Well, since I can’t seem to get a job anywhere else, how do they work? Do I need to go to the office, fill out a form and they find me a temp job? If so, do they take a cut of my pay? Anything else I need to know? (I don’t want to feel like an idiot when I go up there…
The agency will check to see if your skills are what they need. If it’s for something like inventory work, you just need to count; if you’re going to get a job as a typist (for better pay), you’ll need to type a minimum wpm.
The agency will tell you what your pay will be for each job, and you’ll get that amount (less taxes and normal deductions). The employer pays the temp agency a higher amount, and the agency takes its cut before setting what wage you’ll get.
The agency will contact employers (and be contacted by them) to see about work. Once they get a request, they’ll contact the appropriate people on their list to see if they are available. You can say “no,” to them, and they’ll go to another. (If this happens too often, though, you’ll get fewer calls from them.) You can sign up with multiple temp agencies to increase your chances.
I’ve only used one a couple of times, but here’s my experience (YMMV):
Go to their office and fill a job application and the usual tax forms associated with getting a job. You may also have to take some tests to give them an idea what type of work you are capable of.
Sometimes you can work right away, but they will usually have to analyze you and check to see if you match anyone.
When you do get work, they’ll give you a time card which must be signed by your supervisor. You turn it in to the agency and they pay you (they will usually take out the appropriate taxes, too).
The length of the job varies, from a few days to a few months. If you get lucky, the company you work for will hire you and you go on their payroll.
It saved my butt on more than a few occasions.
Just a heads up, it can be tough doing temp work. When I did it in the past people seemed to have a bad attitude at first, I guess its just part of the reputation temp workers get. I was also excluded from participating in company events like parties and such. Not something you’d want to try and make a career out of for sure but good for a quick buck when you can’t find something permanent. They will most likely ask you to take a drug test.
If you can use office software, they’ll test to see what level of skill you have with which programs. The wage will be set by the job, not by your skills, but higher skills will qualify you for higher paying jobs.
Some temp agencies specialize in computer related or customer service phone line jobs. Occasionally there are extremely odd jobs, such as dressing up as Tony the Tiger for a promotion or fuzz plucking ballots so that the counting machines don’t jam. The really odd ones are usually short, so you’re guaranteed half a days pay whether the job lasts that long or not.
I’ve had nothing but good experiences with temp agencies. I’ve been using one for the last six months to fill in the gaps between freelance work I do on the weekends, and my temp agency has kept me busy the entire time.
I signed up with two temp agencies, and they made me take five office skills tests: typing speed, Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, and Powerpoint. The average office temp in Chicago seems to make from $12-$15/hr. YMMV.
Being hired from a temp position is fairly common. Many of the employees I have met on my temp assignments have gotten their positions by starting on as temps. I’ve been offered two full-time positions, but declined both as I’m not interested in an office career.
All the offices I’ve worked in have been very cordial, and welcoming of temps. I may just be very lucky, but I found no problems or tension from permanent employees.
I’ve also never been subject to a drug test.
But, per the OP, call them up and ask the procedure. I submitted my form via email, they called me, and then I showed up at the office to fill out some more forms, have a brief interview, and take those tests. It took about a week or two to get assignments from the agency. But do sign up with as many agencies as you want – there’s nothing wrong with that.
Essentially, you are an employee of the temp agency (they issue your paycheck, calculate you payroll withholdings, etc.)
You then, in turn, become part of the service that temp agencies provide to businesses. The business pays the agency for the service of a skilled and qualified worker’s presence and performance in their office. Therefore, the agency needs to know what sort of office skills you have in order to decide which jobs will be to their best advantage to send you out on. You will be tested on a variety of skills.
Should a job come up that is a match for your skills, the agency may ask you if you want to go out to the job. In general, after the preliminaries of getting tested and into their system , you will spend little or no time at the actual office of the temp agency itself. You will be home, waiting for the phone to ring, at which point the agency will tell you, if you’re interested, where to go, what time to show up, who to report to, the nature of the work, and what the hours and pay will be (a fraction of what the agency and the business have agreed upon as the fee for the service). In general, you don’t have to say yes to any particular position, but if you guessed that your ratio of acceptances to rejections might have a direct effect on the number of times your phone rings, you would be correct. (If it seems like it’s been a while since you got called, it can’t hurt to call the agency and see if there’s some problem, or if you’ve simply fallen off their radar.)
