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What you need to know about contracting

My, how times have changed! Today's HR opportunities are opening up a whole new way of thinking about resuming or advancing your HR career. Talented HR professionals who previously established their HR careers as full-time staff employees can now find a wealth of new options and uncommon flexibility.

Simply put, a new "on ramp" to HR employment makes it possible to re-enter the marketplace as an independent consultant. Without a doubt, the transition from full-time inside employee to flex-time outside consultant is one of the megatrends sweeping the world of employment for women. HR OptIn can help you make it happen!

As the article on the right makes clear, as appeared in the March 2005 edition of the Harvard Business Review, a new paradigm has emerged for those of the highest career qualifications to balance their professional and personal commitments, to coordinate family with rewarding time spent in career pursuits, in short, to exercise their employment options. HR OptIn is dedicated to putting those options squarely in your corner.

As an independent contractor, you are able to self-manage your schedule in advance of accepting a contract assignment from HR OptIn. You may further stipulate the days, hours and days off you will require as a condition of contract employment.

As an independent contractor, your gross income will likely be adjusted by any expenses you incur in the operation of your business. You are fully-responsible for filing your own city, state and federal taxes as well as looking after your own benefits since you will be operating as a self-employed business or individual.

This Website contains a variety of information, resources and articles in the area of human resources. You may also wish to consult with a tax or legal advisor if you have questions about contracting relative to your individual situation.

For many, the opportunity to work as an independent contractor affords a most welcome sense of professional freedom and control, the best of all worlds. HR OptIn is here to help you exercise that freedom and the many options that can be yours as an HR OptIn Consultant.

Survey: Working Women Looking for On-Ramp after Time Off

Most professional women step off the career 'fast track' at some point in their working life. Family obligations are usually behind a woman's decision to take a temporary leave of absence from her job and career. "They are pulled out by child care reasons,' economist and author Sylvia Ann Hewlett says. "Eldercare is also big, you know, the critical trigger is a mother with Alzheimer's."

She says many men also take some time off, but for very different reasons. "It's usually some kind of strategic career move'" says Ms. Hewlett. "They go back (to college) to get an MBA or something like that."

Ms. Hewlett surveyed more than 2,000 women and a smaller number of men about their experience getting off - and back on - the 'fast track' to career advancement. The result was the report, Off-Ramps and On Ramps: Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success.

In many companies, women who take a detour on that road are considered not serious about their career, or less ambitious than their male colleagues. Nevertheless, more than one-third of professional women 'off-ramp' for some period of time. Study co-author Carolyn Buck Luce told NBC News, although most of these women want to return to work - and do, they usually have to take a job at a lower, more junior level than the one they left. "It is very difficult to reconnect," said Ms. Luce. "Only about 75% actually are successful in getting back onto the career path, and 40% come back full time.

The results of the survey come as no surprise to Parenting Magazine founder Robin Wolaner. She says that even when they quit to take care of their children, working women have to find a way to stay connected to their career. "If you do think you're going to come back to the workforce anytime in the first decade of your kid's life, staying in it in some way is important," she says. "Carving out even a few hours a week for a part-time position, or freelance work, or something that keeps you in that network, can be very helpful. I worked part-time during my second pregnancy and after my daughter was born. It was actually what people would have considered a step back for me. I wasn't a CEO anymore, but I had a great job, I had a company that allowed me to have the flexibility and the hours I needed."

"You can take a risk early in your career before you've gotten your family obligations, before you're making a lot of money," Ms. Wolaner told VOA. "What would you really have to lose? That's the time to test your wings, and see what you're capable of."