Temporary Labor in the Manufacturing Industry
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the manufacturing sector accounts for 40% of temporary labor utilization. While other industries are shying away from temporary labor, manufacturing continues to expand its footprint. This type of staffing allows companies to have flexibility through their peak production seasons to meet the needs of their customers, while also keeping their overhead costs to a minimum.
Not only is temporary staffing a good way to keep costs down, but it’s also a valuable tool to use when trying to find employees who will be a good fit for your company. Many companies utilize temp-to-hire positions which allows them (the host employer) to evaluate an employee’s performance while they’re temporary in order to understand if they would make a good fit in a permanent role. Temporary labor is often discovered and contracted via a staffing agency. T Staffing agencies and the agency’s client (the host employer) are joint employers of temporary workers and, therefore, both are responsible for providing and maintaining a safe work environment for those workers. This includes ensuring OSHA compliance to promote safe working conditions.
However, when temporary workers are contracted to work at a facility, they’re typically managed through the staffing agency and often do not receive company credentials for technology applications. This means they are not granted login access to most company platforms.
This provides a lack of transparency which creates a knowledge gap on where labor is allocated or if employees even worked as scheduled.
Indeavor’s Solution for Temporary Industrial Labor
Indeavor’s People Operation Platform helps fill the void in temporary labor with intuitive solutions and employee engagement. Indeavor Operate can be deployed to schedule temps through a few different methods:
- Automated Assignments – Rotating Temps: When a company requests a certain number of temporary laborers each day and that number fluctuates on a per-need basis, Indeavor can create “generic” employees. If companies know their expected labor demand, they can then plan their workforce – including temp labor – weeks or months in advance.
- Automated Assignments – Routine Workers: When a company requests the same temp workers with little to no fluctuation on a short-term basis, those temps can then be scheduled like regular employees within Indeavor
- Skills Management for Compliance: Skills can be managed and tracked within Indeavor Operate to ensure compliance for regular audits and safe working environments.
As a People Operations Platform, we thrive at connecting the dots and closing the gap between the employee (regardless of whether you are temporary or permanent) and management. We understand the importance of transparency when it comes to being able to achieve goals. Indeavor is capable of leveraging qualifications, work preferences, and shifts to create a flexible work arrangement between the temporary worker and the company.
Not only can we automate all this information, but we leverage top-of-line mobile suites to allow the employees to input this data whenever they want, allowing for ultimate flexibility. This creates an inclusive space for all types of employees (temporary or permanent) by providing workforce insights and transparency to the leadership team on where their labor is being allocated with all people operations data in one central location.
Benefits of Temporary Labor Management in Indeavor Operate
No matter the option for temp labor scheduling that best suits your business, there are a number of benefits that apply to all of them:
- Reduction in planning efforts and costs which limits the temp agency’s input on the labor planning process
- Consolidation of scheduling-related activities into one single solution
- Tracking and planning for long-term temp labor
- Access to detailed temp labor reports to optimize your workforce, such as:
- View labor by allocation to schedule the right people in the right place
- Boost productivity and reliability of temps with visibility into scheduled/time worked comparisons
- Assign overtime or volunteering opportunities based on historical performance or other pre-defined factors
- Reduce fluctuation and increase productivity by tracking and requesting top performers
Indeavor allows organizations to schedule temp labor with dedicated algorithms. Schedulers can offer volunteering opportunities for temp labor employees with the option to send automated calls or texts directly to the temp labor individuals for volunteering opportunities.
Furthermore, temp labor can also have qualifications and skills tracked within Indeavor to identify helpful resources. Plant managers and schedulers can save with labor sharing, real-time and short-term schedule management, as well as short and long-term absence management within Indeavor Schedule. To automate and optimize further, constraints and leave quotas can be added on various levels. For routine temps, the Indeavor Engage mobile application will add additional benefits by allowing temps to view schedules, volunteer for opportunities and request leave through their mobile phones.
To learn more about how to manage temporary labor at your facility with automation, contact info@indeavor.com or give us a call to book a time with our workforce management experts.
About the Authors
April Samosky is a Customer Success Manager for Indeavor. She acts as a strategic business partner and advocates for her customers, to help them drive value through the Indeavor Platform. To learn more or get in touch, connect with April on LinkedIn.
Severin Studer is the Revenue Operations Lead for Indeavor. He identifies opportunities to streamline and improve the customer lifecycle, go-to-market strategies, and sales process. He works cross-functionally with departments and stakeholders to share insights, centralize information, and report on various KPIs. To learn more or get in touch, connect with Severin on LinkedIn.
