The claim process changing your employment model

Matching Talent to Need

The CLAIM Process Changing Your Employment Model

By Donna Stevenson January 2012

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www.bm2b.ca Direct: 905.662.5130 Email: [email protected] 2

Prologue

As the next phase of ‘The Great Depression’ takes hold, the full time labour market continues to face challenges. Unemployment rates in Canada and the United States are remaining stubbornly in place at 7.3% and 9.1%, respectively. What remains significant is the comparison to the same period in 2008 when the respective rates were 6.1 and 6.8% – at the start of what has come to be known as ‘The Great Depression’ – worldwide economic decline.1 A more detailed look at the Canadian labour market reveals some disturbing trends as they relate to the current employment model on which the economy is based, the full time job. Employment increased among people in the 25 to 54 age group but this increase was offset by a decrease in the number of jobs held by workers aged 55 and over. Employment among youths aged 15 to 24 was little changed in August, with employment 0.6% higher than in August 2010 but at least 3 percentage points higher than the summer of 2008.2 These statistics and trends paint a picture of changing work patterns, of changing employment models. Positions categorized as part time (contract, seasonal, part time hours) are on the rise and the days of the long term career path are quickly becoming a feature of our employment past. More and more new entrants to the workforce and second career entrants are finding themselves employable full time only by working more than one job. Growth industries include health care, social services, retail and wholesale trade, all industries that are gradually becoming dominated by contract or part time employment options. More traditional full time employment industries – manufacturing and finance – are not experiencing growth and are reducing the number of full time employees. And career paths will soon be those consisting of short tenure, three to four years in a position with one employer then on to another three to four years with the next employer, and so on.

1 Statistics Canada, Latest Release from the Labour Force Survey, September 9, 2011; US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey, September 2011

2 Statistics Canada, Ibid.

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Table of Contents

Changing Your Employment Model ............................................................................... 1

The new employment model ...................................................................................................................... 4

The CLAIM Process ........................................................................................................ 4

Why Use the CLAIM Process? ...................................................................................................................... 4

Designing Your CLAIM Process .................................................................................................................... 5

Step 1: Change your employment model mindset. ............................................................................... 5

Step 2: Look for ways to leverage your current expertise. ..................................................................... 6

Step 3: Assess your current state and your future requirements. .......................................................... 8

Step 4: Initiate and innovate – design a position profile and compensation package. ............................. 9

Step 5: Make the change happen. ..................................................................................................... 10

Summary of the CLAIM Process ................................................................................................................. 10

APPENDIX – Professional Profile ............................................................................................................ 13

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The new employment model

Every job seeker, whether in transition or soon to be in transition, should consider reinventing their future as a contract employee for hire. To do this requires reflection and, ultimately, redesigning their work life, and their personal and professional requirements. The goal here is for these job seekers to think about their work future as a business process, a process with a well-defined goal, one that helps them to claim control of their future job prospects and compensation.

The CLAIM Process

Most of us have spent the majority of our working life as a full time employee, working for someone else and, most likely, working for a medium or large sized organization. Whether the organization that employed us was private, public or not for profit, our employment contract included a comprehensive compensation package. This package may have come with pension, health and dental benefits, and possibly even some perquisites such as a vehicle package or a club membership. We may even have received stock options and participated in an annual bonus program. As well as being provided with this comprehensive compensation package, our employer also took care of our income tax, CPP, EI payments. They provided a place to work, a desk to sit at, technology and other tools to help us perform our work, and training to help us develop our skills.

This process is a five-step, easy to use and apply, business process aimed at helping job seekers change their employment model, offering them an alternative to job hunting for another full time job.

Step 1: Change your employment model mindset.

Step 2: Look for ways to leverage your current expertise.

Step 3: Assess your current state and your future requirements.

Step 4: Initiate and innovate – design a position profile and compensation package.

Step 5: Make the change happen.

Why Use the CLAIM Process?

Transitioning from full time permanent employment to contract employment requires a complete rethink of the work environment and how we fit into that environment. We need to be able to move from an environment, paternalistic in nature, where our employer took care of us to an environment, entrepreneurial in nature, where we are solely accountable for every aspect of our working life and the work we perform.

As an entrepreneur, we now have full responsibility for not only performing our work but, also, marketing ourselves to others to continuously secure work to perform. We now have to manage revenue and expenses, ensuring more dollars come in than go out, on a regular basis. We have to find ways to fund our health and

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dental needs, invest in our future with pension monies, and manage those plans, and ensure we make regular payments to the government for our business taxes and CPP. And if we think this is more than enough to think about and handle, we have to think about, and plan for, and put in place, the right physical environment including the tools and technology necessary to help us grow revenue.

