Having dealt with enough temporary staffing agencies I can make several assumptions, although I cannot speak with absolute certainty. These places are very useful and should not be relegated to the dump heap. On the other hand their practices leaves one wondering what is going on in the back rooms of temporary agencies.
So, let me state my assumptions, and no doubt somebody may argue that I am completely off the mark. First off I must believe that the placement of temps is based on a commission basis. In other words the agency representative earns a commission for every person that is placed in a job. Having said that those representatives compete against one another and will go to extreme lengths to sell the assignment to the temp., that is being considered.
A. Representatives will misrepresent the job description, and the length of the assignment in order to get the temp., to accept the offer.
B. Representatives play a tag team game with temps., in order to sell the assignment. The initial contact is the sweetner, and the final contact is the closer.
C. Again the true nature of the assignment is not disclosed and only a general and vague description is offered for the temp., to consider. And in the hopes that once the temp., accepts the offer he/she will stay on the assignment regardless of the circumstances.
D. If the job duties do not match the skills of a temporary and the temporary makes it known to the agency the temp., will be accused of being a slacker and will be admonished for taking a job that he was not qualitied to perform.
E. The agency will always say the job description offered to the temp., is as given by the client firm and so the agency cannot be faulted for an assignment that turns out to be totally different from that described by the agency.
F. The client firms will abuse the temporary once he is on board by asking duties of the temporary that would be more expensive to fill. In other words, the job title given by the client firm might be file clerk and the duties will include those of a receptionist, data entry clerk, word processor, administrative assistant, and docket clerk. And in this way the client firm will get a temporary on the cheap. Of course the client firm will assume that the temp., will not complain and in any case the agency will not call the client firm on the complaint in order not to jeopordize the hire. Although the agency will make a big show to the temp., of wanting to know if the duties are different from the description.
G. Temps., that dare to complain or rock the boat are conveniently ignored and not considered for further job assignments. In essence those temps., are discarded and given a lot of BS thereafter. The agency will hope that by ignoring the unhappy temporary that he will disappear and go to another agency, etc. But he will not be told that he is no longer needed in order to prevent the temporary from filing for unemployment insurance.
H. And those unhappy temporaries will only be offered the worst job assignments, and those that are difficult to place and that other temps., do not want, if at all.
I. Agencies may bill the client firm double the hourly rate for the temporary hire. Under the assumption that a temp., is paid an hourly rate of $15 dollars, then the agency will bill the client firm $30 dollars per hour and they laugh all the way to the bank.
These assumptions are based on personal experience and conversations with other temporaries that have also dealt with agencies in Los Angeles. In any case temporaries are often held with with contempt by regular employees of client firms. Temporaries on any given assignment will often share their experiences on their various assignments. So, when temps., take their lunch break they will sit together and compare notes.
Leave Your Comments