Temporary vs Permanent Jobs
Adam Palmer • November 13, 2020
Whether you’re looking for a job or hiring for your business, understanding between temp and permanent employees is essential.
Temporary (Temp) workers are those that are hired for a predetermined amount of time. These are typically contract and seasonal employees.
Pros - Temp positions allow a lot more flexibility for the employer and employee, allowing both to test each other out without a full commitment. And many times, after a trial period, temp positions can turn into full time
Cons - Training a temp worker can still be costly and time-consuming, especially if the person does not work out. While it’s not a rule, temp employees are not usually offered the company’s healthcare options. This can be difficult on the employee if they have a family.
Permanent employees are hired without a predetermined time frame. Employers: do not forget that if you have 50+ employees and hire a full-time, permanent employee, they are entitled to healthcare, according to the IRS.
Pros - A permanent position has a significant advantage for the employee – stability. Stability in a worker helps decrease their stress and therefore increases their productivity. As well, full-time employees are offered benefits.
Cons - Benefits are costly to the employer.
As you can see, both have positives and negatives. We suggest speaking with one of our highly knowledgeable recruiters to learn what is best for you or your company.
If you’ve ever applied for a university job, you know that the process can be painstakingly slow. With search committees, multi-stage interviews, dean approvals, and more, a lot goes into the process. But taking too much time can kill the recruitment strategy. You may be missing out on high-quality candidates because the process is taking too long. While your committee is scheduling its third follow-up meeting, your top candidate has just accepted an offer from another institution that moved more quickly. This is just one of the reasons why speed matters in the hiring process. What Happens When the Hiring Process is Too Slow Here are some other factors to consider and why you want to speed up the process: The "Top-Tier" Candidate Pool Shrinks Instantly The most exceptional candidates are rarely available for long. When an institution takes weeks or months to decide whether to move forward with a candidate, it will lose them. Top-tier candidates often have their eggs in more than one basket. By the time a slow-moving department is ready to extend an offer, their top two or three choices are frequently already off the market. You aren't choosing from your best candidates anymore; you are choosing from who is left. Slowness Signals Bureaucracy The hiring process says a lot about an institution. If the process is dragged out and disorganized, a candidate may think twice about working there. If a candidate experiences radio silence, delayed scheduling, and endless administrative hurdles before they are even hired, they will assume that the university works at this slow pace as a whole. If the process is fast and clear, it can set a good precedent of what’s to come. The University Suffers When a search fails because the department was too slow to land its top candidates, there are severe consequences. A failed search can result in existing faculty bearing the extra workload, strategic initiatives being put on hold, and stalling departmental growth. How to Accelerate The Timeline Accelerating your hiring timeline does not mean lowering your standards. It means optimizing the logistics. Establish Hard Deadlines Before the Search Begins Committees often stall because they try to build the schedule as the search progresses. Instead, map out the entire search process before the job description even goes live. Secure dates for committee reviews, first-round interviews, and campus visits on faculty calendars months in advance. This will help to keep you on track. Define What Consensus Means Does consensus mean absolute, 100% agreement on every detail? Or does it mean that everyone has been heard, and a clear majority agrees on a candidate's viability? Endless debate often happens because committees confuse unanimity with consensus. Establish the voting and decision-making rules early. Empower the Search Chair If there are too many cooks in the kitchen, your hiring process will never move forward. Give the search chair the authority to keep the committee moving forward. If a committee member misses a feedback deadline, the process must move on without them. By keeping these factors in consideration, you can help to move the hiring process along so you don’t miss out on excellent candidates. If you need help with the hiring process, Summit Careers is here to help. We have a database of resumes from people seeking their next job in academia. Reach out to us today to learn more!
