A company’s single biggest asset is not its building or its inventory or its investors, but the employees, the people, who work for it. Employees can make or break a company, where skilled, loyal, and motivated employees can move the company forward while unqualified or stresses ones are likely to quit or perform badly. So, any manager has a great interest in hiring the best people for the job, in terms of a new hire’s educational background, skills, work experience (if any), and personality. In fact, many studies suggest that highly diverse workplaces have an edge, since the employees there represent many different ways of thinking and perspectives on business and the world. But in-house talent may have limited means of hiring the best people for the job, so this falls to outside labor, such as job agencies and employment agencies of all kinds. This includes temp workers, too.
Benefits of a Temp Job
First, let us consider the benefits of a temp job. Not all employees at a business are full-time, older working adults. Hiring younger workers is beneficial to both the company and that young employee in question, who may be a grad student at college or a recent graduate with limited work experience. For that young employee, the benefits of a temp job include not just the pay, but also the opportunities for skill building, networking, getting used to office work styles, and building their resume. A young twenty-something with no major work experience will relish the chance to get their foot in the door, and they may either get hired full-time later, or end up searching for work elsewhere when their temp job expires. As for the company, the benefits of a temp job mainly involve the lower pay for that worker, but still, the employees there might like having a few new faces around. Now, how are these temps typically hired?
Staffing Companies and Temp Agencies
A lot of work goes into finding and hiring the right candidate for a job, and a company’s in-house talent may not be up to the task. So, a dedicated hiring agency is used, and that agency will have the databases and skilled workers needed to accurately match a job seeker with an open position that would suit them well. This includes young temp workers, too, and headhunter agencies in particular are used to find senior executive manager candidates for job positions.
A job placement agency will collect many job candidate profiles, and each profile may include that candidate’s personal information such as educational background, work experience, notable skills and accomplishments, personal references, and anything else a potential employer will want to know. Then, candidates are matched to positions that suit their skills and experience, and the hiring company can take over with interviews and background checks. The job placement agency brings the candidate to the employer’s doorstep; the employer will then do the rest (often via its HR department).
Job seekers will greatly appreciate the professional help with finding work that suits them well, and employers will like how this can keep unsuitable candidates away and narrow down the field to their best options. This is especially important for hiring senior executive managers, who will have a lot of responsibilities once hired. It could be trouble if a hired manager has the wrong skills or experience or an unsavory personality. Also, job candidates should remember that their online activity, including that of social media, is also checked. A job seeker is discouraged from sharing self-incriminating material such as evidence of crimes or questionable behavior, for example. Also, speaking ill of current or previous employers or co-workers is also a bad idea. A hiring manager may turn their nose up at a candidate who displays a disagreeable personality online.
How big is this industry? It is believed that three million temp and contact employee’s work for American staffing companies during a typical week, and in 2016, retailers hired some extra 570,000 people for their holiday season. Temp agencies might help with that. On a final note, using staffing agencies is a good way to reduce costly employee turnover rates; some $11 billion, overall, is lost each year due to employee turnover.