Your temp agency is responsible for more than just sending you warm bodies when you have short-term staffing needs. In order to effectively meet your needs, your representative should be actively involved in ensuring your new temp workers are trained and ready to work as quickly as possible.
Even the best temps aren’t going to be fully ready to work on a new worksite on the first day. If your temp agency isn’t helping you with employee on-boarding and training, you’re going to be wasting time and resources, which will lower your company’s productivity. Naturally, when you engage a temp staffing agency, that’s not what you’re expecting. In fact, you’re looking for help with every step of the process.
Here are a few ways your agency should be helping you with temp on-boarding and training.
Basic Expectations
When your temps step foot on your jobsite, they should know what they’re getting into. The temp agency is responsible for letting them know what is expected of them, what job they’re filling, and what your company is all about. By providing them with this information ahead of time, you save time once they show up.
Health and Safety and Employment Standards Act
Your temp agency should be responsible for ensuring that the temps you get understand their rights and duties under the Employment Standards Act as well as the best practices for health and safety in the workplace. This includes knowing the importance of identifying, avoiding, and reporting hazards. This is basic knowledge, and you should expect your temp workers to be up to speed with these rules and regulations. Temps who aren’t aware of them could be a liability for your company.
Specific Company Training
Every company is unique and will do things a certain way. Even two companies in the same industry will have different procedures and processes and use different systems. Your agency should know your business well enough to provide your new temps with information about how you like things done.
It is the agency’s responsibility to learn about you and your business in an in-depth way. If you have to spend days or even weeks teaching a temp how to work your systems, your productivity dips and you end up wasting time and money. A quality agency will provide your workers with training modules that simulate your company’s business practices, so they’ll be up to speed before they even start their first shift.
On-Boarding for a Smoother Entry
Your agency representatives should be the ones handling all the paperwork associated with on-boarding your new temp workers. They should also be intimately involved in ensuring that the temp feels comfortable within his or her new workplace. This can include additional steps like writing a welcome letter, scheduling orientation, outlining job duties and expectations, providing employee manuals and company policies and rules, creating a socializing system, and giving out access cards and even parking passes if needed. You shouldn’t be on your own when it comes to these steps. Your agency should be working with you to ensure your temps are ready and comfortable to start working.
Protect Your Investment
When you engage a temporary staffing agency, you’re investing in your company. You should be protecting this investment by choosing an agency that can help you every step of the way, from finding quality workers to training and on-boarding and beyond. This minimizes your hiring risk and ensures more positive outcomes. If your current agency isn’t providing these services, it might be time to switch.
