Take two facts:
Most people are landing jobs through people they know.
Corporate training budgets have been cut.
Put them together and you get a clear reason to stay in touch -- and in good relationships -- with your former employers.
A report that came out last week from OI Partners-Enrich Careers, a Kansas City-based career management firm, said that 40 percent of employers it surveyed are beginning to rehire laid-off employees.
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Assuming workers were let go through no performance fault of their own but rather business conditions, those downsized workers are attractive to their former bosses.
They can hit the ground running, already know the corporate culture, and are known to be specifically qualified and able to do the job.
The survey report noted a catch in the "rehire" expectation, though: Workers called back may not be put back on the payroll as employers' full-time employees.
Even if business is improving enough that employers need more bodies to do the work, the trend is still to be very cautious about adding payroll expenses. That means workers may be invited back as consultants or independent contractors.
Such work arrangements free employers from providing employee benefits, which can amount to as much as one-third of total compensation costs.
Contingency staffing also allows employers greater flexibility to ramp manpower up or down without the costly and sometimes unpleasant business of hiring and firing.
Former employees who are approached with offers to do their former jobs as independent contractors need to educate themselves about self-employment tax laws.
They also need to develop a new mindset about work.
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No job is "permanent" these days, but contract workers need to understand the different "at will" status of a contingent worker compared to a payroll employee.
