Tip of the Month: “Do Unto Others” in the temp world

How would you feel if your staffing service provided you a reliable hard working temp that you invested 30 days in training with good success? Sounds pretty good so far right?


Now that same staffing service gets a call from a different client that wants that same great temp that you’ve invested costly training time and effort. What does the staffing company do? It yanks the temp from you, places him at the second client and calls you to see if you want a replacement.

My guess is that if this has happened to you, it didn’t make you very happy. . . and rightfully so.

Taking this scenario a step further, let’s say the staffing service supplier has a policy against switching temps from one assignment to another. But then the “evil” client threatens to find another staffing supplier to contact the temp to be placed on their payroll. These situations happen every day in the temp world and cause pause for thought. What to do you ask?


The first thing you should do is ask your supplier about their policy of switching temps to other customers in mid-stream. You may want to present the circumstances described above and see what their answer would be. The policy should be that they under no circumstances do they switch active temps between clients without first obtaining the approval of the first client at the very least. Even better is a policy that they just won’t do it period.


Concerning the second client that takes matters into its own hands by finding a second supplier to do their dirty work you have to question the ethics of both the client and second supplier.


This exact situation presented itself to us recently. This is how we handled it.


We told the client requesting the switch (a long term client) that we have a policy against doing what they were asking us to do. We asked them to evaluate their feelings if the position were reversed. Their response was to find other service to “temp nap” our employee.


What it all come down to from our perspective is that even at the risk of losing a long term client you have to do the right thing. As with most decisions in life, the “do unto others” creed applies to most business decisions as well. It’s a matter of who you want to do business with and have long term relationships.