Six weeks into a reception or office temp job, the manager asks whether you would like to stay on permanently. It is the outcome most temps hope for, and it is also the point where people give up money or rights without noticing. This guide is for anyone in an agency admin, office or customer service role who has been offered a temp to perm move, or is hoping for one. It is written against the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003, the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 and the Employment Rights Act 2025 as they stand in October 2026.
Temp to perm: you are free to say yes
Some temps worry that the agency will hold it against them. It cannot. Regulation 6 of the 2003 Regulations stops an agency penalising you for leaving it, or for taking a job with the client or anyone else. It also stops the agency making you tell it who your new employer is.
What the agency can expect is that you give the notice your contract asks for and work the shifts you have already agreed to. Do that and you have done nothing wrong. Any money that changes hands is between the agency and the client. An agency is not allowed to charge you for finding you work, so a fee is never yours to pay, whatever anyone says in the office kitchen.
Why the offer sometimes comes with a delay
When a client takes on a temp directly, the agency can usually charge the client a transfer fee. Regulation 10 limits when. The fee only applies if you move within the relevant period, which is 14 weeks from your first day with the client or 8 weeks after your last day there, whichever ends later. The agency also has to give the client a second option: keep hiring you through the agency for an agreed extra period instead of paying the fee.
That second option explains a lot of offers that sound odd. “We want you, but you will stay on agency terms until March” usually means the client chose the extended hire. It is a real offer. Ask for the permanent start date in writing so it does not drift.
Compare the pay properly
As a temp you are paid by the agency, or by an umbrella company it uses. Your Key Information Document, which agencies have had to give you since April 2020, sets out who pays you and how. Once you go permanent, the client pays you through its own payroll, and the numbers look different.
The biggest trap is holiday pay. Many agency temps on irregular hours have holiday pay rolled up into the hourly rate at 12.07 percent. A permanent employee gets at least 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year, which is 28 days for someone working five days a week, and is paid when they take it. So an agency rate of £13.50 an hour that includes rolled up holiday is really about £12.05 an hour basic. Compare the permanent offer with the basic figure, not the headline one.
If you have been in the same role for 12 weeks, the Agency Workers Regulations already entitle you to the same basic pay and holiday as someone hired directly to do that job. A permanent offer at a lower basic rate than you are on now is worth a polite question before you accept.
Pension changes too. Your new employer has to enrol you in its workplace pension if you are aged 22 or over, under State Pension age and earning more than £10,000 a year, though it can postpone that for up to three months. Ask when your first contribution will be taken so the payslip does not surprise you.
Your employment clock usually starts again
Time spent as a temp does not normally count as continuous employment with the client, because you were not its employee. Your service starts on your first permanent day. That matters more than it used to.
From 1 January 2027 the Employment Rights Act 2025 cuts the qualifying period for unfair dismissal from two years to six months. Someone who goes permanent on 1 November 2026 gains that protection on 1 May 2027, whether or not they are still in probation. Some rights already apply from day one, including statutory sick pay from the first day off sick and, since April 2026, paternity leave and unpaid parental leave. If you are weighing two offers, the start date is part of the deal.
Get it in writing before you leave the agency
Your new employer must give you a written statement of your main terms on or before your first day. Ask for the offer letter before you hand in notice to the agency. Check the job title, pay, hours, holiday, notice period, probation length and start date. If anything you agreed in conversation is missing, raise it now, while you still have a job to go back to.
Expect the client to run its own right to work check before you start as its employee, even though the agency checked you already. That check belongs to the employer and does not transfer. Have your passport or share code ready. If the role needs a DBS certificate and you are on the Update Service, the client can check your existing one online with your consent rather than asking for a new one.
Then tell the agency. A short message is enough: thank them, confirm your last shift, and say the client will be in touch about the move. Most agencies will sort the paperwork with the client directly, and a good one will be pleased for you.
Flamingo Workforce places admin, office and customer service temps with employers across the UK, and when a client wants to keep someone, we agree the terms with them openly so the move is quick for everyone. See our admin and corporate roles or get in touch to register.