As we’ve posted before, growth in the temporary services sector usually leads recovery in the permanent jobs market.  All told, about 379,000 temporary jobs have been added to the rolls since September of 2010, and growth in that area will probably continue — especially since employers are still hesitant about the recovery, and because there’s evidence that temporary and contingent staffing will be a larger and more permanent trend in employment going forward.

That said, there are still myths, half-truths and outright falsehoods out there that every temp candidate may have heard — and that should be dispelled with the facts.

Temp jobs are bottom-of-the-barrel: The truth is, many temp jobs are for specialized or general positions at middle and upper level of organizations, from legal to IT and beyond.  Temp hires aren’t always the “seat fillers” of the employment world, somehow comparable to migrant labor…nearly every job on the corporate org chart could be filled by a temporary hire.  Interestingly, one example is Ed Whitacre, the recent chairman of General Motors — he was strictly transitional in the job, coming on to get the company from Point A to Point B in its restructuring.  An extreme example?  Sure.  But it’s a honest example of the nature of a lot of temporary positions, as companies look for quality people to help them in specific situations.

Temp jobs aren’t challenging: See above.  Often, they’re among the most challenging in the organization, because they deal with circumstances that are unusual, and require skillsets that are lacking in the current staff, but are sorely needed — often in a hurry — to tackle the job at hand.

Temp jobs pay poorly: Quite commonly they pay better, at least on a cash-per-hour basis, than salaried jobs, because of the need for highly-qualified people to come in and immediately deal with significant challenges.   And employers often allow temporary and contingency employees to access the same benefits as their permanent staffers, which can even include skills training programs.

Don’t put them on the resume: On the contrary, a jobseeker should definitely include temporary positions on their credentials, if only for the sake of honesty.  And if they worked in a skilled or specialty position where you attacked special challenges, there’s absolutely no reason you should exclude that experience!

Temp job seekers pay fees to work with a staffing firm: Respectable staffing firms never charge candidates, because fees are covered by their client companies.

Temp work will get in the way of finding permanent work: It’s almost the opposite — not only does temp work provide flexibility, in many cases, that lets you devote time to pursuing a permanent job, but many employers use temporary positions as a way to audit candidates for full-time roles.

It’s unfortunate if any of these assumptions keeps even one good prospect out of the candidate pool.  So part of  the job of a good recruitment professional is to help dispel these kinds of assumptions about temporary employment, and make sure a truer picture is shown.

Based on our own experience at North Bridge and some of the best practices at large in the recruitment and staffing industry, these are some pretty worthy tips for any organization looking to bring on temporary or contingent employees.

One good rule of thumb, to start?  Approach temp hiring with the same standards and expectations you’d have in mind if you were looking for permanent employees.  Your business deserves the best possible people on staff, regardless of how long they’ll be on the team!

1. Know thy market: the depth of talent in a given category can vary greatly market-to-market; a national surplus of widget engineers doesn’t necessarily mean your area has the same profile.  Work with your staffing firm to make sure you know the real availability of the types of role players you need, or may soon need, so you’ve got a true picture of how long it will take to land the talent you want so you can project accordingly.
2. Be precise with your recruiting firm in terms of skillsets you need, and the salary range you’ll offer.  That will obviously help narrow the field to candidates you can really afford – and will save you considerable time, of course.
3. Move it or lose it, because even in times like these, the best candidates go first – and you’d better be prepared to get in front of them quickly and decisively, whether they’re temporary or permanent hires.
4. Set benchmarks for what constitutes success for your temps, just as surely as you would for a full-time hire.  Measure their contribution: it’s surprising how many businesses think there’s some sort of efficiency in throwing people at a task or problem simply because they’re temporaries.  It’s still money ill-spent if you’re not auditing results.
5. Ask around: get perspective from others in the organization about how a temp could be put to work on its behalf.  There may be needs beyond the obvious assignment where an interim hire could make an impact, especially if they’ve got specific expertise that could benefit different facets of your enterprise.
6. Let the recruiter inside your organization, so they can have a good handle on its organization, culture, expectations and projects.  The time you spend indoctrinating a recruiter will pay off in better candidates.
7. Vette your recruiters thoroughly, because just as in any business, there are good and not-so-good providers out there.  There’s absolutely no substitute for the due diligence and quality of service you clearly find in a good recruiter – and they should be proud to offer up referrals who’ll testify to that!

The economic recover may be struggling a bit as it tries to gain traction, but it doesn’t seem to deter “job hoppers” like those profiled in this RedEye article, predominantly young people who have come to believe that transient, temporary jobs are the desired norm, and that the old paradigm of lifetime employment may be obsolete.  As Lindsey Pollak, author of “Getting from College to Career” puts it:

“The whole paradigm of how we work is completely changing. That old model of get one job out of college till you retire with a gold watch is completely, utterly gone.”

This new workforce — educated, highly mobile, not just accepting of transitional or temporary employment but sometimes even enthusiastic in their adoption of it — makes for a dynamic and vibrant new labor pool for hiring firms and staffing departments to take into consideration.

There are various theories as to why the jobs picture hasn’t been as positive as some have hoped.  The most recent unemployment figures posted by the government show only a modest improvement.  That’s largely because employers — and consumers — don’t entirely trust the recovery that seems to be underway, and are wary about spending — which means companies have to keep it lean and mean.

