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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

A Temp May Be The Full-Timer You Need

You may have only considered hiring a temporary for extra help with a project or to fill in for a vacationing employee, but did you know it’s also an increasingly common method of recruiting full-time talent. In today’s competitive employment environment, a growing number of companies are bringing in workers on a temporary or contract basis to assess their skills for full-time positions. In fact, 90 percent of managers polled in a survey commissioned by Robert Half International said they consider it valuable to retain individuals on a temporary basis as a means of evaluating them for permanent jobs. In a separate survey, 23 percent of businesses said they use this approach when hiring full-time support staff. Auditioning for the Job When filling a full-time position, there are significant advantages to first hiring someone on a temporary basis. For example, having the candidate on-site allows you to observe his or her skills, performance and personality to determine whether he or she is the right fit for the position. Evaluating someone’s work firsthand gives you information that is impossible to obtain from a resume or interview alone, thus maximizing the chance of making a sound hiring decision. Using these criteria you should be able to determine the candidate’s fit with the job opening and evaluate whether he or she has the potential to build a long-term career with your company. There are many other advantages to a temp-to-hire approach. If you work through a staffing firm, the skills and education of the prospective candidates will have already been evaluated and their references screened. It’s easy to underestimate the amount of time required to interview and screen candidates and train employees on your own, particularly in a tight labor market. If you are hiring for a newly created position, you may be uncertain of the necessary skill requirements until someone is actually on the job. This can be an opportunity to develop a thorough job description. You may already have an excellent temporary employee handling the work. If so, employing him or her for the full-time position will make for a smoother transition and can minimize any down time as well as the need for training. Is This Hire Necessary? While there are many advantages to hiring a temporary worker full-time, there are two things you need to assess before you extend an offer: First, is it truly a temporary job with seasonal duties creating peaks and valleys in the workload? Second, is it a full-time position? Perhaps it’s actually part-time or, in fact, requires more than one worker to fulfill the responsibilities. The next time you’re searching for someone to work full time, but also require interim help, hiring a temporary professional may be the ideal solution to both needs. Tony Uyehara is the regional manager of Robert Half International Inc. (RHI), the world’s first and largest staffing service specializing in the accounting, finance and information technology fields, and parent company of Robert Half and Accountemps. RHI has more than 280 offices throughout North America, Europe and Australia, including locations in Woodland Hills, Westlake Village and Glendale, and offers online job search services at www.rhii.com.

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