The Two Big Issues with Temp Labor & How to Avoid Them

Have you ever stared ahead at a busy next week and just knew that it will be a challenge with overtime on the rise, and the very real possibility of people taking unscheduled days off? If so, you’re not alone. Solutions to these problems have typically been to allow overtime to rise or risk customer dissatisfaction by pushing out customer promise dates.

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If those two options do not work, then the answer has traditionally been to use temporary staffing agencies to fill the gap and meet your production requirements. What you’re really looking for is some quick outside assistance, a frictionless way to get temporary workers in the door, and high quality production. Here at Veryable, we run an on-demand marketplace for operational labor to help businesses and local people connect to create value for your customers.  We created our platform as an alternative to solve the real issues that manufacturing and logistics companies have typically looked to temp agencies to solve.

In this article, we’ll discuss the problems that you may encounter when bringing on temporary labor, and how you can avoid these issues.

Problems with temporary labor

• Uncertainty about capabilities of individuals
• No ability to select individuals 

Uncertainty about capabilities of individuals

One of the biggest issues when selecting individuals for temporary work is understanding whether or not the person can actually perform the tasks requested.  In blue collar work environments, people trade on their reputation and skillset, which are two things that are difficult to validate via a resume or job application.

Typically, businesses address this by vetting the worker through an on-site skills test or requiring third-party training prior to working on-site.  The testing can amount to a rigorous effort on behalf of your staff to conduct for a number of workers who are only going to last 3-6 months before heading down the street for another position. Working with third-party staffing agencies or vendors to complete the training is one approach used by a number of businesses. This works well for businesses that have enough openings or workforce turnover to accommodate a consistent schedule of new trainees into their operation.  To be successful with this approach, the business will typically have a need for supplementing their full-time staff with temporary workers since new hire recruiting and retention is not meeting the day-to-day labor needs of the business. With an on-demand labor platform,  work experience is tracked, and workers can log certifications and relevant skills: forklift driving, machining, inspection, etc.  This individual information is now available online, creating a “Linkedin” style profile specific to manufacturing and logistics workers. Having worker information online now gives you the ability to search based on skill, experience, or proximity and puts you in the driver’s seat to select the right individuals to meet your labor needs.  The visibility into individual capabilities removes uncertainty and creates confidence that your local labor pool is able to respond quickly to help your business meet its customers’ needs.

No ability to select individuals

When it comes to using a traditional staffing agency, you have little to no say in who will be offered the opportunity to work at your business.  With no visibility and no say in the selection, you aren’t afforded great visibility and confidence to know if you are going to accomplish your goals.  

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One option that businesses have cultivated is creating a part-time workforce to complement their full-time employees.  We’ve even seen businesses intentionally recruit employees who are expected to only work 20-30 hours a week, but with those hours varying from week to week.  While this approach creates operational flexibility and an outlet for overtime, the administration of the part-time workforce is an additional layer of complexity.

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An alternative solution is using an on-demand labor platform where you can select the workers you want to invite to your business.  When posting a work opportunity with an on-demand platform, you will receive immediate feedback about interest.  From this group of interested workers, you will be able to select the most appropriate workers based on rating, skill, and proximity.

Avoiding problems with temporary workers

Will a new, technology-powered approach solve all the issues of working with local people coming to work at your facility?  No, it won’t.  Because at the end of the day, you are still working with people, and this brings its own element of uncertainty.

Does the on-demand labor approach make it easier to find the good workers and filter out the bad ones? Yes, it certainly does do that efficiently.  Having the ability to review experience, skills, and credentials removes a layer of uncertainty and restores some power to the business when searching for qualified people to deliver value for their customers. If you want to avoid common problems with temp staffing by using on-demand labor,  learn more about how on-demand labor is different from traditional staffing so you can decide if it's a better fit for you.  At Veryable, this new approach has driven value for a number of businesses and simplified their lives in finding the operational labor they need when they need it.