Who's The Boss? Business Owner's Guide To Mastering Administrative Basics

If you have just opened your first small business and and have a full-time employee or two, but there seems to be more work every day than you can all manage to complete, then you may be considering taking on more employees. However, you may worry that orders will slow after hiring that new employee, and you will end up with a payroll that begins taking a toll on your profit margin or even feel like you just don't have the extra time right now to fully vet every potential new hire. If you haven't considered seeking employees from a temporary staffing agency, then that is a great option when you need someone in a rush, yet don't know how long you will need them. However, there are many more advantages to hiring temporary employees, as well. 

Read on to learn about two little-known ways temporary workers benefit small businesses, so you can make your hiring decisions fully informed. 

1. You Can Eliminate Potential Legal Hassles Upon Employee Termination

Like many small business owners, you may get to know your employees very well when working side-by-side with them and dread the day that you will have to tell one that they are "no longer needed." While you do have a heart, you also need to make sure all employees are performing their jobs well, and if a new hire just "isn't a good fit" for the job or a time comes when their salary just doesn't fit into your budget, you may fear that they will have "hard feelings" after being let go. 

However, even worse, if you do not live in an "at-will" employment state, then you may even worry that you will face legal backlash if an employee you lay off decides to accuse you of breaking employment law by not having "good cause" to terminate them. Even in at-will employment states, disgruntled, terminated employees can accuse employers of firing them due to discrimination.

Even if an employee were to make a completely false accusation against you and your business, defending yourself against the claim would rely the help of your lawyer, who of course, does not work free-of-charge, and even lead to your company getting an undeserved bad local reputation, which could hurt your bottom line in itself. 

When you hire a temporary employee, you don't have to worry about any repercussions if you need to let them go due to them just not "being a good fit" for the job or if orders slow and you just don't need the help anymore. You can just call the staffing agency and tell them that you no longer need your temp for hire, and they will stop showing up. 

2. You Can Experiment by "Mixing Up" Employee Duties With Temps

As as small business owner with just a couple of employees, you and your employees may have gotten into a set daily routine that, when strayed from, results in the day's work just not getting done. However, your current employees may be eager for new opportunities; one may love the chance to begin a new marketing campaign or work on boosting sales by dedicating a few hours each day to calling new potential clients, but when you have no one else to perform their daily "must-do" tasks of the day, you can't let them take a shot at it. 

Will shifting the employee who is currently boxing up and shipping out product to a sales position work out in the end? It may or may not. However, if you never allow them to try to pursue their passion, you could lose out on a great potential boost in sales they could create with a great, new marketing campaign or even lose your employee when they become bored in their current role. While hiring a new full-time employee to complete their shipping tasks while they take a marketing role would be a risky move, having a temp perform their current duties while you "try them out" in their new role would eliminate the risk and potentially leave you with a great reward. 

If you are a new small business owner, then you know it can be tough to decide when it is time to hire new employees to help your business thrive. If you do hire a new full-time employee, then realize that your company just can't afford it, it comes with the risk of legal hassles or even reputation damage. When you find a temp for hire who can work for you just as long as you need them to, you can "try out" having an extra employee with no commitment and no potential problems later if they are no longer needed.