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Temporary Employees and Quality

Quality spelled out in building blocksIn a recent survey among staffing services buyers, the respondents were asked, “When you think of recruiting a staffing firm, what criteria do you use?”

The respondents were asked two ways: “What’s your top criteria?” and in another question, “What’s your top three criteria?”

More than half of the participants responded that quality was their top criteria. More than 78% had quality in their top three criteria.1

So given those results, it is only fair to ask this question as a buyer of staffing services, “How do I know I am getting quality employees?”

In our opinion, providing quality temporary workers to a client requires a partnership between the client and the staffing company. In this article, we will list those factors that we feel are critical to that partnership.

Agency Responsibilities

  • The staffing company / temp agency should select candidates via a comprehensive recruitment program that includes local and national job boards, social media, local media, community networks and any other sources that will help locate qualified and talented people.
  • Candidates should be evaluated by the staffing company / temp agency to verify that the candidate has the required skills before they arrive at the job assignment. At The Temp Connection, we evaluate our candidates with our advanced assessment tools which feature over 1000 validated assessments.
  • The candidate should be interviewed by a member of the staffing company / temp agency staff before they are introduced to the client company.
  • The candidate’s professional references should be validated by a member of the staffing company / temp agency staff.
  • It only makes sense that competitive wages and benefits are essential in order for an agency to maintain a portfolio of quality employees. The best employees expect the best wages and benefits. A temp agency with no benefits program for their employees or a low-ball pay scale should serve as a warning sign.
  • A temp agency should be expected to provide evidence of all required liability insurance and bonding. They should also provide unemployment insurance, worker’s compensation insurance and pay all necessary withholding taxes.
  • The temp agency should have the capability to provide credit and background checks as well as drug screening.
  • The temp agency should have some type of customer satisfaction guarantee.2

Client Responsibilities

  • The most important thing that an employer can do to maximize their chances of getting a great employee is to provide the agency with a detailed job description of the desired position. The Job Description should include:
  • Any specific job skills, certifications, or equipment familiarity that is required.
  • Any specific work hours required, whether part-time, full-time or overtime. There is nothing worse that providing an employer with a great candidate only to find out later that the candidate is unable to work the schedule that the client requires.
  • Any physical requirements like extended standing or sitting, or needing to lift a certain amount of weight.
  • We’ve all heard that “you get what you pay for,” and we all know that for the most part it is true. The same thing goes for employees. An employer can’t really expect a great employee to come along with a bargain-basement, low-ball rate. Demanding a below-market rate for a great employee is, quite frankly, an unreasonable request. Be willing to pay a fair market rate for an excellent match. It will save you in the long run by maximizing your chances of getting a quality employee on the first try.

 After all, putting the right employee in the right job is what we all want, isn’t it?

photo of Ellie Patterson, The Temp Connection

 

Ellie Patterson has been in the staffing industry for twenty-seven years and is a co-founder and partner at The Temp Connection in Tucson, AZ. She can be reached via email at ellie@thetempconnection.com.

 

References:

  1. Sriram, Subadhra; “There’s a Staffing Firms – Buyer Disconnect, and it’s in the Marketing”; staffingindustry.com; June 10, 2015.
  2. “Welcome to The Temp Connection”; https://thetempconnection.com
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