Ask a recruiter: "How do I find the right temp staff for my business?"

Recently, I set a goal for myself to publish useful recruitment advice on LinkedIn more regularly.

But here's the thing: rather than post general articles in the hope they "might" help someone, I thought I'd get specific and answer questions we receive from our clients in the hope that you might find the answers useful too.

Introducing "Ask a recruiter" where we'll tackle all your recruitment questions once a fortnight. While I'm not expecting to reach millions of people (baby steps, people), if I can help just one person with their recruitment I've done my job.

Without further ado, let's tackle our first question. Here goes nothing:

Question: "I'm after some advice on hiring temporary staff. I've advertised for a short term/casual Receptionist and have had nothing but time wasters apply. They either have no relevant experience or do not reply when you try to offer an interview – Is it just me?? Is it better to use a recruitment agency? Any help welcome!"

Great question!

Temp staff can be great for filling leave cover, to help your business out in busy periods or as a short term solution when you’re recruiting a role permanently, but to get great temp staff in the door, there are a few practical things you can do to ensure that you find the best person for the job.

The reality is many "perceived entry level jobs" like receptionist roles tend to attract a large number of applicants with many young people wanting to get into the job market.

This is compounded by the government's job seeking requirements which see some employers being spammed by applicants. As an example, this applicant applied for 40 jobs in nine minutes. Side note: This may explain why you're receiving so many applications but aren't hearing back from any of them.

Here are a few ways you can narrow down your search, avoid being inundated and find the best staff for the job:

Re-consider your advertising

Depending on the job, some platforms generate better and more-targeted applicants than others. If you are recruiting for a Receptionist, I'd keep it very local and harness the power of less formal platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Simply, ask your friends and family if they can recommend a Receptionist or someone who they know is reliable and capable of fulfilling the role requirements.

Post in a Facebook group asking for recommendations - people love to help!

Rather than post on Seek and invite the world to apply, you could put adverts up at your closest university. There are always students looking for casual work.

Most universities will have an online career portal where you can advertise jobs at no cost - a definite advantage for small business owners.

If you have existing staff, you could trial some kind of referral bonus if they bring in a good candidate.

Ensure the job ad is crystal clear

Things don’t just need to be clear to you—they need to be clear to the candidates.

Specificity is key when determining what you need. Get crystal clear!

If you're using platforms like Seek, it's important to make use of the screening questions that you set with your job ad.

Asking specific questions (about the experience/skills/working rights you require) will then categorise applicants for you so you can ignore all the unqualified/unskilled ones.

You could also list in your ad that you only invite experienced applicants. Some people will even clearly state their 'non-negotiables' in the ad to discourage applicants.

Work with an agency and save bucket loads of time

Many businesses find searching for temp staff overwhelming. That's why we're here! Some of you may not know that we provide temp staff to businesses all over South Australia.

We know we're biased but working with an agency like us has many advantages and can save you headaches down the track.

We actively seek out the best candidates and we pre-screen everyone who registers with us. That means we've done our homework already so that when you work with a recruitment agency you’re actually gaining access to the very best temporary staff available in the job market. Plus, you don't have to wade through hundreds of applications unnecessarily.

Also, many of our temps are tried and tested and have worked in other assignments for us previously so we know they’re reliable and highly capable.

If you're approaching an agency, make sure you have a clear job description ready to go. The best agencies will be able to tell you up front whether they have a temp that can accomplish certain jobs within the timeframe provided. But we need to know what the job is and what timeframe they’ll have.

Hope this helps! If you have a recruitment question you'd like answered, let me know in the comments below and I can tackle it next fortnight!

Melanie Mansfield is an Adelaide-based recruiter from Blackman Mansfield Recruitment. Blackman Mansfield Recruitment services clients around South Australia. If Melanie could answer one recruitment question for you, what what you ask?