Is Temporary Staffing Right for You?
Filed under: Consulting, Hiring, IT Staffing, Job Candidates, Job Searching, Recruiting, Recruiting Update, Staffing, Temp Staff
Thirty-six percent of businesses will add a temporary worker to their team this year. It’s a trend that has been steadily growing as companies feel the squeeze of rising costs and a struggling economy. Although some companies remain squeamish about hiring potentially unreliable temps, many temporary workers actually prove to be better workers than their permanent counterparts. Not convinced? Consider these reasons a temp may be good for your business.
Benefits of Temporary Staffing
As jobs become more scarce, increasingly qualified workers are packaging themselves as “free agents,” using temporary work as a springboard to permanent positions. For businesses, the new temporary worker dynamic offers some significant pluses:
- Accommodates flexible working hours and seasonal fluctuations. Temporary workers can help fill in the gaps in productivity as more employees take advantage of flex hours. They can also help handle increased workload during the holidays, tax season, and other times when business picks up temporarily.
- Gives employers an opportunity to evaluate workers before hiring. With no long term commitment, temporary positions allow employers to closely evaluate a worker’s abilities and performance on the job with the option to bring them on board permanently if they like what they see.
- Lower hiring costs. For short term, specialized work assignments, it can be cheaper to hire a temporary worker rather than a permanent employee with benefits. If you use a staffing agency, you’ll be saved the cost of recruiting, screening, payroll expenses, and in some cases, training.
Bringing Temporary Workers On Board
Creating a positive relationship with temporary workers can help establish brand loyalty, build rapport with workers you may want to hire permanently later on, and create brand ambassadors among those who don’t remain as a permanent part of the team. Include these elements in your onboarding strategy for new workers:
- Realistic expectations—Don’t hold out promise for permanent job potential if you can’t or don’t intend to follow through.
- Adequate training—Make sure temps know exactly what you want and that they’ve been adequately trained to perform as expected.
- Positive HR experiences—Accurate time records, paperwork, payroll expectations and legal processes all contribute to an overall positive experience with your company that will pay off down the road.
- Integration into the team—Whether you plan to hire permanently later on or not, every temp work should feel like a valuable team member in order to perform at his full potential.
- Exit surveys—You can gain valuable insight about your work environment by interviewing or surveying temporary workers as they leave your company.
Don’t be shy about hiring temporary workers. As increasingly qualified workers are joining the ranks of the unemployed, you may find some star performers among the seasonal employees you bring on board.
Comments
One Comment on Is Temporary Staffing Right for You?
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Joyelle Vollero on
Fri, 17th Aug 2012 12:54 pm
Temporary workers can be a bonus to both employer and employee, himself. As the article states, it’s almost a trial period before investing limited company resources into an employee…it gives the company an opportunity to see what type of employee that person will be, how they’ll adapt to the environment and fit in with your culture. Let’s face it-anyone can be impressive for 30 minutes or an hour while they’re in the hot seat and being interviewed. Think of all the employees you hired on your own and once you got to know the person, you realized how different they were from the persona they presented during the interview. On the flip side, if you’re out of work and looking for an opportunity, a temporary position just might be the way to go. You never know where the opportunity may lead. Several years ago I had just moved back to Atlanta while my husband was deployed to Afghanistan. I went to a temp agency and landed the most boring job in the world-calling and verifying information. I hated it! But I got lucky-the job was with another RPO and as I tried to get to know my co-workers in my new environment I began to see what it would be like to be a recruiter. I’d always had an interest in it but suddenly there was a real opportunity in front of me to give it a try. I don’t think I did that boring job verifying information more than a month before I was promoted to a recruiter…and the story goes from there! Had I never taken the temp job, I wouldn’t be where I am today, and I may not have discovered the niche for myself professionally that I’ve found in talent acquisition.
Yes, temporary workers can benefit a company–fill in where needs aren’t being met, or if someone is out on leave for any length of time, or even give an employer a trial period before bringing the person on to the company’s own payroll and benefits program. The benefits of utilizing the staffing agency’s tools and skills for vetting employees far outweighs the costs.
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