For staffing firms, administering the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) is not simply a matter of offering a screening form and submitting applications. The effectiveness of the program depends heavily on what happens between those steps.
Candidate participation, onboarding workflows, documentation, payroll information, technology, follow-up, and ongoing administration all play a role.
That is something MJA & Associates has seen repeatedly through more than 20 years of supporting staffing firms with tax credit programs. When WOTC is treated as a separate administrative task, it can create additional steps for candidates, recruiters, and back-office teams. When it works naturally within the hiring process, the experience can be very different.
Our work with Aqore and Pinnacle Staffing Group provides a strong example.
The WOTC Process Should Fit the Way Staffing Firms Hire
Staffing is a high-volume, fast-moving industry. Recruiters and operations teams already have significant responsibilities associated with sourcing, onboarding, placing, and paying employees.
A WOTC process that requires teams to move between separate systems, manually identify incomplete screenings, or repeatedly follow up with candidates can add unnecessary administrative work.
MJA & Associates approaches WOTC differently. We work to understand the client’s existing hiring process and determine how WOTC can be incorporated into that workflow as naturally as possible.
For Pinnacle Staffing Group, integration played an important role in accomplishing that.
Through the integration between MJA & Associates and Zenople by Aqore, WOTC screening became part of Pinnacle’s digital onboarding process, allowing relevant information to move through a more connected workflow.
The Results: A 95% WOTC Capture Rate
Pinnacle Staffing Group operates at significant volume, processing approximately 900 to 1,100 weekly payroll checks across 13 cost centers.
After implementing Zenople and the MJA & Associates integration, Pinnacle reported a 95% WOTC capture rate and a five- to six-fold increase in realized tax credit value compared with its previous process.
Tim Williams, Managing Director at Pinnacle Staffing Group, described the experience:
“With Aqore and MJA Associates, everything is completely automatic; we don’t have to do anything. We are capturing probably 95% of our WOTC credits, and we were nowhere near that with our previous provider.”
Those results demonstrate something important for staffing leaders: WOTC performance is influenced by much more than the tax credit itself.
The process surrounding the program matters.
Technology Works Best When It Removes Work
Integrations have become an important part of staffing technology, but simply connecting two systems does not necessarily create a better process.
The more useful question is whether the integration reduces unnecessary steps.
For WOTC, that can mean incorporating screening into onboarding, allowing relevant information to move between systems, identifying incomplete information earlier, and reducing the amount of routine administration recruiters need to handle.
As Marcel Abandonato, President of MJA & Associates, explained in the Aqore case study:
“By partnering with Aqore to build a true bi-directional, native integration, we’ve eliminated the friction that causes candidates to drop out.”
The technology is important, but the objective behind it is equally important: make participation easier and make administration more manageable for the staffing firm.
Expertise Still Matters Behind the Technology
Automation can streamline a process, but technology alone does not administer a successful tax credit program.
WOTC involves eligibility requirements, filing deadlines, documentation, certifications, payroll information, changing program requirements, and communication with state agencies. Employers also need visibility into what is happening with their program and knowledgeable support when questions arise.
That is where the combination of technology and tax credit expertise becomes valuable.
MJA & Associates provides the specialized tax credit knowledge and ongoing program management, while integrations such as our work with Aqore allow that expertise to connect more naturally with the systems staffing firms already use.
The goal is not technology for technology’s sake. It is a better-supported process.
What Should Staffing Firms Review in Their Own WOTC Process?
Pinnacle’s experience provides several useful questions for staffing leaders evaluating their current WOTC program.
Is screening naturally incorporated into candidate onboarding? Can incomplete information be identified while there is still an opportunity to address it? Does relevant information move efficiently between hiring, payroll, and tax credit systems? How much manual follow-up falls on recruiters or back-office employees? Does leadership have meaningful visibility into program performance?
And perhaps most importantly: is your tax credit provider actively helping you improve the process?
A WOTC program should not simply be implemented and forgotten. Hiring volume changes. Technology changes. Workflows change. Programs and requirements change. The process should be reviewed and adapted alongside the business.
A WOTC Partner That Understands Staffing
MJA & Associates has spent more than 20 years helping staffing firms nationwide manage tax credit programs. That experience has taught us that strong results come from more than processing applications.
They come from understanding how a staffing firm operates, fitting the program into its existing workflow, providing responsive support, using technology effectively, and continually looking for ways to make the process work better.
Pinnacle Staffing Group’s experience demonstrates what that approach can look like in practice: a reported 95% WOTC capture rate, a five- to six-fold increase in realized tax credit value, and significantly less manual administration for its team.
Is Your Current WOTC Process Working as Well as It Could?
You do not need to wait for a problem to take a closer look at your WOTC process.
Whether you want to better understand your current capture rate, evaluate your technology integration, reduce manual administration, or simply get a second perspective on how your program is being managed, MJA & Associates is here to help.
Contact MJA & Associates to talk with our team about your current WOTC process and learn how a more connected, hands-on approach could support your staffing firm.
