Top HR Consulting temporary staffing firms in Denver.
Temporary staffing is the model where an agency employs a worker on its own books and bills the client for the hours worked. The client manages the day-to-day; the agency handles payroll, tax withholding, workers' comp, unemployment insurance, and the legal employer-of-record obligations. It's the most common engagement model in industries with variable headcount: warehousing, manufacturing, hospitality, healthcare floors, admin support, light industrial. Pricing is structured as a markup on the worker's hourly wage. A typical markup is 35-65% above the base wage, with the spread covering payroll taxes, workers' comp insurance, agency margin, and recruiting cost. A $20/hour warehouse worker bills at $27-33/hour. Conversion fees (when the client wants to hire the temp permanently) range from a flat $1,500 to a percentage of annualized salary. Temp-to-hire is a specific sub-model where the conversion path is agreed upfront — the temp works at the client for 90-180 days, then converts at a pre-negotiated fee. The agencies below operate in multiple sectors. Warehouse and light industrial are the highest-volume — a major staffing firm can have 500+ temps on assignment in a single distribution-center cluster on any given day. Hospitality and healthcare have their own rhythms (event-driven, shift-based). The right fit depends on volume, sector, geography, and how much screening you need before a temp shows up — some agencies pre-screen heavily, others optimize for speed-to-fill.
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About temporary staffing
Temporary staffing is the model where an agency employs a worker on its own books and bills the client for the hours worked. The client manages the day-to-day; the agency handles payroll, tax withholding, workers' comp, unemployment insurance, and the legal employer-of-record obligations. It's the most common engagement model in industries with variable headcount: warehousing, manufacturing, hospitality, healthcare floors, admin support, light industrial.
Pricing is structured as a markup on the worker's hourly wage. A typical markup is 35-65% above the base wage, with the spread covering payroll taxes, workers' comp insurance, agency margin, and recruiting cost. A $20/hour warehouse worker bills at $27-33/hour. Conversion fees (when the client wants to hire the temp permanently) range from a flat $1,500 to a percentage of annualized salary. Temp-to-hire is a specific sub-model where the conversion path is agreed upfront — the temp works at the client for 90-180 days, then converts at a pre-negotiated fee.
The agencies below operate in multiple sectors. Warehouse and light industrial are the highest-volume — a major staffing firm can have 500+ temps on assignment in a single distribution-center cluster on any given day. Hospitality and healthcare have their own rhythms (event-driven, shift-based). The right fit depends on volume, sector, geography, and how much screening you need before a temp shows up — some agencies pre-screen heavily, others optimize for speed-to-fill.
Temporary staffing — Frequently Asked Questions
- What's the difference between temporary staffing and contract recruiting?
- In temporary staffing, the agency is the worker's legal employer — they handle payroll, taxes, benefits, workers' comp, unemployment. The client pays an hourly rate to the agency. In contract recruiting (also called contract-to-hire or 1099 placement), the worker is either a W-2 employee of the agency (similar to temp) or an independent contractor billing the client directly. Temp staffing is the model used for short-term, repeatable roles (warehouse, hospitality, light industrial); contract recruiting is more common for professional/IT/specialized roles.
- How much does temporary staffing cost?
- The standard pricing is a markup on the worker's hourly wage — typically 35-65% above the base rate. A $20/hour worker bills at $27-33/hour to the client. The markup covers payroll taxes (~7.65% FICA + state unemployment), workers' comp insurance (varies by industry; 1-15%), agency margin (15-25%), and recruiting cost. High-volume contracts negotiate lower markup; specialty staffing (skilled trades, healthcare) commands higher markup because the candidate pool is thinner.
- Who is the legal employer of a temp worker — the agency or the client?
- The staffing agency is the worker's legal employer (W-2 employer of record). The agency pays the worker, withholds taxes, provides workers' comp coverage, and handles unemployment claims when the assignment ends. The client supervises day-to-day work but has no direct employment liability — they're paying for staffing services, not employing the worker. This is also why staffing agencies carry significant workers' comp policies; the liability follows the legal-employer designation.
- What is temp-to-hire and how does conversion work?
- Temp-to-hire is a pre-negotiated structure where the worker starts as an agency temp with a defined conversion path to client employment — typically after 90-180 days. Conversion fees vary: some agencies waive the fee entirely after an hours threshold (e.g., 520 hours / 13 weeks), others charge a percentage of annualized salary (10-20%), and some negotiate a flat conversion fee ($1,500-5,000). Temp-to-hire is popular when the client wants to evaluate fit before committing to direct employment.
- How quickly can a staffing agency fill a temp role?
- For high-volume, low-skill roles (warehouse, basic manufacturing, hospitality), a major staffing firm can have someone on-site within 24-48 hours — they typically maintain a benched pool of pre-screened workers waiting for assignments. For specialized roles (skilled trades, healthcare, niche admin), expect 5-14 days. Same-day fills happen in markets where the agency has deep candidate density, but they're not guaranteed unless contractually specified.