A personnel consultant (counselor) employed by a recruiting or executive search firm who works directly with clients and candidates to identify and fill job orders.
VMS-O-PEDIA
A
Administrative Fee (Supplier)
The additional fee charged to a client (subscriber) by a professional employer organization (PEO)/staff leasing company to cover selling, general, and administrative costs over and above the costs of leased employee salary, taxes, and benefits provided. Typically in the 4-6% range.
Administrative Fee (Customer)
The additional fee charged to suppliers (e.g. staffing/services firms) to finance or fund costs associated with establishing and managing a Vendor Management Solution (VMS) and/or Managed Services Provider (MSP). This fee is generally collected by the VMS or MSP and paid to the client quarterly. Typically in the 1% range.
Agency
See Employment Agency. (Agency is also used to identify a home healthcare agency or, erroneously, a temporary help service.)
Assign, Assignment
The act of sending a temporary employee to a specific worksite for a customer. Assignment also refers to the period of time that a temporary employee is working at a customer’s facility under the customer’s supervision.
C
Candidate
An applicant for a job who has been pre-qualified for a specific position or a general category of jobs. Also used to distinguish an individual from a pool of unqualified applicants
Casual Labor
See also: Day Labor.
Clerical / Administrative / Office Support
The largest market segment for temporary help and permanent placement, which includes secretaries, general office clerks, typists, word processing operators, and data entry keyers requiring no professional training. The standard definition also includes telemarketers, cashiers, product demonstrators, and other related office occupations.
Co-Employment (Co-Employer)
Legally, referred to as a “Joint Employer” relationship, co-employment is often used to describe the relationship among two or more employers when each has specific actual or potential legal responsibilities to the same worker or group of workers. (See also: Joint Employment.)
Commercial Staffing
Term often used to distinguish “traditional” temporary help services such as office/clerical and industrial services from higher-margin businesses that provide more highly skilled workers in areas such as IT, technical, accounting, legal, and other professional-skilled areas
Competitive Bidding
A Market-Pricing process by which suppliers are afforded an equal opportunity to submit proposals in a transparent, Vendor Neutral environment, ensuring that customers are able to select winning proposals based on best value (quality vs price).
Compressed Workweek
A standard workweek of 35-40 hours that has been compressed into three or four days of 9-12 hours. Sometimes referred to as “four-tens,” meaning four days of 10 work hours each
Contingency Placement
The practice of charging a fee to either the applicant or the employer only after a successful referral of the applicant to the employer for employment. (See also: Retained Search.)
Contingency Recruiting (Search)
Refers to exempt-level recruitment or executive level searches, with payment of all (or most) of the fee contingent on the hiring of a referred candidate.
Contingent Work/Worker
Coined by economist Audrey Freedman in 1985, these terms have come to be commonly used and abused in describing a growing part of the U.S. labor force. The term “contingent employment” was meant to connote a conditional and transitory use of workers — based on a specific need for labor at a particular place and for a specific time — with an inherently low degree of job security. Many contingent jobs are held voluntarily. The term “contingent work” is often used to describe any work arrangement which differs from regular, full-time and permanent, direct wage and salary employment. This includes all part-time work, and even some high turnover, minimum benefit service or labor employment. The high range estimates that 25-35% of the U.S. workforce is “contingent.”
Continuing Help Supply
The portion of the Standard Industrial Code SIC 7363 “Help Supply” category which pertains to employee leasing. The remainder of SIC 7363 is “temporary help supply.” (See also: NAICS.)
Conversion Fee
Compensation fee paid to a temporary help firm for the loss of an employee when a temporary help firm’s customer hires the temporary employee on a permanent basis. (Some “full service” firms prefer to charge a “placement fee” rather than liquidated damages when this occurs. Many firms allow the liquidated damages or placement fee to be “worked-out” over a period from 30 to 180 days on the temporary assignment.)
