Why You Need To Be Careful When Hiring Temporary Workers

Temporary workers are often used in businesses to quickly fill a shortage in the workforce. It helps businesses go through a very busy holiday season for example. You’re getting much more orders than expected, so you have to find a way to make sure your business does not get overwhelmed and overloaded. However sometimes temporary workers can become more long term workers even without the full-time employee status. It’s a bizarre situation to be in but it’s happening more and more these days for a number of reasons. For one, people want more flexible hours and that can only be achieved in this kind of way. Businesses and startups want to keep a stable number of full-time workers and thus they would prefer to keep things simple. A full-time employee cannot be working on flexible hours for numerous factors. The employer wouldn’t be able to give them the same amount of holidays and maybe not even the same healthcare coverage. So temporary workers become a more staple part of your business. But be warned there are some dangers to this.

Liability and hazards .

Perhaps the most obvious danger to hiring a temporary worker is that, they could end up getting hurt and you become liable. Recently, attorneys and various law practices are happy to represent temporary workers that have been injured at work. Because they are not on the payroll, they have more than likely not signed a contract in which health and safety injuries are protected against. Unless the employer has really gone beyond the normal safety rules and regulations and not provided, then the business will be protected. However even for a minor injury at work, a worker can sue the company and deem the entity liable for the injuries and pain suffered. This is why many businesses that do hire temporary workers have a no tolerance policy when it comes to adhering to the health and safety rules. If these are violated even in the slightest, companies choose to fire that individual and hire another worker in their place.

Flexible workers and freelancers.

Hiring freelancers is very common for all kinds of businesses. Sometimes, you just need a niche skill which your employees might not have. Or maybe you just need some temporary work done. Utilizing a self-employed freelancer for this is perfectly normal.

However, if you make a freelancer a regular on your payroll, this counts as having hired them in a part-time capacity. They should therefore be classed as w-2 workers, and not independent contractors. They can sue your business if you have committed employee misclassification, as they are subject to receiving various benefits such as health insurance, pay for overtime work or even a minimum wage.

Many businesses around the world are being audited for this, so you should be careful of what your professional relationship is with any freelancer. 

This is a contributed post.