Your company’s most valuable resource is people. It doesn’t matter if the people working for you are permanent or temporary workers. From the perspective of your customers, they serve as ambassadors for your company. Selecting the right temporary staffing agency will help with finding those short term workers who will be a positive reflection on your company.

What should you look for when hiring a temporary staffing agency? We will consider the following three questions that you want to ask:

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• How are their fees structured?
• How much experience do they have in your industry?
• How do they select their applicants?

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How Are Their Fees Structured?

On the surface a temporary staffing agency offering a really low billing rate may appear to be a good thing. You may assume that the low rate is resulting in a significant cost savings. In reality that may not be the case. It is important to know that the temporary staffing agency that you select is complying with all Workplace Safety and Insurance Board’s (WSIB), Ministry of Labour (MOL) and Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) requirements. Offering too low of a rate can be a red flag that they are guilty of one or more of the following:

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• Paying their workers less than the minimum wage
• Not ensuring that all WSIB premiums are being paid
• Using temp workers that are not legally able to work in Canada
• Not properly reporting the earnings of their temp workers to the CRA

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If the temporary staffing agency is guilty of any of the above, then they are exposing you to the risk of costly fines and other legal issues in the event of an audit by the MOL, CRA or WSIB.

It is also good to keep in mind that you get what you pay for. It is possible that the temporary staffing agency that you hire is following all legal requirements but still hurting your company. If they are not offering their temp workers wages that are competitive by industry standards then you could find yourself stuck with low quality workers. The negative effect on your productivity would quickly eat away at any short term savings.

How Much Experience Do They Have In Your Industry?

A temporary staffing agency may be a good agency, but be the wrong agency for you. You need to have confidence that the agency that you hire understands your needs. If they have experience in your industry that will likely be the case. By having that extensive industry experience they will be able to give you ready access to a large pool of temporary staff that will be able to care for your needs with limited training.

The other advantage which comes from industry experience is that the temporary staffing agency that you hire will be an excellent source of insider information. The experience that they have from working with the competition will give you knowledge concerning developing industry trends and competitive wages.

How Do They Select Their Applicants?

It is important to have an awareness of the screening process used by the temporary staffing agency that you hire. That would include any skill tests that they perform. It would also include any background checks. You need to have confidence that the temporary staffing agency that you select can match your company with the right workers who will positively represent your company.

Knowing what to look for in hiring a temporary staffing agency will help you hire the right one. The right agency will simultaneously fill your temporary staffing needs and increase your productivity.