If you want to hire a temporary employee through a staffing service, it's a good idea to consult with the account representatives there about what to put in the description you have to submit. This is especially true if you haven't hired a temp employee for years. Job descriptions have changed, and you want to provide more details for a better chance of finding a good employee.
Provide Details on All the Duties of the Temp Job
The more specific you can be about the duties of the position, the better. Most job descriptions aren't going to contain every last detail, but try to avoid phrases like "and other duties as assigned." Those phrases have been used in the past to overload workers and change their job descriptions substantially. Think of the main tasks and common administrative tasks the person might be expected to do, and then stick to those.
Separate Must-Haves From Really-Wants
Job requirements have gotten a lot of criticism lately, and for good reason: Some are really unrealistic. These can range from entry-level jobs requiring years of experience to jobs requiring several years of experience in programs that haven't existed for that long. Requirements have to match up with pay, too; you'll want to pay more if you want someone with a higher degree. As you think about what qualifications you want the temporary employee to have, be ruthless in separating the must-haves (such as a programmer having programming knowledge in the language used in a software company) from the really-wants (such as that programmer having several years of experience with eight different languages that aren't used that much there). Do you really need someone who types 70+ words per minute? In a live captioning job, you may need them to type faster than that. But for a job that doesn't involve intense transcription, a minimum typing speed might not actually be necessary.
Pay Realistically
The people you are looking for may be temporary employees, but that does not mean that the work they do is lesser in quality than what a regular employee would do. You have some flexibility in what you will pay the temporary employee, so look at the average or median salaries/wages that someone would get for the same job elsewhere. You don't want to limit the temp's pay to minimum wage as that could lead the temp to not seem very engaged with the job. Paying more, and paying in line with what the job would get on average, is better and will result in people being more interested in the work.
If you still have questions about setting up temporary job ads through a staffing service, speak with the representatives at the service. They can guide you through the entire process and make sure that what you're asking for is something that the workers they have will be able to do. For more information on staffing services, contact a professional near you.
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