Coordinator (Service Coordinator)
The staff employee of a temporary help service who recruits and assigns temporary help employees to work on assignment at the customer’s site.
Counter (Counterproposal)
A proposal sent by either the client or supplier through the VMS to further negotiate an initial proposal. Typically, rates will be negotiated but counterproposals may also negotiate dates, deliverables, timing of fees, progress payments, scope of work, etc.
D
Day Labor
The provision of temporary workers to clients on a daily pay, daily availability basis, often on a multiple worker basis. Day labor offices typically provide unskilled labor and may include transportation to and from the job site.
Direct Employment
A two-way direct employment relationship between a worker and an employer, with no third party broker or co-employer involved.
E
Employment Services
Employee- or employment-finding, employment-enhancing, or employment-related services (such as training, screening, testing, interviewing, sourcing, career counseling, resume preparation) provided to an employer, or former employee (in the case of outplacement). A broader definition than the Personnel Supply Services Standard Industrial Classification Code (SIC 736).
Executive Search
Refers to the process of recruiting for exempt-level managers or professionals, usually in a “retained” capacity.
F
Facilities Staffing
The provision of temporary workers to handle a particular facility, department, or function for a customer. Although first line supervision of these workers is sometimes managed through the temporary employer, ultimate supervision and management responsibility for the product or service of the department, or the outsourced function, is retained by the customer. Typically, these are considered to be “temporary help” arrangements, even though they may be for an indefinite period. “Facilities staffing” is often sold as a way to maintain high productivity in high-turnover, high-burnout positions such as telephone work, data entry operations, or repetitive assembly work.
Falloff
An unsuccessful permanent placement where the employment relationship is severed by either the employee or the employer prior to the contingency fee being paid and/or during a placement guarantee period. (Some placement firms offer only replacement guarantees rather than a full or partial refund.)
Full Service
The provision of both temporary help and permanent placement by a supplier. which may include staffing, executive search, career consulting, PEO arrangements, vendor management, on-premise responsibilities, contract employee management, and HR consulting.
Furlough
temporary unpaid leave of some contractors due to the special needs of a customer, which may be due to economic conditions at the customer, the economy as a whole, or as a measure to comply with a specific policy (such as reducing co-employment risk by establishing minimum periods that contractors must leave assignments before returning). These involuntary furloughs may be short or long term. An example of a furlough is one or more unpaid eight-hour periods each month.
G
Gross Margin
The difference between the bill rate for the temporary services and the direct costs of employment (pay rate plus mandatory benefits such as workers’ comp, unemployment insurance, employer’s share of FICA and state or local taxes and optional benefits) for each temporary employee on assignment. A company’s gross margin is the difference between its total billings and its direct employee costs. Typical gross margins in the temporary help industry are between 20-30%, though they may go as high as 30-40% for specialty or high-demand work and as low as 10-20% for certain long-term or high-volume business.
H
Headhunting
A term used to describe Retained Search services, sometimes in a derogatory manner.
Health Care
Physicians, dentists, nurses, hygienists, medical technicians, therapists, home health aides, custodial care workers, etc.
Help Supply Services
The Standard Industry Classification (SIC) code and terminology used by the U.S. government to classify temporary help and continuing help (employee leasing) services business, as well as a number of minor industries such as modeling agencies. Since 1988, temporary help employment and leasing company employment have shared the same code, SIC 7363. The preponderance of employees in this SIC code are temporary workers.
Home Healthcare (Home Care)
The provision and staffing of professionals (e.g., nurses), technicians (e.g., therapists), and nonprofessionals (e.g., aides) to provide care at home for persons with a variety of limiting medical conditions. Payment to the home healthcare provider may be direct from the patient or through a private insurance company or a public program such as Medicare or Medicaid. Home healthcare providers include hospitals, proprietary agencies, and nonprofit agencies such as Visiting Nurse Associations and certified Medicare agencies. Caregivers may be permanent full-time or part-time employees, or temporaries provided through a third party staffing service.
