Do you focus most of your attention on your full-time staff, giving your temps the cold-shoulder? While it’s easy to dismiss your temporary employees, engaging your temps is just as critical as engaging your full-time staff. Your temps have a direct impact on your organization’s productivity and bottom line, making them a significant part of your workforce that cannot be ignored.
As an employer, you may find it more challenging to fully engage temp workers, often they’re short-term employees who are not usually as invested in your organization. However, here are three steps you can take to improve engagement with your temporary staff which can lead to positive changes for retention:
Explain the potential of securing full-time employment.
If your company has the potential to eventually hire temp employees for full-time positions, communicate this as part of your engagement strategy. Explaining to temps the steps they can take to position themselves for a full-time job at your organization will have many benefits. First, it will give them more incentive to learn and perform well at the job, so they’re knowledgeable and confident about their responsibilities. Second, it gives you (the employer) a prime opportunity to groom temps for full-time roles, cutting down on training and onboarding costs in the future. While you certainly can’t promise that all temps will become full-time workers, highlighting temporary employment as a means of securing full-time work can be a catalyst for better engagement.
Set clear goals and expectations.
Many employees are most engaged when they have set goals to reach, and temporary workers are no exception to this. To keep your temporary workers focused and on track, it’s imperative you set clear goals and expectations for their performance. Giving your temps their own set of responsibilities will show you’re invested in them as members of your team and care about their success on the job. By establishing a sense of accountability among your temps, you’ll give them the help and guidance they need to excel and potentially secure full-time roles.
Integrate temporary employees with your team.
Due to the short-term nature of their jobs, temporary workers often feel they don’t fit in with an organization’s full-time employees. A core part of engaging your temps involves integrating them with your team and forging connections among all your workers. Developing a culture that fosters communication, comradery and human connection will help your temps feel comfortable working directly with your full-time workers, and vice versa. You may also consider the benefit of having your permanent employees assist in training your temps, as this can enhance workplace relationships and allow for effective mentorship in the process.
Struggling to find qualified temp workers?
Get in touch with The Liberty Group, with locations in major cities throughout the United States.
