- Here, CTS means Certified Temporary-Staffing Specialist, a credential administered by the National Association of Personnel Services (NAPS).
- The exam has 150 questions in 2 hours, and 113 correct answers are required.
- Registration costs $300 for NAPS members or $600 for nonmembers, including the legal manual, exam and certificate.
- Preparation covers ten legal and operational topics, from discrimination law to joint employer issues.
The Short Answer: What CTS Means Here
On this site, CTS stands for Certified Temporary-Staffing Specialist. It is a professional credential for people who work in the temporary help and staffing industry, and it focuses on the legal and practical rules that govern placing temporary workers with client companies.
The acronym is shared by several unrelated credentials in other fields, which is why a quick search can be confusing. Everything on this page refers only to the staffing credential. If you want the quick-definition versions of this topic, the site also covers what CTS is, what CTS stands for, and the meaning of CTS. This article goes a step further and explains what the words in the title actually commit you to knowing.
Who Runs the Credential
The credential is administered by the National Association of Personnel Services (NAPS). NAPS delivers the online examination through its Certification Center. It also offers an optional Certification Immersion Class (CIC), which uses a paper-and-pencil examination instead of the online format.
Candidates who accept the program receive a legal manual as part of registration. NAPS updates both the manual and the examination annually. Public descriptions do not identify a specific current manual edition, so confirm directly with NAPS which version your exam is based on before you buy outside study material.
NAPS also advertises a 97% pass rate for immersion participants. That figure covers participants across both the CPC and CTS programs, so it is not an overall CTS pass rate and should not be read as one. For a fuller discussion of what can and cannot be said about results, see our breakdown of the CTS pass rate.
What the Title Signals to Employers
Temporary staffing is a compliance-heavy business. A staffing firm is an employer of its temporary workers, yet those workers perform their daily tasks at a client's site under the client's supervision. That split creates exposure in discrimination, wage and hour practices, leave, medical accommodation, testing, and liability for who counts as the employer.
A holder of the CTS title signals that they have studied that exposure systematically. The people who typically benefit include:
- Recruiters and account managers at staffing and personnel service firms
- Branch managers, owners and partners who carry legal responsibility for the business
- Compliance and operations staff who handle applications, screening and contracts
- HR professionals and hiring managers who work with temporary labor, subject to the eligibility wording discussed below
If you are weighing the credential against your career plans, our analyses of whether the CTS certification is worth it and CTS-related jobs cover the employment side in more depth.
The Ten Topics Behind the Name
NAPS does not publish a weighted exam blueprint for this credential. What it does publish are preparation topics, drawn from its public FAQ and the description of the Certified Temporary Staffing Specialist Manual. The FAQ supports the first six topics, and the manual description adds four more. Treat them as an unweighted curriculum, not an official domain count or a guarantee of how many questions each area receives. A fuller walkthrough lives in our guide to the CTS exam domains.
The Core Six From the FAQ
Laws of Discrimination
The foundation of the whole credential. Candidates must recognize protected characteristics and how discrimination claims arise in recruiting, assignment and termination of temporary workers.
- Why a staffing firm can face claims even when the client directs the work
- How discrimination rules interact with client requests and preferences
Application and Interview Practices
What a staffing firm may and may not ask, record and rely on when taking applications and conducting interviews.
- Lawful versus risky interview questions
- Consistency in how applicants are treated
Contracts
Agreements between staffing firms, clients and temporary workers. The manual description overlaps with discrimination and contracts, and the topic is counted once here.
- Who bears which responsibilities under a client agreement
- How contract language allocates risk
Employer/Employment Definitions
Who legally counts as an employer, and what counts as employment, in a three-party arrangement.
- Why definitions drive liability
- How the staffing firm and client can each be responsible
Screening and Selection of Temporary Workers
The practical and legal sides of vetting candidates before placement.
- Selection criteria that tie to the job
- Documenting decisions defensibly
Laws Unique to Temporary Services Work
Rules that apply specifically because of the temporary-services model, as distinct from employment law in general.
- Obligations that attach to staffing firms in particular
- Why general HR knowledge does not fully cover these
Four Added by the Manual Description
Family Leave
How leave rules apply to temporary workers and to the firms that employ them, including questions of eligibility and coverage.
ADA
Disability-related obligations, including accommodation questions that arise when a temporary worker is placed at a client site.
Drug Testing
When testing is permitted, how policies should be applied, and how testing intersects with other legal duties.
Joint Employer
The doctrine that can make both the staffing firm and the client responsible for the same worker. It ties together the employer definitions, contract and discrimination topics.
How the Exam Is Built
The examination contains 150 questions in 2 hours. The question types are multiple-choice, true/false and case-based multiple-choice. A candidate needs 113 correct answers, which NAPS describes as 75%. Our page on the CTS passing score explains how to think about that threshold in practice.
