Finding the right person and finding a job that’s a good fit may seem like two separate challenges. In reality, they are two sides of the same need: matching available skills with organizations that need to hire them at a specific time. Temporary staffing agencies—ETT—fill precisely that role, but their function goes far beyond posting job openings and presenting candidates.
In Spain, a temporary staffing agency is not merely a job portal. It is a licensed company that hires workers to temporarily place them with other companies. This involves selecting, hiring, registering, paying, providing occupational safety and health training when necessary, and maintaining a genuine employment relationship with the assigned worker. At the same time, the client company organizes the day-to-day work and assumes responsibility for the conditions under which it is performed. All of this takes place within a framework regulated by Law 14/1994 and the Workers’ Statute.
Their impact on the labor market is also far from marginal. According to data published by the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy, in 2025 there were a total of 4,510,138 temporary staffing contracts, 779,025 people hired by temporary staffing agencies to work at client companies, and 217 authorized temporary staffing agencies at the end of the year. The average number of people registered with temporary staffing agencies at the end of the four quarters was 234,839.
What exactly is a temporary staffing agency?
Law 14/1994 defines a temporary employment agency as an entity whose primary activity consists of making individuals hired by the agency itself available to a client company on a temporary basis. The temporary assignment of workers may only be carried out legally through duly authorized temporary employment agencies. The same law allows such agencies to engage, in a distinct manner and in compliance with applicable requirements, in placement services, training for professional qualifications, and human resources consulting.
This helps explain why talking solely about “placement” is insufficient. In a conventional placement, an agency may simply connect a company with a candidate so that both parties can formalize the hiring agreement. In a temporary staffing arrangement, however, the staffing agency is the employer: it signs the employment contract, pays the salary, makes Social Security contributions, and retains the corresponding employer rights.
The client company, for its part, enters into a staffing agreement with the temporary staffing agency. During the term of the agreement, the employee works within the client company’s organization and under its direction. The relationship is, therefore, a three-way arrangement: two companies are involved, but only one of them—the temporary staffing agency—maintains the employment contract with the employee.
When Can a Company Use a Temporary Staffing Agency?
A temporary staffing agency may not be used to hire temporary staff without a justifiable reason. A temporary staffing contract may be entered into under the same circumstances in which the user company could legally enter into a fixed-term contract: primarily, due to production-related circumstances or to replace an employee. It may also be used for certain training contracts, and the temporary staffing agency may hire permanent seasonal employees for successive assignments.
“Production circumstances” include occasional and unforeseeable increases in activity and fluctuations that create a temporary mismatch between the available permanent workforce and the workforce needed. The law also covers foreseeable, limited, and well-defined situations, but it sets time limits and requires that the cause of the temporary nature of the work and its relationship to the duration of the contract be precisely identified.
This makes temporary staffing agencies a useful tool for sales campaigns, spikes in orders, vacations, replacements, one-time projects, or temporary operational needs. However, it does not make temporary employment a free pass to fill permanent positions. The open-ended contract remains the general rule, and the improper or fraudulent use of temporary contracts may result in the employee acquiring permanent status.
What Happens Before a New Hire Starts
The process does not begin with the receipt of résumés from potential candidates; staffing agencies start by understanding the business need. To make the right selection, it is necessary to specify the duties to be performed, the skills required for the position, the start date, the work schedule, the applicable collective bargaining agreement, and the risks associated with the work environment.
From a preventive safety standpoint, this phase is not optional. Before entering into the temporary staffing agreement, the user company must inform the temporary staffing agency of the tasks, the required qualifications, the risks associated with the position, and the applicable preventive measures. A proper risk assessment must have been conducted for the position in advance.
With this information, the staffing agency can search for and evaluate candidates, verify requirements, and explain the terms of the opportunity to the candidate. Depending on the service contracted, this search may draw on candidate databases, recruitment channels, industry knowledge, or specific processes for large-scale hiring. While staffing agencies specialize in this task, the final decision still rests with the client company; however, the agency can help reduce the time spent identifying and screening suitable candidates.
The temporary employment agency then formalizes the employment contract, handles the corresponding obligations, and verifies that the employee has received the necessary occupational safety and health training before starting work. If the employee has not received this training, it must be provided beforehand. The client company also cannot allow the employee to begin work until it has verified that the obligations regarding information, aptitude, and training in occupational safety and health have been met.
