Most temp-to-hire assignments last about 90 days, which works out to roughly three calendar months of full-time work. Specialized or technical roles often run six months instead. The exact length is set by the contract between the staffing agency and the company you’re working at, and it’s usually measured in hours worked rather than days on the calendar.
The Standard 90-Day Window
A 90-day evaluation period is the default for general business, administrative, warehouse, and customer-facing roles. On a standard 40-hour workweek, that comes out to roughly 480 to 520 working hours once you account for holidays and time off. Staffing contracts tie the conversion threshold to those hours, so the clock only moves when you’re actually on the job. A week off for illness or a slow stretch with reduced hours pushes your conversion date further out, even if the calendar keeps advancing.
Engineering, finance, IT, and healthcare positions tend to carry six-month windows. The learning curve is steeper in those roles and it takes managers longer to judge whether someone can handle the full scope of the work. These longer timelines are written into the service-level agreement between the staffing agency and the client company from the start, so you should know the length of your evaluation period before your first day.
Why the Hour Threshold Is the Real Deadline
Staffing agencies make their money by billing the company a marked-up hourly rate for your labor. If the company pulls you off the agency’s payroll before you’ve logged the contracted hours, the agency loses that revenue and charges a conversion fee, sometimes called a buyout. Once you hit the threshold, conversion is free or nearly free.
That fee is the single biggest reason companies wait out the full evaluation period before making an offer. Fee structures vary, but a few patterns are common:
- A flat percentage of your projected annual salary, typically 8% to 15%. On a $50,000 salary, that’s $4,000 to $7,500.
- A sliding scale that drops as you log more hours. A contract might charge 15% at three months, 8% at six months, and nothing after nine to twelve.
- An hours-worked credit, where the markup the company has already paid to the agency reduces the buyout, so the fee shrinks with every hour.
If your feedback has been positive but the company is dragging its feet, the fee is usually the bottleneck rather than any doubt about your performance. The company is running out the clock. Knowing that is useful when you ask a manager about timing.
What Else Has to Fall Into Place
Hitting the hour threshold is necessary but not sufficient. Three things typically have to line up before a permanent offer lands.
The first is performance. Managers track punctuality, quality of work, how you handle feedback, and how you fit with the team. Most companies formalize this with weekly check-ins or periodic reviews during the temp period. If you’re not getting any feedback, ask for it. Reaching the end of a 90-day window with no documented evaluation and a manager who hasn’t committed either way is the worst place to be.
The second is budget. Even a manager who wants to keep you needs the permanent headcount funded and approved within the department’s budget for the fiscal year. Revenue shortfalls, hiring freezes, or shifts in project scope can stall a conversion indefinitely. A manager who says “we’re working on it” after 90 days may genuinely be waiting on budget sign-off.
The third is any administrative clearance the permanent role requires. A new background check, a higher security clearance, or updated drug screening runs on the vendor’s timeline, not yours or the agency’s. Build in a couple of weeks for those.
Extensions Beyond the Original Window
Employers can extend the temporary period if they need more time to evaluate or if budget delays are pushing back the permanent offer. Extensions are typically negotiated in 30-day increments through a formal amendment to the staffing agreement. Each extension usually continues the conversion fee clock, so the added hours count toward a fee-free conversion later.
No federal law caps how long a private-sector temp assignment can last. The Fair Labor Standards Act governs wages, overtime, and child labor, but it says nothing about the duration of a temporary arrangement.1U.S. Department of Labor. Handy Reference Guide to the Fair Labor Standards Act Assignment length is set entirely by the contract between the staffing agency and the client.
There is a practical ceiling, though. When a worker classified as “temporary” puts in the same hours as permanent staff with no defined end date, courts have found that denying benefits can violate ERISA. Microsoft paid $97 million to settle a class action over exactly that scenario. Companies that impose clear time limits on temp assignments are on safer legal ground, which is part of why 90-day and six-month windows are the norm rather than open-ended arrangements.
If the Assignment Ends Without an Offer
Not every temp-to-hire assignment ends in a permanent job. If yours doesn’t, you generally qualify for unemployment insurance. The end of a temp assignment is typically treated as an involuntary separation due to lack of work, one of the strongest qualifying reasons across state unemployment systems.2Employment and Training Administration – U.S. Department of Labor. State Unemployment Insurance Benefits Eligibility rules and benefit amounts vary by state, and the staffing agency is usually the employer of record for unemployment purposes.
File your claim as soon as the assignment ends rather than waiting for a formal termination notice. The agency may offer you another placement, and in most states, refusing a reasonable offer of comparable work can disqualify you from benefits.
Read your original staffing agreement before the assignment wraps up. Some contracts include a clause that prevents you from working directly for the client for a set period after the temp assignment ends, blocking an end-run around the conversion fee. If you want to work for the company but the timing didn’t line up, knowing whether a non-hire restriction exists and how long it runs tells you when you can reapply.
What Happens on the Day You Convert
Once you accept a permanent offer, you’re moving from the staffing agency’s payroll to the company’s. That means a fresh round of employment paperwork even though you’ve been working in the same building for months.
Because the staffing agency was your employer of record during the temp period, the host company was specifically not required to complete a Form I-9 for you.3U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. 2.0 Who Must Complete Form I-9 Now that you’re their direct employee, they must complete a new Form I-9 within three business days of your start date, and you’ll need to present original identity and work authorization documents again.4U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Completing Section 2, Employer Review and Attestation You’ll also file a new W-4 because the company uses a different employer identification number than the agency, so your withholding restarts from scratch.5Internal Revenue Service. Form W-4 (2026) Employees Withholding Certificate
Benefits enrollment usually happens at the same time. Federal rules prohibit group health plans from imposing waiting periods longer than 90 days after your hire date as a permanent employee.6eCFR. 45 CFR 147.116 – Prohibition on Waiting Periods That Exceed 90 Days Some employers count your original temp start date toward that window, so coverage kicks in immediately or soon after conversion. Others restart the clock at your permanent hire date, which can mean months without company-sponsored health coverage. Ask HR which approach applies before you sign the offer letter, because the answer can be worth thousands of dollars.