The reasons for this growth are obvious. It makes more sense for a company to hire a temporary employee to help with peak workloads and let them move on to the next assignment when the crunch is over. This is true for secretaries, assemblers and manufacturing people as well as product designers. Ironically, the companies usually choose their exclusive contract agency based on a past volume relationship or on the agency's ability to provide people in all areas of temporary contract needs. They look for the department store one-stop agency and sign an exclusive agreement for all their staffing needs.
HR wants to be in the loop for all hiring and deal with as few vendors as possible.
The contracts are usually negotiated at a fixed markup for various job classifications and have an exclusive contractual term of two to five years. In today's global economy, Fortune companies are faced with more competition and time pressure. Product development schedules make or break even the giants in an ever-changing new product design cycle. They shop for the best features, benefits, styling and prices regardless of whether they are distributors, resellers or end users. The pressure is on to design, prototype and mass produce reliable new products on a regular basis.