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Temps fill gap in Washington’s staffing needs |
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Written On: November/December 2006 |
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Written By: by Daniel Brunell |
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In today’s volatile global economy, the dynamic changes that companies can experience is breathtaking. For example, two years ago, YouTube didn’t exist. A few weeks ago, they were sold to Google for $1.65 billion. This new, increasingly global economy requires a well-educated, resourceful, and elastic workforce that can adapt and thrive under such circumstances.
An adaptable workforce is something the staffing industry provides. It’s why the industry grew by more than 250 percent in the 1990s, and why it shrank by 25 percent during the economic slowdown of 2001 to 2003. When times are good, the need for workers goes up. When times are bad, the need declines. In this respect, the staffing industry is a bellwether for the U.S. economy.
Current indications are that times are good. More than 2.9 million people are employed by staffing companies every day. Over the last two years, more than 530,000 new jobs have been created by the industry. In Washington, the staffing industry is becoming an increasingly vital part of the state’s economy. It employs more than 50,000 people a day in Washington.
The face of the staffing industry has changed in recent years. "There is a giant misconception that working for staffing agencies is nothing but grunt work," said Jenifer Lambert of Terra Resource Group. "I feel that it is becoming a more and more accepted practice among both employers and employees to using staffing agencies to fulfill their specific needs."
The staffing industry offers a lot of options to their employees. They can select their work schedules and choose among a variety of assignments. This flexibility provides choices to people who have other part-time or seasonal jobs, parents raising children, and even people who are between jobs. Workers can accept assignments when and where they wish; employers have workers when, where and for whatever purpose they need. Many staffing agencies provide key benefits such as 401k plans, health care plans, and paid vacations and holidays.
Staffing agencies also allow workers to get vital training. More than 90 percent of them provide some sort of free training to their employees. Temporary employment can also give new workers valuable opportunities to gain necessary experience and permits them to try out employers they may want to work for permanently. More than 70 percent of temporary employees obtain long-term jobs while working for staffing companies.
Many agencies have become off-site human resource departments. "In this day and age where companies have to be leaner to survive, we provide an alternative." said Kathy Williams of Volt Services Group. Volt is a leader in the industry, with more than 350 offices throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. "By working with our client companies to fulfill their human resource needs, we let them focus on what they know best — their business."
For all that is right with the industry, there are some problems. One is that they are a victim of their own success. "The lack of skilled workers in the state is alarming," said Gerri Coleman with Express Personnel of Walla Walla. "Non-skilled workers are becoming a thing of the past. We need more young people with the basic trade and engineering skills that we, as employers, want." This shortage of workers in certain skill sets is so acute that companies are looking abroad to fill the need.
A major issue for the staffing industry is getting more visas for skilled workers. There is currently a federal cap of 65,000 for H-1B visas, a non-immigrant visa that allows a U.S. company to employ a foreign individual for up to six years. Under the H-1B program, a potential employee must have at least a bachelor’s degree, or equivalent, and the employer must attest to the U.S. Department of Labor that the alien will receive a salary commensurate with the prevailing wage for domestic workers in the same job category.
Many of the rapidly increasing number of engineers coming out of Southeast and South Central Asia are turning to staffing agencies to gain employment in the United States. Yet, all attempts to increase the number of H-1B visas have been blocked because it gets lumped into the larger immigration debate.
In Washington, there are challenges just as big. State taxes such as the B&O, workers’ compensation, and unemployment insurance all weigh heavily on the industry. There is no classification for the staffing industry in Washington’s tax code. This means that every single activity that a worker might do in a day has to be documented to the state for tax classification purposes. For workers that might do two or three different tasks a day, this creates a paperwork nightmare. That, coupled with the high cost of taxes, makes for a difficult business climate for staffing companies in Washington.
Despite the challenges, though, the staffing industry is doing well. It has matured from a place once used only as a source of day laborers and typists to a resource companies turn to for skilled clerical workers, accountants, engineers — even executives. As the global economy expands, the staffing industry will continue to provide a vital link between employers and employees.
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