By Donald McMillan, MD at Allmed Healthcare Professionals

Once referred to as labour brokers, TES (Temporary Employment Service) providers historically had a bad reputation with regards to how they do business. Used as a stop-gap, labour brokers traditionally provided temporary placements (“temps”) to assist the healthcare sector during peak seasons or cover for another employee on leave. Today, however, as the permanent job market gets tougher, it’s important for job-seeking individuals not to let their misconceptions lead them to overlook the temporary employment space. Times have changed, and TES providers now provide the healthcare sector with more skilled, sought-after healthcare resources as and when they’re needed, while offering those skilled individuals practically the same benefits as full-time employment, along with increased job flexibility and the opportunity to gain additional experience in several different working environments.

Misconceptions and myth-busting

There are various prevalent misconceptions about TES providers in the job market currently. For example, it’s not uncommon for people to think that TES providers prevent temporary placements from becoming permanent. It’s also rumoured that TES providers exploit the staff working for them through excessive overtime, and refuse to pay leave benefits, while others think that TES providers should be avoided because they’re unregulated ‘fly-by-nighters’ who cannot offer people employment for life.

This is not the case. All healthcare facilities experience peaks and dips in occupancy. To accommodate these changes, hospitals must be agile in terms of their human resources to operate efficiently just the same as any other business. The same rules that govern healthcare facilities govern the agencies that service them – the Basic Conditions of Employment Act and South African labour law. Just like any other industry, it’s important to be able to tell the fly-by-nighters from the dependable. Factors that indicate credibility include the fact that agencies can belong to listed companies, which provides a high level of comfort that nothing unsavoury is underway due to continuous auditing requirements. Other credibility indicators include a proven track record and membership with professional bodies, such as the Allied Healthcare Association of South Africa (AHASA) which oversees the governance of their business practices through audits.

Temporary means choice and flexibility

So, what is the major difference between permanent and temporary employment? One of the biggest factors is that a permanent employee is contractually bound to work at a specific site, be it a hospital or frail care facility, while a temporary placement is free to work at multiple facilities every week or month. This allows for total flexibility and workplace enrichment, as the individual gets the best of all worlds. Furthermore, permanent staff do not have the flexibility to choose fewer shifts, as temporary staff do. Temporary employees can choose how much or how little they work, and they can also decide to work for several agencies simultaneously to reduce the risk of not having work, while ensuring a variety of assignments – none of which is possible with permanent employment.

Temporary means faster

Temporary Employment Services can be a viable launching option for newly-trained nurses who have completed their community service and are awaiting posts in the healthcare industry, while the permanent recruitment process is slow and onerous due to budget constraints and HR processes. The TES provider is more agile and can place a resource at a client within days, rather than weeks or months, if normal procedures are followed, making it possible to fill an urgent gap quickly. Location is not an issue for TES placements, as most TES providers have several branches with contracts or tenders to provide staff on a national basis.

Temporary enables efficiency

This is to align with a shift in workforce dynamics, whereby individuals have discovered that not only do they want total flexibility in how much they work, but also flexibility in terms of where that work happens. Working through a TES provider, an individual has the option to travel and could be placed provincially, nationally or even internationally under normal circumstances. Currently, under Covid-19 conditions, immediate national relocation could be required, as demands on healthcare resources vary from province to province as virus case numbers ebb and flow. An agile model to respond to these shifting demands while remaining cost-effective is much easier to achieve through an agency, than through a fixed, permanent staff complement.