Employers often turn to temporary employment staffing agencies to find seasonal workers or to recruit individuals to perform the duties of employees who are absent due to military duty, maternity leave or for other reasons. Whether working with a staffing agency or recruiting workers directly, employers should clearly define the temporary worker's duties before advertising the position. Additionally, employers should address issues such as employment laws, payroll considerations and skill requirements before actively recruiting workers.
Temporary employment staffing agencies keep records of workers who are seeking short-term employment opportunities. Employers seeking to fill positions quickly and efficiently can provide details of the vacant positions to an agency and rely on agency staff to recruit, interview and hire a suitable individual to fill the role. Agencies make money by charging commissions but the commission is normally deducted from the worker's wages rather than charged directly to the employer. This means that the employer has to negotiate a wage with the agency and thereafter the agency must enter into separate negotiations with its workers about how that wage will be split between the agency and the worker. Therefore, employers save time by recruiting through agencies.
Some companies cut costs by filling temporary employment staffing positions with college students who are content to work as unpaid interns in order to gain industry experience. While laws in many nations allow companies to use unpaid interns, employers have to familiarize themselves with labor laws because rules in some countries limit the number of hours that an unpaid intern can work. Minimum wage laws exist in many areas and employers may have to pay wages to interns who perform certain kinds of tasks, work certain shifts or work more than a certain number of hours during a single week. Therefore, employers should determine whether a particular position can be filled with an intern or whether local rules mean that a paid worker must take on the role.
It takes time to review employment applications and to conduct interviews so employers should detail the precise skills that candidates require to fill temporary employment staffing positions. Those working in the medical field may need to have certain kinds of credentials to perform specific tasks and these skills or licenses must be prominently listed in job postings. Additionally, if a firm uses a particular type of software then it should seek out candidates who have previously used that software to fill temporary administrative roles rather than just placing generic administrative job advertisements. Ideally, employers should hire temporary workers who need minimal amounts of instruction and on-the-job training. Detailed job advertisements can often enable employers to find such workers.
