Employers Turn to Temporary Help

From the Wall Street Journal | Nov 9, 2009 By SARAH E. NEEDLEMAN

One
bright spot of Friday's gloomy jobs report was the surge in temporary
hires. Companies are hiring more temps with plans to convert them into
full-time workers if economic conditions improve.

Temporary help services added 44,000 jobs since July, including
34,000 last month, according to the Labor Department. That's the exact
same number of temp jobs lost between January 2008 and July 2009.

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Earlier
this week, U.S. factory orders climbed 0.9%, the Commerce Department
said, the fifth increase in six months. Also, the Institute for Supply
Management, a private research group, reported that hiring in
manufacturing increased for the first time in more than a year, with
its employment index rising to 53.1 last month from 46.2 in September.

Staffing firms say employers are turning to temporary help in lieu
of regular hires until they can be certain that a more permanent
investment will pay off. Demand is strongest in technology, tax
accounting, compliance and customer service.

"They're saying, we want to find somebody who, if things go as
planned, could transition to our books," says Brett Good, a district
president for Robert Half International Inc., a staffing firm based in
Menlo Park, Calif.

istock photo

Employers
tend to grow their permanent white-collar work forces following a rise
in demand for temps, says Jeff Joerres, chief executive officer of
Manpower Inc. "There's a step function to it," he says. "One leads to
another." But when such a trickle effect might happen remains unclear,
he adds.

Two and a half weeks after joining Zrii LLC, a small health-beverage
company in Draper, Utah, as a temporary accountant in January, Maylene
Peck was hired as a regular employee. She says the job pays a salary
10% greater than what she had been earning in her last position, which
she was laid off from in October 2008.

Initially, Ms. Peck, 40 years old, says she was opposed to doing
temp work -- even after three months of job hunting proved fruitless --
because she assumed it wouldn't pay more than what she was getting in
unemployment benefits. But a recruiter for Robert Half, who found her
resume on a job board, convinced her to consider a temporary assignment
that required expertise in an accounting software program she's
proficient in.

Ms. Peck admits she almost changed her mind on the way to the
interview. "In the back of my head, I wasn't really interested," she
says. Now she's glad she stuck it out and has new perspective on
temporary employment. "Anyone who's having a hard time finding a job
should consider a temp agency," she says. "It's a way to get your foot
in the door."

For now, staffing firms say employers are still being cautious about
growing their work forces. But they're loosening their purse strings
when it comes to temporary help because of the cost savings and
potential future benefits.

By recruiting workers initially on a temporary or project basis,
employers can avoid paying health-care and retirement expenses while
evaluating performance and cultural fit, says Roy Krause, chief
executive officer of Spherion Corp. "It's a try-before-you-buy
situation," he explains.

Further, should business turn sour down the road, laying off
temporary talent can be less psychologically damaging to a firm's
workforce than firing staff employees, adds Jeffrey Wenger, associate
professor of public administration and policy at the University of
Georgia. "It has a much smaller effect on the morale of your permanent
staff," he says.

To be sure, temporary staffing firms note that the recent increase
in job orders for short-term workers includes seasonal help. "We're
seeing a big demand with retailers right now," says Joanie Ruge, senior
vice president for Adecco Group North America. But she adds that it's
common for a small percentage of seasonal jobs - which include mainly
online and store sales, customer service, inventory, accounting and
technology -- to be converted into staff positions.

Despite the potential for long-term employment, some professionals
overlook temporary job opportunities during their searches because
they've held staff positions their entire careers, says Joy Moore, a
career coach in Albuquerque, N.M. "They don't think about it. They're
very focused on finding permanent jobs," she says.

Some also falsely assume that temporary jobs are all low level and
require minimal skills, adds Ms. Moore. But in reality, these include
management and above positions that demand extensive business
experience and college degrees or greater. "It's definitely an area
people should be looking at," she says.

Even a job offer doesn't come about a result of a short-term
assignment, the experience can help lead to one elsewhere. Trevor
Eiler, 23, accepted a temporary visual-design job at a staffing firm
after graduating in May 2008 from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and
Design. During the stint he befriended another temporary worker who
later landed a staff position at Jigsaw LLC, a small ad agency in
Milwaukee. In July, that person recruited Mr. Eiler to join him at the
firm as a junior interactive designer.

Write to Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com