There was a time when people dreaded going to temp employment agencies. It basically meant that you were out of work and couldn’t find a job on your own.
Thankfully, public opinion now favors the services of temp employment agencies. These agencies help fill manpower gaps in large companies, while helping provide necessary skills and experiences for its patrons. Some people prefer to seek the services of such agencies because of its broad scope of connections with hiring companies.
Temp employment agencies usually cater to people who have attained high school, junior college or vocational education. Sometimes, these agencies also afford services to professionals who seek short-term employment for a host of reasons. The tenure of the jobs can be as short as one month or as long as a year. Often, highly skilled and qualified workers are incorporated into the company soon after their temporary tenure ends.
Most large companies seek manpower support for jobs in light industrial like check sorting, filling and tracking orders, forklift driving, messenger service, opening and filing mail, parts assembly, shipping / receiving, and welding. Restaurants also hire people from the agencies and positions range from bus staff, to cashiers, to wait staff and even to hosts. Clerical work or desk work for various companies may involve address databases, copying, correspondence, data entry, filing, mailing lists, mail preparation, spreadsheet management, and transcription. Often, when a company is swamped with clerical workload, suitable applicants from temp employment agencies are immediately given assignments. Janitorial and maintenance jobs are also offered in the agencies with such duties like cleaning and sanitizing building interiors, complex and/or simple repairs and carpentry, landscaping, painting and window washing.
Not all temp employment agencies have such a broad scope of services offered. In fact, some agencies have become so specialized that they offer only one type of staffing; example of which are agencies for licensed vocational nurses (LVN) and certified nursing assistants (CNA.) Health establishments like hospice, rehabilitation and nursing facilities all rely on temp employment agencies for their much needed skilled, licensed and certified manpower.
A temp or temporary employment agency is really a human resource job bank. It matches an applicant’s qualifications against the requirements and job descriptions given by a particular hiring company. More importantly, these agencies provide company management the valuable service of employee screening: like background checks, character checks, credit checks, and skills testing.
There are numerous temp agencies all over the country. Listings could be found in any phone directory and some even have their own websites. However, temp agencies prefer that people apply in person because they will have to first undergo initial interview and skills testing.