For this reason, administrative management is an essential part of the service: hiring, onboarding, payroll, social security contributions, and employment documentation are primarily the responsibility of the temporary staffing agency. This support can free up capacity in the user company’s Human Resources department, but it does not eliminate the obligations that the user company continues to have, particularly regarding labor management, occupational safety, equal treatment, and information disclosure.
What value does it bring to companies?
Ability to adapt to changes in activity
The most obvious benefit is the ability to meet a temporary need without disrupting operations while a recruitment process is being carried out from scratch. This is particularly important when demand changes rapidly, there are seasonal campaigns, or an absence must be filled on short notice. The benefit is not simply “having more people,” but rather being able to adjust resources to a legally justified and clearly defined need.
The 2025 data demonstrate this relationship with activities subject to fluctuations in production and seasonal variations. The manufacturing industry recorded 1,178,353 temporary employment contracts; the hospitality industry, 900,778; transportation and warehousing, 757,640; agriculture and related activities, 676,835; and vehicle sales and repair, 418,752.
Access to candidates and market knowledge
A staffing agency can expand the available channels for finding candidates who aren’t necessarily participating in the company’s usual hiring processes. This becomes particularly important in a context where access to certain profiles has become a business challenge. The Hays 2025 Labor Market Guide, based on a survey of more than 5,600 companies and professionals, noted that 89% of the companies involved in the study had difficulty finding qualified talent.
The accumulated knowledge about job positions, industries, and recruitment sources can facilitate a more accurate pre-selection process. However, it is important to avoid making excessive promises: using a staffing agency does not automatically guarantee that any vacancy can be filled immediately. Availability will depend on the candidate’s profile, location, requirements, compensation, work schedule, and the specific conditions of the labor market.
Agility in recruitment, hiring, and administration
When the temporary staffing agency has up-to-date processes and candidate profiles, it can streamline the search, the verification of qualifications, and the hiring process. It also assumes responsibility for payroll and Social Security obligations regarding its staff, which reduces some of the administrative burden that the client company would otherwise have to manage directly.
This flexibility is particularly useful for hiring multiple employees, campaigns, or replacements. However, a good response should not be measured solely by speed. For the hiring process to be successful, it is necessary to clearly define the position, provide transparent information to the candidate, and coordinate the onboarding process, resources, and safety measures within the host company.
Specialization and a clearer definition of the profile
A temporary staffing agency familiar with a particular field can help translate an operational need into specific requirements: experience, certifications, availability, skills, or training. This upfront definition prevents processes based on overly broad descriptions or profiles that are disconnected from the actual job. The law expressly allows temporary staffing agencies to provide human resources advisory and consulting services, provided they are clearly distinguished from the actual provision of temporary workers.
The client company, however, continues to play a central role. It is the one that best understands the job duties, the work environment, the team, and the actual demands of the position. The outcome depends on both organizations sharing sufficient information and not treating the staffing agency as merely a one-stop shop where they can request “someone for tomorrow.”
What It Offers Candidates and Employees
For job seekers, a temporary employment agency provides an additional channel for accessing companies and industries they might not have identified through other means. A single relationship with a temporary employment agency can lead to various opportunities that align with a person’s experience, qualifications, and availability. Law 14/1994 considers this activity a means of gaining access to employment, becoming familiar with the business world, and diversifying one’s career.
Temporary work can also provide valuable experience, exposure to new environments, and contact with different organizational structures. This can enhance employability, but it should not be interpreted as a guarantee that every assignment will lead to a permanent contract. Continuity will depend on available openings, performance, the company’s needs, and applicable hiring policies.
There is indeed a real path to permanent opportunities. The user company must inform temporary workers of its job openings to ensure they have the same access to those positions as directly hired employees. Furthermore, any clause prohibiting the user company from hiring the worker upon the end of the temporary assignment is null and void.
ASEMPLEO, a business association in the sector, noted in 2026 that 32% of the workers placed through the program eventually join the permanent staff of the client companies. This is industry data—not a government statistic—and should be interpreted as a reference provided by the employers’ association, not as a guaranteed probability for each individual.
Another important point is that job searches conducted through a temporary employment agency should not incur any costs for the candidate. Law 14/1994 declares null and void any clause that requires a worker to pay for recruitment, training, or hiring.
