HIRING THE PERFECT CANDIDATE: THE CHANGING FACE OF CAREER PLACEMENTS VERSUS TEMP-TO-HIRE PLACEMENTS

In today's economy, the unemployment rate is among the lowest reading in six years, and the U.S. has created more new jobs than all the other major industrialized countries combined. What does this tight job market mean for corporations and other organizations that would normally hire candidates on a "temporary to hire" basis to get them in immediately?

This market effect can result in a shortage of qualified candidates. It significantly reduces the number of candidates who would accept a temporary assignment, making it difficult for employers to recruit. The bottom line - organizations must consider retooling strategies of hiring candidates on a temporary to hire basis.

Which approach matches your goals?
Take a good, balanced look at your organization's goals and the current employment outlook in your industry - is it
booming like healthcare or in a slow-down like automotive - and do a comparison of temp-to-hire versus career placement options with your recruiting and staffing firm.

Other considerations can include the position you are looking to fill. For example, temp-to-hire is counterintuitive for executive positions and isn't a good way to attract candidates that offer higher skill levels. Even in manufacturing, for example, finding skilled and semi-skilled workers, such as line workers, can be a major hurdle for employers, so they turn to those of us in the staffing industry for assistance.

These industries remain ideal for career placement options:

• Biotechnology
• Executive management
• Legal
• Skilled positions in manufacturing
• Office administrative and distribution

What are the benefits of each approach?
Organizations can experience the benefits of employees recruited through a career placement process or a temp-to-hire process.

Career placement benefits:

• Allows search to include 100 percent of the workforce versus limiting the search to the unemployed and mentally unemployed, which are those actively engaged in searches
• Reduces risk of replacement due to falloff

Temp-to-hire placement benefits:

• Allows for review of work performance in the work environment
• Can terminate employment easily without concern for expenses

Depending on the process you choose, there are benefits of using a staffing firm for both processes overall. The recruitment fee is oftentimes the same, and using a staffing firm reduces the time to hire the employee, whether it's a career placement or a temp-to-hire placement.

With an industry expert conducting the search, your talent pool for all candidates is going to be bigger and more qualified. Your staffing firm has an extensive network of candidates, clients and peers. They also have the resources to go after the best candidates, not just the ones who are actively looking for a job.

The cost invested in training an employee makes it essential to make the right hire. Therefore, your staffing firm should incorporate behavioral questions into the interview process and their pre-qualification tests to ensure that the candidate is a match. Additionally, using a staffing firm reduces legal exposure for your organization in the search and the hiring process.

What are the associated costs?
With forecasts showing the labor markets continuing to tighten, even for lower-skilled jobs, it's never been more important to implement a good staffing strategy. Your strategy should weigh all of the costs associated with staffing, not just the recruiting fee, but the intangibles too:

• When employees are hired on a temp-to-hire basis, their job search often doesn't stop
• The close ratio is higher for career placement because passive job seekers are less likely to leave a permanent position for a temp-to-hire opportunity
• When you can't permanently fill a position until the budget allows for a headcount addition, a temp-to-hire option can be the best

You'll also need to weigh the true costs of hiring career placements and temp-to-hire, as it's only a matter of time before pricing will increase for clients who want the best candidates. If you are currently using temporary workers, instead of focusing only on transactional pricing, ask yourself, "Are you getting the results you need from them?" You don't want to fall into the category of hiring more people than it truly takes to do the quality of work you desire.