Whether you have worked with a staffing company or not there are a few terms and meaning attached to words you should be aware of. Knowing what theses certain terms will give you the correct idea about what type of service you are agreeing too.

While all businesses have their own type of jargon these are going to be the most important when you start using a staffing agency. Today we choose the five most important words we think you should understand when coming into an agreement with a staffing agency.


Day Labor: Day labor, is exactly what it sounds like. This is typically only 1 day. If you need an extra set of hands for either the whole day or a just a few hours this will be the type of service you will be looking for. More often than not, day labor positions include; Emergency office cleaning, snow shoveling, apartment moving or even storage shed clean out. We work with many clients who keep an account with us for only day labor positions. Why? The reason some companies only use a day labor positions is because they need help right now. Usually day labor positions are emergency based.


Temp-Labor: If we break down the word of Temp-Labor we get (temporary labor) Temporary could mean 1 week or weeks on end. The types of circumstances that would be a temporary position would be; construction clean project clean ups, filling a big production line order, seasonal work. A company would use temp-labor when they have a lengthy project but it just doesn't make sense to hire someone full time for a short temp position. The easiest way to figure our if you need a temporary employee or a full time employee is think, "do I have enough work to keep this employee busy for more than 1 full year?" If the answer is no, temp-labor would be a great option.


Temp to Hire: Do you have a new position you need to fill but there is an on-boarding time? Did you get a applicant but want to make sure the fit is correct before you put them on full payroll? Have you decided to create a new position but aren't quite sure its going to work the way you thought? These are all situations where a temp to hire employee would work great for your company. Temp to Hire is a chance for your company to work with an employee to be sure the fit is correct for you or the employee without having to go through all the paper work and mess of hiring an employee to only find out in 2 weeks the fight isn't right for either party.


Now that we have covered the types of employment that are tied with a staffing agency we want to cover the 2 different rates that are associated with staffing. When it comes to billing you are going to hear 1 of 2 terms and they are, "Hourly-Rate" and "Bill-Rate". The following break downs will show the difference between these 2 items.


Hourly-Rate- The hourly rate is the pay rate that the employee is paid. Hourly rate means a lot when you are looking to hire an employee. Now when working with a staffing company this would be a great first place to look when you get a quote from a company. Any company can get you a low hourly rate but what type of work do you think you are going to get with a low pay rate compared to a high pay rate? You need to be able to trust the employees your staffing company send over to your company are going to be an asset to the project you are trying to complete. In most cases lower isn't always better.


Bill-Rate: When you get a quote from your local staffing company and see the bill rate it may seem a bit high if you aren't aware what is all included in the final price. Not only are you paying the hourly-rate, there is going to be a company margin. The company margin is what the mark-up your staffing company attaches for a profit. What many people don't understand about using a staffing employees is that fact that we take care of the workers comp, State and Federal unemployment, Social Security and Liability insurance. When you use a staffing company those items are what you are going to be billed for so if it seems high that's why. And, if it helps ease the fact you are being billed for the items just remember, They are the staffing agencies employees, you are just borrowing them for the day or time period.

We hope covering these certain terms you may or may not have been aware of we hope these terms can clear the air for some of your questions. If for any reason there are any other questions you may have you are more than welcome to give us a call at Labor Masters and we will cover any base you need. We want the companies we work with the be fully education on our service and what is expected. We hope to use these weekly blogs as a way to inform, education and show what the world of staffing is a all about. If you like the content we are putting out or find it helpful to you or think a friend would enjoy this hit the subscribe button and share this out!

We hope to see you in the future!