The Advantages of Hiring Temporary Staff to Meet Permanent Needs

Filling an open position with a temporary hire provides two opportunities for employers. First, it gives both employer – and the team – a chance to see if a candidate is a good match for the position. Second, it’s an opportunity to reevaluate the position and make sure that it still meets the needs of the company.

A staffing agency can not only recruit candidates who are both a great match for the position, and open to temp-to-perm placement, but be a strategic partner in workforce planning. For instance, if a candidate doesn’t become a permanent hire, they may spark a redesign of the role, and a staffing agency will help modify the job description and then fill the new and improved position. Using temporary staff to fill immediate needs also allows companies gain the insight and flexibility to build stronger, more adaptive teams by bringing on board new hires in roles that complement the skills and strengths of the team members currently in place.

A Trial Period with Real Insight

One of the most valuable aspects of hiring temporary staff for potential permanent placement, through a staffing agency, is the opportunity it gives both employers and employees to assess compatibility before making a solid commitment. Temporary staff essentially provide a working trial period, allowing managers to evaluate how well a candidate fits with the team, meets job expectations, and adapts to company culture. This real-world insight is much more revealing than a standard interview or resume review. According to the American Staffing Association, more than 30% of temporary employees are offered permanent positions by the companies where they are placed—a strong indication that this approach leads to successful long-term matches.

A Chance to Reevaluate and Improve

Temporary hires give companies a natural opportunity to step back and assess the role itself. Sometimes, a position evolves or becomes outdated, but because it’s filled permanently those changes aren’t obvious. Bringing in temporary staff allows the team, and management, to observe how the job functions in the current business context and determine if adjustments are needed. A new person in the position may reveal that responsibilities need to be redistributed, the role should be expanded or, or that new skills – like familiarity with AI platforms – would improve an employee’s ability to do the job.

When organizations embrace flexibility and actively adapt roles based on current needs, they often improve both team performance and employee satisfaction. Employing temporary staff creates a low-risk environment for teams to explore new dynamics and workflows and make needed changes.

Researchers John Boudreau and Ravin Jesuthasan, in their 2022 book “Work Without Jobs: How to Reboot Your Organization’s Work Operating System,” write about this need for flexibility. The authors use real world case studies to illustrate the advantages of deconstructing jobs into their component parts and reconstructing these components “into more optimal combinations that reflect the skills and abilities of individual workers.” They emphasize that this is vital in a new normal marked by rapidly accelerating automation, demands for organizational agility, efforts to increase diversity, and the emergence of alternative work arrangements.

When a position opens at a company, it’s an opportunity to recruit for a temp to perm job. Hiring temporary staff, with the options to make them permanent, allows employers to redesign the role so that it matches the current needs of the company, and give candidates a trial period to make sure they are a great match. A recruiting and staffing agency can be an invaluable partner in this process.

As one of the top recruiting agencies in Pennsylvania, TriStarr specializes in legal staff, accounting, IT, human resources, and administrative staffing placements. Our services include recruiting for administrative, professional and management roles, for both temporary staff and permanent employees. If you’d like to leverage our decades of staffing agency experience to screen candidates, reach out! Make a talent request on our website or call us at 717-560-2111 for more information.