Try and hire: Temporary staffing in a run of low unemployment
Posted On November 14, 2018
We have addressed, in previous blogs, how the current low level of unemployment is affecting companies looking to hire new staff. But what about companies whose job it is to provide staff, or recommend new hires, to other companies – temporary staffing agencies?
Our guest in the latest episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston” is Liz Freeman, president of Long’s Human Resources, who shares with us how the current economy has affected her temporary staffing business.
Freeman says her firm is working a lot more of late with permanent direct placements, where her agency acts as a headhunter of sorts, recommending an employee who ultimately, if all goes well, will be hired directly by the client. This role has become common in the current economy, she says, because most of the best job candidates aren’t out of work – they’re employed elsewhere and are looking for a better opportunity.
It’s also a relatively low-risk method of hiring for the employer, who gets a built-in probationary period of sorts with the staffing agency as a go-between.
Freeman also shares the importance of onboarding — not only for employee who has just been hired, but also for the company looking to hire. She shares some interviewing tips for job-seekers, as well as for employers conducting the interviews. She notes a few fields in which jobs are plentiful and the right candidate can write his or her own ticket, so to speak.
And she reminds us that the hiring process is not foolproof. Sometimes an employee isn’t the right fit for a company, or a company isn’t right for the employee.
“People are people,” Freeman says. “That’s why hiring can be so intimidating. You vet an individual, they seem right on paper, they sound right in the interview, everything checks out, and then life happens. People can change.”
Join us to learn why a temporary staffing agency may be a job-seeker’s easiest way of entering an unfamiliar workforce, as well as a low-risk option for employers looking for new staff.