Hello all and Welcome to today\u2019s episode of Warehouse and Operations as a Career. I\u2019m Marty and I\u2019ve gotten a number of questions about Temporary Staffing and are they a good place to get started in warehousing. That\u2019s actually a very good question and I do have a few thoughts, probably more like opinions on the subject! I also reached out to a very good friend for his thoughts and expertise in the fields and he\u2019ll be sharing his opinions with us today as well!
\nI feel that Temporary Staffing Agencies can be a good avenue for that quick job or income. When I think of Temporary Agencies I think of three different situations.
\nDay Labor \u2013 I know of several agencies where you show up, fill out a short application & are given Day assignment or short term assignments that are strictly G/L or general labor tasks, maybe where a number of bodies are needed to make something happen. Again, a great avenue for a check but I don\u2019t feel you should use such for a long term need as typically you\u2019ll not be using any equipment or be exposed to any machine or production usage or training.
\nTemporary Placement \u2013 These may be longer lasting positions or placements, typically of a G/L nature requiring minimum training. I feel these placements can, or at least we could have an opportunity to be taught some skills and an opportunity to be involved in Warehouse operations to a greater degree than a day labor or just some needed bodies of a day labor placement.
\nThen there\u2019s more of a Temp to Perm placement, or a placement that may offer more skills training or machine or equipment usage. Simply put a company could need several associates to get caught up on projects or a backlog of work and may hire on or bring onboard a number of new boots and increase the company\u2019s headcount. Let\u2019s be honest with our selves here, the workers that show up on time, ready to work every day and excel through any training and following direction and can bring productivity to the shift are of course the ones that could be offered full time work with the company. I\u2019ve heard of transitions occurring as quickly as 30 days and as long as 11 months or more. Think of it being a probation period, is the employee a good fit for the company and even is the company a good fit for us?
\nI believe there\u2019s quite a few companies using temporary workers today due to the ease of finding people and the opportunity to take the worker for a test drive, if you will, before being out the expense of going through the whole on-boarding process, the training and even risk of an actual employee.
\nNow that we\u2019ve discussed my thoughts on what a Staffing company is let\u2019s look at how we can use them to our advantage & get something out of them.
\nWe\u2019ve talked about how to use the Resume and the Interview to get our desires across to the recruiter or hiring agent & I can\u2019t help but feel there even more important when dealing with an agency. We need to be sure and get our wants across to whomever will be working on our placement that we get the type of position we\u2019re interested in and something we will do well at.
\nIn today\u2019s world it\u2019s so easy to check out reviews of any business or industry, now we need to keep in mind that not all reviews or comments are written with the best intentions or even will be factual but we should be able to ascertain the overall spirit of the agency. Remember, one thing I hope we\u2019re learning is that it\u2019s our responsibility to research or educate ourselves to be a great employee right?
\nA couple of questions I might ask or look into could be:
\nWhat kind of assignments/jobs do they offer?
\nWhat kind of training are they offering or willing to do?
\nDo they offer any certifications?
\nIs this a Short term, long term or temp to perm opportunity?
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\nYou know it may be worth our time to accept a short term position if it affords us the opportunity to show our wili...