Companies turn to temps when business surges

From the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 01/16/08

Cathy Villhard could bake only so many cookies, assemble so many boxes and package so many of her creations before realizing she needed more than her own hands.

But as the owner of Batter Up! Cookies LLC, launched in late 2003, Villhard didn't have the dough to bring on full-time help. Plus, she didn't always need it. Come January, she knew her holiday baking frenzy would cool.

Gauging the need for workers can be tricky, especially for small-business owners like Villhard who have seasonal cycles. Businesses that hire full- or part-time employees could be stuck paying for unused help when sales slow. But when big orders are placed or the peak season arrives, understaffed companies could miss chances to rake in business.

Villhard's solution: temporary workers.

In December, about 2.6 million people were employed nationwide by temporary help agencies, according to seasonally adjusted Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

The number of temps could be greater, though, because the figure reflects only workers who are employed by temporary staffing agencies and contracted out to businesses, said Cassandra Yocum, a Bureau of Labor Statistics economist in Kansas City. Some business owners hire temporary workers directly.

Although the holiday season is a popular time to use these workers, businesses hire temps when they're starting up, branching out, taking special requests from a client or filling in for full-time workers who go on vacation, said Eileen Frederick, director of operations for Keystone Staffing Resources in Creve Coeur.

Villhard, 45, doesn't employ any full-time workers at her midtown St. Louis operations, where she makes printed cookies and chocolates for business-to-business and corporate event settings. Her company eventually grew too big for her to go at it alone, but it was too small to hire permanent employees.

So Villhard paired with International Institute St. Louis to get temps. The nonprofit agency in south St. Louis helps immigrants and refugees find jobs and assimilate.

When a last-minute cookie order came in recently from Anheuser-Busch, demanding even more workers, Villhard hired additional temps through St. Louis-based staffing agency Staffing One Services to help with the cookie packaging.

During the holiday season, she paid between $7 and $14 an hour for each worker, depending on job duties.

"My ultimate goal is to have a full-time marketing person, a full-time kitchen manager and full-time production folks. We're just not there yet," said Villhard, whose business had revenue last year of about $100,000. "In the interim, this works."

Because her work "is not incredibly complicated," Villhard said she doesn't lose much money in training temporary employees. But turnover of temporary workers can be a big cost for small businesses that need short-term help.

To minimize that impact, owners should use temps for tasks that require little or no specialization, said Keith Jacob, president and owner of St. Louis Staffing, an Overland-based company with about $11.9 million in annual revenue last year that does temporary, temp-to-hire and permanent placement.

"Place them in situations where it's understood by all parties (that) there has to be a quick ramp-up time" to using the workers for production, he said. "You can't spend a lot of time learning."

Villhard said she "couldn't work without" her temporary staff, but she worries about the quality of help. The agency quells that concern because it screens workers, she said.

"That's the one thing, as a small business owner, you don't have time to do or don't know how to do," Villhard said. "It's worth the (staffing agency's) fee."

atablac@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8140