temporary workforce: who is responsible for their safety?

When temporary staff gets hurt, a dangerous blame game kicks off. The first question is always, “Who’s on the hook for this?” The buck might be passed on to your employer brand. If you’d hired temporary staff through a staffing agency, you may have a chance to point right back at them.

However, this confusion creates a treacherous gap. The “whose job is it?” fallacy leaves temporary talent in an abandonment trap. Then, who’s answerable? Who must take responsibility of your temporary staff?

In fact, provisional talent runs a much higher risk of injury. Most times, they’re clueless about your company culture, workplace and even navigating the site. They’re often afraid to speak of a physical or emotional hazard. Why? They worry it might cost them their job.

The law is clear. The safety of temporary workforce is a shared, joint responsibility. You and your staffing agency are both liable. While you have distinct duties, you must find an intersection to work together to ensure a safe tenure for people you hire in the short-term.

This article helps you figure out a way to work most optimally with your staffing agency. Furthermore, if you already have temporary talent in-house and would like to engage a staffing agency, this piece is pertinent for your staffing needs.

1. primary responsibilities of a staffing agency for a temporary workforce.

As the employer of record, your staffing agency handles the core legal aspects of employment. They take care of the payroll and set up a benefits framework. In fact, they’re the ones who carry out the compensation and establish employment insurance. This becomes the fundamental part of their legal obligation.

In addition, the agency must also be proactive about safety. They must set their talent up with general safety training. This covers essentials like safe lifting practices for operational talent and effective workplace communication and etiquette for professional talent.

Even before placing temporary talent in your workplace, your staffing agency must vet your worksite. They cannot overlook the intimation on critical safety measures or provide misinformation about the workforce’s safety training.

Furthermore, in the event of an injury, the agency steps up. They must manage the incident response. This involves filing and handling compensation claim. and ensure that temporary staff gets proper medical attention and care.

2. your responsibilities for temporary talent.

Your responsibilities stem from your control on the workplace. You control the physical environment and dictate the pace of work. Therefore, the law holds you responsible for ensure physical and emotional safety to your workforce: both permanent and temporary.

As it stands, you can’t pass the buck on to the staffing agency. Your duty as the host employer leads directly to training. You must provide all training for the specific and broader hazards and a holistic view of safety precaution to your provisional staff.

Additionally, you own the day-to-day supervision. Here, there’s no distinction an employee working for in the short-term has from a permanent one. What does this mean for your workplace culture? You must step in to identify and correct unwarranted behavior.

Whether it’s about spewing toxicity on the office floor or taking the workings of machinery lightly, you must call it out. This also means that you should involve temporary talent in all your safety meetings and communications. How?

Start by sending HR emails and eventually, make them part of your newsletter recipient list. Remember, you can’t leave your temporary staff on the loop. Clearly communicate what’s expected of them when they’re in your workplace and while talking to their co-workers.

Inadvertently, you’re creating an inclusive space for all your employees, irrespective of their tenure or position in your organization. These small but powerful acts of support create trust and strengthens your employee advocacy base further.

3. educate your provisional staff on strong safety culture.

Temporary talent is an active part of the safety equation. As an employer, you must ensure that your interim staff abides by all the safety rules. Your temporary staff should become aware of the site-specific and culture-centric safety code, that foster your employer brand.

Ultimately, everyone in your organization, whether permanent or temporary, represents your employer brand through their actions. Safety is what truly counts for a productive workplace. Furthermore, your staff has the right to speak up against unwarranted behavior.

Often, your temporary staff might shy away from reporting a potential hazard or toxicity breeding on your office floor. Encourage everyone to report physical and emotional malignance anywhere in the system. Discuss the criticality of these acts during townhalls.

Furthermore, if temporary talent is involved in doing something out of line, make your staffing agency aware through an elaborate report. What’s more? Support your temporary talent cohorts to write down their versions of such incidents. This right to report on dangers without fear of retaliation is backed by law.

4. safety is not an interim HR policy.

You cannot treat the safety of temporary talent like the game of “hot potato.” It’s not a responsibility that can be shuffled off to someone else. It’s a shared, legal and ethical partnership between you and your staffing agency.

Since you and your staffing agency have an equal stake in the safety policy, it’s essential you choose the right staffing partner. One that tailors recruitment unique to your business needs and is agile when it comes taking care of the talent you procure through them.

What’s the primary negotiator that binds a hiring deal? Accountability. Your staffing agency finds talent for you. Talent that works with a vision and grows with a plan. Hence, before you even think of the legal repercussions of not abiding to worker safety, ask yourself this question. “Is my business with the right staffing partner?”

randstad is your partner for talent.

With deep talent market experience and unmatched expertise in diverse recruitment, our expert talent consultants are a call away to help accelerate your quest to onboard the right talent. Whether it’s about carrying out your talent goals for the long haul or equipping you for seasonal demands, we’re your smart decision. Start a conversation with us today.