I’m speaking about if someone already has a TS/SCI. But the company requires TS/SCI + Poly, why wouldn’t they just sponsor for the poly portion?
I know that jobs that require clearances often don’t sponsor because they don’t want to go 1-2 years without being able to bill the government for that position. But I know a company that has noting but TS/SCI+FSP positions and they won’t put you in for a poly even if you already have a TS SCI.
This kind of makes since to me from no clearance to clearance. The reality is that takes up a slot (a billable position) for 1 year when if they had a cleared person they could bill for $400 an hour immediately. So they effectively use out on $400*2080 dollars in revenue.
But for a person who already has a TS/SCI clearance, this is ridiculous. We’re talking a few months max for a poly to be scheduled and done. The trouble of that I’d think is just a part of the business.
FWIW, most contracts have some lower level work that can be done while you wait for the poly. As you said, the poly usually only takes a month or two. It’s been longer lately with the backlogs but not by that much.
I believe it’s in the contract whether the position is able to be sponsored or not so it’s not really the company’s fault - I know CIA basically sponsors 0 polys for contractors and NSA you have to do it through a CCA where you already have a CI poly beforehand. Of course there’s always exceptions but I’ve found this is the vast majority.
The company cannot sponsor for a poly because it is not a background investigation and it is a requirement coming from the agency that the company is doing work for. The company can request the agency to schedule a polygraph, but ultimately it is up to the agency as to whether they want to take the time to do that or have the company find someone who already has one, which may be a contract requirement for positions.
I would say that while some contracts may have work not requiring a clearance, it is not very likely. I’ve seen more cases where companies had other contracts or projects people could work on while awaiting clearance.
I also worked on a program where a lot of people had to get poly’d the first time before they could start working on the job.
In my experience (which I may have earlier) the real pressure is these contracts where there are multiple “teammates” all trying to get somebody on the contract and they want to hired cleared people fast. It also shows the customer that they don’t have a problem getting cleared people. This is mainly for on-site work that we used to call “butts-in-seats” as opposed to development programs conducted at a contractor facility.