Then there is the challenge of keeping our skills and knowledge up to date and learning new skills. Regular, consistent knowledge gain needs to be part of our new employment model if we are to remain competitive in the employment marketplace.

The CLAIM Process provides a step by step guide to helping you move from your current full time employment model to the variable employment model – preparing you for the competitive employment marketplace, today, that seeks out employees that provide knowledge and expertise when it is needed, just-in-time rather than just-in-case expertise.

Designing Your CLAIM Process


The critical first step is changing your mindset and starting to think in terms of this new employment model is research. There are many resources available to help contract workers set up their compensation structure, which now includes the methods to be employed to pay yourself and meet your commitments to suppliers and creditors. Conducting research into small business development, business planning, paying corporate and individual income tax, supplemental health plans packages, and pension plan investment options are all important to help you change your mindset and create a new working environment.

You also need to consider the best physical environment for you to be the most productive and profitable. Research these environments with your former colleagues, your peers, your friends and family. Some of your personal and professional network will already be working from their homes, and possibly, working as contract personnel or telecommuting as a full time permanent employee. Some may even be renting office space either by themselves or as part of a professional collective sharing physical space and technology tools. Suffice it to say, your current network needs to be continually growing and expanding to provide you, on a regular basis, with the advice and support you need to manage a contract model of employment.

What you need to do is practice reflection. Reflect on the environment where you are most comfortable, where interruptions will be no more than those experienced at your previous job (most likely there were a considerable number of interruptions), and where you have the space to accommodate your desk, technology tools, files, research materials, communication devices and any other personal effects needed in your workspace to keep you focused and content.

Information, advice and support for building your new employment model or developing a business plan can be located at most financial institutions. If you are already using a financial advisor, whether from your banking institution or from an investment house, they are a great source for helping you get the information you need. BDC (Business Development Bank of Canada) and the CRA (Canadian Revenue Agency) are both excellent sources for resources.

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Researching self-employment models and others’ experiences of self-employment are critical steps to help you design an employment model that is best suited to you. Feeling comfortable with the options available to you will go a long way to helping you think of yourself as an entrepreneur ready to take full control of your employment situation.


For any number of reasons you find yourself looking for work. You may be unemployed, possibly for the first time in your life, or it could be you are not happy in your current role. You may be thinking it’s time to make a change and do something you have always wanted to do.

Contract work is an opportunity to be fully employed without being permanently full time employed with one employer. Changing the employment model to contract work allows you to combine what you like about your current, or previous, position(s) with your personal preferences.

As a contract employee for hire, you may be looking for:

An opportunity to continue contributing to the world of work in a new way;

Variety of assignments;

Flexible hours and location of work;

An opportunity to develop junior members of the workforce by sharing your expertise, and;

A mechanism for marketing your skills and expertise to a broad range of business clients.

Regardless of your wants and desires, you will need to present yourself to potential employers or clients as effectively and professionally as possible. And the first introduction to you and your expertise is usually through your CV (Curriculum Vitae) or resume.

First of all, determine what type of employment model you are seeking. To do this, you need to clearly get a picture of what you want – clarify your preferences and desires as they relate to your working life. What are you good at? What do you enjoy doing? What type of work environment suits you best? What is your passion? Only after you have done your personal reflection and answered these questions will you be ready to start drafting your resume. Remember, you are seeking to leverage your expertise – creating a new CV or resume rather than just reworking a previous one. You are creating our contract employment model picture.

Typically, one presents themselves in resumes in one of the following ways:

Chronological resume – this type is used to list work and other experience in chronological fashion starting with the most recent employment first

Competency or skills-based resume – starts with a list of competencies or skills that have been acquired over the work life and follow a brief listing of job history.

Professional profile – defines the writer as a professional in the marketplace describing skills and competencies in areas related to personal brand. This type of resume does not necessarily include specifics of work history

Marketing brochure and/or website (if selling products and services as self-employed business) – these tools present the professional services and products available for the clients. Similar to a professional

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profile, however; the focus is on how your experience directly relates to the services and products being offered.3

Given the years of experience you have and the level of expertise you are presenting to potential clients and employers, chronological history of work experience is not of much interest. Skills and the number of years of experience in your preferred area of expertise are of considerably more interest to them. Building a professional profile is the best way to present you as a contract employee for hire. Professional profiles will get you noticed by business leaders seeking senior level expertise. It is a tool to present your area of expertise as you define it. It is your opportunity to say what you do well, what you like to do, what your passion is when you are at work. It is also easier to expend time and energy working their way through your resume.

The best part of a professional profile (as opposed to a standard CV) is that you select what you want to include. It does not presume to include everything about you or your work experience. There is no requirement to include a chronological work history or those areas of expertise or experience which are no longer of interest to you. A professional profile is an integral part of your personal brand, the best way to present this brand to prospective clients and employers.

