Since the LRA amendments came into effect in March 2015, many companies have been too nervous to hire temps, even for short term assignments, often leading to backlogs and over-worked staff.
Here is some information to dispel some myths about the legalities of hiring temps.
- You can hire temps for longer than three months, as long as there is a valid reason for having a temp. Here are some valid reasons – you need a maternity temp for 4 to 6 months while one of your staff goes on leave / you have a one year contract to complete a project and you need temporary staff to help for the duration of the set contract, with a set reason / you have a backlog of work that needs to be done and the assignment could be between 3 and 6 months, depending on the job of work.
- Many companies are nervous to take on a permanent staff member and they often prefer to take on a person on a three-month temporary basis as a working interview in order to get an accurate assessment of the skills the employee has and to ascertain whether they will be a job match. If during this time, the employee does not perform, then the temp contract is not renewed and the temp leaves with no expectation of a permanent job. In this case, it is important to have a written fixed term contract in place.
- Many companies are still hiring temps on a daily or weekly basis for jobs like reception, switchboard, secretarial and PA functions. Recently, one of our clients who is a senior Financial manager was complaining that she was way behind in her work because their receptionist was off sick and she had to man the switchboard as they were no longer allowed to take on temps. This makes no financial sense having a highly paid senior person doing the work of a much more junior lower paid staff member. Generally, if you phone Pro Appointments in the morning for a temp, we should have someone at your offices within an hour.
- Many companies have peak periods of pressure, such as financial year end and this is a great reason to take on an Accounts clerk, data capturer or administrator to make the year end a seamless process.
- Many companies hire temps from us to do the jobs they don’t like doing, such as cold-calling, deliveries, filing, and data capture.
Please don’t hesitate to contact Pro Appointments should you require some temporary staff.
