At GreenMellen, our team is almost entirely full-time employees, as that type of structure works well for us. However, also pull in some contractors from time to time to help with additional work, as that can be a huge benefit.
From our perspective, those are a different kind of employee (W9 vs 1099, not in regular meetings, working on a single project, etc). From the perspective of our customer, though, they’re one and the same. The customer hired our company, we’re doing the work, they expect everyone involved to be held to the same standard — as do we.
Home Depot
A few years ago we had Home Depot do a few things for our house (which they ultimately used contractors for), and very quickly it become clear that they were separate entities.
Back in 2018, we bought a dishwasher from Home Depot and “they” were going to deliver it. We ordered it at Home Depot and paid Home Depot for the dishwasher and the delivery. Cool. When multiple missed deliveries went by, Home Depot was very quick to point out that those were contractors trying to deliver it and it wasn’t really their problem. After a few weeks of running in circles, we cancelled the order and got one from somewhere else.
Around the same time, we had someone from Home Depot over to measure, order, and install a new kitchen sink. The measure and order were with a person from the “real” Home Depot (I guess?), but installation was a contractor, and he refused to do it for the amount Home Depot was paying him. Again, it very quickly became a shield of “Sorry, that’s not us, that’s a contractor, good luck!”.
From our eyes it was all “Home Depot”, but they were quick to separate themselves from the contractors that they were using on our jobs.
It’s getting better?
Perhaps it’s anecdotal, but things seem to be improving as I’m not hearing as many of those kinds of stories these days. With companies becoming more remote and often contractor-driven, the primary company behind transactions seems to be taking better accountability.
Using contractors to expand the capacity of your business can be a wonderful thing, and if you can be prepared to take full responsibility for them (both good and bad), things will likely work out better in the long run.
