Employees sing praises of starting out as temps to test-drive new employers

By MARY JACOBS / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

Brian Nally would have never considered seeking a permanent job at a large ad agency like Ackerman McQueen, having worked only in small graphic design shops in the past.

'I will never take a job again without working there first,' says Brian Nally, who began as a temp worker before taking a job at Ackerman McQueen.

But he took a freelance gig there about eight months ago, while between jobs, and found he liked the place.

Now he's an art director in the firm's Las Colinas office.

Mr. Nally followed a path that's becoming increasingly common in matching employees with employers seeking to fill marketing-related positions: temp-to-perm.

'Explosion in interest'

"We've seen an explosion in interest from clients who want the 'try before you buy' approach," said Sean Bisceglia, president of Aquent Marketing, a Boston-based staffing agency with offices in Dallas.

"More than 20 percent of our business this year has been temp-to-perm, compared to 9 percent in the first quarter of 2005," he said.

Aquent has developed a service called "Talent Bridge" to fill full-time, permanent jobs on an interim basis.

'Coming out of the downturn, companies are hiring again, but they're still cautious," said Tracey Turner, Dallas-based executive director of The Creative Group, a staffing agency based in Menlo Park, Calif. "They want to make sure the potential employee is a good cultural fit."

The temp-to-perm route mitigates the risk for both employees and employers, says Mr. Bisceglia, who's based in Chicago.

"Over 45 percent of employees who leave do so within the first 90 days of employment," he said. With temp-to-perm, "the employee gets to see if he or she likes the culture, and the employer gets to 'try' the employee and see if there's a good fit."

He adds that "trying to get rid of employees who don't work out is very tough for large corporations."

Even though he didn't start at Ackerman McQueen with plans to join full-time, in retrospect Mr. Nally thinks the temp-to-perm route makes sense.

"I will never take a job again without working there first," he said.

"I've really gotten burned in the past, at places where they sell you a great deal, but four, five months down the road you see what kind of work you're really going to be getting."

That points to one reason why temp-to-perm makes sense in particular for marketing jobs: Creative people often place a premium on doing work they enjoy in an environment that fits their personal styles, and finding the right match is an intuitive process.

Temp-to-perm is "the best way to determine whether you fit the company and whether the company likes you as well," said Ms. Turner.

From the employer's standpoint, could the temp-to-perm approach exclude passive candidates – potential employees who are already employed in permanent positions elsewhere?

Mr. Bisceglia tells clients that creative people, especially younger workers, are less inclined to subscribe to the "bird in the hand" philosophy.

He says that he's had many instances in which candidates were willing to quit their permanent jobs to work on a contract basis with a Fortune 500 company.

"The generation that's moving into the market now wants to 'test drive' a job," he said.

Both the Creative Group and Aquent offer health care and other benefits, at a fee, to temporary employees. In most cases, workers are employees of the staffing agency, typically for a period of three to six months, until they go full-time.

Another advantage to marketing job candidates: the temp-to-perm route gives them access to a significant, and growing, pipeline into the labor market.

Growing temp ranks

According to the American Staffing Association, about 2.6 million people worked as temporary employees each day in 2004.

As a sign that that number is likely to grow, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that the personnel supply services industry (which includes staffing) will be the fifth fastest-growing industry through 2012.

Mr. Nally connected with Ackerman McQueen through the Creative Group; he says the staffing agency "was a tool to get into doors that I might not be able to get into myself. But once you get into a company, you become your own diplomat."

He compares the temp-to-perm route, vs. the traditional full-time hiring approach, to the difference between dating and arranged marriage.

"I wouldn't marry someone without spending a lot of time together first," he said. "Why should a job be different?"

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