Running a business is all about growth. From day one your goal is to bring in more clients, seal the deal on more lucrative contracts, and increase your profit margins to outpace your competitors.  

For a temporary recruitment agency, this involves finding new skilled temporary workers for your database, and new clients to provide those workers for.  

However, growth can be a double-edged sword. As demand increases, many companies expand their team to keep up. But this isn’t always a good idea, and you might find those extra salaries are eating away at your bottom line.  

Today we’re going to explain what is the optimal size for your team, when to invest in temporary workers, and why our service helps temporary recruitment agencies to keep their teams compact.  

 

When to Hire New Staff 

This is a difficult question regardless of the type of company you run. Ironically, it’s just as tough for companies that are experts in recruiting,  

You don’t want to ‘jump the gun’ when demand increases and bring in multiple new staff members unless you absolutely need it. Many companies are busier at certain times of the year; a permanent hire might be needed for a few months but then finds themselves with little to do until things pick up again.  

On the other hand, you don’t want to make your workplace tougher than it should be by not bringing in new team members. If your existing permanent staff are stretched thin, putting more work on their plate will affect how well they can do their jobs, and will leave them drained and unhappy in their roles.  

An established company can predict any increases in demand, planning ahead and ensuring your team can handle it. For newer start-ups, you might not know when things will get busier, or how long the unprecedented demand will last. These are the companies that are often growing the fastest and can easily fall into the trap of hiring an unsustainable number of people.  

The perfect balance is a team that is busy, but not under so much pressure that performance is affected. This is possible to achieve for a temporary recruitment agency (more about that soon), but other companies struggle to find it.  

 

How Temporary Workers Create Sustainable Growth 

If you’re a business that sees increased demand on a seasonal basis, temporary workers are the best way to keep your team the perfect size year-round.  

For example, if you’re in the retail or logistics sector, you’ll be under more pressure around December because of Christmas and other holidays. As well as customers placing more orders, your team will also be looking to take time off over Christmas and New Years, and sick days are more common in winter too. If your team is stretched thin, one missing person can cause chaos. To prevent this you can bring in skilled temporary workers.  

When a company approaches a temporary recruitment agency, either general or industry-specific, they’ll be sent multiple applicants to choose from. All will have the relevant experience and will be ready to hit the ground running as soon as they arrive.  

Temporary workers can have fixed contracts to provide support during a busy period, help with a big project, or cover for leave. In the case of the latter, the contracts can be flexible so they’re around for as long as they’re needed and won’t leave you high and dry.  

By using an agency, success is guaranteed. The traditional hiring process is costly and time consuming (not ideal when the pressure is on), and you can’t be sure you’ll find the right person for the job. A permanent worker will also need training and plenty of time to learn the ropes, again not ideal if you need them urgently. Temporary workers will be hand-selected from a large pool of talent, and you’ll still have plenty of options if you’re looking for someone with specific skills or characteristics.  

 

Recruitment Funding Support to Keep your Team Sustainable 

A temporary recruitment agency can invest too heavily in permanent staff, restricting business growth and creating a crowded office for very little payoff. This is because working a recruitment agency involves a variety of admin tasks, which take up a lot of work hours.  

The majority of your team will have been hired to source new applicants, add them to your database, and then send them to your clients. You’ll also have people in charge of relations with said clients, building a trusting relationship so that they come to you before and of your rivals. These roles can’t be replaced; it’s what your team does best. But when they’re spending half their time or longer handling payroll, invoices, or credit checks, you won’t see the rapid growth you’re hoping for.  

Our all-in-one service provides: 

All for one transparent cost. When these tasks are being handled by the professionals, your team will be able to focus on their strengths, and we’ll handle the rest to a much higher standard than they can do themselves. If you’ve had to bring on new members of staff to handle the admin, you’re costing yourself more money – our service is a lot cheaper than multiple salaries, and you’ll be able to keep your work family compact.  

It’s a known fact that the more people you hire, the higher the risk of miscommunication. If information needs to be passed across multiple desks, or via half a dozen emails before it reaches the right person, it could be either late or wrong. By reducing your staff members, you create a close-knit community that is always in touch with one another.  

We do something similar with our clients. When you sign up with us, we set you up with just two points of contact: your payroll account manager and your credit controller. They’ll provide all the support you need, including regular updates, and build a personal but professional relationship with your and your clients. We have a human-focused approach, our team always does as much as possible to integrate within your in-office team and become one of the family over time. This also builds trust, and in the last two decades we’ve seen how effective it can be. 

If you’re looking to maximise the effectiveness of your team, without restricting growth, our service is just what you need to succeed.