By Catherine Lang-Cline
According to the American Staffing Association, millions of people find work with staffing companies in the United States each year with 705,800 people last year in Ohio alone. The strongest category for employment is industrial at 41% but the remainder is in categories like; engineering, IT, healthcare, professional services, and more.
Most of you are aware that Portfolio Creative is a staffing company specializing in creative people. What you might not be aware of is that I was one of those millions of people that were employed with a creative staffing company as a temporary employee. Portfolio Creative was partially born from my creative background and the understanding that placing creative people is not the same as placing industrial people.
This realization came from my first experience with a general staffing company, back in Chicago, that ended up quite disastrous. I had to take a typing test. Let that sit a minute as in the paragraph above, I mentioned that I was a creative person. Graphic designer to be specific. The one placement they found for me was a complete miss, answering the front desk phone at an ad agency. They got the ad agency part but really had no idea what to do with a graphic designer. I ended up getting a job on my own but in a couple of years was on the search again and found out there were new staffing companies that placed only creative people. I did on and off freelance with them until I got an amazing temp job in a large corporation that ended up lasting 3 years.
When I chose full-time employment in agencies and in corporations, I had the opportunity to then work with many great temps that helped out when the workload got heavy. And yes, you do start to develop your favorite people when you need help continuously. There was nothing greater than to make one call and have a company partner with you to find your person, negotiate the rate, and handle the paperwork when you are swamped with work.
So for me, National Staffing Week really is a cause to celebrate! It provided a living for me for years as a temp, filled the gaps in employment, helped me get my work done, and now I get to help other people make those creative connections. National Staffing Week for me is a wonderful opportunity to:
Thank our clients for trusting us to find their person. You have no idea how our talent feels to get the call that they are needed.
Thank you to our talent for trusting us to get you the right project. You become heroes to our clients as you swoop in and do great things.
Thank you to my team members for making the connections and changing the lives of all of the people that we work with.
If you haven’t tried using a staffing company in the past, now is the time. If you are creative, do creative tech, or are in need of a person like that, we are your people to contact. Temps in general keep the country moving with flexibility and hard work. Time to celebrate!
