Temp workers are a crucial part of the American workforce. The Associated Press estimates that 17 million professionals work on temp projects. These might include contract workers, interns, seasonal personnel, freelancers, and consultants. Your business might flourish by tapping into this resource in a number of different scenarios.
Situations Where a Temp Agency Might Help Your Business Get Ahead
There are many scenarios where temp agencies might help businesses flourish, including these:
- Seasonal/Peak Demand: Many businesses are in cyclical industries or deal with seasonal peaks in terms of demand for labor. Temp agencies can boost your staffing at these times so you have the staffing you need without having to severely cut hours or lay off people when things die back down. In addition to using temp agencies at a strategic level, you can use handfuls of temps or even individual professionals in more tactical applications, such as filling in for someone who quit suddenly or is on maternity leave for a while.
- Less Overtime: When you have extra hours that need to be filled, paying your own hourly employees to stay past a normal week could mean paying them 150% of their normal pay. Filling these hours whenever possible with temp workers means you get your labor needs met while keeping your payroll at more reasonable numbers overall.
- Skip the Logistics: Bringing people into your organization can mean posting job positions, doing interviews, handling background checks, organizing drug testing, getting people through many steps of documentation, and a lot of other steps. A temp agency can handle most or all of this for you so your operations can stay efficient and focused on your core business activities that help drive your growth.
- Industry Experience: There might be times when you need professionals with specific skill sets that aren’t a part of your normal staff but you don’t want to hire them full-time. Alternatively, you might have industry-specific staff who need more people like them for a while. Temp agencies can fill either need.
- Access to Talent Networks: Many staffing agencies build up their talent pool of potential candidates all the time, even if they don’t have a specific project to fill. That way, when something does open up, they can provide clients with candidates quickly instead of starting their search. This means your business can access talent networks you don’t have to operate yourself.
As you can see, there are many potential scenarios where temp agencies can give you the talent you need for the specific time period you need them. Doing so fills your needs without you adding permanent people to your payroll that you might not be able to afford or justify on a long-term basis.
Flexibility Is Essential
When looking at temp agencies near Chicago and other major US cities, the one thing you want to look for is simple flexibility. The best temp agencies can work with businesses of all sizes while catering to projects and needs of all kinds. Multiple sectors and industries need temp labor from time to time. Successful agencies are versatile, adept, and nimble enough to deal with many different sets of circumstances.
Pick Your Staffing Agency With Care
If you decide to use a staffing agency to fill the ranks of a project or season your business has needs for, then keep in mind that you might really only have one professional relationship that matters here. That’s the one with the staffing agency in question. While they might provide you with dozens to hundreds of short-term workers, you are trusting that agency to interpret your needs correctly and find the right people to suit them. You’re entrusting them to do the hiring, onboarding, and perhaps even some of the training, so be sure you partner up with someone who knows what they’re doing.
Some Temps Are Worth Keeping
One underestimated benefit of using temp workers in your own business is that they can be a goldmine for discovering new talent. If someone works on a temp project for your organization, they will have already learned the ropes of part of it. When you see someone in the temp pool who stands out, consider inviting them to join your permanent team.
