New research is corroborating a long-held anecdote that those individuals who have been out of work for a considerable time are less desirable by hiring managers and recruiters. As a staffing professional, do you ask yourself why you may be passing up a person who is part of the massive group of Americans who fall under the long-term unemployed category?

Who are the long-term unemployed?

According to the latest report from the U.S. Department of Labor, in March 2013, there were 4.6 million people who were classified as long-term unemployed (those workers who have been jobless for 27 weeks or more). Those 4.6 million make up 39.6 percent of the total unemployment number. Sadly, new research is indicating that employers will rarely, if ever, consider hiring from this large pool of candidates.

But, who are these long-term unemployed individuals? According to a 2010 Congressional Research Service report titled, “The Trend in Long-Term Unemployment and Characteristics of Workers Unemployed for More than 99 Weeks,” men and women are almost as likely to remain out of work for more than 99 weeks – 7.9 percent and 7.6 percent, respectively. Older workers also made up a larger portion of the demographic. The report states that unemployed workers who are 45 years old and older are 10.7 percent more likely to remain that way for more than 99 weeks, in contrast to those workers under the age of 35 at 6 percent. Unemployed workers of all education levels were equally likely to have been looking for new job opportunities for more than 99 weeks.

How hard is it for the long-term unemployed to find work?

An experiment previously mentioned above by Rand Ghayad of Northeastern University recently demonstrated just how hard it would be for someone who had been out of work for an extended period of time to get a job. Ghayad sent out 4,800 fake resumes at random for 600 job openings. He found that employers would rather call back a worker who had no relevant experience compared to one that had been out of work for longer than six months. While this is a simplified run down of Ghayad’s findings, it is interesting to consider.

As a recruitment professional, you and I may want to ask ourselves what value we are placing on recent employment and how it could be impacting our staffing decisions. Are there entire markets of workers who could fit a client’s needs that are being overlooked?

There is the rational fear that a worker who has been out of a job for over six months was let go by his or her previous employer because of outdated skills or is a professional liability. However, couldn’t an in-depth search into a worker’s qualifications and past with the use of recruiting software allow you to decrease the risk of this occurring?

Some recruiters are even warning the long-term unemployed away from submitting resumes. Kim Keough lost her job in July 2008. She told The Washington Post that she believed she would be out of work for a few months at most – more than three years later she is still looking for a new job.

“Recruiters have told me not to bother sending in a resume if I’m not currently employed,” Keough told the news source. “It’s damned if you do, damned if you don’t…The longer you are out of work, the more discriminatory companies get.”

In addition, could the trend of skipping over those candidates who have been out of work for a significant period have a long-term structural impact on the employment market? It just might. The Washington Post reports that dozens of states are considering legislation that would make it illegal for employers to discriminate against those who are long-term unemployed. While these proposals have not managed to pass, it’s interesting to note that New Jersey currently has a law that protects the long-term unemployed, and it’s only brought one company to action.

It will be interesting to see how the industry develops and if marketplace changes will have an impact on recruiting and hiring trends. To that end, I’d like to ask you staffing and recruiting professionals a few questions: Do you know of someone who has been discriminated against in this way? Are you using any means to seek out and re-employ this group? What other practical advice or suggestions could you offer to help solve this employment issue?

The workforce is in the middle of a substantial shift. An increasing number of employers are hiring temporary workers through the use of staffing agencies to fill positions. These individuals sometimes work full-time for set contract periods or are members of a permanent staff of part-time workers. With the Affordable Healthcare Act going into effect, tracking these contingent employees can be a challenge.

As a staffing professional, you most likely are in charge of filling numerous positions with either variety of temporary workers. However, as the various parts of the Affordable Healthcare Act come into effect, you know that tracking those contingent employees correctly will be a challenging requirement, which means your job is going to become even more detail-oriented than before.

You’re going to have to track how long a worker has been with a company, whether they qualify as a full-time employee who requires medical benefits and if adding another full-time worker is going to change the status of a company. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that employers with at least 50 full-time workers must offer affordable coverage or pay a penalty.

Therefore, companies are turning toward outsourcing for specialty workers provided by another organization or increasing the number of temporary or contract employees that are on the payroll. As a staffing professional, you are most likely going to be put in charge of helping your clients decide the best course of action and how to go about managing the paperwork.

“The overwhelming majority of temporary help workers, even if they were working full-time on a weekly basis for a number of months, wouldn’t be covered because of that 12-month look-back period,” Susan N. Houseman, an economist at the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, told the news source. She added that the rules “were written in a very favorable way for the temporary help industry.”

That boost in the temp agency is going to result in additional work for staffing workers. You’re going to have to track more workers with recruiting software that can handle the sheer volume and complexity of the workforce you are dealing with and advise clients on what’s best.

“We expect that clients that have those kinds of workers and who are daunted by the complexity of the Affordable Care Act will look to staffing firms to help them manage those kinds of workers,” said Edward A. Lenz, senior counsel for the American Staffing Association.

