HRM textbook

156 PART 2 RECRUITMENT, PLACEMENT, AND TALENT MANAGEMENT
The numbers of temporary and
freelance workers are increasing
all over the world.
Source: Greg Balfour Evans/Alamy.
agency s fees. What is the policy if the client wants to hire one of the agency s temps as
a permanent employee? How does the agency plan to recruit employees? Did you get a
document from the agency stating that it is not discriminating when filling temp orders?
Checking a temporary agency s references and its listing with the Better Business Bureau
is advisable. 81
WHAT SUPERVISORS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT TEMPORARY EMPLOYEES
CONCERNS To make temporary relationships successful, managers supervising
temps should understand these employees main concerns. In one survey, six key
concerns emerged. Temporary workers said they were:
1. Treated by employers in a dehumanizing and ultimately discouraging way.
2. Insecure about their employment and pessimistic about the future.
3. Worried about their lack of insurance and pension benefits.
4. Misled about their job assignments and in particular about whether temporary
assignments were likely to become full-time.
5. Underemployed (particularly those trying to return to the full-time labor
market). 82
LEGAL GUIDELINES Several years ago, federal agents rounded up about 250
illegal contract cleaning workers in 60 Walmart stores. The raid underscores the
need to understand the status of the contract employees who work on your premises
handling activities like security or after-hours store cleaning. 83 The fact that they
actually work for another, temp-type company is no excuse. For purposes of most
employment laws, with certain limited exceptions, employees of temporary staffing
firms working in an employer s workplace will be considered to be employees both
of the agency and of the employer. 84 The employer s liability basically comes down
to the degree to which its supervisors control the temp employee s activities. For
example, ask the staffing agency to handle training. Let it negotiate and set pay rates
and vacation/time-off policies with the temp.
ALTERNATIVE STAFFING Temporary employees are examples of alternative
staffing basically, the use of nontraditional recruitment sources. Other alternative
staffing arrangements include in-house temporary employees (people employed
directly by the company, but on an explicit short-term basis) and contract technical
employees (highly skilled workers like engineers, who are supplied for long-term
projects under contract from an outside technical services firm).