McLellan Temporaries
ADDRESS: 101 SW Western Blvd. Corvallis OR 97333
PHONE NUMBER: 541-754-9616
WEB SITE: www.mclellantemps.com
OWNER: Kevin McLellan
OFFICE MANAGER: Debra Hascall
YEARS IN BUSINESS: 24
WHAT THEY SELL: McLellan Temporaries works with a variety of businesses large and small to provide quality temporary help for long and short-term assignments, including office support (administrative, clerical, accounting & bookkeeping) and industrial (construction, general labor & electronics assembly). They can also help employers recruit for open permanent jobs.
WHY YOU SHOULD GO: Personal service, whether you are a stay-at-home mom returning to the workforce or a business that needs to hire the right person the first time.
Since 1988 McLellan Temporaries has been bringing job-seekers and employers together in the cities of Corvallis, Albany, Philomath and Lebanon. By offering flexibility and an intuitive touch, the agency has quietly built a reputation for excellent service, matching the right person with the right job. Office Manager Debra Hascall has become the face of McLellan Temporaries over the years with her commitment to service to her clients, employees and her community.
What sets McLellan Temporaries apart? I think it is the agency’s ability to diversify over the years. Being able to work with a wide variety of different industries and businesses, and place workers with widely different skill sets and experience has helped us stay in business. McLellan is the only remaining temp agency in Corvallis.
How does a temp agency work? People looking for work make an appointment to come in and sit down with me. They tell me their work skills and employment preferences. Businesses let us know what positions they need help in filling and their willingness to provide training, and I try to match job-seeker to job. As a temporary worker, the job-seeker becomes McLellan Temporaries’ employee and, as the job-offerer, the business becomes McLellan’s client.
What does your business do better than anyone else? I treat all of our employees and clients with respect. By treating people well, we find that both clients and employees are happy, and everyone keeps using our agency. For employees, we pay above minimum wage, provide weekly paychecks, and paid vacation and paid holidays (after working 500-1000 hours). We do not use employment tests or require the standard two years of previous employment. This is great for those returning to the workforce after an extended absence. Temp work is also great for people who travel for part of the year, or need to supplement retirement income.
For clients, we provide our pre-employment interview, worker’s compensation coverage, liability coverage, and payment of payroll taxes. This is great for filling in for staff on maternity, FMLA, or other short-term leave. We also make it easy for clients to transition temporary workers into permanent employment.
What challenges have you faced as a local independent business? Our main ongoing challenge is meeting the rising cost of doing business, especially worker’s compensation coverage as we are not able to self-insure like the large employment agencies do.
How important is sustainability to your business? Sustainability is a focus of the agency. We are located downtown for that reason! We have an office bicycle for running errands. I really enjoy getting out to all the different businesses downtown to tell them about our services. Face-to-face marketing is best! I also feel we have helped to raise the community consciousness regarding living wages.
What community organizations do you support? We are members of Rotary and are proud to be members of CIBA. We appreciate the recognition in being named Business of the Week!
What do you feel is the impact of local independent businesses on Corvallis? Corvallis is local-business focused. That’s what Corvallis is.
(Interview and article by Kate Lindburg – November 18, 2012)

The Local Business of the Week program is designed to help the Corvallis community identify our locally owned independent businesses by featuring one business each week. The program is part of the Buy Local First campaign co-sponsored by the Corvallis Sustainability Coalition and the Community Independent Business Alliance (CIBA).