How to Hire Temporary Employees For Your Business

In today’s business landscape, the demand for temporary employees is rising. Fluctuations in workload, seasonal peaks, and short-term projects often require companies to hire temporary workers to ensure operational efficiency and meet business goals.

Yet hiring temporary employees requires a different approach than permanent hires, and it’s important to have an alternative system in place to successfully attract, select, and manage temporary workers. Creating an appropriate workflow minimizes onboarding challenges, allowing businesses to hire temp workers seamlessly and efficiently.

While it’s clear that temp work brings advantages for a business, challenges may still arise when hiring short-term employees. Following our best practices and embracing the efficient recruitment strategies below will mitigate these teething problems, allowing your business to flourish in its relationship with seasonal staff.

Assessing Your Temporary Employee Needs

Before hiring temporary employees, businesses need to define the scope of work. Assessing workload, defining required skills, and estimating accurate project timelines will help hiring managers determine the number of temporary workers needed.

Below are some best practices for businesses to manage temporary staffing, allocate resources wisely, and ensure projects are completed on time.

Identify areas needing support: Businesses can strategically hire temp employees by clearly defining the tasks and projects, making the most of the time and resources allotted.
Define required skills and qualifications: Targeting the right candidates in the right places by clearly defining the core requirements and responsibilities streamlines the hiring process.
Estimate project duration and number of workers needed: An accurate estimate of the timeline and staffing needed helps businesses finish projects on time without overstaffing. While analyzing project timelines, deadlines, workload fluctuations, and milestones, be sure to consider factors like task complexity, learning curve, and potential changes in the project.

Now that you know what you need for your temporary assignments, it is time to develop a recruiting strategy.

Developing a Recruitment Strategy

Hiring temporary staff members requires a different recruitment strategy than hiring permanent staff members. It’s critical that businesses factor in this difference to reach and attract the right candidates for temporary positions. When creating a recruiting strategy, it is important to:

Define the target job seeker audience: By identifying the specific demographic, skillset, and experience required for temporary positions, companies can tailor their search to reach the right candidates.
Create compelling job descriptions: Attract more qualified candidates by creating a clear and concise job description highlighting the temporary work’s key responsibilities and unique aspects. LinkedIn Jobs found that over 70% of professionals want to know about the salary at the beginning of their job search. So, setting clear hourly expectations, timelines, potential extensions, and earnings.
Develop a timeline and budget: When beginning the search for temporary talent, be sure to have a timeline and budget outline, from advertising to the final selections.
Find the right recruiting channels: When choosing recruitment channels, keep in mind that different job boards and networking sites cater to various industries. In a time of job application oversaturation, recruiting agencies can leverage their expertise, networks, and resources to expedite the hiring process and provide access to a pool of pre-screened candidates.

By creating a thorough recruiting strategy, businesses can save time and money when searching for temporary employees.

Key Considerations in Interviewing Temporary Candidates

Once a business has a healthy pool of applicants, the next step is to screen and interview them, evaluating candidates’ suitability for temporary positions and company culture. While temporary hires go through a similar process as regular employees, it’s important when interviewing temporary employees to look for qualifications unique to short-term employment.

Adaptability and Flexibility in Temporary Employees

Typically, temporary hires need to hit the ground running. So, it’s important for them to quickly adapt to new environments, tasks, and team dynamics. Openness to adjusting their schedules or roles as needed to help meet project deadlines is also a vital skill, as temporary work is ever changing.

Finding temporary staff that thrive in short-term project-based environments with strong problem-solving skills will help keep short-term projects on track as goals and timelines can vary. You can identify this skill in an interview by asking questions about previous experience, or examples that the potential employee can provide where they adapted rapidly to a change and provided good outcomes.

Seamless Integration

Temporary hires must integrate seamlessly into existing teams to keep operations running smoothly and projects on track. Not only are strong communication and collaboration key, but it’s important to make sure temp employees align with the company culture and the team dynamic they will be working with.

By focusing on these specific traits and skills, interviewers can identify candidates who will make meaningful contributions during their temporary employment. Businesses may ask candidates in their interview to describe a project that required quickly adapting to a new environment or how the candidate would proceed when faced with an unhappy client.

Onboarding, Training, and Managing Temporary Employees

Now that a company has its temporary employees, it’s time to integrate them into the company in a way that sparks a constructive and creative workflow.

Some best practices to follow are to:

Have an orientation program: While they may not be there long term, it’s important for temporary employees to get familiar with the company, its policies, and their roles to quickly step into their position and mesh with company culture.
Provide clear expectations and feedback: Set clear performance expectations and provide regular feedback on employees’ progress, highlighting areas of improvement and recognizing their achievements to help encourage their best work possible.
Offer training and resources: This may include providing training materials, conducting skill-building workshops, or assigning mentors to support their development.
Incorporate new hires into the culture: Encourage team members to collaborate and support temporary employees, creating a positive and inclusive work environment. This integration can include team introductions, participation in team meetings or events, and providing opportunities for temporary employees to share their insights and ideas.
Make communication accessible: Open communication channels so temporary employees feel comfortable asking questions, seeking guidance, and providing updates. Assigning a point of contact and regular check-ins also make for productive working relationships.

When temporary workers feel supported and welcomed into the team, they are empowered to put their best foot forward.

Measuring Success

It’s important to know the ROI of any business initiative, and temporary hiring projects are no exception. Understanding how short-term workers impact the company can help businesses make informed decisions for future staffing needs.

When creating temporary employees, develop key performance indicators (KPIs) related to their positions. Monitor and measure their performance against these KPIs to track progress and find room for growth. Regular performance evaluations of temporary hires helps businesses to maximize the value of the hire’s contributions during their time with the company.

Some KPIs to consider are:

Productivity
Timeliness
Customer Satisfaction
Quality of Work
Team Collaboration
Adaptability
Attendance and Punctuality
Learning and Development
Cost Efficiency
Project Completion

Offboarding

If a company has more than one temporary assignment, they must always find ways to improve their temporary work processes and be mindful of their reputation among temporary employees. The offboarding process is an opportunity to conduct exit interviews and nurture relationships.

Exit interviews provide a safe space for temporary employees to share their experiences. This feedback offers valuable insights for fine-tuning recruitment strategies, bettering onboarding procedures, and creating a more positive experience for future temporary hires. Ultimately, building connections and fostering relationships can benefit both employees and employers alike in the long run.

Some genuine ways to develop post-project relationships is to recommend or establish connections for temp employees. Things such as networking, connecting them with contacts, or providing referrals to other companies or departments are fantastic ways to build and maintain positive relationships.

Businesses can also build good reputations by helping short-term employees with their professional goals. Suppose people feel valued and grow at a company. In that case, rehiring the same workers or receiving strong talent recommendations is much easier.

Final Thoughts

An effective talent hiring and management strategy for temporary employees allows businesses to make the most of temporary workers and short-term projects. While the recruitment process can be long and arduous, being cognizant of best practices can result in better business outcomes.

Collaborating with a recruiting agency can streamline the hiring process, ensure access to a wider talent pool, and increase the likelihood of finding the right temporary employees for specific business needs. Recruiting agencies have large networks, expertise in candidate sourcing, and streamlined processes that can save businesses time and effort. The right agency can help identify and attract qualified temporary candidates, conduct initial screening and interviews, and provide valuable insights into market trends and candidate availability.

The Hiring Advisors assist businesses with their temporary and long-term recruiting needs. Contact us here to make an appointment. You can also email us at info@thehiringadvisors.com or speak to one of our recruiters at (310) 504-3049