Working with TPI Staffing

What is the process for finding employees through TPI Staffing?

Our search and recruitment efforts begin immediately. TPI Staffing will get the details of the position from you so we will send the most qualified applicants for your needs. By clearly understanding your needs and the requirements of the position, we can select the best candidates. A member of our Recruiting Team will be assigned to your account, and depending on your preferences, qualified candidate resumes will be emailed for you to select from. If you are interested in a candidate and want to conduct an interview, we take care of all of the scheduling and coordination for you!

How long will it take to get an employee started?

The time frame for successfully finding an employee is going to vary based on our current candidate pool and your specific needs. Most importantly, prompt feedback on the resumes submitted will shorten the hiring cycle. Our “Fill and Send” option allows a TPI Staffing Recruiter to personally select the most qualified applicant and have an employee at your organization in record time. This allows you to completely bypass the recruitment process and focus on your core business.

How much will it cost my company?

The cost will vary based on several factors, including account volume, workers’ compensation costs, placement difficulty, lead time for our staffing managers, type of job order, and length of assignment. TPI Staffing continues to be known for providing quality employees at a competitive price. Remember, it costs nothing to try TPI Staffing until you select and start one of our candidates!

What kind of background checks do you provide?

Criminal background checks are run at both local and national levels compliant with EEOC guidelines. We have some clients that request a drug screen, driving record screen or other non-standard checks. These can be coordinated through our office and may be an additional cost.

What if I am not satisfied with an employee placed by TPI Staffing?

We realize that not every job is a fit for every person, and sometimes that is not clear until the person is working. Our temporary-to-hire program provides an opportunity for you to see an employee in the work setting and determine if they will be someone you want to hire. If you are not satisfied with an employee, we can replace them. We also offer direct placement services. Guarantees vary based on the contract for each client.

What kind of jobs do you fill?

TPI Staffing is a full-service staffing company, and we handle positions in all areas of administrative, clerical, professional, industrial/manufacturing, engineering, human resources, accounting and more. By having a broad base of applicants, as well as various recruiting resources, we can meet your needs in most areas of your business. We have both an Office Professional Division and an Industrial Division of recruiters who specialize in their respective placements.

Why should I use your service instead of filling the position on my own?

By using a temporary or temporary-to-hire option with TPI Staffing, the hiring risk is out of your hands. If you are not satisfied with an employee, we can replace them, and you have not made the investment of hiring them onto your payroll. We cover workers’ compensation, unemployment costs, payroll administration as well as taking away the time of recruiting and sorting through piles of unqualified resumes. TPI Staffing can be a resource to you when questions arise about staffing and employment.

What is your process for approving time?

We have two easy options to keep track of time: TPI Staffing Online Timecard or Paper Timesheet. Or do you have your own means of gathering time on-site? Approval of the online time card is due by noon every Tuesday. We can set up authorized users only to approve online time cards in the TPI Staffing portal.

View Instructions on how to approve a temporary worker’s timecard.

The Affordable Care Act Q&A

How will the ACA affect staffing firms?

As employers, staffing firms will be subject to new “employer shared responsibility” (“play or pay”) requirements effective Jan. 1, 2015. The requirements apply to all “large” employers— defined as those with 100 or more full-time and full-time equivalent employees in 2014.1 The great majority of staffing firms will qualify as large employers.Large employers are subject to a non-tax-deductible excise tax in either of two cases if at least one full-time employee qualifies for subsidized coverage from a public health insurance exchange:

Pay option
Employers that do not offer “minimum essential coverage” to at least 70% of full-time employees and their dependent children under age 26 will be assessed a monthly excise tax of $167 (up to $2,000 annually) multiplied by the number of the employer’s full-time employees (excluding the first 80).

Play option
Employers that do offer minimum essential coverage as described above will not be subject to excise taxes unless the plan is either “unaffordable” to the employee or does not provide “minimum value.” In such case, the employer will be assessed a monthly excise tax of $250 (up to $3,000 annually) for any employee who qualifies for a government subsidy to buy coverage in a public health insurance exchange.

