Help at hand (From Gazette & Herald)

Help at hand

NEARLY half (47 per cent) of small businesses in the Yorkshire region rely on temporary workers to manage their workloads and cut an hour's red tape every day, equal to about 250 extra working hours per year.

That is the finding of new research by Barclays to coincide with Temporary Workers Week.

The report also shows that 16 per cent of all small businesses in the region used "temps" at least once a month

Louise Fowler, small business marketing director for Barclays, said: "Small businesses in Yorkshire and Humberside are clearly on the ball when it comes to cutting red tape.

"By using temporary staff, they're saving themselves time -- one of the few things money can't buy more of."

The research revealed that the sectors most likely to use short-term staff are agriculture, hotels and catering (58 per cent each), construction (50 per cent) and business services (45 per cent).

The main reasons businesses employ short-term staff were revealed as:

Fulfilling a short-term need (55 per cent).

Easing demand and supply fluctuations (31 per cent).

In construction and catering, 18 per cent use temporary workers to draft in expertise.

Seasonal fluctuations (70 per cent) and holiday cover (49 per cent) are key times when small businesses would use temporary staff, with one in five saying they would employ potential employees on a contract basis as a test of their suitability for a permanent position.

Updated: 15:24 Wednesday, June 15, 2005