“The single most important skill you must have to lead is the ability to tell your own story.”
The world of work is continuously changing, with a job for life now considered a distant memory. Year on year the contingent workforce continued to rise in Great Britain and before the market downturn due to COVID-19 outbreak, one in four employees were in a temporary contract in almost all the firms in all the sectors, but with the increase in the period of uncertainty and lockdown, the number of temp workers are increasing in certain sectors.
Previously, temporary roles have gained a bit of a bad reputation, but with the increase every year in both the job sector and employee participation, this is a thing of the past, even more so now and is probably going to be the norm in the post-COVID-19 work practice. With redundancies and furloughing during the market downturn happening on a large scale in some places, there will be more excellent talent on the market, greater competition for jobs and a flexible attitude towards temp roles might just be the way to go.
Hiring temporary workers has been a popular way to deal with staffing for many years now. In the past, it was primarily a solution to temporarily replace workers who were on leave or to increase the workforce during seasonal highs. Today, in this period of uncertainty, some employers rely on temp agencies for all their staffing needs in order to streamline their hiring and human resources process.
If you are still considering temp work then some of its advantages are gaining experience, working with great companies, flexible working culture, proper work-life balance and if you are good and exceed your employers’ expectations, then, full-time opportunities as well. This is what you can gain from temp work but what skills does an employer look for in a temp worker? We are here to help you with this list.
1. Ability to Self-start
Particularly in cases where the position is truly a temporary one or on a contract basis, the organisation’s do not have a lot of time to invest in training you as a new candidate. For this reason, they need someone who is a self-starter and a quick learner.
This is a key reason why it is important to be specific in the skills you need to list and emphasize on your CV as a temporary worker and obviously possess as well. If the businesses use a specific software or there is some other crucial skill that the employer requires the potential candidate to have, it must be outlined so that the agency can send you to the firm as the most qualified applicant.
2. Adaptability
Casual staff need to be able to quickly adapt to new surroundings and the company setup. Since you may not spend much time at one job assignment, it is critical that you must be able to move from one assigned company to another with relative ease.
3. Enthusiasm
As a temporary worker, it can be difficult for you to sustain enthusiasm for short or even long-term temporary projects. Not everyone is cut out to be a temp. It is one thing to be a temp who knows that if all goes well, you might eventually become a permanent staff member, but for perpetual temps, it can sometimes be difficult to remain enthusiastic toward the assigned temporary employer. As a temporary employee, you must look at the big picture, and understand the importance of bringing your very best to each and every assignment, no matter how short-lived.
As employers start to revisit their hiring plans from before the market downturn, there will likely be more temporary contracts to fill immediate gaps for roles that were paused or scrapped where the function was still needed. This will inevitably lead to a diverse range of interesting contract opportunities that could be the perfect next step, especially if your role has been compromised during the market downturn. So, now as well as post-COVID-19, the chances of getting a temp job are going to increase with every passing minute.
ABL Recruitment team