Minimum essential coverage: Any employer group health insurance plan that covers medical care, which the law defines as “amounts paid for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, or amounts paid for the purpose of affecting any structure or function of the body.”

1 Final employer rules issued in February modified the definition of large employer from 50 or more FTEs to 100 or more for 2015.

2 For 2015, the final rules also reduced the percentage of full-time employees (and dependents) to whom large employers must offer minimum essential coverage—from 95% to 70% and increased the employee exclusion from 30 to 80.

Unaffordable: An employer’s plan will be considered unaffordable unless the employee’s share of the premium of a single-only plan does not exceed 9.5% of the employee’s wages.

Minimum value: The actuarial value of the plan’s share of cost of benefits must be at least 60%. Plan benefits must cover at least the following core services: physician and midlevel practitioner, hospital and emergency, pharmacy, and laboratory and imaging. The government has provided an online calculator for determining whether an employer plan meets the minimum value.

Do staffing firms plan to offer health insurance coverage to their temporary employees?

Yes. Historically, staffing firms have faced challenges in providing health insurance coverage for temporary employees because of the high turnover and insurance carriers’ fear of adverse selection. But the law’s guaranteed availability rules and the flexible minimum essential coverage requirements mean that staffing firms likely will have ACA-compliant insurance products to offer their temporary employees in 2015.ASA surveys show that the great majority of staffing firms intend to offer their full-time temporary employees at least minimum essential coverage but most intend to offer minimum value coverage that is affordable to most, if not all, employees.

Some staffing firms may offer plans covering preventive and wellness services that only provide minimum essential coverage. Such plans are relatively inexpensive and are designed to be affordable to temporary employees, but they do not provide minimum actuarial value. Employees needing broader coverage could therefore seek subsidized health insurance coverage through a public exchange—which, if granted, would subject the staffing firm to a $250 monthly excise tax for each employee receiving a subsidy.

Regardless of the coverage offered, the great majority of staffing firms will incur significant new costs. Their exposure to those costs will vary widely depending on multiple factors, including the type of work their employees perform, their full-time status and tenure, their wage rates, the type of health insurance plan offered to them, and how many participate.

Will clients have employer responsibilities for staffing firm employees under ACA?

Generally, no. “Employer” under the ACA has the same meaning as under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (Erisa). The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that whether an entity is an employer under Erisa is determined by the common law multifactor test. Staffing firms generally should be viewed as the common law employer because they recruit, screen, and hire the employees; pay employees’ wages and benefits; withhold and pay employment taxes; and have the right to terminate or reassign employees. They generally also retain the right to control and direct how the employees perform their work, although the law doesn’t require that they actually exercise such control. The few court rulings that have specifically examined the employer status of staffing firms under the common law test have upheld the employer status of staffing firms based on facts and circumstances that are typical of most staffing arrangements.

If a client is determined to be the common law employer, the rules provide that an offer of coverage made by the staffing firm on behalf of the client under a plan maintained by the staffing firm may be treated as an offer of coverage made by the client for purposes of the client’s ACA obligation.

Can staffing firms help clients reduce costs by supplying part-time employees?

The ACA applies only to full-time employees, defined as those working, on average, at least 30 hours per week. Many businesses rely on part-time employees, and staffing firms can supply them if needed. But clients should be aware that this will not necessarily result in lower staffing costs. Staffing firms strive to maximize their temporary employees’ work hours by employing them full-time during any given workweek. So even if a client asks a staffing firm to supply an employee for part of a week, the employee generally will work the rest of the week for another staffing firm client; and to the extent the employee is enrolled in the staffing firm’s health insurance plan, it necessarily will affect the cost of service.Of course, it could be considered an abuse if an employee’s weekly hours are split between a staffing firm and its client, or with another staffing firm, and each firm claims that the employee did not work full time. The government has expressed concern about such a result and future guidance is expected to address such cases.

© 2014 by the American Staffing Association Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced without permission.

Industrial Staffing FAQS

TPI Staffing- Industrial FAQs

Office/Administrative Staffing FAQS

TPI Staffing Office FAQs