[John Palasek]

.


Due to a poor finish to last year, I have lost my key guy. He got tired of the up and down nature of this business here on Long Island and he's packed it in an gone back to Mexico. It's a shame because he's been my "go to" guy for about five years.

I will miss him.

I have decided to try another direction this year and that would be a Temporary Labor Service. I have been in contact with one already. They are a national company and their name is Labour Ready and they have a branch office in my county.

I haven't gone into too much detail with them yet but the basics are that labor will cost me $14.95/hr. and that includes all insurances, bookeeping and workmen's comp.
They handle all of the paperwork. I supply them with timesheets for each employee and they bill me after I'm finished with the worker.
They assure me that all of their temps have had background checks performed and they also either supply transportation or the worker has his own.

I can employ people on a daily, weekly or monthly basis and I can hire them outright if I like them enough to do so.

Have any of you ever used such services? If so, what were your experiences and what are the pitfalls?
It all seems pretty good so far and I need to actually visit with them, but it sounds pretty good.

I know of several businesses who have started with temps and moved on from there, in fact, when I was a teenager, I worked for a temp agency for about a month so I know a little bit about how it works.

I'll be looking around for permanent people, but if that fails, (it's a lousy labor market here), I'd like to be able to fall back on something like this.



Opinions?


Thanks!


-JP

[spiderlily]

We used a temporary service for one large account last year. Temps did about 350 hours of work for us. A few thoughts:

It was great to have guys show up to work without having to go through the hassle of interviews, etc. This saved me a lot of time. So did the fact that I had just one easy check to write, to the temp agency. For simple grunt work, it is a great way to get guys.

The temporary work we had to do was easy to train. I knew in the first hour if they could handle the job. About half of the workers worked out. This was okay for me at this job, but would not be okay on a lot of others.

Lots of tattoos and face piercings and language barriers. This is not necessary a labor force I'd want to be in public with. Again, this was okay for me, because it was a large, private job.

None of the workers was good enough to hire to train in more skilled work.

[PSUscaper]

Another issue to really give some thought too.

You just lost your key guy. Is a 'temporary' worker going to replace them?

I think this issue has been brought up, but I'm seeing it more and more in this industry.

We are hiring all this 'temp' labor and after a few years, what are you left with? Nothing.

The biggest problem I see with this idea is you are never building a 'real' company. This business is dependent on young, inexperienced workers starting at the bottom, working their way up, learning the way the company works, and moving up into more and more skilled positions.

If you don't have people constantly being trained, who replaces 'you' in the company. No one. It all makes me disgusted because I've seen large companies with No real leadership on any of their crews. Just a bunched of skilled laborers with no ability to advance.

And if you aren't going to get your skilled people out of your own labor force, where are they going to come from? No where.

We are running out of 'skilled' people in this industry, and perhaps its are own fault. I would definitely think about the decision to hire this sort of workforce. It seems like you may become dependent on them, and the second you do, they take off, and leave you with nothing.

On the other hand, where to get skilled people is a question I'd like to have answered myself. This is becoming a big problem for me. I just can't find anyone out there.

[Fine Edge]

We hired 4 guys to help with the tear down on a large homeshow.
They worked out very well but I don't think that I could have kept working them for the price I was paying.

$14.95 / hr. through a temp agency better get me some serious results but odds are, since the agency has to take their cut, you will be getting basic laborers.
Not to say you won't find someone you can possibly keep and train, but I think you may have to experiment with quite a few people, especially considering the detailed work you do.

[GLAN]

John

I get the impression you only had 1 guy working for you?


There's plenty of Central Americans around......I am seeing more and more of them doing concrete, blacktop and hardscaping.......even some that have gone the gypsy route and doing their own work.

Labor force is here......

Where on the Island are you?...........I am near the Coliseum

[John Palasek]

.


I usually have two guys for the season, (been that way for a long time), but the second guy was always just "a pair of hands" more than anything else.

I'm in Yaphank so there's always Farmingville but I'd have to sift through who's who.


It's gonna be a fun year!


*sigh*


-JP

[Stonehenge]

I never tried Labor Ready, and the main reason was the sales pitch I received from the Labor Ready rep -

She told me about how I would have to pick many of them up at their facility or at their homes, because they didn't have valid drivers licenses and wouldn't be able to get to our shop or jobsite. And that some of them would have monitoring anklets on. And that some of them, after receiving their first check, wouldn't be seen again for a week or so (until the money ran out). This all came from a Labor Ready rep.

It was enough for me to decide to go in another direction. Maybe it's different in your market or it's different now that several years have gone by since I looked into that option.

I wish you luck, as it's no fun losing a right-hand person.

[Greensmith]

I have a construction friend who was so dissatisfied with the labor temps he used day laborers till he found some good help and kept them. He said the tattoos, bad attitude and just un-presentable appearances scared him away.