Improving the Bottom Line with Direct-Hires

With the nation’s unemployment rate near its lowest point ever, employers are finding that traditional temp-to-hire strategies are tougher to successfully execute than in the past. With candidates enjoying more employment options these days, we think it behooves employers to consider filling open positions with direct hires.

That’s not to say that using temporary candidates to fill important positions is a thing of the past. That’s hardly the case. To the contrary, it remains an important piece of the hiring puzzle for many employers. That’s especially true for those organizations facing predictable seasonal peak demands in their business. Temporary hires are often the best tool for fortifying their workforces.

But for many, perhaps even most, employers, the direct-hire approach is the most direct route to a larger, deeper pool of qualified candidates. Why? Because in a tight job market, temporary hires are likely to continue to pursue other employment options even as they temporarily work for you. That means they might well soon be headed out the door with little or no warning.

At Staffing Solutions, an ERC Dream Team partner, they’ve made the switch with some clients. At one booming warehousing operation they serve, the client used to rely solely on temp-to-hire to fill its warehouse positions. With their help, and working with an associate we have located on-site with the client, the company recently converted 20 openings to direct hires. The result has been a uniformly better quality of candidates now filling these jobs, with far less turnover.

In the end, hiring employees directly is likely to yield a more stable workforce over time. All of that adds up to an improvement in the bottom line for most employers.