Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Temporary versus Permanent


Posted by: Darlene Duncan. CWDP. JSS, CCC
Training Coordinator for
Training Initiatives, Inc.

Everyone wants the security of a regular job where you know you’re going to be working for an extended period of time, you’ll be receiving a regular paycheck, and hopefully you’ll receive health insurance.

However, there are benefits to working in the world of staffing services. For those of a certain generation you know them better as temporary agencies. These are the folks that get a call like this one on a Monday afternoon.

“I just had to fire my receptionist. Can you get me someone here by tomorrow morning? They need to know Microsoft Word and Excel, be able to handle a multi-line phone system and be great at dealing with the general public.”

“No problem sir. What time in the morning would you like them to be there?”

“Eight o’clock. And it’d be great if they were bi-lingual in Spanish, too.”

“Yes sir. We’ll see what we can do?”

The next morning an individual on the roster of that staffing agency is at the XYZ Company to fill the receptionist position. If they are the right fit for the company and they have the right skills, they stand a good chance of being hired on as a permanent employee of the company.

Do people really get jobs this way? You bet they do. It’s happened to me twice. It happened to a friend of mine once. However, she didn’t want to work at the place that offered her a permanent position. It was an okay place to work for a while but she couldn’t see herself there long term. She told them, thanks but no thanks and continued to work there a while longer as a temporary.

Think about it, employers use staffing services as a way to try out new employees. You should be using staffing services as a way to try out potential employers. Some people find that they like the flexibility and variety that working through a staffing agency provides. Others are delighted when one of their temporary assignments turns into a regular full time job.

No comments:

Post a Comment