How Do Staffing Agencies Work? A Complete Guide
Keeping your company fully staffed is important for maximizing productivity. It’s critical to have a consistent, reliable way to find new employees, especially as you scale your company.
High turnover rates and recruitment problems are unfortunate realities for many companies, and not every business has the resources to find the best long-term employees.
Many businesses can’t afford a dedicated hiring manager. This often means the recruitment process falls on the HR manager, an operational manager, or even company executives. Although this may work as a temporary solution, focusing on hiring will likely spread you and your staff too thin as your company grows. You need a more dependable hiring solution. Consider using a high-quality staffing agency for your hiring needs.
Staffing agencies specialize in finding and interviewing qualified candidates for many different types of industries, and this may be the most optimal recruitment solution for your business moving forward.
Do Staffing Agencies Work?
Although getting started with a staffing agency may seem daunting at first, taking the leap to start the process will ultimately save your company time and money.
High-quality staffing agencies offer businesses a seamless and repeatable process for finding short-term or long-term employees. And with their skillset and years of experience working in hiring, agencies can find reliable and qualified candidates across different industries.
One major recruitment problem for countless businesses is high turnover rates after hiring. This can be incredibly costly for your business and will ultimately hurt your workflow and scalability as you’re forced to repeat the arduous process of finding new candidates.
Staffing agencies offer a proven solution for overcoming these recruitment problems, and they can find your company exceptional long-term hires. If any new employees do exit, you can count on your staffing agency to find qualified replacements.
When your business uses a high-quality staffing agency, you can rest assured that you’re getting the most suitable candidates available for your industry.
How Do Staffing Agencies Work?
Staffing agencies work with businesses to fill their vacant positions, whether temporary, part-time, or full-time. These agencies often have a pool of qualified candidates from different industries that they can contact when a business has positions to fill.
Sometimes, staffing agencies specialize in serving particular industries, and their contacts are made up of candidates with similar professional backgrounds, such as accounting, manufacturing, or financial services. Other times, staffing agencies will serve many different types of industries, and their pool of candidates isn’t made up of a particular profession.
In addition to offering businesses an existing group of candidates, staffing agencies will also seek out new potential hires in order to meet the specific needs of their clients.
How companies compensate staffing agencies is often based on the salary or hourly rate of their new hire. For example, if your business is looking to hire a new employee at $20 an hour, the staffing agency will likely receive payment based on that hourly rate.
It’s common for staffing agencies to receive anywhere between 125% and 200% of the new hire’s rate. So, if you’re looking for a hire that you plan on paying $20 an hour, the staffing agency may charge between $25 (125% of $20) and $40 (200% of $20).
Getting Started with a Staffing Agency
The first step in enlisting the assistance of a staffing agency to find new employees is to contact the hiring company. You’ll inform the staffing agency of your industry, the vacant position, and the job’s requirements.
If your company is usually looking for candidates with a particular professional background, you may want to enlist the expertise of a staffing agency that specializes in specific industries. For example, a staffing agency that specializes in accounting will likely have many existing connections to qualified accountants who will be suitable for your business.
When communicating with your staffing agency, you’ll need to be clear about the overall time frame of the position, meaning when you need the new staffer, and you should communicate the expectations and responsibilities for the hire.
You should also convey additional details regarding the position including:
- The hourly wage or salary
- Whether the position is temporary or permanent
- Number of hours
- Required skills
- Educational requirements
- Necessary years of experience
- Additional prerequisites
- Job benefits
The Employee Selection Process
After you give the staffing agency the necessary job requirements, the company will get to work finding your best potential hires. If the staffing company has existing connections with qualified candidates, they’ll contact them and suggest they apply. Additionally, they will write an appealing job description and post it across job board sites and social media.
As more candidates apply for the position, the agency will scrutinize the applications of the potential hires from their existing pool of professionals and from those who applied online. They’ll then select the best candidates to go through the initial interview process.
After vetting and interviewing potential candidates, the staffing agency will select a few potential hires who they deem to be the best-suited candidates for the position. They’ll turn over their findings to you, your company’s hiring manager, or your HR department.
From there, it’s up to your company to determine the best candidate for your team. It’s in your best interest to do your due diligence on the staffing agency’s selection, so you or your HR team can interview the remaining candidates in order to select the most suitable hire.
Once your company makes a final hiring decision, your staffing agency can handle all of the necessary onboarding paperwork, such as contracts, payroll, and taxes.
Find the Best Candidates Today!
If you require assistance with finding a repeatable and reliable system for making new hires, we here at Epic Placements highly recommend checking out our expert recruitment tools here! You can also find exceptional job search tools on our site as well.
Contact us today for additional assistance in the hiring process!