Stopgap Workers

"Do you know QuickBooks?" That’s what many local employers are asking these days when seeking temporary help.

Familiarity with Intuit’s accounting software program is one of the common requests from small businesses requesting workers, says Patty Stanczik, district manager of Kelly Services in Fort Myers.

“QuickBooks accounting software is a very, very valuable thing to have experience in,” says Paul Angelicchio, owner of Snelling Staffing Services in Fort Myers.

Few temporary positions are available compared with the boom years earlier this decade—staffing-services firm Randstad closed its Fort Myers office in February—but agencies recently have reported a slight increase in hiring for temporary positions, says Barbara Hartman, spokeswoman for the Career and Service Centers of Southwest Florida. The centers post jobs, work with temporary agencies and provide space for employers to conduct interviews.

“We generally use the temporary agency employment as an indicator of the economy,” she says. “To start seeing a very slight increase is very important.”

Employers forced to lay off staff in the past year may have been able to handle the workload with existing personnel, but as business picks up, temporary agencies help those that need extra workers but aren’t ready to hire them full time. Kelly Services saw business begin to pick up in May, which Stanczik attributes in part to the agency’s efforts to build more relationships in the region and signs that the economic climate might be improving.

Agency managers and owners identify five trends in positions and skills desired in temporary workers.

Administrative assistants
Most of the temporary assignments that Angelicchio has seen since 2007 are for workers asked to answer phones and do light bookkeeping and data entry. That means knowledge of QuickBooks as well as the Microsoft Office Suite.

“All in the last year and a half or so have been the little engines that keep the office running,” he says.

Those positions—paid at a lower hourly rate than he’s been able to offer in the past—are sought by companies that typically have had to lay off staff, but still need those tasks completed.

“They’ve downsized and they’ve found that projects are still coming in,” Stanczik says.

Flexibility in assignment length
That could range from willingness to work just one day to being available on-call or for an extended period if a two-week stint turns into a month-long one, for example. One of the challenges, however, is that those jobs can affect an individual’s ability to collect unemployment, says Dawn Lyon, general manager of Coastal Staffing Services Inc.

Medical billing, collections and front-office help
Demand remains for temporary workers in a variety of medical positions, Hartman says. Tom Jobin, general manager of Express Employment Professionals, is receiving requests to staff special projects related to medical billing and collections. But he’s seen a dramatic drop in business overall; he estimates he’s doing business with only a quarter of the firm’s top 40 clients from the past decade.

Customer service
Kelly Services continues to get requests for temp workers with experience in customer service, particularly for call-center jobs, Stanczik says. Telemarketing positions also are appearing in job listings posted through the Career and Service Centers of Southwest Florida, Hartman says.

Edison State College finds workers through a temp agency to cover for employees on extended leave or unexpected job vacancies, says Bonnie Etheridge, assistant director of human resources. The positions usually are for clerical support staff to help answer phones, type memos and open mail, or for test proctors.

“Customer service for the college is one of our top priorities,” she says. “We want people who can interact with students, faculty and staff.”

Edison’s positions typically run from two to eight weeks, and the college has been hiring 10 to 12 temporary workers weekly.

Experience trumps training
If a dental practice is searching for an office manager, it’s likely looking for someone with dental experience. You’re either qualified or you’re not, Lyon says. Her medical clients are bombarded with résumés from candidates saying they can be trained, but practices want someone who can fill in as a dental assistant if that employee is unable to come in, she says.

Lyon also explains that a manufacturing client seeking engineers is looking for candidates with a manufacturing background, not construction experience.