Temporary Versus Permanent Recruitment

Are you unsure if it is best to hire a temporary or a permanent employee? Firstly, it is important to consider the differences between temporary versus permanent recruitment and what it means to you.

Temporary Recruitment

Temporary employees work in a company for a limited period and this hiring style is popular in businesses and industries that:

• Have periods of workload increase due to busy seasons.
• Require additional people for special projects and therefore staff temporarily.

The length of the engagement can range for a few days, weeks, or months.

Also, it is possible to hire temporary staff to cover absences such as staff holidays or sickness.

Businesses can hire temporary staff to maintain the correct levels of staff without having to commit to permanent employees and the legal standings that this entails.

From an employee perspective, some workers take on temporary jobs to maintain income whilst finding their perfect permanent job opportunity.

Temporary Recruitment Agencies

Many businesses hire temporary staff through a temporary recruitment service or recruitment agency because they have a pool of candidates available at short notice.

Outsourcing to a temporary recruitment service can also help since they have significant experience in the market.

Temporary recruitment agencies can also take care of all the paperwork, payroll and other activities.

Current Temporary Worker Hiring Trends

When it comes to temporary vs permanent recruitment, Covid-19 has greatly affected the labour market and the demand for hiring temporary staff has become increasingly popular due staff shortages.

The hire of temporary workers is very popular in call centres, retail, and catering. However, it has become more common in other industries in the current economic climate. Other industries currently in demand are those involved with supply chain and logistics, such as warehousing and distribution, which are incredibly busy yet struggling to hire enough personnel. 

How Long Can a Temporary Worker Be Considered Temporary?

A temporary job can last from a month or a longer period of time for a specific fixed-term project, but no more than a year. In this situation, if an employee is on a temporarily position on the span of a year and when this period is over, they can be hired again for another year.

Some employers hire temporary workers as a trial before committing to offering a permanent job. This is known as Temporary to Permanent Hiring.

Permanent Recruitment

When you are looking to align skillsets within your organisation and strengthen departments, hiring permanent employees makes sense. Such an arrangement is indefinite until either party breaks the permanent contract. The employer is fully responsible for permanent payroll and benefits.

Permanent recruitment agencies can help with your hiring process and take advantage of their resources such as:

• Access to many more candidates in the market.
• The expertise to headhunt candidates with specific skillsets.

For some roles, the skills required are not always on the market, especially for high-level or specialist positions.

Temporary vs Permanent Recruitment Assessment

When considering temporary versus permanent recruitment, the decision will depend on your business needs.  Here are some questions to consider:

• Is the position critical for your business?
• Will you require the person’s skillset all the time?
• Is the budget available for a permanent employee?
• Do you require an employee’s skillset only for a season?
• How certain are you that you need a new employee, or can you up-skill and develop your staff?

The actual cost of finding new staff can be significant. It is hard to forecast employee recruitment and onboarding costs for permanent staff as many intangible and associated costs can increase your profits.

This can include lost management time, and the impact on your business caused by lack of focus. Under these circumstances, managers are juggling recruitment simultaneously with their day to day jobs.

Up against the demands and pressure of your business operations, managers who are not sufficiently skilled in recruitment, are likely to lose focus on their own jobs with a knock-on impact on your business.

Why Combine Temporary and Permanent Recruitment?

Historically, there has been a divide between the permanent and temporary recruitment processes of many organisations. This has often been caused the existence of different approaches, where permanent recruitment is a strategic priority for the HR team while temporary staff can be viewed as indirect costs associated with the procurement function.

This divided approach has had three major impacts.

• Candidates have different experiences of joining an organisation, depending on which route they take.
• Organisations have been unable to share information about candidates who are equally appropriate for either a temporary or a permanent role.
• Hiring managers are having to go through a completely different process depending on the type of hire they need to make.

The are several advantages in combining temporary and permanent recruitment:

Wider Candidate Pools

Having in place a system that enables the sharing of candidates between permanent and temporary talent pools will save recruiters time and provide them with a wider range of potential candidates. It is currently often the case that temporary candidates are not considered for permanent roles, but the option to hire on a temp-to-perm basis is often useful and should not be ruled out.

Economies Of Scale

Cost benefits extend beyond the immediate positive impact of the reduced overall headcount needed to manage both temporary and permanent recruitment. A range of processes will also be streamlined including invoicing, communication, liaison and reporting.

Why use a Recruitment Agency to Hire Staff?

There is a shortage in labour supply across Bulgaria in many sectors.

Top Skills provide free consultations, so it is an ideal way to get a fresh point of view. You will benefit from specialists who understand the employee life cycle and who can advise on your workplace planning.

Top Skills have provided consultancy and solutions in Recruitment, Training, and Human Resources for many years. We understand the issues that clients face, and we can evaluate your business needs at a larger scale and provide you with solutions that meet your requirements.