What sort of thing you wind up doing depends on what the businesses served by the agency need at any given time. You might end up with a string of very short term jobs with varying pay rates, or you may end up at the same place at the same pay for weeks or months.
In general it’s good to find out from the agency what the client is and is not allowed to ask you to do for them. In a long-term job, a good agency will check up with you from time to time to see how things are going and if you have any questions or concerns.
Bongmaster’s point is well taken. There are a lot of reasons why a company hires temps, and the specific situation can affect the reception you get from the rest of their staff. I didn’t have a lot of bad experiences myself, but just be forewarned for the occasions where you walk into a cesspool of office politics.
A successful temp never forgets the Zig Ziglar rule of success: you get what you want from other people by getting them what they want. The temp agency, whatever their publicity may imply, is not in the business of finding you a job, they are in the business of providing offices with workers (remember who pays who). Make it clear to the agency (through the feedback on your performance that the client gives them) that when they put in a call to chaoticdonkey, they routinely have a pleased client (and potential return customer), and your phone will never grow cold (nor, hopefully, your wallet too thin). You may even wind up with an offer for a permanent position from one of the businesses.
I worked for a temp agency several years ago in a large metropolitan area. While on a secretarial assignment with a small business, I discovered that the company had cash flow problems and was systematically working its way through all the temp agencies in the phone book, using temps for various jobs and then stiffing the agencies. As soon as I discovered what was happening, I told my agency and was pulled off the job. Fortunately, the agency paid me, because I worked for them. Sometimes a temp agency is the best employer.
I’m working for a temp agency at the moment. I’m working to earn some money before uni starts again in September.
I went to the agency and filled in some forms. Then I did some tests to prove I can use computers and how fast I can type. I filled some forms to say I don’t have to pay tax. Within 2 weeks I was working.
Nothing new to add except a personal anecdote. I just wanted to mention that when I first met my wife and for some years after she did temping. She was an excellent typist and was offered permanent jobs dozens of times when sent out to different companies. She just preferred the better money, variety of companies, time off when you wanted it (unpaid of course). She gained a vast experience of all the different ways businesses work. Eventually though, she was made an offer of a permanent job she couldn’t refuse, and joined the rat-race. 
I wasn’t going to contribute to this thread but for this anecdote.
If you’re temping counting on “better money” you’re going into it with the wrong impression, especially if you’re doing long-term positions. Temps will routinely make several dollars less per hour than their permanent counterparts in the same position, and will of course not receive any benefits. This is justified in the temp agency’s perspective because they pay rate for their various categories of work (manual labor, clerical, secretarial, etc.) is pretty standardized across temp agencies, so you couldn’t really make more working for Kelly than Manpower. It’s justified in the perspective of the companies where you’ll be working because they’re paying several dollars more per hour for your services than you’re receiving, usually about 33% more, which tends to make the rate “competitive” in their minds, when compared to full-time employees.
It should also be made clear before anyone temps that while the agency is your employer, you, as an individual, don’t really make them their money. You’re one of many, and unless you have a very specific skill that just so happens to coincide with the request of a customer, you’re interchangeable. If you have a problem while on a job which is most easily remedied by pulling you off of the assignment and sending in someone who wouldn’t be bothered by whatever’s bothering you, they’ll do it if you’re not willing to suck up your objections to whatever and do what you’re told. This is especially true if you’re assigned to a company with which your agency has had a long relationship or a contract of some sort to provide continual temp services.
Also, be aware that you’re likely to work unbenefitted. Temp agencies usually make some form of health coverage available to temps but the offer is usually extended only after one year, and based on working a set number of hours in the last calendar year which is only attainable if the temp worker worked 40 hours a week for 48 weeks, something which is rare unless they’ve been on a continuous, long-term, full-time assignment, the coverage isn’t all that great (akin to Major Medical or old-style Blue Cross/Blue Shield indemnity plans) and the cost can be fairly high if you’re living on $10-12/hour.
This sounds harsh, but it is part of the big picture, and it’s best to know everything before deciding to get into temping, especially if you’re thinking about doing as something other than a stopgap between permanent positions.
My company hires temps exclusively at the entry-level. This is how I got in, and I was offered full time, then promoted to supervisor, all within a little over a year.
