Clients often say: “Nobody wants to work.”
What they mean is: “Nobody wants this job as described.”

In temp recruitment, the job description is not marketing. It’s a promise. If the promise is vague, unstable, or misleading, you won’t attract reliable workers. You’ll attract short-term cover at best — and high turnover at worst.

A role becomes “hard to fill” when the brief fails these tests.

Test 1: Can someone explain the job in one sentence?

Not a vague title. The actual work.

Bad: “Warehouse operative, general duties.”
Good: “Picking and scanning in a chilled warehouse, walking all shift, targets in place.”

When you can’t describe the job clearly, you can’t match it to the right worker. The agency ends up guessing. Guessing causes churn.

Test 2: Is the start time real, and is the first day workable?

A common failure pattern:

• The job starts at 06:00
  
• The site is hard to find
  
• The induction is unclear
  
• No one is waiting
  
• The worker spends the first hour lost, confused, or ignored
  

That worker doesn’t come back. Not because they’re lazy. Because the role failed the first-day test.

If you want consistent attendance, design the first day.
Someone should be ready. The worker should know where to go. The agency should be able to explain the start process without guessing.

Test 3: Does the pay match the reality of the shift?

A rate is not “competitive” because it’s normal in your head. It’s competitive relative to:

• shift pattern,
  
• travel,
  
• physical demand,
  
• stress,
  
• supervision,
  
• targets,
  
• and how your site treats people.
  

If it’s hard work, early starts, long days, targets, and a rough environment — but you’re paying the same as easy work — you will not get reliable supply. You will get churn. Then you will rehire weekly and spend more in the long run.

Cheap recruitment doesn’t stay cheap.

Test 4: Have you told the agency what makes people leave?

Every site has a reason people quit:

• unrealistic targets,
  
• poor shift rotation,
  
• no breaks,
  
• heavy work,
  
• harsh supervisors,
  
• inconsistent hours,
  
• chaotic stock,
  
• poor training.
  

If you hide that, candidates will discover it on day one. When they walk, you blame the market.

A fillable brief includes friction upfront so the agency can filter:

• “Targets are in place — not unrealistic, but you’ll be moving.”
  
• “It’s noisy and fast-paced.”
  
• “There’s heavy lifting.”
  

This doesn’t scare off good workers. It attracts the right ones and repels the wrong ones.

Test 5: Is the booking stable, or are you “seeing how it goes”?

Nothing kills commitment like uncertainty.

If the message is:

• “We might extend”
  
• “We’ll see after a few days”
  
• “We don’t know the hours yet”
  
• “It depends on volume”
  

then reliable workers won’t bank on it. People with bills choose stability.

If you genuinely only need one shift, say that.
If it’s likely ongoing, say that and mean it.

The unspoken truth: the agency is protecting you from your own process

When a role is unfillable, agencies still try. But they’ll do one of two things:

1. Send anyone available, accept churn, and firefight weekly.
   
2. Reduce effort because the job damages their candidate pool.
   

Option 1 fills today and breaks tomorrow.
Option 2 looks like “the agency isn’t trying”.

Both are outcomes of a brief that doesn’t hold.

What a fillable temp brief actually contains

If you want speed and reliability, your agency needs these details without chasing you:

• Exact job duties (not a title)
  
• Start time, finish time, breaks, and shift pattern
  
• Site location and sign-in process
  
• PPE requirements and whether you provide it
  
• Any performance targets
  
• Physical demands (walking, lifting, cold, etc.)
  
• Duration (one day / one week / ongoing)
  
• Who is the on-site contact
  
• What “good” looks like in the first week
  

This isn’t paperwork. This is supply chain control.

A final point most clients miss

Good candidates still fail in bad systems.

You can pay well and still churn if:

• the first day is chaos,
  
• supervisors are hostile,
  
• tasks are unclear,
  
• breaks are messy,
  
• hours are changed without warning.
  

If you want the agency to deliver reliability, you have to build a role that can hold a reliable person.

Temp recruitment isn’t magic. It’s controlled probability.
When the brief is stable and the site is competent, the probability rises.

When it isn’t, the market doesn’t “let you down”. The system does exactly what it always does: it breaks where you built it weak.