Do you run a seasonal business whose requirement for workers skyrockets during certain months of the year? Are your employees overworked because one of your workers has resigned at short notice? These might be some instances where you could benefit from hiring temporary workers.

While there are many advantages to hiring permanent, full-time workers, temporary staffing is an attractive option for businesses that cater to seasonal demands or those grappling with temporary employee shortage due to various reasons. Since temporary staffing agencies offer pre-screened candidates who are best-placed to handle the job, businesses are able to save time and money by avoiding a full-scale recruitment process. Equally important is the fact that hiring companies do not need to bother about issues like payroll, benefits and compliance, as these are the responsibility of the service provider.

Temporary vs Permanent Employees

In order to understand the differences between a temporary and a permanent employee, first it is necessary to comprehend who exactly is a temporary employee.

The ILO offers a comprehensive definition of temporary employment focused on time and work arrangement:

Temporary employment, whereby workers are engaged only for a specific period of time, includes fixed-term, project- or task-based contracts, as well as seasonal or casual work, including day labour.

It includes within its ambit any worker that is employed for a specific time period, or for a specific project, or renders any type of service on an occasional or intermittent basis, in lieu of a pre-determined wage or salary.

Unlike permanent workers, temporary workers do not demand leaves and benefits from the company as these are looked after by the staffing agency. The responsibility of the client is limited to paying the hourly/weekly/monthly rate as agreed with the service provider. Apart from this, temporary workers are entitled to overtime pay as stipulated in the work contract.

When to Hire Temporary Workers

Temporary workers can be useful to businesses in several situations like helping meet seasonal demand or filling in for an employee who is on leave. In some cases, clients with open positions may enter into a temp-to-hire arrangement with the staffing company with a view to converting a temporary worker into a permanent employee. This allows the hiring company to try out different candidates for the job while avoiding the time and resource investments that go into launching a full-scale recruitment drive.

Below we will discuss all the different situations where temporary hiring can help a business meet its commitments or tide over the busy season. You may consider getting in touch with a temping agency if any of these situations seem familiar to you.

• High seasonal demand

If you run a seasonal business in the UAE, you are already aware of the pitfalls of hiring permanent employees for work that is time-bound. In fact, chances are, you already have a large roll of temporary employees with you that are sounded out during the busy season every year.

But doing your own hiring comes with attendant costs including time and financial outlays. Given these challenges it is often better to associate with a temping agency that will do all the hard work for you including the sourcing and pre-screening of candidates in lieu of a fee.

• When an employee has gone in leave

Employees may go on leave due to many reasons such as annual leave, sick leave, maternity leave, quarantine leave, leave without pay, and so on. This causes inconvenience not only to the employer, who is left shorthanded, but also the team which may need to work extra shifts, late nights and weekends to ensure that delivery schedules are met. Employee morale is bound to take a hit if the situation is not addressed in time. Fortunately, temporary hiring provides an easy and cost-effective solution to the problem through an array of flexible work arrangements designed to resolve the issue in the most effective manner.

• When there is a vacancy in the company (temp-to-hire)

Have a vacancy in the company? How would you like to try out different candidates for the role until you find the right person? Temp-to-hire arrangements are quite common in the corporate world given their inherent advantages vis-a-vis a traditional recruitment process.

Apart from condensing the recruitment process, minimal time is spent in employee onboarding which leads to considerable cost savings and expediency for the hiring company. The arrangement is a win-win-situation for all stakeholders including the company, which gains a good employee, the worker, who finds a permanent job, and the staffing agency, which receives a ‘permanent staffing fee’ which can be anything in the range of 10-25% of the employee’s first year annual salary.

• When you’re growing too quickly

Temporary hiring can be especially appealing to young companies which are on a high-growth trajectory due to their unique position in the corporate lifecycle where they are grappling with high demand, but do not have the confidence or the resources to carry out recruitment of permanent staff with leaves and attendant benefits. Besides, young companies tend to have modest HR departments that may not have the capacity to quickly scale up hiring. Temporary hiring is often the prudent option in these circumstances as apart from flexibility it can also help in curtailing recruitment and onboarding costs.

Hiring Process

When you are hiring a temporary employee, you are choosing a partner who will collaborate with you in the growth of your business. Irrespective of the assignment duration, there should be no let-up in the selection process especially if the position requires the handling of sensitive company information.

Even otherwise, clients should verify whether a proper background check has been carried out and subject the candidate to a rigorous selection process. Feel free to reject the candidate if you sense something is wrong. You must also examine the work contract to ascertain your responsibilities and identify any clauses that may cause you problems later on.

Looking for temporary employees? Log on to justtempit.com to find a large pool of high-quality workers that match your staffing requirements.