Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 1, 1990 TAG: 9004030498
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By Kathy Loan Special to the Roanoke Times & World News
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Long
Jim Coyle, branch manager of the Blacksburg franchise, finds it funny when his business is called the "granddaddy" of area temporary offices, given he's only been in business since June 1986. Since last summer, two other temporary agencies - Adia and Bright - have located in the New River Valley, and Manpower has activated a toll-free line from Roanoke.
The New River Valley appears to be following a national trend of increased reliance on temporary workers. Once a way to fill a job left empty for a few days because of vacation or sickness, many employers are now relying on temporary workers to fill a permanent part of their work force.
And "temping" these days is more than being a fill-in secretary. Light industrial and technical workers are being drawn to the field. Larry Terry, associate professor of management at Radford University, believes the field will continue to grow as people look for more flexibility in their work hours.
"Companies are moving from hired labor to contract labor," Terry said. "What is happening is companies are down-sizing and there are demographic changes in the work force," such as working mothers who want more time at home, semi-retirees and people looking for part-time work.
Lynn Miller, branch manager of Adia Personnel Services in Blacksburg, was relocating to the New River Valley from Lynchburg and wanted to continue working in the temporary field. She looked into operating a franchise on her own.
"Adia has certain criteria before they will go into a new market," Miller said. "I had to convince Adia that this was a place they needed to have a franchise."
Miller said she liked what she saw in the market research she did of the area, especially the business development and expected population growth.
Ann Ward, district manager of two Roanoke and one Lynchburg Manpower temporary agencies, said she decided to invest more energy to servicing the New River Valley after receiving calls from companies looking for temporaries.
As calls from the New River Valley increased, Manpower decided to advertise here and to install a toll-free number to make it easier to communicate regularly with clients and potential workers.
Ward said locating a Manpower franchise in the New River Valley has been discussed.
Like Coyle and Miller, Ward said she recognizes the area's potential for growth and believes the temporary market can be part of it.
Bright Services, in Christiansburg, did not respond to three requests for interviews for this article.
"There's a lot of manufacturing growth going on there and there's light industrial growth," Ward said. "There's a lot of new things coming in such as Warner Lambert and some other things that have come in up there. Overall, I just think it would be a good market and I think we could gain our share of the business."
"I don't know," Coyle responded when asked if there was enough temporary business to be had to support four agencies in the New River Valley. "But they're not going to find it easy to just walk in and take our business."
Miller believes there is enough work in the New River Valley to support the four agencies. "I think so. There's a lot out there," pointing out the many work fields where temporaries are needed, such as light manufacturing, shipping and receiving, assembly and even more technical fields such as engineering and health care.
Miller also sees educating the business community on temporary agencies as a necessary part of her work. "Traditionally in the industry 95 percent of the companies that employ at least 50 people use temporaries. That is not true in the New River Valley but it will be."
"That's the way the industry is going, people are changing over to using temps more and more. It helps reduce overtime, wear and tear on their employees. You know, when employees consistently work overtime, they burn out," Miller says. "They don't produce as well and having temps will take care of that. It also helps them avoid the reputation of hiring this month and laying off in three months.
Terry, the associate professor, said many companies, particularly small businesses, prefer to use temporaries or lease employers to avoid the time-consuming paperwork.
"Sometimes, it's easier for a company just to let us handle the legalities of it - the taxes, the payrolling, the W-2 forms, all of that kind of stuff. It just becomes an easy way for a small company or even sometimes a large company that just doesn't want to do the paperwork involved," Ward said.
Kathy Nolen, personnel assistant with Hubbell Lighting in Christiansburg, said the company often uses temporaries for clerical positions. "Temporaries provide us an opportunity to find out a lot about the person," she said. "There have been occasions where we hired them. If they [first] work out on a temporary basis, it makes us more comfortable" in deciding to hire them.
Miller believes long-term assignments in the New River Valley will become more frequent. "I think we're going to see it shift here to longer term.
What happens, Ward said, is that a salesperson for a manufacturing company might sell "1,000 more widgets" than normal and extra help might be needed to produce that order but not beyond that.
Sometimes, a temporary worker may be sent on a short-term assignment that grows.
"I've had temporaries that we've sent out and they'll say `we need them for two days' and they're still there two months later," Ward said. "Companies very often will move temporaries around sometimes even without our being aware of it. She's being paid but we're not even sure exactly where they've moved her."
The advantage for the temporary worker, Terry said, is they "get a chance to work in a variety of areas and sometimes get benefits." But a down side is that unions and other employees are not happy to see a portion or all of the office staff fired and replaced with leased employees.
Recent layoffs in the New River Valley have increased unemployment projections. As these people search for new full-time employment, the temporary agencies hope they can provide some assistance. But they also realize that it will be tough to match the wages some of these workers - especially union members - were making.
"We would like to them to register and we'll do our best to market the area and to see what we can come up with for them," Ward said. There may be temporary jobs in Roanoke available for those willing to drive, she said, and in all cases the workers have the right to refuse an offered assignment.
"We will certainly help them any way we can," said Vickie Wisdom-Justice, office supervisor at Adia. She said her office has already had calls from engineering and drafting people affected by the layoffs who are looking for work.
by CNB