What is LaborExchange? Knoxville's temporary staffing agency

LaborExchange is a temporary staffing agency. Employers in Knox, Blount and Sevier counties tell us the job and how many people they need, we know the people, and we make the connection quickly so nobody loses a day waiting. One side has hours to give, the other side has hours that need filling, and we bring them together.

We are not a gig app, a day-labor marketplace or a national franchise. We are a local office with a dispatcher who answers the phone, and the workers we send are our own W-2 employees.

For us the phrase is also a name. My late husband Bill started LaborExchange in South Knoxville back in 2012, and he put most of the blood, sweat, and tears into it. I took the business over after he passed, and honestly, I have found the best job in the world, which is putting our neighbors to work.

We are family-owned and we are right here, not a franchise run from another state. When you call, you reach people who know Knoxville, know the job sites, and truly care about the workers we place. We form real relationships with the people we send out, because everyone here is family.

A worker can walk into 4408 Chapman Hwy with two forms of ID for the I-9, fill out an application, and get on our list. An employer calls or stops in, tells us how many people they need and for what, and we dispatch pre-screened crews, often the same day. Work today, get paid today is a real thing here for many of our workers.

The money side is meant to be simple. Every worker is a W-2 employee, so one rate covers their pay, the payroll taxes, workers' comp, and the screening. You get one invoice and you never have to carry the paperwork or the liability of a 1099 arrangement. That is the whole point of using LaborExchange instead of hiring off the street.

On the employer side, we send general labor crews to construction sites, warehouses, kitchens, event venues, and demolition and concrete jobs across Knox, Blount and Sevier counties: Knoxville, Maryville, Alcoa, Sevierville, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, and up toward Oak Ridge and Newport. Contractors from out of town working a job here call us for the same reason local ones do. When a crew is short a few hands for the morning, we are the fast way to cover it without a long hiring process.

On the worker side, people come to us because they want honest work and steady pay without a drawn-out application cycle. Some of the folks we place have been overlooked elsewhere, and helping them find a good day's work is the part of this job I love most.

Sometimes a worker fits so well that the employer wants to hire them for good, and we are glad when that happens. Our conversion fee is $3,000, but it is pro-rated by the hours the worker has already put in on your job, so it shrinks the longer they work with you.

Once a worker reaches about 720 hours with you, which is roughly 18 full-time weeks, the fee reaches $0 and you can bring them on with no fee at all. It is a fair way to let a temporary placement grow into a permanent job.

• temp agencies in Knoxville
• general labor crews
• staffing in Knoxville
• a local staffing agency instead of a national chain
• same-day pay jobs