Do you micromanage your people or projects? You’re not alone. A lot of people tend to micromanage employees or projects for a variety of reasons. A particular project can be important for the business, your branch office is in charge of a large account or you could be responsible for a staff member who simply works in a manner you don’t understand. However, micromanaging can often cause more problems than it solves, according to some experts.

“Micromanaging is just another word for a complete and utter inability to delegate your troops or trust them to carry out your vision,” author Robert Whipple told NBC Chicago News. “[It] implies a lack of trust. The manager is not confident the employee can or will do a job correctly, so the employee is besieged with ‘helpful’ instructions from the manager on exactly how to perform tasks.”

Micromanaging takes positive attributes like paying attention to details and a hands-on attitude and makes them extreme. Now, you may not be trying to steal the glory of your workers by micromanaging, or you may just want to ensure a project gets done right the first time. However, if you don’t allow a worker to delve into a project alone, they will learn to lean on you like a crutch and you will end up stunting his or her growth as a key player in the business.

Like most things in life, moderation is key. Try to turn your obsessive need to control projects onto yourself and allow workers to handle tasks without your immediate supervision and providing feedback on every step of a process.

To curb your micromanaging tendencies, Inc.com recommends telling employees your preferred way of getting something done and to encourage workers to ask about that process so they can decide whether it’s the right option for them. If you require employees to immediately respond to emails, texts or chats, try and remember that they might be better off completing another task and just ask that workers email you when they receive a missive indicating that they will begin working on whatever tasks you corresponded about.

In the staffing industry, your workers have exceptional tools at their disposal like their recruiting software to handle their candidate sourcing and tracking. What’s more, you can also build workflow processes in the software to ensure that your ‘best practices’ for recruiting and staffing are followed. With clearly defined yet flexible workflows in place you can delegate tasks and allow your staffing professionals to do their jobs without your input. Give your employees the chance to excel and take projects on by themselves. Strong managers provide workers opportunities to succeed in the workplace, while weaker managers hoard opportunities and make sure success can be traced back to their input.

These and other strategies can help you reduce your micromanaging tendencies. Remember, autonomous workers are typically stronger employees and if your team has good recruiting software to help them get through tasks they will find the right job candidates for clients and drive your continued success – with less input from you.

It’s a changing world out there for a staffing professional. It used to be common for job candidates to snail mail a paper copy of their resume to a recruiter, now everything has gone digital. You receive digital copies of candidates’ resumes, cover letters, portfolio pieces – you even store all these details and more in your mobile-accessible recruiting software that combines the information from digital and traditional resumes into one efficient portal.

However, could the job placement process be changing more than we think? Are resumes the next Dodo? Some experts think so. Jeanne Meister recently wrote for Forbes on the potential extinction of traditional resumes. She claims that companies are choosing to rely on other means than the standard skills, experience, education formulaic outline of a resume to determine what potential job candidate has the chops and innovation to really succeed.

Now, Meister doesn’t present any hard data, but she does have a few interesting examples to highlight her point. For example, Shawn McTigue posted a fun video resume to Youtube in an effort to gain Mastercard’s attention as a video resume. According to the news source, Mastercard asked all intern applicants to develop a “creative” approach to the benefits of living in a cashless society – a new campaign the company was working on.

The rest of the application process required candidates to engage with the company’s Facebook and Twitter page and submit resumes via LinkedIn.

That’s the real change – instead of filing paper, the resumes you are seeing are coming from LinkedIn and your staffing software is being populated with information from this digital resume. Candidates aren’t hampered by the one-page resume format so you’re able to get a more complete idea of who a person is and his or her work experience.

Your clients are looking for candidates who can demonstrate their expertise, and social media, blogs and other forms that show a digital presence are the way to do that. So yes, the traditional resume may not be extinct yet, but without the right digital footprint, a potential candidate’s career might be – or, at least limping.

Do you believe it is important to regularly talk to your contingent workers? Well, I don’t know how you personally feel about the matter, but I’ll give you three reasons why I believe it’s an important part of the job. For a staffing professional like you, I know that taking the time to chat to a worker who isn’t being prepared for an interview may not always be your top priority.

First, while happiness in the workplace is largely an inside matter and not in your control, by talking with a person about his or her role at a company you can learn important information and potentially help make an individual view his or her job more positively.

Regularly calling the contingent worker that you placed will make them feel valued and boost morale. This can help a worker view his or her experience more positively and determine how you score them in your recruiting software database as a viable option for a future assignment.

Second, as a staffing professional, you can also gain valuable insight into the inner workings of an organization by regularly communicating with a worker you placed. Consider the merits of learning how a client’s organization works from the inside – you might glean details that could help you staff other positions with the right candidates.

Third, the time you spend talking to your contingent employees can also pay off in their perceptions of you and your staffing and recruiting firm. The more that you reinforce the positive nature of your relationships with them, the more likely they are to refer their friends and acquaintances to your firm. And as you well know, referrals are often the most valuable source for candidates and contingent employees.

So, spend a little time on the phone with your contingent workers, and reap the benefits.