Rights and protections: Working through a temporary staffing agency does not mean having fewer rights
One of the most widespread misconceptions is that a temporary worker has worse working conditions than the staff of the host company. The regulations stipulate the opposite with regard to essential working and employment conditions: upon hiring, a temporary worker must be granted the conditions that would apply if they had been hired directly to fill the same position.
These essential conditions include the pay applicable to the position, the workday, overtime, breaks, night work, vacation, and holidays. Equality does not necessarily mean that any benefits existing at the user company are automatically extended, but it does protect the fundamental core of comparable working conditions.
The individual may also use the user company’s collective services—such as transportation, the cafeteria, or daycare—under the same conditions as the user company’s direct employees. In addition, the individual may file complaints regarding the performance of the work through the user company’s employee representatives for the duration of the contractual relationship.
In occupational safety and health, responsibilities are shared and must be coordinated. The temporary staffing agency verifies suitability and provides the necessary information and safety training; the client company informs the worker of the actual risks associated with the position and is responsible for the working conditions at its facility. The regulations require that the worker enjoy the same level of protection as the rest of the workforce.
Four ideas worth revisiting
“A staffing agency just sends out resumes”
Not exactly. In a temporary staffing arrangement, the temporary staffing agency is the employer and is responsible for hiring, wages, social security contributions, safety training, and other labor-related obligations. In addition, the law allows the agency to provide, on a separate basis, placement, training, and human resources consulting services.
“It’s only good for jobs that take a few days.”
The need for such workers may be short-term, but it may also involve temporary replacements, fluctuations in production, or recurring activities that fit into arrangements such as the fixed-term/intermittent model. The key factor is not that the duration is minimal, but rather that there is an appropriate contractual arrangement and a legal basis for it.
“Working through a temporary staffing agency means earning less”
The individual is entitled to the essential conditions that would apply if he or she were hired directly for the same job, including the compensation associated with that position in accordance with the applicable collective bargaining agreement.
“The temporary staffing agency ceases to exist when the worker begins employment”
Not at all. The temporary staffing agency remains the employer and is responsible for wages, Social Security contributions, training, and job monitoring. The client company directs the work and is responsible for its execution and for safety at the worksite. The quality of the service depends precisely on effective coordination throughout the entire assignment.
Choosing a Temporary Staffing Agency: What a Company Should Consider
Beyond price, a company should verify that the temporary staffing agency is licensed, familiar with the regulations, understands the position before beginning the search, and has procedures in place to properly select, inform, hire, and train candidates. It is also advisable to evaluate the agency’s area of specialization, its geographic reach, its transparency with candidates and clients, and the way it handles issues and communication during the assignment.
A good temporary staffing agency shouldn't just promise speed. It should help define the need, explain which employment model is feasible, present suitable candidates, formalize the relationship correctly, and maintain smooth coordination. Flexibility adds value when it is linked to a real need, is managed with traceability, and fully respects people's rights.
SICOR Interservicios ETT: We Connect Needs and Opportunities
Temporary hiring allows companies to adapt their teams to situations where business volume is not always consistent: work spikes, specific campaigns, replacements, absences, seasonal needs, or new hires that must be brought on board quickly. In these scenarios, it’s not just about finding candidates, but about identifying profiles that truly meet the job’s requirements and properly managing the entire hiring process.
At SICOR Interservicios ETT, we provide temporary staffing services to companies in various sectors nationwide. We start by assessing each organization’s specific needs to define the required profiles, search for and select candidates, and guide the process through to their onboarding. To this end, we maintain an active pool of professionals and work with both operational and specialized profiles, with particular expertise in fields such as logistics, promotions, and events.
Our service also includes the employment and administrative management associated with temporary hiring, including the drafting of contracts, payroll processing, and related obligations. In this way, we consolidate both the recruitment process and the necessary administrative procedures throughout the employment relationship into a single service.
This model makes it possible to address both one-time hiring needs and processes that require bringing on a larger number of professionals, tailoring the selection process to the timelines, characteristics, and circumstances of each company.
At the same time, our work also includes a component aimed at professionals. We help them access job opportunities that match their experience and availability, and we support them throughout the hiring process, facilitating connections between companies looking to hire talent and individuals seeking new career opportunities.