Temporary staffing is dead, we have killed it. 

Are we not straying as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breadth of empty space?  We have killed it with a short-sighted view of the workforce -chasing the apparition of the on-demand, low cost, yet stalwart worker.  Of course you never get all three, we chase a ghost.      

People are not a commodity, they are a self-fullfiling prophecy.  The more we empower, the more we invest, the clearer the expectations, the more value they will drive for our organizations.  

Temporary staffing is also a prophecy fulfilled – the model is foolishly focused on putting butts in seats and bodies on the line cheap and it completely ignores what it takes to keep them there.  A myopic focus on short-term cost reduction has perpetuated staffing mythology that “we are all fishing from the same pond” “people just don’t want to work nowadays”.  It has also informed a “how low can you go” temporary sales strategy.  The cost of your temp staffing program is not your mark-up, it is turnover that is killing throughput.  

I may have come too early with this news, this tremendous event is still on its way.  As with thunder and lightning, deeds done many times require time to be seen and heard.  Behold, what are these – the PE optimized people peddlers, the bank beholden behemoths, the quarterly earnings windowdressers if not the tombs and sepulchers of a dead industry? We say requiem aeternam operibus temporariis – eternal rest for temporary staffing.   

Our purpose is to create opportunity and empower people, and that starts with the entry-level worker.  This investment of which we speak is primarily an investment of intention. The Onin way is to meet the workforce where it is at, to stand smiling and help uncover unique giftings through genuine care and curiosity, match teammates meticulously with the right opportunity, give them access to affordable, poverty-breaking, life-changing tools like our benefits, systematically coaching them, advocating for them and spurring them on to success. 

The beneficiaries of the Onin self-fullfilling prophecy is not only the entry-level workforce. The ripple effect of value created by tens of thousands of Onin Teammates feeds a tidal wave of value driven for our clients and for Oninites.  Temporary Staffing is dead – the future of the workforce is Onin.