Home Healthcare Agency
A for-profit or non-profit organization that is licensed or certified to assign nurses, aides, or other medical technicians and professionals to provide medical care to patients in their homes.
I
Independent Contractor
A self-employed individual or agency performing services for a company under contract rather than as an employee, either on-site or off-site. The IRS lists a 20-factor “test” across 3 categories that can be used to determine independent contractor or employee status. (Also referred to as Freelancers, Consultants, and “1099s,” which is the designation of the IRS form that companies use to report the money paid to Independent Contractors.)
Industrial Segment
The blue collar segment of temporary help and permanent placement which includes manufacturing personnel, factory workers, shipping and receiving clerks, materials handlers, and related occupations. “Light Industrial” is often used to refer to positions not requiring heavy labor, such as electronic assembly.
In-house Temporary
A temporary employee hired directly by a company, rather than through a staffing firm, to perform various “temporary” assignments at that company as part of an “in-house pool.” (Note that these positions may provide permanent, full-time work to specific individuals.)
Interim Executive
A high-level professional or executive temporary with managerial responsibilities.
IT (Information Technology)
A sector of business services that includes IT staffing, IT solutions consulting, and IT project management. Typically higher-margin programmers, systems engineers, and applications experts.
J
Job Order
Refers to a bona fide request to an employment agency to refer applicants for a specific permanent position with a customer. A job order is the specific set of requirements set forth by an employer for an actual position. Typically for hourly positions. (See also: Requisition)
Job Sharing
Regular part-time work in which two people voluntarily share the responsibilities of one full-time position, usually with prorated benefits and salary.
Joint Employment
Where two employers exercise significant and simultaneous control over the same employee. For example, when a temporary help or leasing firm exercises control over personnel matters while the client company exercises supervisory and workplace control. Both employers may be liable for payment of taxes, workplace safety, etc. Such relationships are sometimes not thought to be “joint-employment” relationships, since the client company is indemnified from some liabilities — but since control is shared significantly between the general employer and the client workplace supervisor, these may be considered “co-employer” relationships as well. (See also: Co-employment.)
Just-In-Time Staffing (JIT Staffing)
A loosely used term that equates “flexible staffing” arrangements with the concept of “just-in-time” inventory control or delivery of parts for a manufacturing process. Rather than carrying inventory (or permanent employees), arrangements are made with a supplier to deliver parts (or help supply workers) just at the time when they are needed in the work process.
L
Labor Contracting (Labor Leasing)
The provision of labor to a third party, usually providing limited or no benefits to the workers and for a limited time. Most commonly used to describe agricultural and construction contract labor arrangements. Sometimes used more broadly to include employee or staff leasing, temporary help, and other business services such as cleaning and security.
M
Managed Services Provider (MSP)
Term used to describe a firm or organization that provides Managed Services; management and outsourcing services. Refers to the management of a function or department at a client (customer) site on an ongoing, indefinite basis; often the sourcing and management of staffing and other services, the management of third party staffing and services suppliers, and the administration of the Vendor Management System (VMS).
Margin
See: Gross Margin.
Market-Pricing
Obtaining competitive market rates for a given position or skill set by employing an efficient competitive bidding process through a Vendor Neutral MSP or VMS. Market pricing offers customers the best value for services, ensuring highly qualified candidates even during periods of scarcity (high market demand and/or low availability) and savings during economic downturns.
Markup
The “markup” over an hourly pay rate in temporary help is defined as the percentage added to the pay rate to reach the bill rate. (For example, a $12.00 bill rate and a $7.50 pay rate would compute to a 60% markup.) The markup percentage includes all selling, recruiting, general, and direct payroll, and administrative costs associated with providing temporary help services, plus profit. In the temporary help industry, markups can vary even for a single supplier depending on the extent of direct recruiting, training, and other costs associated with providing a specific employee for a specific client assignment. Typical markups for industrial and office temporaries fall in the 35%-65% range. Specialty niches have higher markups, generally between 50% and 85%.
