Ways to Save Money on Your Next Temp Hire

Temporary employees offer a valuable service to a company. They ease the burden full-time staff during busy periods, reducing the chance of burnout or high turnover. To maximize the benefits of short-term workers, find ways to streamline the process and reduce the cost of adding them to your team.

Use an Agency

One of the easiest ways to save money on temporary employees is to work with a recruiting agency. Hiring a short-term worker requires you to place an ad, review resumes and conduct interviews — activities that require time and money. An agency handles all of those tasks for you, enabling you to save on man hours and expenses and dedicate your time to client service. For the best results, select an agency that specializes in your industry and has long-term relationships with its workers.

Cut Back on Overtime

Many companies hire temporary employees to help existing staff during a rush period. If your regular workers have been putting in overtime hours, consider calling a temp agency. Overtime is expensive, particularly when it's added to the costs of paying temporary employees. By relying on fill-in workers to cover an extra workload, you can save money and avoid burning out your permanent staff.

Assign Appropriate Tasks

There are some costs associated with training temporary employees. Your company must pay trainers and workers for their time, use office resources during training periods and absorb the costs of lost productivity. Depending on the situation, you might also need to pay for materials and training program development. The easiest way to reduce costs is to assign temporary workers to jobs that require the least training but take up the most time, such as filing, answering phones, completing paperwork or responding to information requests. In doing so, you can free up regular staff to focus on more specialized tasks.

Verify Qualifications

In some cases, it's necessary to hire temporary employees to fill a skills gap. When you need someone with expert-level qualifications, verification is crucial. A worker who makes false claims or inflates his abilities can cause delivery delays or make costly mistakes. They also cause you to waste money on hiring and training. Always verify the temporary employee's qualifications. Call his references, ask for samples of past work and confirm degrees or certifications. If your needs are difficult to quantify, consider administering a paid skills test to assess the candidate's abilities. When you're dealing with important clients or high-paying projects, these one-time costs can lead to considerable savings down the road.

Hiring temporary employees can be a surprisingly complex endeavor. With a thoughtful hiring and onboarding process, it's possible to save money, make the most of your short-term workers and keep all employees happy.

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