Dear Dan: We’ve been getting busier lately, but I’m not convinced it will continue. I need more help, but don’t want to risk more employee overhead if things go flat. What are some places to find good temporary help? – Temporarily Busy
Dear Temporarily Busy: Use of temporary employees has been growing much faster than the U.S. economy as a whole. The reason is flexibility, for both businesses and workers.
Look for temps yourself via online job sites, or tap the services of local temp firms. According to the American Staffing Association, the average temp or contract employee earns about $12 per hour. Most staffing companies offer health insurance as well as vacation and holiday pay, and many offer retirement plans as well.
If you hire temps through an outside staffing firm, you will of course pay a fee for their services. But you will save on payroll and fringe benefit costs, so it can still be less costly to your business. And using temps rather than independent contractors can help in several ways. First, you don’t have to worry that independent contractors might later be classified as employees, thus costing you a bundle in back payroll taxes, and perhaps penalties as well. Plus temps might actually cost less than independent contractors, and you can directly supervise their work.
Temps are available at all levels, from day workers to CEO. In fact, the fastest-growing segment of the temporary help field is in filling management positions.
There are two main types of temp job placements: temporary or contract, where you add a temp employee on an interim basis, and temp-to-hire, where you place an employee on a wait-see basis until you’re sure a spike in business will hold up, or that you have the right person. If you have highly specialized needs, look for a staffing firm that specializes in your industry.
These resources can help:
• The American Staffing Association (www.americanstaffing.net) site lets you search for staffing firms that are ASA members.
• Net-Temps (www.net-temps.com) is an award-winning online job board for temporary and temp-to-perm positions.
• Labor Ready specializes in filling temp jobs for construction, manufacturing, hospitality services, landscaping, warehousing and retail. Visit www.laborready.com.
• Major firms such as Olsten Staffing (www.olsten.com), Manpower (www.manpower.com) and Kelly Services (www.kellyservices.com) offer solutions for all sizes of business.
• If your temporary need is specifically in the financial or accounting area, consider Accountemps to fill you needs. Visit www.accountemps.com for details. •
Daniel Kehrer can be reached at editor@business.com.
