- Temporary Agencies or "Temp Agencies" are temporary staffing firms that serve as a middleman between employers and job-seekers. When companies need a temporary increase in person-hours, they contact a staffing agency and acquire workers to fill the temporary position. The staffing agency serves numerous companies in this manner, and employs various people capable of handling temporary positions for this reason.
- Applying to a temporary agency is generally easier than applying to a regular job. A temporary agency is constantly hiring people, and so they tend to have a more refined hiring process than at a regular company. Applicants will need an updated resume and can usually apply online through the temp agency's website. If an interview is required, business casual is a suggested dress code.
- Widely-applicable skills are generally the most useful when seeking employment at a temporary agency, since job applicants who work at temporary agencies will likely have to do work for a variety of companies. Office administration skills, such as filing, answering phones and data entry, are often required. Proficiency with standard office computer programs is also generally desired, so applicants may be expected to be conversant with word processing and spreadsheet programs. Some temporary agencies specialize in a particular sector, such as law, in which case some background legal knowledge in that area is generally required.
- Workers at a temporary agency are usually given only as many hours as they desire, making temp work much more flexible than at a full-time job. Since the work is at-will, temp agency workers may also take unpaid vacation leave with little difficulty, while such may be problematic for regular company workers. Temp agencies also offer a chance for their employees to experience a number of different careers and work environments, which can be useful for people who are still in the process of choosing a career.
- Temporary agencies always receive money from the company that uses the agency. For this reason, even if the company spends as much on the temporary employee as their full-time employees, the wages paid to a temporary worker will be less than the wages received to a regular worker. Many temp agencies do not offer benefits, which means that even a temp worker working full time will not have the health insurance and other benefits that most full-time workers receive. Temp agency work is unreliable, as a company may decide to stop using a temporary worker at any time, with no advance warning. Lastly, some people find temporary work unfulfilling, since it is inherently transient and rarely builds towards some greater goal.
- Although temporary agencies generally supply seasonal workers for a contingency work force, some companies eventually end up hiring their temporary workers as full time staff. The benefit to the company is an employee who is already conversant with company procedure and does not need to be trained. In addition, this saves the company the time and expense of a search for a qualified candidate. Temporary workers seeking a permanent position should make their agency aware of that fact, as certain companies may come to a temporary agency specifying that they have an eye towards hiring permanent employees.
