This article discusses the advantages of utilizing Staffing Agency Portland. For short-term or specialized projects and explores how you can get the best performance from agency workers.
Regulations will vary across different industries, obviously depending on how heavily they use or rely on agency staff. Consequently, industries such as construction, cleaning services, security, home care, education and healthcare are likely to incur some of the biggest challenges, as they are known for their considerable use of agency workers.
Motivation is important, and feeling as though they are part of the team is key to this, as is positive feedback. Take time to explain the ins and outs of the project, including your relationship with the client? Why have you been contracted in the aim of the project? The time frame, techniques, equipment, materials, and chemicals and what you expect to achieve. One of the most significant sources of motivation is making someone feel that they have contributed to achieving a result.
So if you work in one of the above areas or have a number of agency staff on your payroll, then the more proactive you can be the better. Start making detailed plans for future supply arrangements, as time is of the essence. Although, you may want to wait until the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills has produced clear guidelines on how to interpret the Regulations before you then start to decide on how to address these changes, it is better to act now and have a plan of action in place now, rather than wait, as it maybe by that time too late.
Supervision is vital, although be cautious not to ‘hover over’ or harass your workers. Give them the freedom to work independently after being shown how to do something and check to see if they are OK at reasonably frequent intervals. Ask them how they feel they are getting on, and if they would like any help with anything they are unsure of. Agency temps come from all walks of life, and you can find yourself in highly skilled individuals who come with a wealth of experience in so many different areas.
Many managers of small staffing companies are reluctant to use agency staff. They prefer to find the casual staff they employ directly or self-employed staff whom they can call upon for day work from time to time.
The reasons for this are usually either a matter of hourly rate with agency staff costing more per hour or perhaps also negative experience or horror stories they may have heard from colleagues about agency workers. However, there are situations in which it may be advantageous to the small business owner to engage an agency to provide temporary staff. These advantages are often unseen or overlooked altogether.
The same goes for one-off warehouse deep cleans, annual deep cleans to schools, post-refurbishment cleans to hotels, bars, and restaurants and a vast number of other infrequent or one-time projects.
A cleaning company with a flexible workforce can take advantage of such profitable projects and develop a reputation in the construction and industrial field for being the cleaning company that can cope with the demands of their respective trades.
This is where the number one advantage of using an agency comes into play. You now have access to a flexible workforce, a workforce that could consist of 12 staff one week and only one the next. Should your client make last-minute changes to the cleaning plan, you can respond accordingly by increasing or cutting the workforce. The best part of it is that you won’t be letting anyone down by taking away their work or struggling to fill gaps at the last minute with casual staff having already found work for the week elsewhere.
The other advantage of engaging an agency to supply you with temporary staff is having fast access to skilled, qualified individuals. On a builder clean, for example, you may require a window cleaner with the appropriate certification to operate a scissor lift or cherry picker. Take advantage of the vast range of skilled individuals on an agency’s books.
It is essential to recognize that it is your responsibility to get the best out of the temporary workers you bring in. Never assume that agency staff will have the necessary knowledge or skills to ‘just get on with it,’ and remember that even experienced staff may be trained in cleaning techniques that differ from your way of working.
However, having a modern time and attendance system in place within your company would allow you to adapt to changing law regulations more quickly and effectively. Networks of this nature provide an accurate cost analysis of individual tasks, proposals, and jobs currently being carried out. So you can plan and make early cost projections and also make allowances for agency staff, if still required, earlier.
Therefore, detailed and careful planning of your workforce and the projected workload to be carried out. It will help you to diminish your costs that are likely to be incurred through the employment of temporary staff. Consequently, having a time and attendance system which stores and provides you with one central base of information on all your employees’ skills and availability. It allows you to assess at the earliest possible stages and more accurately whether or not you require extra members of staff at any given time. So, the moral of the story is prepared, for if you don’t prepare, then it could fail.
An example of this would be when a construction firm contracts a cleaning company, at short notice, to carry out the initial builders clean to a large commercial building. Such projects usually are labor-intensive, short-term, and quite often, the cleaning is staggered over several weeks or requires a fluctuating workforce determined by the main contractor. As the project progresses rather than set-in-stone in advance of the commence date.
A large number of small cleaning companies steer clear such projects, as their workforce requires the consistent hours of work that permanent contracts provide. Or they cannot deal with builders’ varying requirements as they approach handover. However, there is money to be made in being able to service the needs of builders by having a flexible workforce as construction cleans can be very profitable indeed.
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