Medical Staffing Services
Within the temporary help sector, this segment includes supplemental staffing to medical facilities (hospitals, nursing homes, and outpatient clinics), as well as the provision of licensed personnel (RNs, LVNs), trained (medical technologists), and unlicensed staff (home health aides, homemakers, personal assistants, etc.) to home healthcare agencies.
N
NAICS
Acronym for “North American Industrial Classification System.” This system classifies occupations and is used by the government to measure economic activity. It is currently being phased in to replace the previous Standard Industrial Classification program (see SIC). NAICS, which will provide greater detail for staffing services, is a product of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to create a common economic reporting system between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. Temporary help services activity will be reported under a separate NAICS code (56132) from employee leasing services (56133); they were combined in the old SIC program. Also, “Human resources and executive search consulting services” (541612 – includes only the executive placement portion of the previous Employment Agency category, human resources and personnel management consulting from the previous Management Consulting Services, and actuarial consulting from the previous Services, NEC (not elsewhere classified) and “employment placement agencies” (56131 — similar to the previous definition, but excluding executive placing services, plus the babysitting bureau portion of the previous Miscellaneous Personal Services, NEC, the casting bureaus portion of Services Allied to Motion Picture Production, and the casting agencies portion of the previous Theatrical Producers and Miscellaneous Theatrical Services) are now separate reporting categories. Compared to the old SIC program, NAICS is strictly a supply- and production-based system. For further conversions from an old SIC to a new NAICS, go to the NAICS home page at: [http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/naics.html]
Nurse Registry
A service that locates, recruits, and provides medical staffing for hospitals, nursing homes and a wide range of other medical facilities. May also provide for private duty work situations. Usually a fee is collected from the nurse to register, or from the party where the nurse provides services;. however, some “registries” operate like temporary help firms. Operationally, registries function much like Job Shops.
O
Off-Site
Business services provided for a client (customer) at the service provider’s location, not at the client premises.
On-Site
Vendored or outsourced services provided to the client (customer) at the client site.
On-Site Management
On-site management of a department or function by the supplier. (See also: Facilities Management, Managed Services Provider, Vendor on Premise)
Outplacement
A service to guide a terminated employee of a company to a satisfactory new position or career through the provision of short- or long-term counseling and support services, on a group or individual basis, most often paid for by the terminating employer. Some outplacement firms have tried to sell services directly to the public (“retail”), but most attempts have not been successful.
Outsourcing
Use of an outside business services vendor (and its supervised personnel), either on the customer’s premises or off-site at the vendor’s location, to perform a function or run a department that was previously staffed and supervised by the customer directly. (Sometimes, but not necessarily, limited to situations where some or all of the customer’s previous staff performing that function are hired by the outsourcing vendor.)
Outsourcing (MIS-specific)
The contracting out of a customer’s MIS (management information services) functions to a third party, usually involving the legal transfer of staff, computer equipment, and (sometimes) the physical plant. The outsourced service may then be provided to the customer on- or off-site, depending on the circumstances.
P
Part-Time Work
Work for a single employer that is regularly scheduled and ongoing but is less than full-time — either for less than a full day, or less than five days a week, or for only part of the year (e.g., summer jobs for students). “Part-time” employees are usually not temporary workers, since part-timers generally work a regular schedule as a direct hire on an ongoing, indefinite basis. Part-time workers comprise the bulk of the contingent workforce, about 20 million workers daily (compared to a temporary help workforce of about 3.0 million a day). According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a part-time worker is someone whose work usually totals less than 35 hours per week at all their jobs.
Payrolling
The provision of longer-term temporary workers to a customer where the workers have been recruited (possibly interviewed, tested, and approved) by the customer but become employees of the temporary help company. This may occur in an instance when only the customer has the proper knowledge and experience to properly evaluate potential workers. Some argue that payrolling occurs only where no benefits are provided — otherwise, it resembles employee leasing. Other say that the payrolling arrangements are temporary in nature and usually only involves a specific client function, not all or a significant portion of a client’s workforce as in employee leasing. Markup percentages are lower since the customer has performed the recruiting function and no recruiting fees or commissions are built into the rate. Typically, markups are in the 25% range, inclusive of statutory costs.
