you’ll want a provider that’s known for its Canadian compliance expertise. A successful staffing company is one that ensures ongoing compliance.