Let’s be honest – hiring a new team member is a journey that can be risky.
Whilst interviews and CVs give employers an insight into candidate experience and expertise, they can be one-dimensional. A temp-to-perm solution allows you to gain a deeper insight and comprehensive perspective through on-the-job observations. The result is that you can evaluate overall job performance and make a fully informed hiring decision before making a formal offer of a permanent position.
A temp-to-perm hiring process enables employers to be far more flexible in their approach, for example, you may decide to take on candidates that don’t possess the level of experience you would normally look for, but they may have new skills and creativity – and bags of potential – that you would like to explore further.
However, before we dive into the benefits of temp-to-perm roles in detail, it is worth flagging up that if there is a permanent vacancy we would always recommend recruiting permanently – instead of on a temp-to-perm only basis. That’s simply because by recruiting for a permanent role you will have access to all available candidates. By initially hiring on a temporary basis, with a view to that role becoming permanent, you will only be assessing candidates who are interested in temporary roles to start with.
With all of that taken into account though, if you feel the vacancy you are recruiting for lends itself more to a temporary role to start with at least, then read on!
Remove the burden
By using a temp agency that specialises in providing temp-to-perm candidates, this removes the burden of sifting through CV’s, conducting interviews and making hiring decisions, as you are provided with a handful of candidates that have been pre-screened. If a candidate doesn’t work out, you can inform the agency, who can review their database and provide a new suitable candidate.
As well as providing a host of benefits for employers, temp-to-perm candidates can also leverage the non-committal nature of the temporary period. Another upside of this, is that their reaction and feedback to a company can, in turn, provide unique insights to the inner workings of a business, whether they are made permanent or not.
Temp-to-perm worker benefits
For a candidate, entering a company on this basis allows them to assess the working practices, processes, environment and culture it operates. It also allows them to experience the actionable responsibilities and objectives assigned to the role they have applied for. If the fit isn’t quite right, a temp-to-perm position gives both candidate and employer flexibility.
Along with this, it allows them to explore new career paths and hone their current skills, and learn new ones; bolstering their CV with new jobs and skills and increasing their hiring potential for further roles.
Let’s talk about diversity
As we touched upon, in the beginning of this post, a temp-to-perm recruitment process means that you can take a more flexible approach with regards to temporary talent. On exploring new candidate sources, you naturally begin to diversify your workforce.
This provides a wealth of benefits to a business. From being a more accurate representation of your customer base, to bringing fresh, new perspective and building innovative teams that perform at a higher level – your company will soon see the benefits of a diverse workforce.
Cultural club
Cultural fit is incredibly important and it’s difficult to ascertain whether the company’s culture will be a good fit for a candidate, both professionally and personally, without having experienced it for an appropriate length of time. A candidate may have the potential to be a wonderful asset to your company, but if they don’t like your company culture, they won’t stay. A temp-to-perm role can help both you and the candidate understand if it is a good fit – before the role becomes permanent.
Ultimately, this can also give you the opportunity to address any cultural issues that are flagged up, improving the culture and ultimately, the morale, motivation and productivity of your workforce. This too, will improve your employer brand, impacting staff retention and eventually attract a higher quality of candidate.
There’s no ‘I’ in team, but there can be friction
It may be the case that you have brought on a highly skilled, highly experienced individual, but how do they fit in with your existing team? For a team to yield high results and meet objectives, they must work in a collaborative way with effective communication and interaction.
It only takes one team member to negatively impact a strong team. If you are unsure how a role will work within your current team, or want to see how a new set of skills contributes to a team, a temp-to-perm role can help you to effectively evaluate how a new candidate integrates with your existing team.
How to spot a great temp worker
The purpose of leveraging a temp-to-perm strategy is to help you stay flexible with your recruitment but to still capture candidates that perform well and retain them. This is how to look out for those temporary candidates that are going the extra mile:
- Are they embedding themselves into the company culture? Does their behaviour align with company values? Are they networking and interacting with colleagues, to showcase their work and value? It’s worth catching up with the members of team that are working alongside, or managing them, and exploring their views and experience.
- Do they turn up on time? Are they managing their time effectively? Reliable and dependable employees can have a far-reaching impact on their teams and the company as a whole.
- What is the quality of their work? Are they doing what’s necessary to meet the minimum requirements, or are they going above and beyond, proactively suggesting more efficient ways of working or pitching creative solutions? Creative team members that work on their own initiative and are proactively looking to make their contribution more valuable and effective are individuals that will drive your business forward.
If you are interested in learning more about temp-to-perm for your business, please do get in touch with us at Anne Corder Recruitment – call 01733 235 298 or email info@annecorder.co.uk.
