How to Manage Your Temporary Employees for Top Performance
Posted May 24th, 2010
If you have brought in temporary employees to your workplace, you know how productive and efficient they can be.
Here are some tips to help you manage your temporary workforce:
Long gone are the days when most contingent workers came to a place of business just to fill in for a vacationing or sick “regular” employee. Companies today bring temporary workers in for long-term (sometimes indefinitely so) assignments, many of them critical to an employer’s success. Companies now routinely also bring in highly skilled — even executive level — contingent workers to complete special projects or to help manage or even lead a company through a touch transition. And, of course, many businesses now look to temporary staffing firms to bring them potential employees on “temp-to-hire” contracts, allowing both the worker and the business to check out the position to see if the worker and the job/company are a good fit for each other.
Yet, and we do see this frequently, many managers still treat their contingent workers like second-class citizens. There are “our employees” and “the temps.”
Instead, we recommend you look at your temporary employees as potential regular employees (after all, you very well may hire them yourself!). Take the time to help them feel as if they belong, that they are an important part of your team.
When you hire a temporary, especially for a long-term assignment, take the time to give plenty of detail about the open position and the skills and background you feel are necessary of the person who ends up filling the slot. Let your staffing agency know of the kind of your company’s culture and the kind of person who fits best within it.
Once the temporary employee arrives, give her an orientation. Give a thorough explanation of the job’s duties, as well as a tour of your facilities, break times, lunch times, where the rest rooms are located.
As you introduce the individual, don’t refer to her as “the temp,” either to her face or to others. Instead, let employees know the her name and the duties she’ll be taking on.
Let your temporary workers be “in the know.” Give them information about your business and how their work fits in to your goal’s. Invite your contingent workers to staff and department meetings. Share company memos and announcements with them.
When you’re looking to bring in new employees on a temp-to-hire basis, or when you need highly skilled temporary employees to help your business grow, give Bayside Solutions a call. We provide talented and hard-working employees for Bay Area manufacturing, “green” technologies, technology and construction companies. Contact us today.
