When Does It Make Sense to Use Temporary Staffing?

For many businesses in Kansas City, staffing decisions are pivotal to operational success. While full-time employees often form the backbone of a workforce, there are numerous scenarios where temporary staffing might be the smarter choice. By understanding these specific situations, business leaders can make more informed decisions about when to supplement their teams with temporary staffing instead of making long-term hiring commitments. 

Here, we explore several scenarios where temporary staffing offers a strategic advantage, helping businesses save time, money and resources while maintaining productivity and flexibility.

Managing Seasonal Peaks

For businesses that experience predictable busy seasons, temporary staffing is an ideal solution. Many of our clients don’t require the same level of staffing year-round due to the cyclical nature of their businesses, so hiring temporary employees to handle the increased workload makes perfect sense. 

Example: Accounting Firm During Tax Season

A regional accounting firm specializing in tax preparation and financial advisory services experiences a dramatic uptick in demand from January through April during tax season. During this time, both individual and corporate clients seek assistance with tax filings, audits and strategic financial planning to meet the IRS deadline. 

Instead of overburdening their full-time CPAs and financial advisors with extended hours, the firm hires temporary tax specialists and administrative staff to handle the influx of work. These temporary hires assist with data entry, document verification and preparing basic returns, enabling senior accountants to focus on complex filings and high-value clients. 

By onboarding skilled temporary workers, the firm maintains high service quality, ensures compliance with tax regulations, and avoids burnout among its permanent team. After the busy season ends, the firm evaluates top-performing temporary staff for potential long-term roles, creating a talent pipeline for future growth. 

Why This Works:

Seasonal Demand: Tax season is a predictable, recurring period of high demand, making temporary staffing a practical solution. 

Specialized Skills: Temporary tax specialists bring expertise to the firm without requiring long-term commitments. 

Client Retention: Ensuring service quality during peak times fosters client satisfaction and loyalty. 

Temporary staffing in seasonal scenarios ensures businesses have the manpower to handle demand spikes while avoiding the costs and complexities of maintaining a larger year-round workforce. 

Project-Based Work

Many businesses take on short-term projects that require specialized skills or additional hands on deck. Whether it’s launching a new product, implementing new software solution, or a longer project, such as in the AEC industry (Architecture, Engineering, Construction), these projects often have clear timelines and endpoints. Hiring full-time employees for these initiatives can lead to overstaffing once the project is complete, while stretching existing staff too thin can result in burnout or missed deadlines. 

Example: Consulting Firm During a Major Client Project

A mid-sized consulting firm that specializes in organizational change management lands a large, short-term project with a corporate client undergoing a major digital transformation. The project requires extensive data analysis, process documentation and coordination with multiple client departments to ensure a smooth implementation. While the firm’s permanent consultants focus on strategy and client relationship management, they find themselves stretched thin on the operational side of the project. 

To address this, the firm hires temporary project coordinators and administrative analysts for the duration of the engagement. These project-based employees take on tasks such as compiling reports, tracking project milestones, scheduling meetings and managing documentation workflows. By delegating these time-intensive but essential responsibilities, the firm’s full-time staff can focus on delivering high-level insights and solutions to the client. 

After the project concludes, the firm evaluates its temporary workforce for performance and keeps top performers in mind for future projects or permanent roles as the need arises. 

Why This Works: 

Project-Based Demand: The temporary employees are brought in specifically for the duration of the client project, aligning workforce costs with revenue generation. 

Focus on Expertise: Full-time staff concentrate on their core strengths—strategy and problem-solving—while temporary hires handle critical support tasks. 

Scalable Workforce: The firm avoids over-hiring for a single project, allowing flexibility for future workload fluctuations. 

This approach ensures the consulting firm can meet client demands, deliver high-quality outcomes, and manage resources efficiently during project-based peak periods. 

Temporary staffing provides the flexibility to access the right talent for specific projects, ensuring businesses can complete critical work without overcommitting to permanent hires. 

Covering Employee Absences

Employee absences, whether planned or unplanned, can create significant disruptions in day-to-day operations. Temporary staffing is an effective way to bridge these gaps, whether it’s to cover an employee on parental leave, medical leave or an extended vacation. 