Payroll Service
A business service that provides payroll processing, paycheck writing, and payroll tax administration, for a fee. No co-employer or joint employer relationship exists; it is plainly an administrative function.
Pay-When-Paid
Where payments to the VMS or MSP are distributed to suppliers after receipt from the customer. May also refer to a supplier?
Per Diem
Daily living expenses paid to technical, travel nurses, or other skilled temporary or contract employees while they are employed at a distant location requiring housing away from home, or during a period while they are relocating.
Perm
Short for permanent, usually permanent placement.
Permanent Placement
The bringing together of a job seeker and a prospective employer for the purpose of effecting a permanent employment relationship, for a fee. Also refers to the process of arranging such a relationship. (See also: Placement.) Personnel Supply Services — The industry segment that provides proprietary employment services, temporary help supply, and continuing help supply (employee leasing) to organizations, for a fee. Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) 736.
Placement
The result of effecting a permanent employment relationship. In staffing, usually used to describe a successful referral by an employment agency. “Placement” generally implies the marketing of applicants to employers, rather than the recruitment of applicants for a specific employer position.
Placement Agency
An employment agency that seeks to refer applicants seeking employment to employers seeking employees. A fee is charged either to the employer or the applicant (rarely) after a successful referral. (See also: APF and EPF.)
Placement Fee
The fee due to an agency when a referred candidate is hired by the customer, typically in the range of 15-35% of annual salary. Fee calculations are usually based on salary -one month’s salary, a fixed percentage (e.g., 20% of salary), or a percentage which increases with the salary level (e.g., 1% per thousand). An alternative fixed “fee by skill” approach has been tried but has not caught on.
Placement Services
The fee due to an agency when a referred candidate is hired by the customer, typically in the range of 15-35% of annual salary. Fee calculations are usually based on salary -one month’s salary, a fixed percentage (e.g., 20% of salary), or a percentage which increases with the salary level (e.g., 1% per thousand). An alternative fixed “fee by skill” approach has been tried but has not caught on.
Placement Services
Services provided by a staffing service to a client company to locate a properly skilled employee with the ultimate goal of a permanent, full-time employer-employee relationship with the client; may include “temp-to-perm” services (See also: Temporary to Permanent.)
Planned Staffing
Contracting for the regular use of temporaries to handle peak production periods, seasonal activities, or special projects. May involve the supplementation of a customer’s permanent workforce, or the provision of a temporary workforce to handle a project which occurs periodically. (This concept of “Planned Staffing” differs from “Facilities Staffing” in that planned staffing refers to cyclical or intermittent staffing needs, while facilities staffing refers to the process of “planning turnover” in a continuous function. However, as might be expected, these terms are often used interchangeably.)
Prime Vendor(s)
One or more suppliers that are awarded contracts to provide services to the client that may choose to (but are generally not required to) subcontract with other suppliers. Since the staffing and services/consulting industry is highly fragmented, with most suppliers possessing a fraction of a percentage market share, even programs with 100 or more suppliers will engage in some level of subcontracting.
Professional Staffing
A segment of temporary help which includes professionals in the accounting field (accountants, auditors, CFOs, etc.), legal (paralegals and attorneys), sales and marketing professionals, and managerial temporaries, and other nontechnical occupations that require higher skill or education levels
Professional Employer Organization (PEO)
A staffing industry service that assumes, via contract, a significant portion of employer responsibilities and associated risk for either part or all of a client’s workforce. (See also: Employee Leasing.) Professional Employer Services — In addition to assuming a significant portion of employer responsibilities for a client company’s workforce, additional services may include many human resource functions such as recruitment, drug testing, etc. However, the PEO does not have accountability or responsibilities and accountability in regards to output or results.
