Let’s get right into the thick of it: NUMBER ONE – Finding employees is the biggest benefit to using a staffing agency.
EVERYONE is hiring, there are not many fully staffed companies right now. Hard to find and hire is an understatement, is it not? Finding qualified talent is more challenging every year, but more so this year. What better way to access talent than to call a staffing agency who interviews each and every single day? Is your firm interviewing candidates for any position, every day? Using a staffing agency that is consistently hiring for positions across the board for their multiple employer clients makes more sense than trying to post a new job opening you have online, when you haven’t needed to hire for a while or don’t consistently hire.
By constantly hiring, staffing agencies are creating a pipeline of qualified job candidates and are simultaneously creating relationships with passive candidates who could be potential active recruits in the future. Proactively recruiting is how talent pipelines are created so that when an employer calls with a job opening, the Recruiter is selecting from their talent pipeline who is already qualified to fill the position.
Sounds like a pipeline is critical, as according to Rachel Feintzeig with the Wall Street Journal, “employees are now ready to leave behind the usual culprits: bad bosses, untenable workloads, skimpy paychecks. But managers also must contend with new desires and priorities sparked by the pandemic. In a Prudential survey, 42% percent of workers currently working remotely said if their employer didn’t make the option permanent, they’d find one that did. This signals that a “war for talent” may be looming if companies don’t address workers’ needs.”
A saffing agency will most likely have a pipeline, if you don’t, work to establish a relationship with one sooner than later. Staffing agencies are able to proactively recruit for roles they have high turnover in for their employer clients who constantly need these openings filled, they recruit for positions with employers they have multi-year contracts with and for employers who are able to provide their upcoming projects and contract personnel needs. Many client employers provide a fairly accurate forecast of personnel and type of skills required based on their own business needs.
Candidate relationship management (CRM) software allows Recruiters to save and search for specific skills, shift availability, certifications, education, and experience to select the best candidates for each role. COATS Staffing Software, for example, offers unlimited custom skills screens that can be created for each employer’s specific hiring requirements. These screens can be saved to an applicant’s electronic file and searched with each job opening requested by employers.
Second on the list of a huge plus to using a staffing agency? Time – save some!
Hiring for even one opening has become a full-time job. Determining your job description and from that creating an engaging online job post by itself, takes a considerable amount of time. Then, you are reviewing applications (with most of them typically unqualified for the advertised role), interviewing, testing and checking candidates, 
negotiating salaries, including sharing details of your company benefits during an offer.
I remember the process of hiring a Recruiter for my own staffing agency two years ago and having to provide charts, deductibles, benefit details and employee/family monthly Anthem group plan costs before a candidate would even consider my offer in Richmond, Virginia. And that was me hiring for a full-time, in house Recruiting role.
Therefore, many employers partner with staffing agencies. The agency removes all the hiring steps noted above that take a considerable amount of time and effort, by providing their own, fully vetted employees for open roles. The employer simply contacts the staffing agency with their job opening. The staffing agency takes it from there. The agency creates the job order in their software system which includes your job description creatively transformed into an online job ad where the staffing firm will then vet new candidates while also reviewing potential current candidates in their employee pool. You, the employer, decide on the final candidate and the agency takes care of all the related employee paperwork.
“Great talent becomes harder to find, and it becomes extremely time-consuming for managers to review résumés and conduct interviews, all while still being responsible for their day-to-day operations,” said Matthew Rowles, business development manager at staffing company Kavaliro. “Turning to a trusted staffing partner can save time and money. A staffing firm can pre-screen and qualify candidates to ensure the manager is always interviewing candidates that are a fit for the role.”
The 3rd value-added benefit of using a staffing agency: being flexible and lean.
Who doesn’t want their company and staff to be as efficient, lean, and flexible to move with the changing times, as possible? Nobody likes having to lay off employees. Having a fluid workforce that can be dynamically adjusted to meet hiring needs on a regular basis, is a wonderful thing. Staffing agencies who provide employees as requested allow firms to have new hires only as needed, and they are productive, or they are replaced.
Another benefit to using a staffing firm is the ability to replace underperforming assigned employees without you having to undertake that task. Your staffing firm should be able to take care of that undesirable conversation, rather than you having to do so. Remember however, to be honest and fair when sharing with your staffing agency the reason you wish to discontinue a temporary employee’s assignment so that they are able to be honest and fair with their employee, in turn.
Number Four: “Temp to hire” is a rich avenue to hiring and adding permanent staff members to your team.
It sounds old school, but “try before you buy” works better than ever. Employees are just as picky as employers, even more so right now. Hence, this adage applies to both the employer and employee. An employee is not going to stay with a company and culture they don’t regard highly or fit well with. Likewise, there is no need to hold onto a “C 
player” for your firm any more than there is a desire for an employee to work for a company they don’t like.
What better way for all of this to be figured out than to work with each other first, on a temporary basis? The reference checking, screening, and vetting has all been meticulously completed by your staffing agency so if your temporary employee and you, as the employer, decide the marriage works – all the typical onboarding is complete. Granted, you will need your temporary employee to complete your own firm’s company paperwork to move this employee to your payroll, but the hard work on ensuring it’s a match for both of you, has already been done. And this is golden. Ensuring personalities and company culture between a business and employee result in a good fit, is a much more important task to check off, than having to fill out an application when an employee is hired permanently.
The 5th benefit? Reduced employer risk & paperwork is paramount to your business and found through using a staffing agency.
Federal and state taxes, the Affordable Care Act employer requirements, unemployment insurance, W-2 and W-4 Forms, the I-9 Form, worker’s compensation, background checks and drug testing are only ten common elements of hiring and onboarding a new employee. TEN! That is a lot of “i’s to dot and t’s to cross,” and without error. Insurance coverage, national and local labor laws and hiring and firing lawfully are all liabilities assumed by the staffing agency you hire to source and place employees for your firm.
When you utilize a staffing agency, the agency, and not your firm, is considered the “employer of record” and is responsible for their employees from hiring to accidents that may occur while on assignment with your firm. There are always financial risks for your human resource department and hiring has many, especially if someone must be let go or terminates their employment with you. Having a temporary service assume all these responsibilities is a considerable advantage to using a staffing agency.
There are quite a few additional benefits to using a staffing agency. The more the staffing firm gets to know your company culture, benefit package, work environment and mission statement, the better the off-site HR partner they will be. Remember to build upon this goal by sharing consistent feedback about the employees assigned to work for your firm, what works well for you and what doesn’t. Staffing agencies can’t read minds or fix what they don’t know is broken.
The best client partners are those who treat their temporary employees as permanent potential staff members and respect their Recruiters as an extension of their own team. Staffing agency Recruiters work hardest for the clients that they like and that job candidates want to work for, make sure your company is one of them. You really can’t afford not to right now.
If you are in need of a staffing agency in your area, call us, we partner with and automate some of the best in the nation. We can refer you to one we serve and trust.
Lynn Connor, Business Development