"Finding workers and going through all kinds of employment procedures in limited time can be arduous. Then when production stops, hundreds of workers have to be fired," Gao says.

"Labor dispatch not only helps companies reduce costs but also lowers the risk of workers losing jobs," Gao adds.

Most of Humanpool's workers are sent to factories in the China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park located in the east of Suzhou in Jiangsu Province, The park is a hi-tech industrial base home to more than 60 Fortune 500 companies. Over 25,000 dispatched workers, about one-quarter of the total number of employees, have worked in the park since 2004.

More than 70 percent of the dispatched workers are employed at electronics companies, including AU Optronics, Solectron and Samsung.

"Humanpool's service provides a buffer for us," says Cao Weihong, human resources director at Solectron (Suzhou) Technology Co Ltd.

"We can adjust the number of employees according to different seasons with more flexibility. We can also choose the best workers from those provided by Humanpool and based on their performance, turn them into formal employees of Solectron," Cao says.

"It also saves a lot of costs in the recruitment process," Cao adds.

The Milpitas, California-based electronics company's Suzhou division usually hires 1,000 to 1,500 temporary workers in busy seasons, accounting for 20 to 30 percent of its workforce.

Solectron was Humanpool's first customer after Gao founded the company in 2002. Solectron started operations in Suzhou in 1996.

"Humanpool brought its proposal to us at the right time because our headquarters was asking us to get more contract-based employment flexibility," Cao recalls, adding that Humanpool provided 500 workers to Solectron at the end of 2002.

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