Our company has HUGE staffing needs, with a rather unforgiving job (phone customer service in a busy environment). Temping allows us to weed through the people who are just a waste of space and have no intention of actually doing a good job - people who want a free ride. Even good employees tend to burn out eventually. It’s repetitive work and it’s not glamorous.
Fortunately, they have a pretty good policy of hiring people on because it improves the retention rate, and our company’s benefits are excellent, and the pay livable.
Temping does bring up opportunity to prove yourself. That being said, some companies hire employees from a temp agency to avoid paying out benefits and you really have no opportunity to go full time. Fortunately, I lucked out with my first assignment.
I’m sorry that my post gave you the impression that I was recommending temping. As I said it was just an anecdote. My wife stayed in some jobs long enough to become aware of the salaries of her co-workers and in most cases she earned more money than they did. She was a skilled worker and in high demand and was continually being asked to stay and join the company as a permanent member of staff.
As I also said if she didn’t work there was no pay.
Regarding medical insurance this is not a problem in my country.
Because temping suited my wife it would be wrong of me to recommend it it to others, everyone’s circumstances are different.
All I can say is she loved it, all the new challenges and all the varieties of companies in their different spheres of the market place.
To give you some good ideas about temping. In 1996 I temped after not working for 10 years and raising three children when my youngest began kindergarden and my husband left us. After several jobs about 6 months each I managed to find one that was permanent. After 2 1/2 years they went under and I was eligible to go for my last year of college and get a degree.
Since then I have worked about 8 temp jobs ranging from 3 days to 8 months. About 2 months ago I began working for this company who recognized my computer science degree for what it was and they just brought me into the engineering department to prove myself. in about 2 more weeks I will be hired permanent as a software engineering technician 3 grades above what I was hired for to begin with.
Most of these 8 companies I worked for wouldn’t recognize a decent employee if they bit them in the butt. I am glad I stuck it out and kept my head up. Getting fired all the time can get pretty damaging to your self esteem. But the right company can make all your dreams come true.
I’m considering temp agencies as well as I need a work for the summer. Unfortunately I have never had an office job. I’m fairly adept with word, excel and powerpoint. However I was wondering if I failed the tests they gave me could I come back later to prove i’ve learned whatever it is they wanted me to know?
Are there science temp agencies? Working in a lab would be work experience i’d actually need.
Sounds like me. I temped for two years, being offered permanent jobs at just about every place I spent more than a day or two at, but I enjoyed the variety and ability to take off time when I wanted it. I was in the States at the time but I managed to find a personal health care plan at $40 a month so I didn’t need to worry about medical insurance (although there are some temp agencies that will offer that if you do x number of hours for them for x number of weeks/months). Eventually I found myself at the end of a four-week assignment at a company I realised I really wanted to stay and work for, so I stopped temping and went full time. But I still miss temping sometimes.
First let me qualify my comments. I’ve been involved with the technical staffing industry for over 20 years.
Temps do not routinely make several dollars less per hour than their perm counterparts. The client company pays the temp service $x/hr for their service. This rate does not equal what their own employees are making. What most agencies try to do is set up the pay scale to where the temps are making at least equiv. to the perm employees (if not more). The pay rates are not standardized across the board, they vary from one client to another. One client may insist on higher quality candidates and is willing to pay a premium in order to get them. Turnover rates also decrease when the pay rate is higher. As for your theory regarding the 33% difference to make the rates equal, that doesn’t wash either. Clients don’t compare the costs that way. In order for them to compare “apples to apples”, they would have to include their overhead expenses for payroll taxes, benefits, etc. to the hourly rate being charged by the agency.
The ONLY source of income for an agency is their employees. As for employees being interchangeable, if they have an employee who is not working out in a position or is causing problems on the job, they would rather replace the employee than loose the account.
Benefits are difficult, especially for the clerical/light industrial agencies. On the Technical side benefits aren’t as big of an issue due to the pay rates being so much higher and the durations being so much longer. Technical agencies typically offer a benefit package which includes holiday pay, vacation pay, group health insurance, and a 401k program.
While working as a light industrial temp has it’s challenges, if you have the skills to qualify for a clerical, scientific or technical position the jobs can be very rewarding and a great way to pick up a lot of valuable (and varied) experience in a short amount of time.