Temporary Staffing – Have You Considered Your Options?

You haven’t met your productivity targets again! And the clients are NOT happy. Absenteeism, strike action and keeping the shift roster filled, is an ongoing battle fought by most companies. The labour environment is becoming more complicated by the day – think unions, CCMA, new legislation… If this sounds familiar, and you spend valuable time and resources managing your temporary staff pool, then it is well worth investigating outsourcing the flexible component of your labour force.

Labour Legislation And The Misunderstanding Around Section 198

You’ve heard of outsourced labour/temporary employment services – but what about the controversy around the recent labour law amendments? The recent amendments to the Labour Relations Act and Section 198 (which applies to employees under the prescribed income threshold) is still a topic of much discussion, with most companies being under the impression that any temporary staff who are placed with them via a Temporary Employment Service (TES) provider for longer than 3 months, will automatically become said company’s employee. This misconception has fortunately been put into perspective with recent arbitration proceedings, where the Court found that the employment relationship remains between the temporary employee and the TES. Your TES needs to ensure that they manage the employment contracts properly, and there must be justifiable reasons for the temporary employment arrangement. This is good news for all parties involved since continued misinterpretation of this piece of legislation is certainly having an impact on the country’s already pressurised unemployment rate, while complicating things for businesses in terms of their staff hiring policy.

National Minimum Wage

The imminent introduction of the National minimum wage is not helping. The sudden increase that companies will see in the cost of blue collar labour, possibly from as soon as May next year, will cause companies to become even more conservative towards the hiring of staff. The option of calling in staff according to productivity needs will likely become more attractive. This option will, however, demand time and resources to maintain a decent pool of ad hoc staff. The only time you pay for labour to deal with your fluctuating productivity volumes is when you actually use the labour – another reason to appoint an external specialist to run this function for you.

Outsourcing

There is merit in outsourcing your flexible staffing component – here are the main reasons why most companies do:

Flexibility – productivity volumes fluctuate, and it is costly to keep staff on permanently during the quiet times;

Productivity – Absenteeism and lack of skills poses a threat to productivity targets;

Time – It is admin-intensive to manage an ever-changing temporary staff compliment (recordkeeping, payroll and leave admin, employment contracts, etc.) ;

Resources – Recruitment of your staff pool is an ongoing task and requires strict screening through criminal record checks and reference checks;

Discipline – Management of staff, disciplinary procedures/CCMA matters is time-consuming; ensuring that temporary staff follow the disciplinary code, dealing with incidents and CCMA matters takes key persons out of the office.

Free up your management time and give your business more flexibility – contact your nearest Kempston Employment Solutions representative so that we can structure and option that will suit your unique business needs. No staff compliment is too big or too small for us to manage.