In this day and age, where competition between organisations grows fiercer by the day, businesses need to focus on their core activities without having to worry about the non-revenue generating departments like HR, Finance, IT, maintenance, and the likes.
While these sectors add value to the organisation, they also consume a sizeable chunk of the resources. This is because they need significant investment for infrastructure and resources that could otherwise have been utilised elsewhere.
Of the different investment avenues, the most important one is usually human resources. The very activities of staffing, training, and allotment diverts resources that could’ve been used by the organisation for their core activities. It is in these times that temporary staffing agencies come in handy.
Basically, temporary staffing agencies take care of the end-to-end process of recruitment while ensuring that the job profile is met. This is particularly helpful because the revenue models of some businesses are usually in the form of projects which are exceedingly seasonal in nature. Instead of investing in resources that would have to be let go later on due to uncertainty in the seasonality of the project, or the uncertainty of revenue flow, companies rely on these temporary staffing agencies.
Basically, temporary staffing agencies take care of the end-to-end process of recruitment while ensuring that the job profile is met. This is particularly helpful because the revenue models of some businesses are usually in the form of projects which are exceedingly seasonal in nature. Instead of investing in resources that would have to be let go later on due to uncertainty in the seasonality of the project, or the uncertainty of revenue flow, companies rely on these temporary staffing agencies.
How Do Temporary Staffing Agencies Work
For example, temporary staffing agencies in India can provide human resources to a company that wants to employ a worker for temporary purposes and a temporary time period. The organisation in question will have to provide a list of the qualifications that they need from the prospective employee, as well as a tentative time frame. Commonly, these temporary staffing agencies have a markup of 12-40% on the hourly rate of the employee. The job of withholding statutory amounts of money is usually on the temporary staffing agency which means that the companies need not worry about that aspect as well. Companies only have to pay anywhere between 112-140% of the hourly rate of the employee and the other aspects are taken care of by the temporary staffing agency. Apart from this, all the legal compliances that are unique to any particular project, or industry are also taken care of by the temporary staffing agency. All that a business has to do as a principal employer is to ensure that it is happening.
Is Temporary Staff On-Par with Permanent Staff?
This usually depends on what the contract between the organisation and the temporary staffing agency dictates. Sometimes the temporary staffing agency itself might offer health benefits and medical insurance apart from leaves, but more often than not, that depends heavily on how a particular person is associated with the temporary staffing agency.Pros of Working With a Temporary Staffing Agency
- The negotiations usually remain the same. This means that the hourly payment that has to be made to the employees usually are the same.
- A temporary staffing agency ideally doesn’t take a cut from the employee or charge anything like a placement fee which means there is no need to track the actual number of placements.
- Some temporary staffing agencies provide a fixed fee irrespective of the hours worked on a project and provide clauses for leaves and unsanctioned leaves. In those cases, payroll companies can track employee performance easily.
- It becomes easy to track their performance to inform the companies on whom to recommend based on the frequency of allotment to projects.
Cons of Working with A Temporary Staffing Agency
- Onboarding becomes difficult because of the diverse nature of the employees and the various departments that they have to be allocated to.
- Legal compliances that are to be adhered to by the principal employer may be burdensome.
- Understanding the industry-specific compliances and provisions that are required to be made can become tedious.
- Some industries require a specialised software to manage the payroll which can become a burden.
