Celebrating Our 500th GovTempsUSA Placement

GovHR USA/GovTempsUSA (GovTemps) has a staff retreat every year in the spring. We gather to discuss the prior year’s statistics on recruitments, studies, and temporary staffing in addition to going over any process improvements and new service offerings for the upcoming year. It’s really good to see everybody at the same time – even if it’s via Zoom!

My role at the retreat was to discuss GovTemps. As the person that oversees that side of the business, I needed to understand GovTemp’s numbers. It was then that I realized we had our 500th temporary staff placement and missed the opportunity to sound the horns and celebrate this milestone. While the milestone got passed me, it did cause me to reflect on GovTemps… what we’ve done, where I think we’re headed, and the value of our service.

  • GovTemps has been in existence since 2011. Since then we’ve assisted more than 180 local governments in 16 states with over 500 different assignments.
  • About a third of our GovTemps placements are long-term, outsourced positions. This tells me that 1.) there are employees who prefer to work for GovTemps on a long- term basis and 2.) there are clients who desire their services. Not surprisingly, many of our employees are pensioners and our clients value experienced professionals.
  • We have averaged 16 temp-to-hire (TTH) placements in the last two years. As a former local government Human Resources Director, I appreciate the value of the TTH approach to hiring a candidate especially when the fee is competitively priced at just two-weeks of annual salary.
  • While we have sourced all types of local government positions, we tend to fill some positions more than others. The top five are: Managers/Administrators, Finance (Chief Financial Officers and Accountants), Community Development (Planners, Economic Development professionals and Building Officials), Administrative Support (Clerks, Admin. Assistants, Office Manager) and Human Resources professionals. The typical placement lasts about 3-5 months and the average workweek is between 20 and 40 hours.
  • In light of the impact COVID-19 is having on local governments, I see GovTemps playing an even greater role in the days ahead. As towns slowly recover, I suspect governments will be more inclined to consider temporary and contractual workers rather than commit right away to a permanent hire.

When I think about the value-added of GovTemps, what comes to mind is not just that our fees are reasonable and fair, but that we care about good government at the local level. The senior staff are all former local government professionals. As such, we understand the enormous challenges our colleagues are facing on a daily basis and genuinely want to help. Please visit our COVID Resources Page to learn what we’re doing to help during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are genuinely pleased when we assist communities by placing good people in short and long-term positions. We have numerous stories from GovTemps employees who enjoy working in their “retirement” and the confidence a temp assignment has built for those in transition.

So, where was the 500th GovTemps employee placed? It was a tie between two Illinois communities that coincidentally are contiguous: Clarendon Hills (Accountant) and Hinsdale (HR Consultant). The GT employees started on the same day, January 27, 2020. Thank you to our clients and to our dedicated GovTemps employees!

By: Mike Earl, Senior Vice President, GovHR USA    

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