Hiring Decisions: Temp-to-hire

It is always challenging to evaluate someone’s technical skills and cultural fit in a relatively brief and highly-charged interview process. Temp-to-hire services can help alleviate this problem by allowing you to work with a candidate for a few months to confirm they match your needs. Sometimes referred to as the “try before you buy” method of recruiting, this is also a great way to give a potential candidate regular pay and benefits (through an agency) while giving them time to evaluate your company. The potential of permanent employment makes temp-to-hire positions more attractive than standard temporary positions, therefore providing you with a broader mix of candidates.

Use this approach when:

• You have growth goals that go beyond your current recruiting and support capabilities.
• You want to develop a pipeline of talent for a growing team or a high-turnover position.
• You want to ensure culture fit before making a hiring decision.
• You want to spread out the cost of an agency fee over time.

Keep in mind:

• Temp-to-hire implies that it is possible (even likely) that candidates who perform well will be hired as regular employees. If something changes that prevents you from being able to hire as intended, make sure to communicate this to the staffing vendor so they can inform their employees.
• Temp-to-hire staff are not your employees. All performance feedback, compensation discussions, and other HR concerns need to come through the vendor until you convert the worker to an employee.
• Understand the fees before your first placement. In most cases, the total extra cost of the temp-to-hire should be comparable to the cost of a direct hire.

There are a lot of industry terms in the recruiting and staffing world. If you want to learn more, refer to this glossary of recruiting terms that we’ve been building.

*This content was originally written as a guest post on Mac’s list, available here: https://www.macslist.org/for-employers/hiring-decisions-should-you-use-a-recruiter-or-staffing-agency-to-hire-new-employees