When filling academic support roles, there are two main ways institutions can approach the hiring process. They can look for people with the technical skills for the position, or they can favor those who fit more closely with the school's culture, thereby fulfilling the institutional fit. Hiring to fit each area specifically can have its benefits. Of course, if you can find someone who fits both roles, it is a major win-win. The Immediate Impact of Technical Skill Hiring people with strong technical skills has many benefits. These types of skills can be difficult to teach if people don’t already know them. Consider these perks: Reduced Training Time: An extremely tech-savvy person can start right away. They are already familiar with your software system and know how to get the job done. If you hire someone who knows what they’re doing from the start, you reduce training time and cost. Relieving Team Burnout: Hiring someone with all the technical skills the job requires can reduce team burnout. The new person can serve as a much-needed leader, reducing stress. Hard-to-Teach Competencies: Teaching specific technical skills to someone can be extremely difficult. If they know how to do these things from the start, it is a major bonus. While all of these are major benefits of hiring someone with technical skills, they may not have the soft skills to blend with the academic culture. So, for all of the technical skills they bring to the table, they may alienate themselves from the rest of the staff. Finding the Right Institutional Fit Hiring someone with the right institutional fit means this person understands the institution's unique mission, even if they do not possess all the technical skills for the job. This brings many benefits to the table. Can Navigate Difficult Areas: A candidate with high emotional intelligence (EQ) and strong cultural fit understands how to work with others and can navigate otherwise difficult areas. Mission Alignment: Having the right academic support staff is important for student retention. Hiring someone who genuinely and instantly connects with the institution’s demographics can bring something to the table that you may not be able to find on a resume. Long-Term Retention: Employees who feel a connection to an institution's mission are far more likely to stick around, reducing the costly, exhausting cycle of turnover. When you rely too heavily on the institutional fit, it can stifle innovation and creativity. These people fit so well that there may be no room for growth or new ideas. How to Get the Best of Both Worlds The reality is that hiring managers shouldn’t have to choose between the two. The goal should be to find someone with a reasonable technical background and the skills to be the right institutional fit. To achieve this goal, hiring managers should employ these strategies: Know What Type of Job Fit You’re Looking For Truly look at what the institutional fit means for this specific role. These should be necessary competencies. Use Behavioral and Scenario-Based Questions Asking the right questions will get you the right answers. Instead of asking simple yes-or-no questions, ask questions that prompt a candidate to describe a scenario. This measures their technical strategy in how they approach the answer, as well as their cultural emotional intelligence. Determine Trainability If a candidate lacks a specific technical skill but checks all the other boxes, consider their trainability factor. Have they been able to learn new skills quickly in the past? If so, this proven ability to learn can balance a temporary skill gap. The Bottom Line As you navigate hiring for institutional fit versus technical skill, remember that soft skills like empathy and resilience can be taught. With technology constantly evolving, skills must always be taught and learned. If you can find someone who believes in your mission, you can build a training program to support them. At Summit Careers, we work with candidates and academic institutions in the hiring process. Reach out to us today to learn more about how we can help you find your next career move or discover your new employee.
Hiring managers in the manufacturing field are facing a dilemma they may never have faced before. Many are wondering, do you hire for experience or for attitude? Consider this scenario: Do you hire the veteran operator with twenty years of experience but a "this is how we’ve always done it" mindset? Or do you hire the eager newcomer who doesn’t know a CNC machine from a drill press but shows up ten minutes early with a notebook in hand? While many would have quickly answered the experience, these days the tide is turning. More companies are looking beyond what a person knows. They want to look at how they learn and act. The Experience Paradox: When Knowledge Becomes a Liability Experience is extremely valuable. People need to know how to get the job done. But experience can sometimes work against some people. Someone with decades of experience may be resistant to new software, lean manufacturing pivots, or updated safety standards. They may think that they know it all, so what more do they need to learn? This attitude can hurt both the worker and the company. If someone’s experience comes with an ego and they refuse to collaborate and learn, their net value to the company often decreases. Why Attitude is Becoming More Important In manufacturing, attitude isn't just about being friendly at the water cooler. It also includes traits such as adaptability and reliability. You can teach someone how to use a new piece of equipment. You can’t teach someone how to take initiative, care about their work, or show up on time. This is all about the attitude. When you hire for attitude, you are working to maintain the retention rate. Many people are fired for their poor teamwork, refusal to follow instructions, and attendance issues. Find the Right Balance Between Attitude & Experience If you hire only for attitude and have zero experienced leads, your production will stall. The most successful manufacturing firms strive to find the right balance. Here are some ways to do this: Rewrite the Job Description: Instead of listing “5 years of experience”, emphasize a “proven track record of reliability”. This shifts the focus from experience to include attitude as well. Look to Find Out More During the Interview: Instead of asking specific questions about machinery that has been used, ask how they learn new processes. The answer to this question will tell you more about them than whether they can operate a piece of machinery. You may also want to consider a job mentorship program where new hires shadow an experienced worker. This can help those with fewer skills, but a great attitude, get more on-the-job experience. While everyone may be able to gain experience, not everyone can always maintain the right attitude. How do companies make it work? Companies need to consider stopping hiring for what people did and start hiring for what they are capable of doing. If you need help finding the right manufacturing candidates to fill your roles, Summit Careers is here to help. We have a growing list of resumes from people who want to work for you today. Contact us today to learn more!
