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I recently had a recruiter tell me this was becoming very popular because companies don't have to make a long term investment on an employee until the company is sure it has found the right person. He even told me he was hired into the staffing agency that way.
So what do you all think of temp to perm? Has anyone gotten a really good position by doing something like this?
It seems to me that a company wouldn't take this route unless they really couldn't afford to bring a new person on board, but, still needed some help. Also, it seems that positions that are expendable would be used in this way.
I had a friend who was working a 90 day temp to perm job. At the end of 90 days, no one said a word about hiring her. When she contacted the staffing agency they told her it may take 6 months for them to make a decision. Personally, I don't think it takes that long to make a hiring decision if you are working with someone everyday. At the end of 6 months, my friend was let go. Of course, she didn't get any feedback so she has no idea why she was let go.
The first article makes it sound like a great thing and beneficial for all involved. But, I don't know about that. It seems like the employee just gets strung along until someone decides to make up their mind. I'm in agreement with the second article.
IME staffing agencies represent the client not the employee. There are a few honest one's out there, but they are rare and for the most part they lie, try to rush you into a job that nevers pans out, or will withold information from the employee, and will mark up what they charge the client and pay you. Some will even mark-up as high as 100%. I worked for one company that paid me $40/hour and found out they were charging the client $80/hour. The worst situation to get into is being a "permatemp" that is staying at a company for yeas as a temp with no salary increase and no permanent job offer.
i dont think there is a thing such as temp to perm any more. I know people who are temps and paid via a temp agency for well over 3 years
Nope. Not anymore. And if an agency tells the employee the job is temp to perm, than they are possibly baiting you. Unless, you live in a small town or market, but still be wary, as I will explain in the next paragraph.
The biggest market/user of temps are non-US owned companies. They usually have a strict head count that is dictated from Dusseldorf or Japan and usually doesn't allow for additional staff, especially administrative staff. They will never tell you this, but if you find yourself temping at a foreign owned company don't expect a job offer. Some of these foreign owned companies have strict policies that only allow any temp to hold a position for six months. This stems from a lawsuit involving Microsoft. Despite policy, if the temp is a stellar worker, they will end up in a "permatemp" position working at that company for years.
If the company US based and do "try before they buy" this is often a bad sign. Usually in those situations the previous person who held that job didn't do it well, but more than likely hated the job because the Manager or Manager's have personality disorders leading to high turnover.
It is possible to get a temp job filling in for someone on marernity leave or disability. But, the temp will be gone as soon as the person comes back.
I have done a lot of "temp" work in my day and have rarely dealt with an honest staffing agency.
However, Congress is working to change the laws and abuse of temps, contract workers and consultants. Not because they care about the worker, but because they are not collecting the full amount of payroll taxes they are due, especially with 1099ers.
There are some valid temp-to-perm opportunities out there, though I recognize they may be a minority.
Our younger kid got his current job through a temp-to-perm opportunity. He's working for a fairly large company that does contract work for various Federal agencies, and because of the requirements of those contracts, they have really high standards for their employees. They use an agency to do the initial screening and hiring, and new employees work for that agency from 90 to 120 days before getting their permanent offer. He started with the agency in February, went permanent with the company in July (got a small raise at that point, too), and is doing very well with them.
According to our kid, as many as 50% of a given team don't make it through the initial period with the temp agency, and even after they go on staff with the actual employer, another 20% to 30% are gone within their first year. At the same time, there are employees there who have been with the company since its founding, and the firm has a very strong promote-from-within program that it uses to reward workers who are able to perform up to standard.
The company is US owned and managed, and they offer unbelievably good pay and benefits for the region of the state where they are based, so people are always trying to get jobs there. It just seems that a significant percentage of them want the pay and benes without delivering the work the company needs in return, which means they don't stay long. And it makes sense that the company would want to have an agency do the majority of weeding out candidates who either can't or won't perform up to the standards they require.
Obviously, that one situation does not mean that ALL temp-to-perm opportunities are on the up-and-up. But it's possible to find a few that are.
I personally don't know why there aren't more temp to hire opportunities... I have gotten two full time positions which I held for years before eventually being laid off. I liked it because they could see what I could do, as opposed to sitting in a room with someone for a half hour and trying to play the interview game and the salary game. I mean, the future employee doesn't know exactly what the job situation is gonna be like because sometimes the interviewer embellishes how difficult things may really be there... and the employer might not get the right fit because the person interviewing for the job might have all the skills necessary but let's say they are slow as molasses, or they have an abrasive personality.
I think the temp to hire opportunities are great because they let people that don't interview the best, actually get in the door and show their stuff. AND I have gotten in the door at corporations that otherwise would not have given my resume a second thought if I applied through the online computer... if I don't have the right keywords a resume gets bounced through their screening software.
That said, I do think that many staffing agencies cannot be trusted, and a person dealing with them has to realize that and keep their eyes open. There are good ones (I know a few and try to deal only with them) and VERY BAD ones.
AND I do think that increasingly many companies try to abuse the temp and temp to hire thing. I think that if the economy gets better hopefully we will not see as much of this. Yes, many corporations now do "permatemps" and the government itself also does this.
And yes, I think that 3 months is long enough to know if people are going to work out, 6 months definitely. And companies that would lure a person into a temp to hire then can them after 6 months saying they aren't a fit... it would be a very scummy thing to do. You just know they were trying to get out of hiring a fulltimer, although WHY they would want to re-train somebody is beyond me. But they likely DON't want to re-train somebody but the beancounters ALWAYS get what they want at the expense of the employees and the customers.
Midwesternbookworm that is a great story. Do I believe opportunities are out there for temp-to-perm, yes, but they are rare. And are more likely to occur in smaller markets.
But, established large staffing agencies like Kelly, Manpower or Ranstaad tend to be more thorough. And if you live in a small town, sometimes there is a local small agency that is really tied into the local market and can get you a job.
These agencies are sneaky as all get out they do not care about you at all trust me. They make money off of the employer so they do anything and everything to get contracts. There is about 25+ different ones in the metro area I work in. Perspicacious is right a lot of the recruiters are dumb and they send you to interviews for jobs that are not really a good fit for you. I had one recruiter in Pittsburgh that was really stupid she didn't even know where WV was and the border is only like a half hour away. That's like someone from NY not knowing where NJ is.
The job descriptions are wrong half the time and when you go to interview you find things out that the recruiter didn't tell you. They will lie to you and If it's not in the contract the employer does not have to make you permanent. You can work for them for years as a temp even though the job was advertised as temp to perm 90 days. If it's not in writing it doesn't matter they will just tell you it wasn't guaranteed at the 90 day point.
Yes, just make sure that you are ready to leave, if the job doesn't work out... or you get a bad vibe.
Most temps now, you have to interview to even get the TEMP position. LONG GONE are the days that the companies would just call up the agency and they would send someone in, if you didn't work out you were sent home. And the staffing agency would send another person in there. The only time I was ever sent somewhere w/o interviewing both were "fill in for the day" type things, like all I had to do was answer phones at a desk.
I have a small local agency I have gotten my positions through and they actually take the time to interview and skill assess each person they are finding work for. They are very well regarded locally. Although they can only do so much, companies these days are increasingly squirrelly and picky...
I only know of one person that was ever hired through temp to perm.
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