For managers who have ever worried about hiring the wrong person for a job or for candidates who have lost sleep over whether to accept a position, take heart. There is a popular alternative in today’s workplace. According to a recent survey of executives, 94 percent of respondents consider it valuable to hire employees on a temporary basis as a means of evaluating them for full-time positions.

The survey was developed by Accountemps, the world’s first and largest temporary staffing service for accounting, finance and bookkeeping professionals. It was conducted by an independent research firm and includes responses from 150 executives with the nation’s 1,000 largest companies.

Executives were asked, "How valuable is it to hire someone on a temporary basis as a means of evaluating him or her for a full-time position?" Their responses:

Very valuable 41%
Somewhat valuable 53%
Not very valuable 2%
Not at all valuable 3%
Don’t know 1%

"Temporary assignments afford companies the opportunity to evaluate whether a candidate is a match for a position before extending a full-time offer," says Max Messmer, chairman of Accountemps and author of Managing Your Career For Dummies® (Hungry Minds, Inc.). "Hiring managers can minimize productivity losses and observe firsthand a prospective employee’s job performance, making it the ultimate employment interview."

Messmer added, "For professionals looking to get a foot in the door with a particular company, temporary or contract work can be ideal as it allows them to demonstrate their value to the organization. In the process, they can determine their own level of interest in the position."
Accountemps has more than 325 offices throughout North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and offers online job search services at www.accountemps.com. For more information about National Staffing Employee Week, go to http://www.staffingtoday.net/memberserv/nthw.htm