It’s that time of year again – the time of year when we give thanks… and companies hire a ton of seasonal workers! If you think Macy’s and Amazon are the only companies ramping up volumes of contract and seasonal workers in December, think again. This year in e-discovery, law firms, vendors, and consulting firms are all hiring seasonal project managers and technical analysts for a variety of reasons.
First: It has been a notably busy year for e-discovery. Organizations’ full-time employees are tired and need respite from the anticipated constant flow of litigation through the holiday season. Many of those highly valued full-time employees have vacations planned that they have been postponing for two years due to the pandemic, job demands, and other factors.
Second: Law firms, corporations, and vendors are using seasonal hiring to sample ESI talent in the job market – considering longer-term contracts or conversion from contract to full-time employee. In 2021, TRU saw the highest volume of contractors converted into full-time employees between April and May. This is because of the volume of hiring that occurred around the holidays in 2020 for contract resources to bolster for Q1 revenue expectations. Expect more of the same now and in early Q2 2022 regarding conversions.
Third: As many corporations, and especially law firms, hold the line that all new hires be in-office and adhere to vaccine mandates, fewer and fewer job seekers are showing interest in those full-time direct hire vacancies. The most frequently used workaround for employers struggling with filling direct hire jobs is to engage and hire contract employees instead. For whatever reason, organizations, specifically law firms and large corporations, can get permission and headcount approval to hire a remote contractor anywhere but cannot get that same permission when the new hire is a full-time employee of the company/firm.
Couple all of this with the already unusually high ESI talent demand in the labor market, and what you are left with is a tremendous opportunity for middle-market e-discovery professionals to leverage their experience for incredibly lucrative holiday contracts. Many of these will lead to full-time employment, while others will lead to more diverse opportunities for the lifestyle contractor in discovery services.
All any company wants for the holidays this year is more and better talent! If you are the talent, time to polish up that resume and let customers window-shop your skills and experience.
