Glad You Asked #8 - Can a perm agency just add temps?
Years ago I hired a car in Scotland that could barely get up the hills. Nothing was wrong with the car. It just wasn’t built for those roads, and nobody at the hire desk asked where I was headed.
A perm agency adding temps reminds me of that car.
On paper it looks like easy growth. Same clients. Same candidates. Same consultants. Just add timesheets.
But perm is selling a car. Temp is running a hire fleet.
When you sell a car, you hand over the keys and the buyer drives off. Your job is done. That’s perm. You introduce a candidate, the client employs them, you send the invoice.
Run a hire fleet and the car stays yours. You register it, insure it and service it. Every day it’s out on roads you don’t control, in conditions you can’t see. That’s temp. You employ the worker, they work on the client’s site, and the obligations stay with you.
The shortcut we keep seeing is starting temp on perm paperwork and hoping for the best. Most agencies learn the cost the way I learnt about Scottish hills: halfway up one. Three risks catch them out more than any other.
1. You own the car now
First, check you’re allowed on the road. Queensland, Victoria and South Australia require a labour hire licence, and clients can be penalised for using an unlicensed provider.
Then the employer obligations land on you. Pay, award rates, entitlements and how you engage the worker all sit with you. Casual? Contractor? Something else? Get it wrong and it rarely stays a one-off. The same set-up runs across every placement, so the back-pay multiplies. And it’s not only the company on the hook. The people who run it can be personally exposed.
2. Know the roads before you hand over the keys
Your temp works on the client’s site, but your safety duty to them doesn’t move.
“But the client runs the site. Isn’t safety their problem?”
It’s both of yours. No contract term can shift your share. Regulators have prosecuted labour hire firms that never properly checked where their workers were going. Before you place anyone, ask the client the questions my hire desk didn’t, and confirm the answers are true. A ticked form is not an inspection.
3. A sales contract isn’t a rental agreement
Terms written for perm usually say nothing about the issues that matter most in temp. Who carries the risk while your worker is on site? What happens when the client wants to hire your temp? Does your insurance respond to what you’ve signed up to? Most agencies find the gaps mid-dispute, which is the worst possible time to read the fine print.
What good looks like
Licensing sorted in every state you supply into, before the first placement.
A clear, documented engagement model for your workers, checked against the relevant award.
Client terms written for temp: risk on site, conversion fees, insurance and cooperation on safety.
A host site check you actually do, not just a form the client fills in.
None of this needs to be heavy. It needs to be built around your business, not a template downloaded from somewhere else.
So can a perm agency just add temps?
Yes. A well-run fleet makes good money, and these risks are manageable when you deal with them early. Leave them until later and they get expensive.
Your terms and your engagement model are the rego and insurance of a temp business. Sort them before the first car leaves the yard.
Thinking about starting a temp desk? Let’s check your paperwork first.