Recent reports suggest that small, midsize and large employers face the same chronic problem – difficulty finding and recruiting qualified employees. With talent as the key differentiator between fierce competitors, HR departments are often the unsung heroes of organizations. One possible solution is to give your HR department a break by supplementing their efforts with help from a temporary staffing agency.
When you hire individuals through a temporary staffing agency, the staffing firm takes care of most, if not all, of the HR tasks associated with these workers — finding, screening, interviewing, recruiting, onboarding, administering, and retaining employees. And while these employees are assigned to you, you get to see these individuals’ attitudes and aptitudes during an in-depth, on-the-job evaluation, for possible addition to your own talent pipeline.
Sure, you’ll have to let the staffing agency know what you’re truly looking for, but they’ll be the ones charged with finding your match, giving basic training for the role, and otherwise getting individuals set up for the job at hand. That includes conducting all of the hiring and compliance paperwork and even performing payroll processing. Yes, you’ll have to pay the staffing agency for these services … but you don’t need to mess around with figuring out whether the employees are exempt or non-exempt, identifying and implementing withholdings and liens, and ensuring compliance with all the tax, administrative and legal tasks that can really bog down the onboarding process. In addition, because these individuals reside on the staffing agency’s roster, your HR administrator won’t have to go over employee benefits, your scheduling and vacation processes, or other “perks” associated with the job.
One aspect of temporary staffing that often gets overlooked is that, if a ‘temporary’ turns out to be a star employee, you often have the option to hire them on as your own ‘permanent’ staff. While they serve as a ‘temp,’ you get to see how the individual fits into your working environment and company culture, how they respond to training and on-the-job problems, and how they actually perform the important tasks of the job… in other words, a test drive with little risk or long-term commitment.
Hiring a new employee can be a real gamble, with really high financial, reputational, and operational stakes. Building your permanent staffing pipeline through temp-to-hire employees can significantly reduce your overall risk.