The case-based items are where the legal topics stop being abstract. Expect a short scenario about a worker, a client and a decision, followed by options that each sound plausible. Recognizing which rule governs the situation matters more than memorizing definitions in isolation. The pace works out to under a minute per question, so unfamiliar scenarios cost you time you cannot easily recover. For a realistic read on the challenge, see how hard the CTS exam is.
| Feature | Online Exam | Immersion Class Exam |
|---|---|---|
| Delivery | NAPS Certification Center, online | Paper-and-pencil at the Certification Immersion Class |
| Questions | 150 | 150 |
| Time limit | 2 hours | 2 hours |
| Correct answers needed | 113 | 113 |
Who Can Sit for It
There is no length-of-service requirement, and NAPS membership is not required. Candidates must accept the NAPS ethical standards and program rules.
Eligibility wording is not perfectly consistent across NAPS pages, and you should know about the conflict before you apply:
- The current CTS page extends access to HR professionals and hiring managers.
- The Certification Program Rules page retains a requirement that the candidate be a currently employed, full-time owner, partner, manager or employee in the temporary-service business.
If you sit outside the traditional staffing-firm employee profile, such as an in-house HR professional at a client company, confirm your status with NAPS in writing before paying. Our CTS requirements article tracks the eligibility details.
Fees, Retakes and Renewal
Registration includes the legal manual, the examination and the certificate. The price depends on membership.
| Item | NAPS Member | Nonmember |
|---|---|---|
| Registration (manual, exam, certificate) | $300 | $600 |
| Retest | $150 | $300 |
| Annual renewal (individual) | $35 (member firm) | $50 |
The nonmember price is double the member price, so anyone weighing a NAPS membership should compare the savings against the membership cost itself. A fuller walk-through is in our CTS certification cost guide.
Keeping the Credential Active
The credential is not a one-time event. To maintain it you need 20 contact hours (2.0 CEUs) each year, and 17 of those hours must be NAPS-approved content. The annual renewal fee is due on your examination anniversary. Build the habit early: the sooner you track qualifying hours, the less likely you are to scramble near your anniversary.
Sequencing the Ten Topics in Your Prep
You do not need a generic study system here. You need an order that follows how the legal topics depend on one another. The employer definitions and joint employer material underpin nearly everything else, so many candidates find it efficient to meet the definitions early and return to joint employer once the surrounding topics make sense.
Foundations
- Employer/employment definitions
- Laws of discrimination, first pass
Hiring Pipeline
- Application and interview practices
- Screening and selection of temporary workers
Obligations and Agreements
- Contracts
- Laws unique to temporary services work
Specialized Statutes and Synthesis
- Family leave, ADA and drug testing
- Joint employer, then mixed case-based review
Because the exam leans on scenarios, spend your final stretch on mixed questions instead of rereading chapters. You can rehearse that format on the CTS practice test, and our CTS study guide expands on structuring the weeks. A compact review sheet is available as the CTS cheat sheet.
Key Takeaway
Do not study the ten topics as ten separate silos. The same fact pattern, such as a client directing a temporary worker's duties, can touch discrimination, employer definitions, contracts and joint employer liability at once. Practice recognizing which rule each scenario turns on.
Avoiding the Acronym Trap
Because several unrelated credentials abbreviate to CTS, the biggest practical risk for a newcomer is studying the wrong thing. Before you buy materials, check three things:
- The certifying body is the National Association of Personnel Services (NAPS).
- The subject matter is temporary-staffing law and practice, covering the ten topics above.
- The exam format is 150 questions in 2 hours with 113 correct answers required.
If a resource describes a different certifying body, different fees, or a technology or audio-visual subject area, it belongs to another credential and will not prepare you for this one. Our pages on what CTS certification is and the CTS certification overview keep the definition tied to the staffing credential, and you can verify details against the NAPS pages directly. When you are ready to test yourself, start from the main practice test site.
Frequently Asked Questions
It stands for Certified Temporary-Staffing Specialist, a credential administered by the National Association of Personnel Services (NAPS) that tests knowledge of the legal and operational rules of temporary staffing.
No. Membership is not required, though members pay less: $300 for registration versus $600 for nonmembers, and lower retest and renewal fees as well.
There are 150 multiple-choice, true/false and case-based multiple-choice questions in 2 hours. You need 113 correct answers, which NAPS describes as 75%.
NAPS does not impose a length-of-service requirement. However, eligibility wording differs across NAPS pages regarding who may apply, so confirm your status with NAPS before registering.
You must complete 20 contact hours (2.0 CEUs) annually, including 17 hours of NAPS-approved content, and pay an annual renewal fee of $35 for individuals at member firms or $50 for nonmembers, due on your examination anniversary.