What’s so great about working with temps?
June 20, 2012 3 CommentsI’ve been a temp. I’ve hired many temps. As Dan Pink noted years ago, we’re actually becoming more and more a “Free Agent Nation”. So I invited Ann Webster, the President of Aquent, to offer this guest post. Take it away, Ann…
What’s so great about working with temps?
By Ann Webster
Ann Webster
Temps. Contractors. Freelancers. Contingent Workers. Independent Professionals. No matter what you call them, big businesses today are getting stuff done with non-permanent talent who have some serious chops. In fact, Harvard Business Review recently reported that 58 percent of companies plan to use temporary employees at all levels over the next few years, and according to the American Staffing Association, U.S. staffing companies employed an average of 2.8 million temporary and contract workers per day in 2011.
Aquent, a marketing, creative and digital staffing firm, places people on temporary and temp-to-perm assignments to develop mobile apps, deliver insights to improve marketing performance, and engage and build communities of customers and prospects on a growing list of social media platforms.
These talented temps are working side-by-side with (often) overextended full-time employees, and help lighten their ever-expanding workloads. So while a stressed-out full-time employee can breathe a little easier when a temp comes on board, that’s just one of the benefits of having contractors work on your team – here are a few more:
- Specialized expertise, quick ramp-up. Some projects require a person with experience that you just don’t have in-house. An experienced temporary employee often needs less ramp-up time than a permanent hire, which allows you and your team to get those projects that needed to be done yesterday, done today.
- Fresh perspectives. How many times have you heard a new employee – temp or perm – say, “Well at my last job we did …”? New talent brings new ideas to your organization. Your temp may have spent time as a full-time employee at a marquee brand and that experience could mean success for your next project.
- Temps make great full-time staff. A group of top individual contributors who just can’t work well together is a recipe for disaster. If you’ve got a contractor working for you on a project, you have time to evaluate if they might fit with your team as a permanent employee. At the same time, they have the benefit of understanding what the position is really all about and get a full sense of your company’s culture and values.
Temporary employees are here to stay – and that can have a positive impact on the satisfaction of the internal team. The key is to have a well thought-out contingent workforce strategy. Determine what functions and skillsets are ‘must-haves’ in-house and then leverage experienced external resources for much of the rest.
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3 Outstanding Responses to "What’s so great about working with temps?"
Augustus on June 21, 2012 at 2:09 pm | Permalink
Point 1 is plain nonsense. Whether the person is permanent or not, has nothing to do with him or her being an expert in a field. You can just as well hire a permanent employee with ready to use expertise.
Point 2 is basically industrial espionage and if temporaries are serious professionals, they will not disclose practices from previous employers carelessly, or they might not be hired again.
Point 3 is making a case for a poor social system, in which employers dispose of employees as dirty socks and then have to scramble as the next contract (finally) comes in.
All this examplifies the blunt thinking and good-news mentality characteristic for the HR sector, which is usually curiously overstaffed with (young) women. It is time that HR of all sectors adopts socially responsible behaviour. Because they of all people, are dealing with people’s lives.
Kristin on June 22, 2012 at 8:53 am | Permalink
I’ve worked as a temp, and it was a great learning experience. I worked at a few different places until one of them turned in to a full-time offer. It was a win-win because I could get a feel for the company, and they could see what kind of a worker I was.
In New York City, I also know of a lot of people in the entertainment industry who take long-term temp jobs during the off-season. It’s such a fantastic arrangement that allows fulfillment on all sides.
Great arguments for the use of temporary workers.
anonymous on July 6, 2012 at 8:16 pm | Permalink
Sorry to say but, Augustus nailed it. Today I fired Aquent as a resource for this very reason. They used to be the top creative placement agency in the industry, but they now are just a seat-filling mill for ad agencies.
A few years ago, the IRS started to crack down on companies who misclassified employees as contractors. This practice was abusive to the employee and added to the pockets of the top executives. Since this crackdown, companies needed to find ways to skirt this issue. Enter Aquent… their pimp.
Any company or agency who wants quality work, does not rely heavily on temps to direct the focus of campaigns. They rely on trusted talet they can go to time and time again. This is a mutually beneficial relationship. When companies try to “do it on the cheap”, they only hurt themselves. Just turn on a TV or view an internet or print ad today and you will see that the creative is missing. When you have a concepts developed by a successful large agency who employs a full-time creative staff such as “Got Milk?”, the cheap agencies fail horribly by trying to ride on the coat tails of this unique campaign, “Got Plumber?” or “Got Blinds?”. These are the disaster campaigns thought of by executives who put their own kids in these cheesy ads and hire cheap temp talent so they don’t have to pay for a full-time employee.
It’s plain and simple. When you take a chance on a talented employee, that employee will have your back and take a chance on you and your company by delivering for you.
Full-time employees watch out for your brand.
Temps watch the clock.