After a year's review by a University-wide committee, Harvard recently established a new vendor partnership for temporary staff support with Norrell Services Inc., a national leader in the temporary service industry. Norrell replaces Harvard Temporary Service, which was an internal fee-for-service operation managed by the Office of Human Resources.

"Although the Harvard Temporary Service had served the community well, it could no longer compete with the kinds of quick service and guarantees being offered by the competition in the tight labor market," said Joanne Doherty, director of Employment and Training, who led the committee.

The partnership with Norrell took effect on Nov. 1 and many Schools and departments are already using the new service. Norrell specializes in managing the complete temporary service needs of large, multi-location, complex organizations such as UPS, IBM, The World Bank, and The Red Cross. The company has a reputation for providing qualified applicants who "fit" the job and the environment for which they have been hired. In addition, Norrell offers benefits packages and training opportunities for their employees. The temporary staffers who had been working for Harvard Temporary Service have been transitioned to Norrell, where they will be eligible for these added benefits of employment.

By terms of their agreement with Harvard, Norrell provides a pool of temporary workers specifically oriented to the University's work assignments and guarantees prompt service. There are two "near site" managers representing Norrell's dedicated Harvard team, one in Harvard Square and the other in the Longwood Medical Area. Service representatives are available by phone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The University-wide committee that chose Norrell was composed of human resources and financial administration professionals who reviewed trends in the staffing services industry, assessed each School's staffing requirements and evaluated responses to Harvard's Request For Proposal. They determined that Harvard could obtain better services at the same or lower costs by contracting with an outside vendor.

"Over the past two years," says Doherty, "it became clear that our Harvard Temporary Service did not have the resources to compete with all the new temporary service vendors in the Boston area. And the economy was doing so well that good temps were becoming hard to find. Although we had loyal customers and temps, we didn't want to see the quality of our service decrease."

In the coming weeks, Norrell will continue to introduce its services at orientation sessions in the Schools and Central Administration. Norrell will also be forming subcontracting arrangements with other local temporary help service providers in order to provide "one-stop shopping" for Harvard managers. To request temporary staff from Norrell, call (617) 495-1500 (Cambridge) or (617) 432-6200 (Longwood). For more information about Norrell and this new partnership, visit www.hr.harvard.edu/employment/ or vpf-web.harvard.edu/procurement/norrell.htm.