Here is what should be included in a Professional Profile4.

Name and Contact Information

Degrees, professional designations, certifications – as related to the area of expertise you are showcasing in the profile.

Brief summary or description of your expertise – focus on what you want to emphasize, how you want them to see you, what benefits you bring to the workplace. This is the ‘elevator speech’ you will use when face to face with a potential employer or client.

Brief summary of your key areas of expertise – say what it is you want to do.

Other areas may include: o Professional associations o Publications o Speaking engagements o Volunteer work o Other skills that enhance your profile.

Potential employers and clients are truly only interested in what you can do in your key areas of expertise, what you do for them. Contract employees for hire are selling their expertise, their years of experience performing in this area of expertise, their passion. Potential employers and clients are not interested in an unrelated job from 20 years ago.

Make sure your resume can be easily adjusted to align with the interests of the company you are pursuing. They are seeking individuals whom understand their business, their culture, their market and their customer base.

3 Utilization of marketing brochures, social media sites, direct mail and email marketing are all part of your personal brand. Every tool or

technique should reflect this brand.

4 See Appendix for Professional Profile Template

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Your resume needs to reflect comprehensive understanding of these features of their business as much as possible. Do your research and adjust your resume to reflect this research.


The CLAIM process is a business process but to be effective and work for you it must be comprehensive, a process that helps you to assess all your requirements, professional and personal, as you create and build your new employment plan. Analysing your strengths and weaknesses in terms of your marketing potential, than scoping potential opportunities and identifying barriers to these opportunities will provide you with a clear picture of your current state and your future requirements. Succinctly put, you need to answer the following questions.

How marketable are you in the area of expertise you choose to compete?

Building an employment plan, creating your personal brand to take to market, is no different than building an organizational strategy. Applying the key components of strategic direction analysis will provide you with a clear direction – a path on which to build your new works life.

1. Prepare a SWOT Analysis on your current situation.

What are the specific strengths that define your personal brand? What is your passion?

What are the weaknesses you need to address to increase the value of your personal brand? What do you need to do to service that passion?

Where are the opportunities for you and your specific expertise? Who is most likely to appreciate your passion?

What are the barriers to applying this specific expertise – to accessing these opportunities? What is keeping you from achieving your passion?

2. Create an employment strategy statement.

What is your employment goal? State it clearly and concisely. Use verbs in your goal statement.

How will contract employment service this goal and this passion?

3. Determine your strategic enablers.

Who are the key people available to you to support achievement of this strategy?

What are the tools available to support achievement of this strategy?

What are the factors critical to your success?

4. Write down critical success factors (CSFs).

What specifically needs to occur for you to achieve this strategy?

What are ‘must haves’? What are ‘nice to haves’?

Evaluate each as they relate to your passion.

Restate ‘must haves’.

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Address all parts of your life with this SWOT Analysis and CSF model for building your employment plan. Transitioning to contract status requires an employment plan that is fully developed. Your employment plan is similar to a business plan – your personal brand employment plan – who you are, where you want to go, the market you will target, how you will target that market, how you will plan and measure success, what specific actions you will take, what resources you will access, what success you want to achieve.

Determine your strategy, analyse strengths, weaknesses, opportunities. Forecast potential barriers to success and build contingencies into your employment plan.

Step 4: Initiate and innovate – design a position profile and compensation package.

So how do you start?

First you review the results of the first 3 steps in the CLAIM Process.

Research: Have you completed all necessary steps in researching small business development, business plan development, income tax implications for self-employment (incorporation or sole proprietorship), health plans (benefits not covered by the provincial health plans), pension plan contributions? Do you have a complete picture of your financial needs, obligations and desires? Have you accessed all the possible resources available to help you build your plan?

If you are satisfied you have done your homework, then you need to think about where you prefer to work (location as well as environment), what time of the year or hours you prefer to work, the tools and technology you will need to perform the work.

Remember, you are building your employment model, crafting your own employment contract. You are now the boss.

Professional Profile: Have you decided on your personal brand? Is this brand clearly documented in your Professional Profile? Is your profile one that will double as a CV and a Marketing tool? Is your PP a visual representation of what expertise you have to offer to potential clients? Does it clearly present your passion? Is it on one page - something you can easily convert to your own personal Marketing brochure? Can it be easily communicated by email, snail mail, face-to-face?

Competitive Strategy: Do you have a documented employment strategy? Have you considered all possible strengths to leverage, weaknesses to address, opportunities to access and barriers to accessing these opportunities? What are your strategic enablers?

Now craft your Employment Plan.

