Staffing agencies or recruitment agencies have long been around to help companies and employers find qualified talent. Here’s a look at why they last and why you should consider using one yourself.
Comfort working with other brands.
Companies of all sizes invest time and money into developing their employer. But what if you don’t have a strong defined brand to advertise your job postings with? If you chose your agency wisely then they can give potential candidates insight into what working with your company will be like – benefits and career openings available, and a feel for the culture. If you chose to use a staffing firm, spend time getting to know them and let them build relationships with your key managers/relevant people. They should be able to represent you as an employer of choice. If a candidate checks your business out on social media, either through a site like ZipRecruiter or in a Facebook post shared by the agency, a recruitment partner should be able to help clarify any points that may arise.
Time spent accessing the skills you need, industry experts.
A huge benefit of using a Staffing Agency is to gain short term access to the skills you need in an employee. Talent shortages are constantly a potential hinderance to growth. A well-positioned agency offers the opportunity to bring in qualified, experienced help at short notice – often from having worked with the same people in the past. The months it can often take to find a qualified employee through traditional in-house HR can be reduced to a matter of days via the right Recruiters.
Access to resources.
Some major roadblocks to hiring yourself often involve budgetary and resource restrictions. There are time constraints to performing a thorough search, so it is often easier for managers to interview from an agency shortlist. Anyone who has even been responsible for making a hiring decision knows how distracting it can be. In addition to sifting through stacks of resumes to find a qualified candidate, there is a tremendous redirect of other resources, time mostly, as you prepare to interview, follow up, and process the potential new employee. There is little doubt that a hard pressed HR or in-house team can benefit from the reach and networks of a trusted agency partner.
Unrivaled knowledge of the market.
The best recruiters will have their finger on the pulse of their specialist markets, and can give the hiring team insight in to what is happening. They should know the available talent, where they are and how to reach out to them, salary rates, career expectations, available skill-sets and current hiring complexities. If other businesses are struggling to find the same people as you they should be able to advise on alternative solutions. The best will act as partners and collaborators, and should still be your eyes and ears in the market.
Extended reach
Some candidates are hard to find. They may be passive or they may be selective. If they aren’t responding to job advertisements, don’t see themselves as part of your ‘talent pool’ and are too busy to search full time then the chances are that they may have relationships with trusted recruiters. Even if they aren’t currently active, there’s a strong chance that a good recruiter will know who they are and how to reach them. Agencies have many networks – each consultant, candidate, client or collaborator has the potential to leverage their networks to help connect you to people with a range of skills and experiences, many of who would be off the radar of an in-house team or hiring manager.
Candidates not applicants
A lot of talent attraction is aimed at attracting applicants, whether they are responding to an advert, social media, or through your website. A lot of these people may not be good matches for the role hence a lot of time will be invested in filtering, assessing, matching and communicating with them. When we talk of a bad candidate experience it’s normally an applicant experience that we are referring to. Time and resource poor recruitment teams may not be able to run a thorough matching process. Using a recruitment agency should mean that you see only candidates – job seekers who have been pre-selected to match all the criteria that you are looking for and who are worthy of consideration and interview.
Most business will have their own reasons for using recruitment agencies. For many it’s the temporary staffing service as a way to monitor staffing costs. For some it may be a short term need and for others they may offer a major opportunity to access the strong talent that they would otherwise miss out on.