This is a small topic which I had taken long back and did some survey with few HR faternities in India and written the below paper. Hope someone might find it useful.
A view on Temp Staffing
Advocates of the temp recruitment model say it helps companies to remain agile, enabling them to expand and contract their workforce and their expenses with the flow of the market. Because companies can select people with the exact skills they are seeking for a specific amount of time, temps are often an ideal, if temporary. More and more companies are beginning to understand what benefits these short-term assignments can bring to an organization. temping allows companies to hire temporary staff to cater to peak demand conditions, hire staff with specialized skills for projects of short duration, or terminate temporary staff when demand falls.
Temp jobs offer flexibility to both employees and companies. Candidates can choose when, where, and how they want to work. Companies get the skills they need to keep fully staffed during busy times. Temp jobs gives flexibility to the employees so it gives time for them to pursue non-work interests.
Contract jobs provide a bridge to permanent employment. Candidates can try out prospective employers and showcase their skills towards a permanent job. Most of the contract workers feel that it’s a way to get a permanent job, and also there can arise a choice among the temp workers where they select and move on to get a permanent job, else they can find another employer and try for a better job. Even from the company’s perspective they have the choice to offer the temp worker for the permanent position.
According to Mr.Gautham , consultant, the biggest advantage from the company’s view is that it has lesser number of employees on the payroll and by that it saves on all functions and all related costs like recruitment, payroll, training and development benefits, bonus, leave with pay and all such legal and statutory provisions and secondly it helps the company to buy skills rather than develop skills. According to Naveen, a contract employee in Bangalore, comments “that the company does not have to pay for any PF and also they save on Tax etc, where the company has to pay all these for permanent employees, and bank account need not be provided for temps, they do not have us in the book of account”.
Many candidates choose contract work as an employment option. They can select their work schedule and choose among a variety of diverse and challenging assignments. Most of the contract workers prefer this alternative arrangement over traditional employment. Employees prefer to work for a staffing company because they like the diversity and challenge of different jobs. Candidates gain new skills or polish their skills through the variety of jobs they are assigned to. Most of the Temp workers do gain new skills through their assignments.
Advantages of Temp Jobs :
· Useful way of gaining experience in different areas of business.
· No long term commitment to one company.
· Usually get flexible hours.
· After a few temp jobs (where you prove yourself to the recruitment agency), getting some more temp jobs is pretty easy.
· You meet lots of different people. The social life can be good if there are a lot of temps in one company.
· If you get a temp job after graduating, you can impress lots of people with your skills!
· If you do impress lots of people, one of them might offer a decent permanent job.
According to Mr Jain, HR Executive in a Software firm in Hyderabad comments that “For the Employer Definitely it is disadvantage to the Company if it hires the temp employees Because the Company has to understand the nature and basic needs of their employees that are not possible in under the Contract basis. Moreover it depends on the kind of work the Company is involved. He also comments from the Employee’s perspective, “It is disadvantage to the Employee as it is not necessary that at the end of every contract he/she gets the other Contract. There will be no pay for that particular period. I believe for an employee it is benefited if he is permanent employee for an organization. Then he can enjoy the long-term benefits and can get the support from the Employer and Colleagues”.
Disadvantages of temp jobs
· No job security.
· Larger companies may treat the office furniture better than they treat you (they paid more for the office furniture!).
· No benefits package. No holidays.
· You may have gaps in employment on a regular basis.
· Mostly dull and unchallenging work
· You can get fired without any notice at all. You have very little employee rights as a temp.
· Recruitment Agencies are unlikely to find you permanent work if you are on a temp job through them
· What started out as an attempt at getting experience may turn, without warning, into a career.
The disadvantages for the company is that they fear that the employee might quit the job at any point of time and may switch over to any other company offering a better pay for the same job, so again they need to find another employee for the same job. Viewing Temp Staffing in a Positive angle, I can say that everyone is benefited – The company, Temps, and the recruiting agency. Where everyone strives for their growth and betterment of the Society. The temps can be encouraged by providing a better pay and also few services/benefits from the Staffing organizations, like medical benefits, holiday packages, etc., so this can make the Temps loyal to one staffing organization.
