When temporary workers churn, most operations blame the labour pool. Our data across client sites says otherwise: the same market, the same wages, and one plant keeps its crew while another rebuilds it weekly. The difference is nearly always the first week's experience.
1. Fix the first two hours
Workers decide fast. A site where someone expects them — PPE ready, a named buddy, a real orientation — retains dramatically better than one where the temp stands by the door while supervisors improvise.
2. Give the same information you give employees
Break times, cafeteria rules, parking, schedules for the week. Being left out of basic information is the most cited reason assignment workers quit good-paying sites.
3. Assign real work with a visible standard
People stay where the expectations are clear and the work is legitimate. Vague, filler tasks read as disrespect and produce exactly the disengagement supervisors then complain about.
4. Pay attention to your best temps by name
A supervisor learning a worker's name in week one is a retention tool that costs nothing. So is telling the agency "keep sending this person."
5. Make conversion visible
Where temps see colleagues get hired permanently, effort rises across the whole crew. Where conversion never happens, your assignment becomes a stopgap for everyone involved.
6. Close the loop with your agency
Tell your account manager why people left — every reason is fixable, but only if it is known. We track this for our clients and adjust matching accordingly.