What is the difference between being hired by Performance Personnel, and being placed on assignment?

When a person is hired by a staffing agency, they become an employee of the agency itself. The staffing agency is the company that pays them, withholds taxes, and provides things like workers’ compensation coverage. Being hired by the agency means the person is part of the agency’s employee pool, but it does not always mean they are working at a job site yet.

What’s an assignment?

An assignment is a temporary work placement where a staffing agency sends one of its employees to work for a client company. During the assignment, the employee performs specific job duties at the client’s worksite and follows the client’s daily work instructions. The staffing agency remains the employee’s official employer and is responsible for paying wages and handling employment matters. Performance Personnel handles the following types of staffing:

Assignments can vary in length and purpose. Some may last only a few days or weeks, while others may continue for several months or longer depending on the client’s needs. When an assignment ends, the employee’s job with the staffing agency does not automatically end. The employee may remain employed by the staffing agency and may be offered another assignment with the same or a different client company. The only exception is Direct Hire placements.

In a direct hire placement, the staffing agency helps recruit and screen candidates for a client company, but the candidate is hired directly by the client from the start. The employee becomes an employee of the client company immediately rather than the staffing agency.