As a small business, hiring the employees that you need to keep your business running can be challenging. When you already have a very small staff, it can cost a lot of money to review applications and conduct interviews and can take away from the work that your staff needs to be doing. This process can be even more costly when you only need to fill or add a position temporarily. That is where temp agencies come into play. Here are three things you need to know and understand about working with temp agencies as a small business.

Work With One Or Two Agencies

First, select just one or two agencies to work with. You don't need to work with a handful of agencies when you only have a couple of jobs that need to be filled each year. Working with just one or two temp agencies will allow you to build relationships with the representatives who work for the temp agencies. By building relationships with the representatives, the representatives will be able to more easily place candidates at your company that would fit in with your company's culture and be able to do the work required of them. You increase your relationship with the temp agency representatives by inviting them to your business, touring them around, and letting them get a first-hand look at how your company operates. The more the temp agency knows about you, the better they will be able to serve your needs.

Choose A Temp Agency That Screens Potential Workers For You

Second, as a small business, you probably don't have a lot of resources or structures in place for running drug tests on potential employees and running background checks. If this is something that you want to have done for potential employees, hire a temp agency that runs drug and background checks on all potential workers for you. This will reduce your upfront overhead that comes with hiring new employees, and will help you protect your business by screening the people who work for you.

Know What You Want Long-Term From The Position

Some temp agencies allow you to hire temporary workers as full-time employees of your business after a certain period of time passes. If you want your temporary employees to potentially become full-time employees in the future, make sure that you let your temp agency know that. This will help them recruit more accurately for the positions that they are trying to fill for your company.

It can also change the dynamic between you and the temporary workers that you hire when they are aware that this temporary position is really a long-term audition for a full-time job. For a worker that wants a full-time job, this allows them to really put their best effort forward, and it allows both of you to see if you are a good fit for one another. You may also want to put more training time and money into a temporary worker who may become permanent in the future.

If you run a small business, working with a temp agency can be a great way to fill part-time, temporary positions and to fill part-time positions that could turn into full-time positions in the future. Working with a temp agency allows you and your employees to focus on running the business at hand instead of on the hiring process, which is a job unto itself. 

Talk to a company like Staffing Solutions, LLC to learn more.