Proposal
Submitted by suppliers in response to Requisitions. Proposals generally include a firm price quote, references, qualifications (if in response to hourly requisitions typically a resume). In response to Project/SOW requisitions, a proposal will include attached a written technical response (including attachments) and a schedule of deliverables with fees and, if applicable, expenses and an estimated schedule of completion for each deliverable that will be managed and submitted within the VMS for approval and invoicing.
R
Rate Card
A rate or range of rates for a given position or skill set. Sometimes expressed as a not-to-exceed (NTE) rate. More effective for unskilled service categories (e.g. Administrative/Clerical, Light Industrial). Too limited for highly skilled, or specialty positions, where an efficient market-pricing mechanism (e.g. competitive bidding) may be used.
Requisition
A request for services, generally entered by the client and then distributed via a VMS or MSP to suppliers. If hourly, usually refers to a candidate (see also Job Order). If for a project/SOW, usually refers to a firm or team. Suppliers respond by submitting Proposals.
Recruiting
The process of locating and screening a candidate or candidates for an employer as part of a search assignment. Also used to describe overall general efforts to bring in temporary employees. “Recruitment” generally implies the search for candidates who meet specific client specifications rather than the marketing of available applicants to employers.
Refer, Referral
The act of sending a specific applicant or candidate from an agency to a client for consideration for employment. Also can refer to one search professional’s sending a candidate to another search professional who may have an open order that fits that candidate.
Registry
A listing of persons available for work within a specific occupation, such as nursing or modeling. Most registries charge referral fees to the registrants. Regular Work — This term is replacing “permanent work” as a way of describing a direct, ongoing, full-time and non-contingent two-party employment relationship between an employer and an employee.
Regular Part-Time Work
Refers to part-time employment that includes the same rights and prorated benefits available to regular full-time employees of an organization. (See also: Part-Time Work.)
Retained Search
Service provided by an executive search firm to locate a candidate for a specific position at a client company. Fee is payable whether or not hire is made.
Retainage
Holding back a certain amount or percentage of funds from progress or interim payments until the successful completion of a project or engagement. Generally applicable only to Project/SOW engagements with discrete deliverables, retainage is a best practice for VMS or MSP programs, and helps to reduce risk and encourage success of customer engagements. Retainage amounts of 10% are typical but may be negotiated on a case-by-case basis.
Road (Job) Shopper
Refers to a “job shopper” who takes long-term assignments requiring relocation and is usually paid per diem in addition to an hourly wage. (See also: Freeway Shopper, Job Shopper, Contract Employee.)
S
Search/Search Assignment
The process of recruiting a candidate for a specific position with an employer, usually an “exempt” position. A search may be contracted for on a retained or contingency basis. (See also: Contingency Recruiting, Retained Search.)
Scorecard
A report that compiles the measurement of key performance metrics (KPM) or key performance indicators (KPI) for a given supplier.
Service Fee
The fee charged to a subscriber by an employee leasing company, usually a percentage of payroll, which includes the costs of administrative services as well as all direct payroll and benefits costs incurred plus profit margin. (See also: Administrative Fee.)
Short-Term
Refers to a work assignment of limited duration. The duration implied here is open to some debate. Most would agree that “short-term” means employment of a year or less. Some companies use six months as a cut-off for all temporary assignments; others use 1,000 or 1,500 hours to ensure compliance with federal legislation regarding mandated coverages. The U.S. Federal Government in its use of temporary employees provided by private-sector staffing companies allows a maximum of 240 workdays in a 24-month period.
SIC
Standard Industrial Classification. This U.S. economic activity measuring program is currently being phased out, to be replaced by NAICS (see NAICS). The SIC program builds on a combination of supply and demand drivers to classify an industry. Personnel Supply Services are classified as SIC 736; Employment Agencies are 7361; Help Supply Services (including Continuing Help, or PEOs) are 7361.
