Temp Reliability

By Larry Hannappel

Surveys have found that some employers assume that temporary workers are somehow less reliable than permanent employees.

Is this myth or reality? 

Joe Broschak, assistant professor of Organizational Behavior at theUniversityofIllinoisat Urbana-Champaign, studied temporary workers and thinks it’s all myth.

“On average,” he says, “temporary workers displayed better performance relative to goals compared to their full-time counterparts.” 

OK, so what about temps later hired as full-time employees? Broschak says that “they continued to become better workers after becoming permanent.”

Job losses in the recent downturn also put a lot of highly experienced people out of work. Many of them are today filling temporary positions in companies everywhere.

Choosing a reputable staffing agency – and establishing a good employer/staffing agency relationship and communications – are key elements to finding reliable workers, experts say.

A growing portion of the U.S. workforce is comprised of temporary workers, and increasingly that workforce possesses impressive credentials: 

“As more and more employees choose to work as free agents,” Broschak says, “the actual professional and education qualifications of free agents help dispel the myth that temporary workers are less reliable.”