How to Find the Right Temp Agency

Temporary workers can help small businesses weather economic ups and downs. To get great ones in the door, you need to choose the right temp agency.

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Small businesses can't always afford a full-time graphic designer, or an a seasonal receptionist, or even someone to build their website. That's where temp agencies come in. But small businesses are much more hesitant to use temporary staff than their larger counterparts.

While 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies use temporary and contract staffing strategically, which is to say in preparation for the peaks and valleys in their demand cycle, once you get down to businesses with between 25 and 99 people, that figure drops to 12 percent.

Part of the reason for this disparity is small business owners' concern that temp workers might be more trouble than they're worth. "One of the misconceptions is that 'temp and contract workers would have a hard time assimilating into my workplace seamlessly. My people would spend more time trying to train these people and bring them up to speed, it just isn't worthwhile,'" says Richard Wahlquist, president and CEO of the American Staffing Association, which is based in Alexandria, Virginia.

If you look to the long term, however, using temp workers well brings far more benefit to a business than the effort expended in training them. Here's how to find a temp agency that will make the process as smooth as possible.

Finding the Right Temp Agency: Gauge the Breadth of Your Agency's Talent

When shopping around for temp agencies for your business, the most obvious consideration is what type of talent you're looking for. Some agencies specialize in a single profession, such as providing administrative assistants, or focus on a specific professional sector.

If you can, look a few years into the future and determine whether you will need more depth of talent in a certain area. Your company's future focus can and should significantly affect your choice of temp agencies.

Solvate, a New York City-based company, bills itself as the Zipcar of temp agencies (it allows its clients to access talent virtually and on an hourly basis). The company makes no effort to specialize; instead it offers business owners access to a variety of types of talent they might need. And they know whereof they speak, having used 87 different temporary workers to help build their business since its inception in 2007.

"We don't want to focus on any one thing because what we've already seen from our active clients is that they have tapped on average 6.8 different people to work for them," says Michael Paolucci the company's co-founder and CEO. "So what that suggests to me is that [we're] like a small business toolkit; we're like a Swiss army knife."

Dig Deeper: Hiring in an Employer's Market

Finding the Right Temp Agency: Ask the Right Questions

Once you've ascertained that the agency you're considering stocks the type of talent you're looking for, you have to ask yourself a trickier question: why are these people temping? You don't want to dip into the dregs of the talent pool, so how can you assure that you're not sacrificing quality when you choose hourly workers over salaried workers.

Paolucci's company has an easy answer to the quality question. Solvate's workers are limited to professionals who have already achieved success as independent contractors. They aren't working as temps "because they cant find a job or they're in-between jobs, or they didn't make the cut someplace else," he explains. Other temp workers "don't have a professional reputation on the line like an independent contractor, who is really trying to build their client base."

Jill Evans Silman, the vice president of Meador Staffing Services, which is based in Pasadena, Texas, views the issue of accountability differently. She asks: "Why would you go to an accountant [versus] a CPA? Well, if the person's gone to the extra trouble to align themselves with a professional association, if they've sat for the certification, if they've done those extra things, why wouldn't you want to go with them."

Similarly, Wahlquist is a proponent of agencies with the ASA seal of approval. That designation means that the firm has committed to operate in compliance with the association's code of ethics as well as providing continuing professional education so that they are up on the latest HR legislation.

Coy Renick, co-founder of The Renick Group, a Roanoke, Virginia-based recruiting and staffing firm, has a number of suggestions for questions to ask a prospective temp agency before signing on the dotted line:

- Are there prior or current customers you can use as a reference, preferably business in a similar market and size range?

- Is its rate competitive with other staffing firms in your geographic area?

- How many years of experience the agency's employees have?

- What has its success rate been with making placements and what is its past level of turnover?

Dig Deeper: Hiring Temps? Here's How to Keep It Legal

Finding the Right Temp Agency: Ask About Additional Perks and Services

Many temp agencies have standard services beyond simply matching your company with the right talent. They will also perform criminal and background checks, education verification, and even drug screening. Some agencies offer these as a complete package while others are willing to parcel them out. For example, it might conduct screening of employee backgrounds while allowing your company to conduct the interviews in house.

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