Friday, February 6, 2009

Why Businesses Use Temp Agencies

By Amy Nutt

A temp agency is a company that keeps a stable of potential workers to send to a business when they need someone to work for them for a short period of time. On occasion, temp workers end up becoming permanent workers, but the main idea is to have someone to fill in for a missing employee. Businesses use temp agencies for a wide variety of reasons.

Why Temporary Every business that has employees will find itself in need of a little extra help sometimes. You might expect the need, such as when a female employee has to take time off for maternity leave or when you need extra hands for holidays. Or, you might be completely blindsided by the entire things, such as when an employee is injured and needs time off or walks off the job.

In many cases, the employee in question is coming back. You can`t just replace them, since it is still their job! That`s where temporary employees come in. They can work for a couple of days, a few weeks or even months, depending on the situation. Hiring someone for a short period of time makes everything less complicated and keeps things running smoothly while your regular employee is out of commission.

For those companies left in the lurch by an employee who has simply quit their job, it might seem like a better idea to simply hire someone permanent. However, it can take time to find someone to fill the position adequately and so, while searching, it can be helpful to hire a temp as a sort of placeholder . . . getting the job done while you look for someone who will improve the position.

Why an Agency You could probably find a temporary employee on your own, so why use a temp agency? The reason is simple . . . efficiency. Businesses don`t have time to spare to start looking for someone to fill in a temporary position. In very large companies, it`s quite possible to have several people out on maternity leave or injured all at the same time and you can pretty much guarantee, if you have more than 100 employees, that you`ll be in need of a temp fairly often.

An agency keeps a full stable of potential temporary employees. All you need to do is specify the skills needed and you could have a temp in your office by the following morning. This is nice and fast, which is ideal for anyone who has lost an employee abruptly and it ensures minimal interruption in the flow of the work.

The other advantage is that you are not responsible for screening these employees. Instead, you just need to list off the skills required and the agency will do the sorting and checking for you, coming up with the perfect person to fit your needs. This saves an amazing amount of time and energy and even money, in the long run. And who knows, you may even encounter an employee meant to stay for a couple of weeks who turns out to be so great that you end up hiring him or her permanently.

More and more businesses are turning to temp agencies for their hiring needs when they lose an employee for one reason or another. It speeds the entire process up and once you have a trusted temp agency on your list, you can call them up whenever you need a short-term hire and leave it up to them to choose the right candidate for the position. It saves time and money for your business. - 15246

About the Author: