Are you planning to turn to temps to solve your company’s staffing problems? Many businesses make the same decision. When you work with a staffing agency to hire temps, you can get qualified workers quickly, and you can easily adjust to seasonal fluctuations in your business’s staffing needs.
Temps are often experienced and highly skilled, but since every company does things a little bit differently, they’ll still need some training to succeed at your company. However, you may be wondering how to train a temp. Here are three tips for how to train a temp.
1. Offer an Orientation Day
Before your temps start work, offer an orientation day to get them comfortable in your workplace. This orientation should be similar to the ones you offer your employees. While the temps may not be at your company for long, giving them an orientation makes them feel comfortable at your workplace, which helps their morale. As you know, workers with good morale are more productive than ones with low morale.
On orientation day, go over basic facts about the workplace, like where temps should park their cars and where they can find the lunchroom. Let temps know who they’ll be reporting to and where their work station is. For jobs in an office environment, you should also give the temps their logins for their computers and telephones.
Orientation day should also include a tour of the facilities. Show temps where to find the bathrooms, break room, and other important areas, like their supervisor’s office. On the tour, introduce temps to key staff that they’ll be working with. This can go a long way towards making the new temps feel welcome and valued in their new workplace.
2. Provide Health and Safety Training
Temps may get basic health and safety training from their agency, but you need to do some training, too. While your temps may have worked in very similar workplace environments before, every company has unique hazards.
If you’re wondering how to train a temp in health and safety, be assured that it’s the same as training an employee. Before your temps start work, teach them about the potential hazards in your workplace. Every workplace has hazards, even ones that seem safe, like offices. If any personal protective equipment is required, supply it to your temps, and make sure they know how to use it. Since temps provide a fresh set of eyes to a workplace, they may notice safety issues that you don’t know about, so let them know how to report any safety issues they discover.
Temps should also receive training in any of the machinery or equipment they’ll be using on the job. While they may have used the same types of machinery in other jobs, past work sites may have been more lax about safety than your company is. To keep everyone safe, train your temps. Don’t let temps operate machinery on their own until you’re confident they can do it without hurting themselves or anyone else.
3. Assign a Mentor to Each Temp
When new temps arrive at your workplace, assign a mentor to each one. Mentors should be experienced employees who’ll be working in the same departments as your temps and doing similar jobs. Temps can then learn more about their new job through job shadowing and by asking their mentors questions.
Mentors should stick with temps until the temps feel comfortable. Since temps already have experience before they arrive at your company, mentoring won’t take too long. With the help of their mentors, your new temps will be able to perform their new jobs at high levels. Mentoring programs also help welcome temps and raise their morale.
