Over recent years, I’ve had many conversations with
hiring managers in which they’ve asked about the reputation their departments hold
within the market as an employer. These questions will often come at a time
when a firm is struggling to attract candidates for what should be a relatively
straight forward vacancy to fill, and I’ve had a couple of these conversations
just recently.
On both occasions the hiring managers were concerned that
a negative message may have been filtering out to the market from temporary
workers they’ve had working within their teams within the last year. This may
or may not have been the case, but it highlights an extremely important
consideration for managing your employer reputation: LOOK AFTER YOUR TEMPS!
Recent legislation (the Agency Worker Regulations) has
ensured that temporary workers are assured of equal treatment to comparable
permanent employees in terms of their pay, annual leave and access to employer
facilities, but legislation can only go so far.
When it comes to how welcome they are made to feel, how
much time is invested in getting to know them and to what extent they are made
to feel part of a team, temporary workers will experience vastly different
approaches from one employer to the next, and even between different departments
within the same firm.
These temporary workers may only be with an employer for
a matter of weeks, but during that time they will have formed an opinion on
whether the department they’ve been working in is one they’d recommend or one
they’d advise others to steer clear of. Naturally their views may not always be
taken as gospel, but people talk, and ‘career temps’ will already know and come
in to contact with a huge number of potential hires for your firm as they move
from one assignment to the next.
So, if you use interim staff in your firm, consider how
much time you invest in making them feel welcome, and consider how other team
members will engage with them also – do they know why they’re joining? Might
they feel threatened and unwilling to assist them as a result?
Treated well, a temporary worker can make a significant positive impact on your employer reputation.
