Contractor Etiquette: be a Contractor Everyone Loves

Anyone who has worked for a staffing company knows that being a contractor is a little bit different than being a permanent employee. Many contractors, after they decide they enjoy working at a company, wish to make the transition to permanent employee. At PGS Worldwide, we have a record setting 60% conversion rate. We achieve that by both ensuring our partners are getting the highest quality candidates, and by providing you all the tools, assistance and advice we can to help you make the transition. Below we have provided some of our best tips to become a permanent employee:

  1. Sick Days and Vacation: If you are sick or need time off, please contact your manager first and let them know and let your recruiter know too! If their contact at your assignment calls wanting to know where you are, your recruiter wants to be able to say more than, “Uh….I don’t know?” So please notify your manager first, then remember to let your recruiter know too because your manager won’t. Further to that, if for some reason you can’t get a hold of your manager, and you contact your recruiter, we can also pass on information as another filter to make sure everyone is aware of your absence.
  2. Emergency Contact Information: It is important to request your on-site manager’s Emergency Contact Information on your very first day. If you get sick, or have an emergency, it is very important to let your manager know directly and promptly. Managers love a responsive, proactive and communicative contractor: so please communicate with them. No manager likes it when his contractor isn’t at work and they don’t know why.
  3. Time Cards: Please submit your time cards to your staffing agency as soon as you finish your last shift for the week. Please? It is crucial to submit your time card every week, even if you have zero hours. If you have any time card questions, please contact the payroll department at your staffing agency, as they are the ones who pay you, not the company you are assigned to. Failure to communicate the status of your hours is likely to result in delay of your pay and upset the company’s HR department and managers. So please be proactive about getting your time cards in.
  4. Please do not discuss compensation with other contractors/employees: This is a firm rule at any job, contract employee or not, and many companies take it very seriously. Violating this rule could result in termination; best case scenario, it will irritate both your manager and HR, making the leap to a permanent employee more difficult.
  5. Conversion to Permanent: If you are approached about converting to a permanent employee, please let your staffing agency know. First, they will want to congratulate you and thank you for being such a fine representative, but it is also important to let them know so that they aren’t tracking you down for time cards they don’t need. It is also very helpful to your staffing agency to know when this happens so they can find a replacement if one is needed. This is just a nice, polite thing to do.
  6. Security Concerns: All work-related paperwork and materials MUST stay on company premises. NEVER email work documents to your personal email or anyone else. We can’t stress how important this is. Breaking this rule will not only get you fired, it could trigger an criminal investigation. This is especially important as contractor at PGS Worldwide, as a lot of the companies we do business with work on a lot of government projects, many of which are classified.
  7. Photographs: Taking photographs while on site or on company grounds is strictly prohibited; this is a terminable offense. So please don’t do it. We have had people fired for this and it was tragic. While they weren’t trying to cause trouble and simply didn’t know any better, they were instantly fired for this offence. We don’t want anyone to lose their jobs, nor does any other staffing agency for that matter, because their contractors weren’t aware of this rule.♦

    PGS Worldwide, a boutique SDVOSB Agency, founded in 2011, is the #1 staffing supplier to several notable aerospace and defense companies. If you, or someone you know, are interested in jump starting your dream career in Aerospace, check out our available positions today. If you’re interested in doing business with us and want to know what we are capable of, check out our capability statement.

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