Single Source Leasing
The provision of employees and equipment by a single leasing source, as in the case of a driver leasing company that supplies trucks and drivers to its customers. Single Source Supplier — The provision of staffing services employees through a single supplier source. Sole Employer — The “traditional” two-party employer-employee work relationship in which a worker has a single employer, as compared to co-employment relationship or joint employer status.
Solutions Business
Most often used when describing the providing of IT services as a total “solution” or package customized to a client’s specific needs. Used to distinguish from “staffing,” which is the simple provision of a person or persons to fulfill a specific work assignment. (See also: Outsourcing.)
Sourcing
The process of developing lists of potential candidates for a specific recruiting assignment.
Special Employer
A legal term referring to the client employer’s legal relationship to the employee in a joint employer relationship, which usually includes responsibility for day-to-day supervision at the worksite. (See also: General Employer.)
Staffing (Services) Industry
A broad grouping of staffing and employment related services where a supplier, broker, agent, or consultant provides employment or help supply services to a client customer that involves its own employees or the client’s potential or previous employees.
Staffing Services
A generic term that refers to a wide range of employment services, including employee leasing, long-term staffing, managed services, payrolling, placement services, temporary help and vendor on premise.
Staff Leasing
See also: Employee Leasing
Staffsourcing
A recently developed concept which seeks to distinguish the HR outsourcing function from the staff leasing co-employment relationship. “Staffsourcing” refers to the provision of various payrolling and personnel administration services without the assumption of a General Employer role
Strategic Staffing
The pre-planned use of alternative or flexible staffing strategies by the customer. May include the use of temp-to-perm hiring, planned temporary staffing for work cycle peaks or projects, or payrolling, for example. Subscriber — The customer, or client company, of a professional employer organization (staff leasing/employee leasing company).
Statutory Costs
Refers to mandatory taxes/witholdings/costs of suppliers to payroll or employ workers. Includes FICA (Social Security), Medicare, FUTA (Federal Unemployment Tax Act), SUTA (State Unemployment Tax Act), Workers Compensation (if required by law). Suppliers sometimes claim benefits (e.g. paid time off, medical, etc) but such costs should only be included if required by the program or by statute in order to make apples-to-apples comparisons between suppliers.
Subcontracting
Where one supplier receives a requisition and engages in a subcontract with another supplier to provide the services. This is a common practice in both Project/SOW engagements where one firm requires individual(s) with expertise it does not have in-house or for professional services staffing, where a supplier recruits candidates that have temporary work authorizations (such as a work visa) and must be continuously employed by their sponsor suppliers.
Supplemental Staffing
The provision of temporary workers to a client company to supplement the current workforce for peak loads, special projects, or planned and unplanned worker absences. Also describes the regular practice of using contract medical staff in hospitals and other medical institution settings.
T
Technical Services
A segment of the temporary help market that includes computer programmers, systems analysts, designers, drafters, writers, editors, engineers, and illustrators.
Telecommuting
Working at home, or at another “off-site” (satellite) location, for an organization whose office is located elsewhere, with one-way or (usually) two-way electronic linkage to that organization via phone, fax, modem, and/or the Internet or a company Intranet. Home work may be full-time, occasional, or a scheduled part of the workweek.
Teletemporary
Workers employed by a Temporary Help Service, Contract Technical Service, or other e-business service supplier who perform services for and communicate with a third-party service customer via phone, fax, and/or modem
Temp
Common abbreviation or colloquial expression for “temporary worker.” Temporary Agency — A misnomer, but used often to describe a temporary help service. “Agency” is also used to describe firms providing nurse staffing to medical institutions and for home healthcare. A temporary help service is not an agency, because it is the actual employer of the temporary rather than its “agent.” However, it appears that “temporary agency” and “nursing agency” have become forever embedded in the vocabulary of customers, the media, and just about everybody else.
Temporary Employee (“Temporary”)
An employee who works for a staffing service fulfilling client assignments.
