In this regard, a temp worker could a seasonal hire for a retail store, a contractor for an IT project, or even a substitute teacher.

Traditional management wisdom says you should keep your talent in-house. There are many reasons to do this, you want the best and brightest talents in-house for instant access, who are familiar with the process, who knows the business down to the cogs and gears, and can be relied upon to complete complex projects, and for executive decision-making.

In such an organization, why would you ever hire temps?

There are a number of reasons to consider temporary workers, even for large, established, and non-seasonal companies. They typically call these “Contractors” who are knowledgeable individuals brought in to enhance the in-house teams to complete large projects. But that shouldn’t be the only time a temp is required.

Currently businesses hire “Contractors”, but it can be so much more…

For example, a business has needs for certain reports which are largely distilled information on industry trends and analysis. This is required daily and is done by senior analysts who spend hours researching, gathering data, and writing the report. Now this could be done by a junior team member, however, the company cannot justify the added headcount, and therefore the senior analyst continues to spend precious time on a task that can be offloaded after some minimal training.

This decreases productivity for a senior member whose time should be better spent on more strategic tasks. With some training, a temporary worker (who can even work remotely) familiar with the industry can easily take over this task on a daily basis. Since all information used are public, there are no privacy issues at risk in this case.

Reasons to hire temporary workers

1. They are cheaper. No need to explain this one, everyone knows the costs of pension, benefits, vacations, sick days, shares, warrants, bonus, commission, etc, make hiring permanent staff a very pricey endeavor.
2. They are flexible. Temp workers can be assigned to tasks on an as-needed basis. They are more prone to be flexible, since they know this task or project has a pre-determined end date, they’re more likely to give it a chance compared to someone who has been doing the same thing day in and day out.
3. They bring in new perspective. Temp workers or contractors have been around the block. They know what your competitor is doing better, and can advise you on how to improve efficiency and process.
4. Less bullshit. Let’s be honest, office politic sucks! However, it’s a fact of life in the modern workplace, with more people jostling to move upwards than positions available, there are bound to be some negativity and finger-pointing. Not so much for temp workers, they know they’re there to perform a specific task in a specific time-frame. They’re not there to get a promotion. So there’s less bullshit, and let’s face it, we can all use less bullshit.

In what little time you can spare, you peruse the resumes, ponder on qualifications, make the phone calls, do the interviews, and in most likelihood, only 10–20% of candidates will fit your requirements, and of those, perhaps only half are available and interested enough to show up for an interview. If you’re lucky, you’ll find the right person, make an offer that is accepted, and voila, back in business!

However, if you’re unlucky, which many business owners will find that stars are not always aligned, that after weeks of searching, vetting, phone interviews, in-person interviews, they either could not find a good fit (for both sides), or they make an offer to a good candidate which is rejected, or even worse, accepted but the person quits after a short while. Back to square one. All that effort wasted.

In the meantime, you’ve spent a lot of time and effort, and not on running and growing your business.

Is there a better way?

You might think, only I know about my business enough to make the right hiring decision. That might be the case. However, there are many obvious qualifications that must be met for the role to be successfully filled.

1. Availability and Location (or willingness to relocate). This is obviously a first filter for any position. “But I’ve already put those requirements in the Job Description”, you think, “Surely a candidate will not apply unless they meet those requirements?” Don’t be surprised when you find out that job sites make it so easy to apply that many candidates just read the Job Title and click to apply. This requirement still needs to be properly vetted.
2. Experience and Knowledge. No two people are alike, and no two experiences are alike. Often simple questions such as “Tell me about your responsibilities at your last job” will be able to flesh out the differences in experience.
3. Communication and Characteristic. Often in the first minute of a conversation the character traits will appear. If the person is an effective communicator, a patient listener, or a motivated individual, it’s often discernible within the first few seconds of conversation.
4. The “Je ne sais quoi.” The often unexplainable, but immediately-obvious traits that we all look for. Sometimes you find out a lot of information from asking simple open-ended question as “Why did you leave your last job?”

All of these can easily be offloaded to a third party.

A person who understands the job requirements, and is skilled with quickly filtering information during phone conversations can easily filter candidates down to the last 10%-20%, and set up in-person interviews for these candidates directly.

Instead of spending hours and hours filtering through resumes and making endless phone calls, leaving countless voicemails, and trying to remember who this was when the person calls you back, the business owner can now directly interview a few qualified candidates and make a much-easier hiring decision within a day or two.

Workholler is already offering this service to businesses in Canada. By offshoring the majority of the vetting process, it frees up the business owner’s time and allows for a much smoother and easier hiring process. For those managers swamped with the task of having to find new hires, Workholler comes to the rescue.

“Now that your business is established, what is your biggest challenge?” I asked, thinking I knew the answer. Most likely Sales or Customer Satisfaction. The answer surprised me. “I can’t keep my people.” he said, throwing his hands in the air. “The minute I hire someone good, it seems like they’re leaving again. What is going on?”

I asked him to tell me about his last 2 hires. First was a young woman in her early twenties, she worked for about 8 months before leaving for a job at a bigger company. “All that training went down the drain, and then I had to look again.” Few months later, he hired an older man, who stayed a bit longer, but still left within the year for a different job (presumably with higher pay).

“Can you raise the pay?” I asked.

“I don’t mind raising pay, but I can’t match that of big corporations, and I have to be fair to my existing staff.” He sighed with frustration.

He was stuck in a never-ending cycle of hiring, training, and then just as the new hire becomes a contributing team member, watching them leave for a bigger job. Or even worse, the new hire is non-performing and must be terminated, wasting more time and resources.

Why is it so difficult for small businesses to retain talent?

He wasn’t not alone. Small businesses are increasingly having trouble finding and retaining talent. The jobs which used to get dozens of inquiries are now sitting on job boards without much interest.

A few days later I had a coffee chat with two young people who are just starting out in their careers. I asked them if they would consider a job in small business. “Sure”, said one, “I’m happy to take anything that gives me real work experience in an industry that I’m interested in.”

“How long would you be willing to stay?”

“Well that depends, will my role expand to have more responsibilities, and will my pay increase substantially thereafter?” I knew the answer was most likely no to both questions. For a small business, roles are typically well-defined, and there’s not much room to increase pay. Can’t say I blame them, these are very valid questions.

Without a clear path for promotions and higher pay, is there really no solution to help small businesses?

Pay isn’t everything, but it sure matters! People also want to see career progression, which is typically ill-defined, and difficult-to-achieve in a small business.