Companies often rely on temporary help to bail them out of emergency staffing situations, utilizing more than two million temps a day. But to get the most bang for your buck, your company should develop a system to effectively choose and use temporary help. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Not just a cure for the summertime blues.
Your first step should be to consider the situations your company could benefit by hiring temporary employees. Sure, "contingent workers" do a great job filling in for employees "gone fishing" on summer vacation. But today's temporary help service firms are equipped to assist your company at a much higher level.

Firms specializing in such diverse areas as accounting, information systems and healthcare can dramatically help your organization survive peak-load periods. One-time projects, temporary replacement such as parental leave, and hiring temporary employees to "audition" for permanent positions are just some of the ways you can use temporary employees to your advantage.

How to choose the right firm.
Think about how carefully you interview prospective employees. That same effort should be spent when choosing a temporary help service firm. After all, once selected that firm will literally be staffing parts of your organization.

First, select several firms in your area to evaluate. The closer to your office the better. Temporary employees prefer not to travel too far to reach assignments. Ideally, you should evaluate all referrals, a few nationally recognized firms, specialized agencies, and small, local services to get a complete picture of what's available at what cost. You can request that a representative from each firm visit your office and make a presentation. Or you can send your own representative to each firm. Either way, you should carefully consider how each firm answers the following questions:

• How do you evaluate temporary employees?
• Have you personally met with the employees you will be sending to us?
• What methods do you use to recruit and retain employees?
• If I know within a few hours that a temporary employee is not working out, do I have to pay and how quickly will I get a replacement?
• Do you follow up to check on the temporary employees you placed in my company?
• How many full-time employees do you have?

After narrowing down your choices to three firms, send a representative to visit each facility. Meet some temporary employees. Do they appear professional? Look at how the firm tests and interviews potential temporary employees. Do their methods adequately evaluate temporary employees to assure they will meet your expectations?

If you're looking for bookkeeping personnel or paralegals, make sure the firm specializes in those areas. A general agency that mostly places word-processing personnel won't know how to recruit, train and place top-notch accountants or computer programmers.

Finally, look at the value of each firm. Calculate how much time and how many employees it will take to accomplish the assignment in question. Compare each firm's hourly wage, but keep in mind the quality of the employees offered. A highly-skilled temporary employee may require a more expensive hourly rate, but could finish the job in half the time it would take for an entry-level temporary.

When you make your final decision, inform the firm that came in second to be ready to hear from you. If the firm you chose doesn't live up to expectations, they should be prepared to take over the reins.

How to get the most from your temps.
Selecting the right firm for your needs is certainly the first step towards yielding the most benefits from the temporary employees it sends you. But to tap their complete potential and ensure productivity, you should take as much care managing temporary employees as you do full-time employees.

When temporary employees arrive at your office, greet them enthusiastically and thoroughly explain the assignment. Set attainable production goals. Don't overload them with too much information at once. Introduce temporary employees to your full-time staff and explain to your staff what the temporary employees will be doing, how long they'll be there, and why they were called in.

On their first day, check up on temporary employees in a couple of hours; then review their work two or three times a day thereafter. This will ensure that your project deadline is on target and that the work is accurate and meeting the standards of quality you set.

When the project is completed, evaluate the job performance and compare it to your original time and cost estimate. Did you get your money's worth? Contact the temporary firm and let them know if you were pleased or displeased with the temporary employees performance.

If the temporary employees performed unsatisfactorily, see how the firm responds. If it is a competent, professional agency, those instances will be the exception; not the norm. After a few months evaluate the firm's overall record. If it's not what you expected, it may be time to try the firm that came in second.

<<Back to Articles