Can all employees be independent contractors?

No. There is a common misconception that anyone can be made into an independent contract. That is not true. Further, there can be serious repercussions if you mislabel someone an independent contractor who is not one.  Whether a person can be an independent contractor v. an employee generally relates to the degree of control the owner has

Before making the decision to hire or contract for the first time it is best to work with qualified counsel. There needs to be a clear agreement between the company and the contractor and assessment to determine if the person can even be a contractor. If you have an independent contractor now and want to see if you are in trouble or in compliance you can do an evaluation using IRS form SS-8. Here is a link: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fss8.pdf