MOTIVATING TEMPS

We understand some of the challenges managers and companies face when hiring a team of temporary workers and work closely with our clients to support them through the recruitment process and beyond. 

One of the challenges our clients often face is how to keep your team motivated and focused on the task in hand, when the assignment might only be for a short period of time. If you manage a team of temporary workers and have struggled to maintain productivity amongst the team due to lack of motivation, then read on for some of our top tips! 

Mix up your teams

Often, temporary workers are brought in to support an influx of business alongside permanent workers. Mixing your teams up between temporary and permanent workers will benefit productivity in a number of ways. Permanent workers can provide support when training temporary workers, helping to bring them up to speed and improving the efficiency of the team overall. Combining temporary and permanent workers can help the temporary workers to feel better integrated into the operation and may encourage an increased sense of pride in their work. 

Train and develop

Although the temporary workers in your team may not be in your company for long, offering on the job training and development is a great way to engage and motivate people. Demonstrating to your temporary staff that you’re willing to invest in them, will go a long way in increasing commitment to the work required and will often bring out their best effort. If you have temporary workers who are performing excellently, you might even be able to find permanent opportunities for them and explaining this while offering advice about how to improve skills, can also help to increase productivity. 

Offer incentives 

Being understanding about the situation some of your temporary workers find themselves in can go a long way in building rapport and gaining respect. Temporary work means an uncertain future, which may suit some employees perfectly, but not everyone will feel totally happy with this. Often, temporary workers aren’t offered the same benefits as permanent employees, but there are things you can do that can counter some of the frustrations that may arise as a result. Offering cash incentives can be a great way to increase the productivity of temporary workers who don’t have the same financial security as a permanent worker. It doesn’t have to be a large cash sum and you could run weekly competitions, with a cash prize paying out once a month to encourage continuous effort. 

There are several ways you can engage and encourage a strong performance from your temporary workers as much as your permanent workers. Understanding some of the challenges or frustrations that can arise from being a temporary worker, and demonstrating how you’re trying to minimise the more negative aspects can go a long way in helping to build trust and respect with your team. Once you have that, asking for greater commitment and focus from your staff whether they be permanent or temporary should be a lot easier.