My First Temp to Perm

What’s a “Temp to Perm”?

A temp–to–perm job is one that starts out as a temporary position, but turns into a permanent position. You would be hired with the possibility of a temporary assignment turning into a permanent job.

Temp to perm offers were always something that we celebrated in the temp team. It almost felt like free money because you had already done all the work placing the candidate, it was usually just a case of letting your candidate know the good news and confirming that they were happy to accept.

It was highly likely they would accept because if people are happy at work, they do great work, and companies will always want to keep people who do great work. I can only remember one or two of these not being accepted and there were always exceptional circumstances involved.

One day I met a delightful candidate called Sophie.

She had not long left high school, was working part time in a café (not to dissimilar to the one I had worked in in a previous life), and wanted an office job so that she could move up the career ladder.

Sophie was so lovely when I interviewed her.

She had an extremely polite demeanour and was very clearly spoken. She was super smartly dressed in a suit, which reassured me about how seriously she was taking her job search.

Sophie had achieved average grades at school and had some customer service experience. I put her down for anything that was reception or basic admin work, filing, data entry that sort of thing.

Reception Cover

I soon had a call from one of my clients looking for some reception cover. They weren’t sure how long they needed someone for; a couple of weeks but could go on longer as there was lots of work to be done.

My client (Linda) I knew had a lovely, friendly team of people. I had placed other people with them before who had loved it and stayed. I knew that team was a safe place to put people.

The big, plush offices were relatively easy to access on a bus and because they were a global company there was likely to be other opportunities available for someone serious abou ttheir career.

I thought of Sophie straight away.

This role was perfect.

I got straight on the phone and organised it all at lightning speed. Sophie started her new temp role on Monday. Initially for 2 weeks, to see how she got on.

I prepared Sophie for her first day with everything I thought she might need, including everything I knew about the people she would be working with, right down to their pets/children’s/husband’s names.

10:30am on Monday morning I called the Linda to check that Sophie had arrived ok. She said they were very happy and everything was going well.

Later that day just after 5pm I called Sophie to see how her first day had gone. She said she had a great time and the people were really nice.

Perfect I thought, my work is done.

I made a note of the calls on the database and put a calendar entry in my diary to check back in at the end of the week.

In some people’s eyes this might seem a little over the top, after all it was “only a temp job”, but not to me.

I knew all too well the nerves that I had personally experienced starting new jobs and I always made sure I made that first week as easy as possible for my candidates. I had a responsibility to look out for them.

3 months later

Sophie had been with the same company for about 3 months when I got the call.

Linda said Sophie had become an indispensable part of the team and they wanted to offer her a permanent job!

I confirmed the salary, start date and fee over the phone and followed up with an email which Linda needed to reply to before I would extend the offer.

I still never make any offers unless they have been agreed, in writing first. There is too much at stake.

Sophie called me back from the toilets….

As soon as I had the email back from Linda agreeing I was straight on the phone to Sophie, I left her a voicemail and she called me back a few minutes later.

I asked her if she was ok to speak and she said yes he was, I did double check again because it sounded quite echoey and she explained that she had nipped into the toilets to call me back, since she worked on reception this made sense now.

I had myself had used those toilets before; it really is only fair to check out the facilities at the companies you were sending people to. I pictured her standing in the toilets. It was a big room which was tiled floor to ceiling with two what seemed like tiny cubicles in the corner, two sinks and a hand towel dispenser with a black bin underneath it that no one seemed to be able to direct their used hand towels in to with any accuracy.

Brilliant news

I asked her how she had been finding things and let her talk for a few minutes until she paused.

“I’ve got brilliant news for you!” I chirped.

“We’ve had some fantastic feedback from Linda and I’m so happy to let you know they’d love to offer you a permanent job!.”

Sophie let out the sweetest, excited scream I have ever heard, I could almost feel her jumping up and down as her voice waivered while she was thanking me.

“Oh my goodness, I can’t believe it,” she exclaimed. “is this really true? Are you sure?”

“Yes,” I said, “Absolutely, you’ve done so well there, they love having you on the team and definitely want to keep you.”

I double confirmed the salary and start date and asked:

“Are you happy to accept the offer?”

(I almost held my breath after this, luckily I didn’t have to wait long)

“100%,” she said, “I can’t believe this, I am so happy. Thank you so much for all your help, I still can’t believe it, mum and dad will be so proud!”

Living my dream

My dream came true again that day. I had changed Sophie’s life the same way my first recruiter had changed mine. She too had gone from working in a café to getting her first ‘real job’.

Working in recruitment was everything I dreamt it would be and I was loving every minute of it.

I’ll never forget Sophie being my first Temp to Perm.