A temp vs AI staff for admin work
A temp is a person supplied by an agency for a while. Our AI staff each do one defined role in your systems, managed for you. For a short gap, or a job that needs a person in the room, book the temp. For repeatable admin with no end date, look at AI staff.
Choose a temp when
You need cover next week for sickness, holiday or a sudden leaver, and the job goes back to a permanent person.
The work is the phone, the front desk, the post or anything else that needs a person present.
You want to try someone in the job before you offer it to them permanently.
Choose AI staff when
The same backlog brings a temp back every few months, and each one has to be shown the job again.
The work, such as data entry, checks, reminders and routine updates in your systems, is repeatable and done in writing.
The need is permanent, and you would be paying an agency's charge with no end date.
Side by side
The same five questions asked of each. An agency worker's rights and the rules on transfer fees are GOV.UK's. No rates are compared, because an agency's charge depends on the job and the place.
How soon it starts
Soonest of all
An agency has people ready to place, and nothing else on this page starts as fast. Ask yours how soon.
Weeks
A role is written down with you, built and tested before it starts. That takes weeks, so it is no answer to a gap.
What you pay for
Hours, through an agency
You pay the agency; it pays the worker. After 12 weeks the worker is due a permanent colleague's pay for the same job.
A build fee, then a monthly fee
You pay a build fee, then by the month. Our starting price is on the homepage.
What it can do
Almost anything
The phone, the post, visitors and whatever the day brings, once someone has shown them how.
One defined role
The written, repeatable part of the job: data entry, checks, reminders and routine updates. Not the phone or the front desk.
Who manages it
You do
You show them the job, check the work and confirm the hours. Their contract, and their pay, are with the agency.
We do
Its upkeep is our job, changes to your systems included. There is nobody new to show the job to each time.
Where the know-how sits
With the person
What the temp learned leaves with them unless it is written down. Offering them a permanent job can mean a transfer fee.
In the written role
How the job is done is written into the role, so it does not have to be taught again.
Weighing up a hire against an Agent Resource?
See what an AI worker costs to build and run for this exact role.
Where a temp wins
A temp is the right answer to a gap. Someone is off sick, on holiday or has just left, the work cannot wait, and the job will go back to a permanent person. An agency can put somebody at the desk far sooner than AI staff can be scoped, built and tested, and that person can answer the phone, open the post and deal with whatever arrives.
A temp is also a fair way to try someone out before you hire them. GOV.UK sets out the conditions under which an agency may charge a transfer fee when you give its worker a permanent job, so read your contract with the agency first. For short, varied or face-to-face work, book the temp.
Where AI staff win
Temps are for work that ends. When the same admin brings a temp back every quarter, the business is paying an agency's charge for a permanent job and teaching that job again with every new face. GOV.UK says that after 12 weeks an agency worker is entitled to the same pay as a permanent colleague doing the same job.
Where that work is repeatable and done in writing, an Agent Resource, an AI worker run like staff, can take it on, and how the job is done is written into its role, so it stays. We manage it and keep a log of all it does, and a person you name signs off the work that matters. Set that against what it costs to hire an administrator.
Questions owners ask
Someone is off sick from Monday. Temp or AI?
For cover at short notice, book a temp. A role for AI staff is scoped, built and tested before it starts, which takes weeks, so it cannot cover next week. AI staff suit repeatable work that will still be there after the absence ends.
What rights does a temp have after 12 weeks?
GOV.UK says an agency worker has a worker's employment rights from the first day. After 12 weeks in the same job they qualify for equal treatment, which includes the same pay as a permanent colleague doing the same job. Ask your agency how that changes what it charges you.
We have had the same temp for months. What should we do?
Decide whether the job is permanent. If it needs a person, consider offering it to them, and check your agency contract for a transfer fee first. If most of it is repeatable work in your systems, it may be a role for AI staff.
Do we still need temps if we take on AI staff?
Probably, now and then. AI staff each do one defined role. They do not cover reception, a colleague's sudden absence or a one-off project. The two fit together: the agent for the steady process work, and a temp for the gaps.
An Agent Resource compared with
Hiring an administrator
Hire for the front desk, the conversations and the judgement calls, and leave the keying and chasing to an Agent Resource.
An Agent Resource compared with
A virtual assistant
Varied, personal admin suits a VA paid by the hour; the same process run every day suits an Agent Resource.
An Agent Resource compared with
Outsourcing or offshoring
When a whole function needs people, outsource it; an Agent Resource takes one repeatable process that follows rules.