Temporary Workers Good or Bad

Temporary Employees The lure of using temporary employees over permanent ones, even part time permanent employees, is strong because there is little to no commitment involved as compared to using a permanent employee. There is also the fact that temporary employees are often paid less than full-time regular employees. However, there are always drawbacks even when there are a lot of advantages and the use of temporary employees is no exception.

These drawbacks will be discussed and it will also be answered to whether these drawbacks are worth the benefits that are otherwise gained. While use of temporary employees can be very advantageous from a hassle and cost perspective, there are situations where permanent employees make more sense. Analysis As noted in the introduction, the use of temporary employees is engaged in mostly to save costs and to limit obligations to the workers involved including higher pay and benefits. However, the use of temporary employees does not fit all situations.

Indeed, there are times where going a different direction is called for and there are a few reasons why. First of all, temporary workers are not always cheaper in the first place. Indeed, a tradeoff that is often expected in kind when it comes to temporary employees is that the wages will be higher. It can be seen as a quid pro quo to counter the fact that the assignment is finite in nature.

Another potential downside to using temporary employees is that there are often contracts involved and cutting those contracts short before the stated term elapses can cost a company money. Third, using temps to excess can greatly diminish the ability to build teams. Even if a temp assignment is rather long, everyone involved knows that the temps involved could leave at a moment's notice if they are deemed to be no longer necessary. This would have an obvious effect on engagement (Temp Staff, 2011).

This leads to the next drawback and that is a lack of commitment. If a temp knows that their position with a firm is definitely or probably temporary, the odds that they will commit fully to the employer is much lesser than if the job is permanent or temp-to-hire. Indeed, if there is too much "stick" and not enough "carrot," the temporary employees may not give the effort that they could or should give given that they presumably are happy they have a paying gig even if it is temporary.

Finally, another big drawback to using temporary employees is when the agency one is using to get the temporary employees is doing the screening. They may very well do a good job and weed out the bad apples that exist among their applicants. Even so, properly vetting employees takes time and money and there is the possibility that a temporary employee agency will cut corners.

This can have a number of bad effects including having temporary employees with insufficient experience, sordid criminal histories and other patterns that would typically exclude the employees. Even with all of these bad effects, the flexibility and cost savings that are usually realized with temporary employees is worth the hassle involved so long as the assignment or need in question is truly temporary and there is a smooth transition form when the temporary employees are present and when they are.