The ability to try before you buy – or test drive employees before hiring them permanently – has long been a major advantage of utilizing temporary staffing. In fact, the American Staffing Association’s 2013 survey found that 80% of staffing clients believe staffing firms offer a good way to find candidates who can become permanent employees. Seeing how an employee performs in the workplace allows you the time to evaluate their work habits, productivity, and fit with your company culture before making the commitment to hiring them permanently.
A traditional staffing agency generally charges a conversion fee if an employer wants to permanently hire one of its associates. The fee is typically a percentage of the employee’s annual salary and can run into the tens of thousands of dollars. It will likely be higher if the employee has only spent a short time temping at your company.
The DPI Approach
But at DPI Staffing, we don’t charge a conversion fee after a temporary employee has worked for a customer for a set period of time (generally 520 hours). Not only that, but we actually celebrate our employees finding permanent employment! We take on all of the (very significant) time and costs associated with recruiting employees and matching them with the right jobs. And then we cheer when they’re a great match to gain permanent employment with your company. That’s a stark contrast to most, if not all, staffing companies.
It’s all part of our unique model that solves our customers’ business challenges while helping people with disabilities and other barriers to employment gain jobs. As an alternative staffing organization, DPI’s mission is to help people with disabilities to have the opportunity to work. Our associates gain valuable work experience in temporary positions. And when we can make a strong job match that results in them being hired on permanently, we feel like we’ve succeeded.
Last year, we estimate that more than 300 of our temporary employees (roughly 10% of our total associates) were hired by our customers. We consider it a huge achievement that we are able to help establish working relationships that will be mutually beneficial for both employer and employee for many years to come.
At other staffing agencies, candidates being hired on permanently by customers may be treated with anything from indifference to dislike. But at DPI Staffing, we celebrate the try before you buy model. Give us a call to discuss our temp to perm hiring options.
