How to Manage Temporary Staff: A First-Timer’s Guide

Congratulations! You’ve taken the leap and decided it’s time to work with temporary staff. Whether you’ve hired these workers to handle a seasonal rush or to help with a specialized project, you want them to do their best – and you want to ensure your management helps them achieve that goal.

Here are the key issues to consider when managing temporary or contract workers for the first time:

Wherever you can, plan ahead.

Any tasks you can handle before your temporary staff arrive for their first day of work should be handled in advance. This way, you can make the entrance of your temporary workers smoother, get them up to speed more quickly, and minimize distractions to your existing team.

Tasks that can easily be handled in advance include setting up temporary staff workspace, coordinating with existing staff, and communicating with your recruiter to ensure temp staff’s paperwork is ready to go.

Work with your core staff first.

Before your new temporary workers arrive, talk to your existing team. Clarify exactly which tasks your current staff should focus on, and which they should leave for the temporary staff.

Ideally, your core staff will continue to do their regular work as much as possible, neither delegating it to the temporary staff nor abandoning it to help the temporary staff. Set the procedures necessary to help your core staff stay focused while your temporary staff take on the specific tasks you need them to handle.

Provide adequate onboarding and training.

Even though temporary staff may be on site for only a few weeks or months, they still need to understand how your organization works and how you want them to do their job.

Plan for onboarding and training for these staff members. The time you spend providing the information they need will be well spent, since they’ll be more productive on the job once they start working.

Keep the lines of communication clear.

Adding temporary staff can change the culture and tenor of your workplace, raising new conflicts or re-igniting old ones. Make sure both temporary and core staff understand exactly where, how and to whom to bring up potential problems. Touch base regularly with everyone so you know what’s going on and solve problems sooner rather than later.

Also, stay in touch with your recruiter throughout the process. Your staffing firm can also help you solve problems with temp staff before things get out of hand.

At THE RIGHT STAFF, LLC, our recruiters can help you find the temporary help you need when you need it. Contact us today to learn more.

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