To help you initiate and innovate, submit your employment plan to the members of your network for final review. This is a critical step. Your network should include family, friends, business associates, but most importantly, a mentor. Family, friends and business associates will support your plan, in all likelihood, but they are not the best evaluators of the value of your plan particularly as it relates to securing contract employment. You need a more objective eye - someone who knows you, who values your contribution to the world of work,

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who has a solid understanding of the world of work and the potential opportunities available to you based on your employment plan - a mentor.

Mentor -noun 1. a wise and trusted counselor or teacher. 2. an influential senior sponsor or supporter. –verb (used without object) 3. to act as a mentor.

Mentors are particularly useful to help you identify opportunities and take steps to reduce barriers to these opportunities. They should be able to open doors for you, introduce you to new business streams. They should be fully supportive of your employment goals, understand your strategy, contribute to your personal assessment, and; challenge you to be successful.

If you do not have a mentor, you might consider using a personal coach. A personal coach is not a mentor but if you are struggling to establish a valuable mentor relationship, the next best step is to recruit a personal coach. Just be sure to conduct due diligence before contracting the services of a personal coach. They should come highly recommended from someone in your personal network and they should provide you an opportunity to interview them just as you yourself have been interviewed for positions in the past. This needs to be viewed as a contractual arrangement - the best way to mitigate future problems with the relationship.

Step out and get yourself a mentor or a personal coach.


Now you have to translate your passion, your employment plan, and your competitive strategy into an actionable sales plan. You need to sell yourself, sell your brand.

Utilize every possible avenue, every possible contact to get your message out, to market yourself to prospective employers. For each of the network avenues or marketing streams you identify, make sure you build a detailed action plan. A generic plan for each stream will not net you the results you need and want. Make sure you are aligning your actions to the interests of the stream.

Some avenues, or streams, to consider include:

a. Your network of contacts – colleagues, peers, business associates, friends, family. b. Your social media network - LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter c. Local business associations – Chambers of Commerce, Rotary Club, etc. d. Professional Associations – those in your discipline e. Conferences, Community College classes, other learning opportunities such as online training

seminars, webinars, presentations.

Summary of the CLAIM Process

The CLAIM Process provides a step by step guide to helping you move from your current full time employment model to the variable employment model – preparing you for the competitive employment marketplace, today, that seeks out employees that provide knowledge and expertise when it is needed, just-in-time rather than just-in-case expertise.

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Part time employment includes all categories where the employee is not considered by the employer to be a full time employee. This includes all positions considered to be casual, part time, part time permanent and contract. We see this as a trend that will only grow in 2012 and beyond as employers continually seek ways to access expertise without taking on considerable labour expense.

These changing work patterns, changing employment models, present a new world of work - an opportunity for employees to take control of their employment life and transform themselves in to contract employees for hire.

You can take these steps to transition from the traditional full time employee to the contract employee by rethinking your work life, your personal and professional requirements. This process, named the CLAIM Process, will help you to achieve a well-defined goal, one that will help you claim control of your future job prospects and compensation.

The CLAIM Process is a 5-step process to guide you as you develop your contract employee for hire profile.


This step is all about research - finding the resources to provide relevant information, advice, and support for creating a business plan or a new employment model. There are a range of resources available from friends, colleagues, family to most financial institutions. Researching self-employment models is a key step to make the move forward to contract work. Feeling comfortable with the options available to you will go a long way to thinking about yourself as an entrepreneur ready to take control of your employment situation.


Develop a Professional Profile. This is a short marketing document - less than 2 pages - which you use to communicate with potential employers. The best part of a Professional Profile, as opposed to a resume or CV, is that you get to select what you want to include. It is much more a marketing tool - to present your personal brand - than a job search document. And its' focus is on what you will be able to do to help the potential employer secure their bottom line results.


Craft an employment strategy statement, determine what you need to enable this strategy and document the factors that are critical to achievement of this strategy. Transitioning to contract status requires a fully developed employment plan, a business plan for you as the business owner.

Step 4: Initiate and Innovate - design your position profile and compensation package.

Submit your employment plan to members of your network. Seek constructive feedback from family, friends, colleagues, associates, and most importantly, a mentor. A mentor, or business coach, will provide the objective view you need to validate your plan and ensure its' success.


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Get out into the marketplace. Implement your employment strategy. Communicate your Professional Profile to the potential employment market you have selected to target. This step is no different than selling another product or service. Potential employers have to value the Features, appreciate the Advantages, and fully understand, and want to experience, the Benefits. These are the keys to closing the sale.

About the Author Donna Stevenson is owner of Boomer Match to Business (www.bm2b.ca) and The Capability Corps Inc. Her companies specialize in providing just in time expertise to business owners and leaders requiring short term solutions to address their business problems, challenges and opportunities. She and her team can be reached at [email protected] or 905.662.5130.

http://www.bm2b.ca/

mailto:[email protected]

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APPENDIX – Professional Profile