Since the recession in 2008, the industry that has added the most jobs in the U.S. is temporary help services. Out of the 5.7 million new jobs added, 15% of all job growth nationally is due to the hiring of temp workers. In larger cities, a much higher percentage of job growth can be credited to the temp sector.
These are some of the large cities where temp work takes up a significant portion of new jobs added:
65% in Cincinnati
51% in Milwaukee
46% in Kansas City
More than 40% in Chicago & Philadelphia
Is it a good thing that growth in dozens of large cities has been dominated by temp help?
We think that in most cases, temporary employees are a smart option for your company and the economy. Below is a graph that shows the increased share of job growth with temporary help services. It is astonishing how many temp jobs are being offered in comparison to the over all total.
Temporary help services are becoming a convenient alternative to direct hire employees and is definitely worth considering.
The benefits: There are an abundance of benefits that come along with going through an agency like Hire Up Staffing:
1. Expertise Staffing agencies often have a level of expertise that far exceeds the human resources departments in most small businesses. The agencies are more in tune with employment trends, law changes, and recruitment practices because this is their core business.
2. Better Talent Pool Many smaller employers cannot compete with the larger businesses when it comes to pay, benefits, and recruitment tactics. As a result, they are left out of consideration by top performing talent. Staffing companies bridge the gap by leveraging their larger buying power and transferring those benefits to their clients.
3. Cost Savings Using a staffing agency is a cost effective option for certain processes and positions within your company. Your cost savings will be realized by:
* Efficiency: Recruiting, screening and hiring a candidate takes a lot of time. Delegating these tasks to an expert will reduce the amount of time and expenses you spend on the hiring process. Hiring a staffing agency will also allow you to on board your new team member quickly and reduce down time.
* Advertising dollars: Recruiting for top talent takes an investment in advertising dollars to reach your talent pool. Staffing companies have already set aside advertising dollars for recruiting and are already reaching the talent you need. You can leverage their dollars and save yours.
* Convert Fixed Costs to Variable Costs: For some positions in your company you could save money by converting your “Fixed Employee Cost” to Variable Employee Cost” for example, if your business has very little room for overhead costs but you still need employees to respond to customer orders. You could use a staffing agency only when you had orders to fill. Even though you pay a markup on the hourly rate you wouldn’t have to carry the fixed employee costs when you didn’t have the work.
4. Reduce Risk When you engage the services of a staffing agency, you get the talent but not the HR overhead. The employee reports to you but you have no liability for workman’s comp, payroll taxes and unemployment claims. Hiring a staffing agency employee is also a better protection than hiring an independent contractor especially if that independent contractor is a one-man show.
5. Flexibility Larger companies are already taking advantage of using contingent workforce to ramp up or down. As a small business owner you can use the agency’s employees as much or little as you need and have the flexibility to discontinue them once your work is complete. During slower times of the year you can downsize without going through painful layoffs. During busy times you will have access to great workers who can fill a vacancy in a matter of days.