What is bridge staffing and how is it different from loaner staff?

Bridge staffing is the engagement of pre-screened, vetted and independent contractors that do not fall under the employment of tax service businesses. Bridge staffing has been a successful business model for years in many professions including information technology, medical, legal and even accounting. In tax, the traditional industry options for effective temporary contract staffing have been limited to pulling from the "Big 4," national or local CPA firms, and occasionally boutique tax consulting firms.

There were two primary catalysts which drove the previously mentioned professions to transition to a bridge staffing model. The first was the need to expand the quality of the professional candidate pool, which is limited in the loaner staff model to the employees available at the given time of need. In contrast, bridge staffing opens the staffing pool to the best available tax contractors, both locally and nationally, that work independently. In addition, these independent contractors are screened and vetted to the same degree as a high-level retained executive search - ensuring that the best possible tax professional is properly matched to each assignment.

The second market catalyst was the growing pressure to limit or reduce costs while increasing productivity. Corporate tax departments have been specifically affected by an unprecedented pressure to balance risk mitigation and effective tax planning, placing tremendous pressure on internal budgets. The current quality and cost pressures now evident in tax have set the stage for a logical transition to bridge staffing.

Why is bridge staffing so effective for tax?

Bridge staffing has many attractive benefits for tax departments. Bridge staffing professionals are always prepared for flexible contract engagements. Moreover, this group represents the top 20% of all contract talent available in the marketplace. The majority of bridge contractors have worked in corporate in-house tax departments, maximizing the overall integration speed, effectiveness and value – far beyond that of the typical "loaner" staff resources.

Bridge staffing also provides corporate tax departments with "just in time" inventory, matching the right resource with the right project.

The cost savings from bridge staffing are derived from two primary areas:

1. No Full-Time Employees: Bridge staffers are independent, vetted professionals that can operate autonomously or within a project team and do not come with the related employee costs.

2. No Significant Overhead: The traditional tax loaner staff models are weighted heavily with tremendous overhead. From facilities costs to utilization gaps, these all must be covered in fees from any professionals the firms deploy. This increased expense is something clients must pay for and the individual contractors never see.

Bridge staffing professionals are also highly motivated. They are only compensated when matched to specific contract positions that suit both their abilities and interests. They are independent professional resources that have a personal interest to be engaged in the right contract assignment. They also benefit from a far better compensation structure, which in turn adds motivation and rewards them for higher performance.

What advantage does bridge staffing have over the national tax firms?

Every successful business has its niche and the "Big 4" and national consulting practices certainly play a key role in effectively servicing large-scale customers with sophisticated complex projects. The area where these large entities fall short is exactly what bridge staffing offers - high quality independent talent at a reasonable cost for defined projects. These large firms carry with them serious overhead, utilization rates, and significant partner salaries that must be directly offset in every client activity - especially in loaner staffing situations. When these firms lend their staff, the client absorbs these costs at a very high-rate, far beyond what the actual professional receives as compensation.

Professionals employed by big national firms are not viewing these contract engagements as their path to success. In general, they did not join these big firms with aspirations of being assigned to contract engagements as loaner staff. Additionally, companies pulling loaner staff from the larger firms are only able to utilize a professional that may be "on the bench" at that time. These firms are not interested in loaning staff as their primary business; however, they also do not want competition, so loaning staff has become almost a necessary industry evil. Lastly, the big national tax firms almost always recruit and train from an early stage of a tax professional's career, which significantly reduces the number of candidates that have any corporate in-house tax experience. They lack the "real-world experience" that one can only obtain through dealing with the implementation and execution issues that a corporate tax department must handle.

The big national firms are also not in the business of finding bridge contractors. They are by nature highly institutional and operate with such magnitude that their loaner staff model becomes too costly a solution for many corporate departments to utilize. This scenario has been the standard industry practice for years and simply no longer fits in an age where cost reduction and performance quality are the key components to effective tax department operations. In the end, bridge staffing offers a much greater pool of talent that is more motivated and better qualified to handle contract assignments at a much lower cost.

What advantage does bridge staffing have over local and regional boutique tax firms?

Like the big national consulting firms, local and regional tax practices also play a key role in supplying corporate tax departments with important services. These firms, though smaller, often times augment the larger national firms - assisting them with isolated or specialized projects that require focused attention and specific knowledge. Like their larger firm counterparts, when it comes to loaning staff, they are equally outmatched by independent bridge tax staffing due to their cost structure and limitations in access to qualified talent.

These local and regional firms also hire their staff as full-time employees and they must pass those added costs onto their clients. Because these smaller firms generally pay their professionals less than the larger, more prestigious firms, naturally the quality and skill levels of these individuals may not meet the needs of the assignment. The smaller firms also share a similar burden that larger national firms have with employee inventory. When the busy season hits or when the market spikes, the selection of loaner staff dries up and significantly reduces in quality.

The laws of supply and demand force these firms to offer only the non-engaged employees they may have at any given time. The chance of making a successful project and candidate match in this scenario becomes a significant challenge. In the end, these firms have little access to any significant pool of highly qualified talent. This limits the breadth of opportunity to finding the most qualified candidate for the assignment.