Example: A small Kansas City business that provides corporate printing solutions has a benefits administrator planning to take her maternity leave right before open enrollment. Worried about the impact this could have on their people, they engage a temporary staffing agency to bring in an experienced HR professional for three months to lead benefits and total rewards. The temporary worker is able to overlap timelines with the benefits administrator before she leaves, getting onboarded onto the exact nuances of this organization, and creating great continuity and resources for the people of the organization during her leave. This is a great example of a temporary staffing solution designed to meet a company’s needs during a critical time of year. 

Temporary staff can step into roles seamlessly, minimizing downtime and allowing businesses to maintain continuity without compromising employee well-being. 

 Navigating Uncertainty

Economic uncertainty, industry fluctuations or shifts in business strategy can make long-term hiring risky. In these situations, temporary staffing offers a low-risk way to adapt to changing conditions. Businesses can quickly scale up or down without the financial and administrative burdens of hiring or laying off full-time employees. 

Example: A Kansas City tech startup is unsure how quickly a new product will gain traction. They need additional customer support representatives but are hesitant to commit to full-time hires. By bringing in temporary staff, they can meet customer needs during the initial rollout and adjust staffing levels as demand stabilizes. 

This approach allows businesses to remain agile, balancing operational needs with budget constraints and market realities.

Testing for Long-Term Fit

Temporary staffing isn’t always about filling short-term gaps—it can also be a strategic way to evaluate potential full-time employees. Businesses can use temporary roles to assess a candidate’s skills, cultural fit and work ethic before extending a permanent offer. This “try-before-you-buy” approach reduces the risks associated with traditional hiring. 

Example: Marketing Agency Testing for Long-Term Fit

A growing digital marketing agency lands several new clients in the financial services industry, a sector that requires specialized knowledge of compliance and regulatory standards for advertising. While the agency’s team is skilled in general campaign management, they realize they need additional support to manage the increased workload and meet industry-specific client demands. 

Instead of immediately committing to full-time hires, the agency brings on a team of temporary marketing strategists and content creators with experience in financial services marketing. These temporary employees contribute by developing compliant ad copy, creating content strategies tailored to the financial sector, and conducting audits of client materials to ensure adherence to industry standards. 

During this period, the agency evaluates the temporary team’s ability to adapt to their collaborative culture, maintain quality under tight deadlines, and demonstrate knowledge of financial services marketing. As the client base stabilizes and they assess long-term staffing needs, the agency offers full-time roles to two of the top-performing temporary hires. 

Why This Works:

Testing for Fit: By bringing in temporary employees with relevant expertise, the agency can evaluate their skills and cultural alignment before making a permanent hiring decision. 

Adaptability: This approach provides flexibility to scale the workforce based on immediate client demands without overextending resources. 

Risk Mitigation: The agency avoids the financial and operational risks of hiring full-time staff who may not meet expectations or align with the team. 

This strategy allows the agency to maintain high-quality client service, support growth, and build a team tailored for future success while avoiding the pitfalls of rushed full-time hiring. 

Benefits of Temporary Staffing

Temporary staffing offers several advantages beyond these specific scenarios: 

  • Cost Savings: Hiring temporary employees can be more cost-effective than paying salaries and benefits for full-time staff, especially for short-term needs. 
  • Flexibility: Businesses can scale their workforce up or down as needed without long-term commitments. 
  • Access to Specialized Talent: Temporary staffing agencies often have networks of highly skilled professionals available for niche roles. 
  • Reduced Administrative Burden: The staffing agency handles recruitment, payroll and compliance, freeing up internal resources. 

How to Get Started with Temporary Staffing

If you’re considering temporary staffing for your business, start by identifying your specific needs. Ask yourself: 

  • What type of roles do I need to fill? 
  • How long will I need additional staff? 
  • What skills or qualifications are essential for these positions? 

Partnering with a trusted staffing agency can simplify the process. Agencies like Morgan Hunter specialize in matching businesses with qualified temporary workers, ensuring you find the right talent quickly and efficiently. 

 Conclusion 

Temporary staffing isn’t just a fallback option—it’s a strategic tool for businesses navigating seasonal peaks, project-based work, employee absences, economic uncertainty or high-stakes hiring decisions. By leveraging temporary staff in the right scenarios, small to medium-sized businesses in Kansas City can remain agile, productive and cost-effective. 

Ready to explore how temporary staffing can benefit your business? Contact Morgan Hunter today to learn more about our temporary staffing solutions and how we can help you meet your workforce needs with ease.