High Performance in the Temping Industry

The temporary staffing industry functions as an economic thermometer: when the industry is suffering decreasing turnover this is a clear sign the economy is cooling down and vice versa. As a consequence the industry experiences erratic financial results and has traditionally suffered from a huge employee turnover. Managers of temping agencies are therefore looking for ways to stabilise and increase their performance. One of the concepts they are investigating is that of high performance organisations (HPOs). The study described in this article takes the recently developed HPO Framework and applies this to the temporary staffing industry in order to identify factors that create and sustain high performing temping agencies. The study results show there are ten factors that are decisive for achieving long-term high performance in this industry. The practical implication is that managers should focus on improving these characteristics and thus create more stable high performing organisations.