According to the American Staffing Association, in any given week, more than 3 million temporary and contract employees are employed by U.S. staffing agencies. Over the course of a year, staffing agencies in the United States hire nearly 15 million workers. Temporary and contract work is an increasingly important share of the U.S. workforce, and with the rise of the so-called “gig economy,” that’s not likely to change anytime soon.
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While temporary and contract work offers many benefits both for workers and for the companies that use their services, these alternative work arrangements aren’t without challenges. Temporary workers are injured on the job more frequently than their direct hired counterparts, often due to a lack of training and a belief on the part of some host employers that their safety obligations for temp workers are less than those for their own employees.
OSHA has indicated that it considers host employers and staffing agencies to be jointly responsible for the safety and health of temporary workers, and the agency has not hesitated to cite and fine companies that neglect their safety responsibilities for employees under their control. But even setting aside the issue of OSHA compliance, addressing the safety of temporary workers and contractors at your facility is a crucial step to building a strong safety culture.
Many companies using the services of temporary workers struggle to fully integrate these employees into their safety culture because of a lack of coordination with the staffing agency that supplied them, which can lead to confusion. Who provides training? Who handles safety messaging? What happens when there’s a mismatch between what a worker has been told about safety from the staffing agency and what he or she hears from a supervisor at the jobsite?
If you’re among the companies that struggle with these issues, attend BLR’s Safety Culture 2017, taking place September 11 and 12 in Austin, Texas, and hear from Corey Berghoefer, Senior Vice President of Risk Management & Insurance at Randstad North America, and Michael Summers, Director of Safety and Risk Management at Randstad U.S., in their session titled Temporary Work, Not Temporary Safety Culture: How Host Employers Can Overcome the Challenges of Integrating and Engaging Contractors and Freelancers.
The presenters will discuss what works and what doesn’t when trying to assimilate temporary workers into your organization’s safety culture, how host employers and staffing agencies can work together effectively to protect temporary workers, and the red flags you should look out for when choosing a staffing agency to supply workers to your site. They’ll share firsthand knowledge about effective strategies, policies, and practices that can create a safe working environment for all workers at your facility.
You’ll learn:
- Onboarding best practices for working with a staffing provider
- The information your staffing partner should provide when it comes to safety
- How to keep temporary workers engaged in the corporate culture
- How to set the tone with temporary employees to position them for success
- Challenges to overcome when integrating temporary employees into your workforce
Attend BLR’s Safety Culture 2017 to find out more. The conference, geared to both HR and safety professionals, will focus on how employers can improve safety compliance and enhance worker performance, with participants leaving with a powerful action plan to improve culture at their organizations based on case studies and proven tactics.