TEMPORARY WORKERS AND HEALTHCARE
Using a Temporary Staffing Service for Your Needs
One of the major challenges facing the temporary staffing industry’s future
is a labor shortage. A solution many healthcare providers are using is to employ
temporary help through a staffing service.
According to the American Staffing Association,
the staffing industry’s largest association, 2.8 million temporary workers
are working in the United States on any given day. The total number of
temporaries in the United States more than doubled since 1989.
Why the Healthcare Industry Uses Temporary Workers
There are several reasons why the healthcare industry is using temporary
workers more and more.
1. Staffing
levels can fluctuate greatly depending on the work load. Temporaries can
help fill in the gaps.
2. Many healthcare facilities use temporary staffing companies
to do all their hiring. The temporary company does all of the recruiting
and places the employee on its payroll. After a period of time, usually 520
hours, the healthcare facility can choose to transfer
the temporary company’s employees to its payroll.
3. Many healthcare facilities like the simplicity of paying one hourly
fee to a staffing service rather than paying separately for payroll, workers
compensation, unemployment, state and federal taxes and other administrative
tasks.
Legal Issues
Employers are required to enforce the same rules and regulations for
all workers on the site. It must also be remembered that all temporaries
are the legal employees of the temporary staffing service even though the
healthcare facility supervises the temporary.
However, the legal obligations are not as simple as they seem, says
William Sweet, an attorney with Beckman, Lawson and Sandler, Fort Wayne,
Ind. “Courts tend to look at both parties as being responsible for alleged
illegalities.”
It is important for the healthcare facilities and the temporary personnel company
to know the rules, procedures and policies of one another.
How to Select a Staffing Service
A practice administrator should select a staffing service like any other vendor.
Neither the least expensive or most expensive temporary personnel company
are necessarily the best choice. There are several things to look for when
choosing a temporary personnel company:
*Get references;
*Use a staffing service that is an active ASA member;
*Beware of long contracts and small print; and
*Check if the temporary personnel company has the following:
1. Screening and hiring techniques solely for healthcare applicants;
2. Drug testing procedures;
3. OSHA bloodborne training / HIPAA training;
4. Hep B vaccinations;
5. A no pay guarantee for poor performance; and
6. Simple accounting procedures.
In general, the temporary personnel company’s policies and the way it
does business should be professional in all aspects. Hiring temporaries
following the above guidelines gives the practice administrator one more alternative
to help alleviate the labor shortage problem.
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