For staffing and recruitment firms, it obviously means embracing strategies that let them meet employers’ needs for highly-qualified and capable people who must fit into temporary or qualified positions.   But they also need to be mindful of the fact that the picture may change — upward or, unfortunately, downwards (if there’s a “double dip” recession), and they’ll have to make the corresponding changes right in stride in order to stay competitive!

The jobs market has improved, but it’s still no walk in the park for college graduates.   One survey found that slightly over 24% of grads had a job waiting for them – up from 19% the year before.

Much of that hiring is apparently not permanent, as firms are still treading carefully: temporary and contract hires make up a fair share of the new jobs grads are finding.

As one graduate put it, “The tendency that I’ve seen among my friends is for someone to get a job, but it’s a yearlong contract for a project.  Then they expect to lay off the people they hired for the project, so within the year they’re going to be looking again for another job.”

These grads may be in the vanguard of a new model for the job market, where “permalancing” and conditional employment is more the norm, rather than the exception.  The jobs market of tomorrow may demand more and more flexibility of this kind from employers and employees alike, which will make the expertise of recruiters and staffing professionals more crucial than ever, linking the best prospects, companies, screening processes and connective technologies together like never before.

More and more indicators show that there’s a steady gain in hiring by U.S. companies.  A large share of that is in temps and temp-to-hire positions, which is the typical trend when a recovery is underway.

The one significant change from prior years may be that many of those positions are not only contingent, but will in all likelihood stay that way, according to many experts.  That’s because a new model is taking hold in the workplace, for better or worse, which is one where a larger share of a company’s labor force is strictly contingent.  As this article points out,

…many business groups and labor advocates believe the contingency work force is on the rise and will become a mainstay in the U.S. companies even after economic hard times are behind us.

There is, obviously, a lot of debate about the impact of this change, and its long-range impact on workers, consumers and the economy.  But it’s apparent to any businessperson that the flexibility and thrift of temp and temp-to-hire employment options help them stay competitive at a time when the pressures and costs of doing business don’t make that a simple task.

If you’re an employer – or a staffing consultant – who’s considering placing a temp or contingent employee of any kind, there are a few simple “to-dos” that will make the experience run more smoothly – and rewardingly – for employer and employee alike!

Tip #1: Ask the existing team. They’ll have the best possible information on where and how temporary workers should fit in, and for how long.  And by doing this, you lead into the next tip…

Tip #2: Keep up a dialogue with existing workers about temp hires; employers need to make sure they know who’s being brought on, why, for how long, etc.  Even a secure staffer can be intimidated by the presence of a temp.

Tip #4: Lay it out clearly. Make sure the temp plainly knows what the job is, what the firm’s policies and rules are, and what you expect of them from the get-go.

Tip #4: Who’s in charge here? Be absolutely clear about who they’re reporting to, where their job occurs in a department or company’s org scheme, who they should ask for help or guidance, and so on.  Have their supervisor meet them and help walk them through their job from the minute they arrive at your door!

Tip #5: Ready, set, work! Don’t get caught unprepared on day one of a temp hire’s tenure – have their space, phone, computer, office supplies and everything they need to do their job ready and waiting for them, so they can hit the ground running – and you can get your money’s worth out of them ASAP.

Tip #6: Feedback matters, both to the temp and to the firm you may have used in acquiring that employee.  Look in on the temp regularly, talk about their performance, give them input.  And make sure the staffing company that brought him or her to you is apprised of how they’re doing, too.  If they’re competent and reputable, they want every ounce of feedback they can get from their clients!

Daniel Indiviglio at The Atlantic has been a proponent for some time of the idea that temp hiring is a good indicator for growth in the general economy, and now has a chart he’s discovered that helps prove his point. His capsule summary of what it shows (and very plainly, too — make sure you hit the link!) is, “as this chart demonstrates, temp jobs lead permanent job growth. It’s rare to see such a clear correlation between two variables.”

This is a graphical demonstration of the plain and simple predence and logic we see every day from our clients: in periods like this, qualified temps or temp-to-hire staffers are the safest bet, until any improvement really takes hold in time. Then those temporary positions turn into permanent hires.

The real concern comes in making sure the people you bring in, especially on a temp or transitional basis, have the skills and focus that let them jump right in, and seamlessly serve the client’s business. That’s obviously a sober and serious responsibility for staffing firms like North Bridge.

Thanks for checking out Building Bridges, our new blog about Chicago staffing and recruitment matters.  It’s hot on the heels of our new Web site re-design (thanks to Biersma Creative), and it’s part of our effort to leverage every tool in the digital and social media playbook to deliver better client services and elevate our presence.  That’s important in any competitive market, but particularly in the Chicago staffing industry.  Frankly, our bread-and-butter is in attracting qualified employees, and then making it expedient for employers to bring them on board, and state-of-the-art digital outreach is part of that.

As we head into what looks like a promising 2010, we’ll be posting links to articles of note, offering insights and opinions about the Chicagoland recruitment situation, plus the occasional post about our clients and our staff, good people all.

It hasn’t been the best of times for the economy in general, or Chicago in particular.   But as we move ahead, we’re seeing signs of optimism and recovery.  We’re pretty certain we can count on the resilience and hard work of area businesses and skilled employees to make the most of the opportunities that arise, and maximize staffing growth throughout an upswing. 

Chicago being Chicago, there’ll be interesting new stories and new opportunities to cite as time goes on.   So we hope to bring you more and more ‘good news’ as North Bridge and the Chicago staffing scene move forward – stay tuned!