Many businesses hire temporary employees to help them get through challenging times of the year and at the beginning, you’re ready for all of your new team members to come and then leave on schedule. But sometimes you find someone who is so perfect for your team that you’d like to keep them on even after the temporary position is over. It’s not uncommon for employers to find themselves considering making a new role for a currently temporary employee to fill, or offering them a permanent role that is standing open.
Of course, this leads to the natural question “Can you hire them?” You may wonder if there are rules or limitations for hiring a temporary employee permanently and today we are here to answer your questions.
It’s Up to the Employee
The first answer we can give you is that there is no requirement that they leave at the end of the allotted temporary time. The biggest factor in this decision isn’t your temporary staffing boutique, your hiring contract, or the law. It’s your temporary employee.
Each professional signs up for temporary work for their own reasons. Some are looking to try out employers, some are seeking a permanent job, but many have other obligations and plans for the rest of the year as well. You may be able to change those plans but, ultimately, it’s up to the employee whether or not they are available to stay.
Why is Your Employee Working a Temporary Position?
Start by asking if your temporary employee has a reason to be working temporarily. It might be the best gig they could find while on the long-term job search, which would be good news for you. Or they might have something else they do regularly for other parts of the year. They might be a teacher working summers. Or they might be a grandmother who watches an extended family of grandchildren in the summer and works during the other seasons. They might even be trailing a spouse who will be leaving for a new city in a few months. It’s important to know why they are taking temporary work before you make further plans regarding their year.
Do They Want to Come Back Next Year?
The good news is that some temporary employees are seeking permanent work and that plans can be changed for the right reasons. A good way to feel out if your temporary employee is likely to say yes to an offer to stay is first to ask how they would feel about returning next year. After all, it’s been so fantastic having them in the office during this temp season that of course, you would be happy to have them back, even if they have other things scheduled after your project.
If they say yes, they would love to come back next year, then this opens the door to the rest of the conversation. You can now start planning to make a job offer or at least begin a discussion about whether they’d like to become permanent right now or if you could make plans in the future to make that happen.
Can You Incentivize a Temporary Employee to Stay?
You can absolutely offer incentives to encourage a temporary employee to accept your job offer, change their plans, or make different plans for next year. Flexibility and positive negotiation are key. For example, your temporary employee might already have a few obligations for their time after this project. You could offer to work around those obligations by pre-scheduling them leave to dispatch those duties so they can start as a temporary employee right away. Or you can offer to keep the job opening available to them all the way until this time next year when they will have come back to you and had time to plan next year differently.
You can also offer job perks and employment bonuses that would tempt anyone to change their plans. If your temporary employee’s alternate plans are not obligations, they may well choose to simply rearrange your schedule to begin working for you immediately if given some very good reasons to make those changes.
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So can you hire a temporary employee permanently? You absolutely can. But like any hire, it depends on them. Contact us today to find out more about permanently hiring a temporary employee or to source your next set of temporary staff that just might contain your next permanent team member.