Moving to a new era in tax bridge staffing

The corporate tax market is facing growing pressure to increase performance and reduce costs. These catalysts are driving the market for a new alternative for the tax industry in department staffing. The bridge staffing model is a proven, logical alternative that can seamlessly augment other tax provider services. The current market conditions in tax have created a large enough demand for this type of staffing solution to emerge. Introducing your tax department to the significant benefits of tax bridge staffing is a necessary step to increasing productivity while reducing costs.

The tax profession is a challenging and ever-changing market that requires progressive thinking and new methods for delivering deeper shareholder value. Bridge tax staffing can open your department to resources you need, at the time they are needed most. A national pool of independent and highly-qualified tax specialists are waiting to meet the demands of any interim project or assignment. Finally, finding top qualified tax candidates for flexible contract engagements at a lower price has come to the tax profession - an option many tax departments now rely on every day.

How did TaxForce evolve to become the bridge staffing solution for tax?

TaxForce initially began as a service within TaxTalent, the world's largest network for tax professionals. This unique bridge staffing model has proven successful in many other industries by providing higher-quality independent assignment contractors for less than the traditional loaner staff solution.

Many of the retained executive search clients of TaxSearch, Inc express a genuine need for a new alternative in securing better quality tax professionals for interim contract engagements. TaxTalent's extensive pool of tax professionals seeking independent assignments combined with the world class candidate screening and management services of TaxSearch create a new and exciting staffing alternative which operates as TaxForce.

How does TaxForce tap into the market of independent tax professionals?

Between TaxTalent and TaxSearch, there are nearly 100,000 active tax professionals in a highly organized database that identifies potential independent contractors for interim assignments. Bridge staffing professionals can come from several different areas. First, there are a large group of tax professionals that simply enjoy the lifestyle benefits of project based assignments. Second, there are individuals between positions that have the unique ability to bridge their own career path by taking on an interim tax assignment. Lastly, there is an increasingly large number of Boomers that view bridge staffing as a way of balancing out a path to retirement without a complete separation from the tax profession. These seasoned individuals represent a very valuable resource to tax departments in need of quality and experienced talent.

How does TaxForce provide top independent tax professionals?

The TaxForce business model is focused on proven performance. Our goal is to provide the very best tax professional for virtually any interim tax department project. Our unique process covers nearly all of the costs, efforts and time associated with locating, screening and preparing the best independent tax professional to fulfill the assignment.

The TaxForce process includes:

1. Obtaining a clear and concise project scope and assignment needs-analysis to properly match with the right tax professional. This is achieved through direct interviews with client companies and may include basic to highly specialized tax assignments, both short and long term.

2. A comprehensive industry-wide search of potential candidates that match specific project needs and have direct interest and capability of fulfilling the requirements of the bridge assignment.

3. The development of a short list of properly screened and vetted candidates, compiled first on a local or regional level. In many cases, however, we can locate the perfect match elsewhere in the country who is willing to relocate on a temporary basis.

4. Complete administrative oversight of introducing bridge candidates to clients, setting up interviews and managing all contract negotiations.

5. Once engaged, TaxForce is responsible for all compensation to the bridge contractor, in addition to serving as the administrative liaison between the client and contractor throughout the life of the project.

6. Follow-up upon assignment completion to ensure that expectations, scope and needs of the project were properly met. This follow-up also serves to obtain any further information or insight that may improve the opportunity to provide similar bridge services in the future.

Why is TaxForce a better and more effective solution than loaner staffing?

Unlike many of the traditional loaner staffing solutions provided by the "Big 4," national tax firms, and even local and regional boutique firms, TaxForce is 100% specialized in providing the most highly-qualified candidate for any bridge staffing project. The following are among the key reasons why TaxForce is the best and most logical alternative for interim tax assignments.

1. Larger Pool of Candidates - TaxForce is in the business of providing independent tax professionals to corporate tax departments. Our biggest advantage is the size and quality of the independent candidate pool, which we constantly update and monitor for resource availability on each project.

2. Better Tax Professionals - Unlike many of the loaner staff solutions, our bridge staffing professionals have a personal interest in contract assignments. Most candidates have extensive corporate tax experience and represent the top 20% of all available professionals on a national level.

3. Significant Savings - TaxForce operates with a much lower overhead than other firms that are forced to add compensation rate multiples on every loaner staff to recoup their brick and mortar operations. TaxForce provides a "just in time" solution, where we absorb all upfront costs until the right candidate starts the engagement. These savings are considerable to the client and are shared through a higher compensation structure with the bridge contractor. Additionally, we generally tie in a project bonus at the end of the assignment to further enhance motivation and focus.

4. Augments Tax Service Providers - TaxForce operates seamlessly with other tax service providers that a tax department may be utilizing. In busy times, loaner staffing pools are constrained and finding available resources are difficult. TaxForce can work in conjunction with other providers helping to round out a team or satisfy an isolated project need in a more cost-effective manner.