Major Legal Services®: Employers: Use of Temps

The utilization of temporary (“contract”) employees in law firms and corporate legal departments has soared over the last couple years. This may come as no surprise if you follow hiring trends. Typically, when the economy begins to recover from a recession, employers enjoy an increase in workload. Rather than taking the leap to the hiring of “permanent” employees across the board, a more cautionary path is to enlist “temps” to meet some of that workload. Employers typically want to see that the increase in business activity is here to stay for awhile before making a long-term commitment to a host of new employees. If the recovery lasts, we will begin to finally see an increase in perm hiring.

Yet there are other reasons that the utilization of temps has increased, which may portend that the upsurge could be enduring. These include:

High quality candidates with legal background available and interested in temp work
Alternative lifestyles sought by candidates who do not want to commit, for a variety of reasons, to a “permanent” position
Employee benefits available from quality legal staffing firms that attract and retain top-notch workers
The convenience to an employer of paying a flat hourly rate for a quality candidate who has taxes and benefits paid by the staffing firm
The benefit to an employer of having to pay only for work performed
Billing of temporary attorney and paralegal work to a firm’s client at rates that benefit the client, while allowing for a firm profit as well
The advantage to both the temp and the employer of “testing the waters” of the relationship, before making a long-term commitment
A lower placement fee to firms/corporations that hire temps through a recruiting company (via a “temp-to-perm” option)

In addition, temporary employees may be more productive than some permanent employees! The Department of Labor actually found that temporary workers are productive 90% of the time, while permanent workers’ productivity ranges from 65 to 85%. Perhaps one reason for this is that temps are able to maintain a narrower focus on the work and are less likely to be distracted by office politics or other tasks and activities. In addition, temporary workers looking for permanent work have something to prove. They want to do well to earn a job with the employer, or at least create a track record of quality work.

The use of temps lowers the risk of problems that result from overworked permanent staff members. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data reveals that pushing permanent employees to work longer hours to meet increases in workload can backfire. Essentially, productivity decreases and errors in work product increase with the number of hours on the job. Forbes magazine put it this way: “If raising productivity is a powerful national need, flexible staffing is a prominent means of achieving it.”

Temporary employment, when competently managed, can be a harvest of great benefit to both employers and employees. Top-notch legal staffing companies that have worked in this endeavor for many years have improved the process, like the Swiss with fine watch making, and thus its rewards to both candidates and clients. Candidates are generally higher quality, better screened, and enjoy many of the benefits of permanent staffers. In the search and placement industry lingo, there is even a term for a temp who is between jobs: “on the beach”! (That’s a hundred and eighty degrees from what they used to be called!) Doesn’t sound too bad, does it?!