We get this question on occasion from prospective clients when they are considering whether to (a) hire promotional staff, and (b) decide whether to hire temp staff direct or through an agency. The primary reason for hiring staff direct is to save on cost. It is generally viewed as more cost effective to hire staff directly vs. pay an agency fee or higher hourly rate to a staffing agency and we completely understand that! However, as we all know when purchasing consumer products, a new car, or something online, you often get what you pay for and it's not always better to go with the cheaper option. Some of our current clients have come to us after hiring staff direct, and they shared the following reasons for making the change to a staffing agency: 

 1) Turn Key Hiring - when hiring staff direct (i.e. through social media), it seems that there are at times more staff showing up late, not showing up at all, or even issues once someone is on-site (i.e. leaving a job post frequently, taking long breaks, etc). When hiring through an agency there are mechanisms (i.e. contracts) in place to manage staff and to ensure only trained, experienced, professional and reliable staff work. This prevents staff issues from affecting your bottom line, or from you having to cover a position with one of your more experience internal staff. 

Our agency spends a lot of time recruiting, interviewing, vetting and building relationships with our staff to ensure that staff arrive on time, prepared and ready to work with your company, whether for a shift, day or entire tradeshow. If for some reason someone is unable to work, we work quickly to secure replacement staff as soon as possible. Our internal team is avialable prior to, during and after the show for assistance and to ensure everything is running smoothly. 

2) Higher Standard of Service - when hiring through an agency, you are getting access to experienced staff. Depending on the level of experience needed, you may see an increase in leads, sales, consumer engagement, or whatever role the promotional staff member is filling compared to someone with less experience or without the right type of experience.

We clearly communicate with our staff what is expected and ensure that standard of service is followed during the entirety of the event they are booked to work. 

3) Payroll Compliance - many new clients have told us that they would prefer another agency to process payroll for temporary staff. Onboarding staff (i.e. signing contracts, ensuring documents like W9 forms are signed, etc) can take time and so it's just easier to have another company handle that and ensure staff are paid in accordance with industry standards.

4) Insurance Regulations - general insurance doesn't always cover all aspects of liability that may fall under the scope of work for temporary or event staff. In addition to general insurance, our company holds an errors and emissions/professional liability policy and we also have additional coverages in place for the type of work our staff may do (i.e. ride and drives, demo ride events). 

Still not sure? Contact us if you have any questions and we would be happy to chat with you more!