Temporary Help
The furnishing of employees to meet the short-term and/or project needs of another employer. Originally used primarily as replacements for office or light industrial workers, temporary help has come to be used across a broad range of skills and occupations to substitute for employees on leave, on vacation, or in emergencies, or to provide supplemental support where there are temporary skills shortages or specific projects or peak load needs.
Temporary Help Company
An organization engaged in the business service of furnishing its own employees (“temporaries”) to handle customers’ temporary staffing needs and special projects. A temporary help company recruits, trains, and tests these employees, then assigns them to clients for a finite (albeit sometimes very extended) time period.
Temporary Help Industry
A segment of the staffing industry that provides tempo-rary help and related staffing services to businesses and other clients. The temporary staff provided are recruited, screened, possibly trained, and employed by the temporary help provider, then assigned to the customer at a markup. Although the customer typically assumes supervisory responsibility for these workers, in certain service arrangements coordination or supervisory functions may be provided by the supplier. (See also: Markup.)
Temporary Placement
Another misnomer that is often used to distinguish between the temporary help services of a “full service” firm and its “permanent placement” activities. The term is actually used incorrectly, since “placement” refers to affecting an employment relationship, and providing a temporary worker involves the provision of a service by a person already employed by a temporary firm.
Temporary Pool
A group of in-house employees hired directly by a company and used to fill temporary job assignments at that company.
Temporary-to-Permanent
(Abbr. Temp-to-perm.) An employment service concept where a client company plans to make a permanent placement hiring decision during or after a temporary help assignment. In a “temp-to-perm” situation, only temporary workers who are also seeking a similar type of permanent work would be sent on the assignment. Where a temporary assignment “just happens” to “go permanent,” it may be called a “temp-to-perm” hire after the fact, but it is generally not considered to have been a permanent placement. (Other terms used to describe this process are temp-to-direct, temp-to-hire, try before hire, try before buy.)
V
Value-Added
Marketing term referring to demonstrating benefits to the buyer other than the generic supplied service or product.
Variable Time (V-Time) Programs
Time/income trade-offs that allow full-time employees to reduce work hours for a specified period of time with a corresponding reduction in pay.
Vendor Management System (VMS)
A software platform that enables and manages service engagements between customers and suppliers of services, including the entire process of sourcing, screening, onboarding/offboarding, time & expense management, SOW/deliverables-based billing, electronic invoice presentment and payment, pricing, reporting, and payments distribution. Generally web-based and provided as SaaS (Software as a Service), an effective VMS is easy-to-use, transparent, configurable within an organization and across different service categories (e.g. IT, Admin/Clerical, Light Industrial, etc), operates in real-time, and can be integrated with other systems easily.
Vendor Neutral
A VMS or MSP program where the VMS or MSP provider (including its parent, subsidiaries, and affiliates) manages the program but does not compete with other suppliers to provide requested services, such as staffing, Project/SOW, payrolling, etc. Vendor neutral programs encourage and enhance participation by local and diverse suppliers and avoids any perceived or actual conflicts-of-interest between the objectives of the customer and those of the VMS and/or MSP. Programs that allow the VMS or MSP to compete and/or fulfill requisitions are Prime Vendor or Vendor on Premises programs.
Vendor On Premises (VOP)
On-site coordination of a customer’s temporary help services through an exclusive, long-term general contractor relationship with a temporary help company. The designated Vendor On Premises may enter into subcontracting relationships with other temporary help suppliers, or such relationships may be specified by the customer.
W
Work Order
Refers to a request from a customer for a specific type of service to be provided by one or more temporary employees for a specific period of time.
Work Sharing
The situation in which two or more workers may “share” one full-time position at a company, often for the purpose of schedule flexibility. The workers often stagger their schedule in order to meet outside personal commitments such as family responsibilities. In other cases, an employer, in lieu of a layoff, may combine two jobs into one and retain both workers, each working a reduced schedule.