How Do Staffing Agencies Find Workers?

In the modern era, finding people to work is a major concern. This comes by way of the fact that companies are seeing higher-than-ever employee turnover as well as disenfranchised workers joining the “quiet quitting” movement due to burnout.

In turn, these realities are placing extra stress on internal hiring departments to take on the enormous task not only of filling record numbers of positions but also of attempting to raise morale and engagement to secure retention.

As a result, many companies are turning to staffing agencies to help fill capacity by taking on the enormous task of sourcing candidates. There are many ways in which staffing agencies build upon traditional methods of candidate sourcing, and evolve those methods to save companies time and money.

So how do staffing agencies find ideal candidates? Why is this option increasing in demand?

How Do HR Departments Source Their Candidates?

Traditionally, Human Resources departments that lack a dedicated talent acquisition team will abide by the “post and pray” method. This is the tactic of simply posting a job and filtering through applications as they come in.

Unfortunately, this tactic is generally an ineffective and inefficient path to finding people who are both qualified and well-suited to the team. Instead, active candidate sourcing is a much better strategy.

According to Steve McNamara of nTech Workforce, “active sourcing is a game changer when it comes to identifying top talent...” These highly skilled and talented individuals may not be actively applying for new positions and as such will be unlikely to see your job posting or go out of their way to apply.

What is Different About the Process for Staffing Agencies to Find People to Work?

In-house HR teams are stretched thin by responsibilities comprising onboarding, offboarding, benefits, compliance, payroll, employee relations and so much more.

On the other hand, McNamara points to the fact that a “Staffing agency has a dedicated, motivated talent acquisition team whose primary job responsibility is to source candidates, qualify candidates, coordinate interviews, and coordinate offers with clients.”

As well, after the offer has been made and accepted, staffing agencies have dedicated resources to manage the onboarding process, further ensuring the success of the transition. Finding people to work is one value add of a staffing partner.

Do Staffing Agencies Save Time and Money in the Long Run?

Finding people to work in a temporary job is a similar process to what would be expected from an internal talent acquisition team. One major caveat is that they are not on the full-time payroll. This means that all costs associated with sourcing candidates are incurred by staffing agencies. Moreover, staffing agencies are responsible for managing all aspects of employment for outsourced contingent workers.  

“Leveraging a staffing agency, clients can have candidates hired into open positions faster, leading to, hopefully, the operational improvement of the organization, doing the hiring,” says McNamara.

The fact is that the traditional recruiting process has not been working well on either side of the fence. As the Greenhouse Candidate Experience Report notes, 84% of people asked are looking for new jobs, while 60% are fed up with inefficient recruiting practices.

What Differentiates Staffing Agencies From Internal Hiring Teams?

Staffing agencies can help find people to work in numerous ways as pointed out by McNamara:

1. Staffing agencies are motivated and prepared to fill roles faster. Staffing agencies can provide highly qualified, interested, and immediately available candidates within one business day of an opening.

As long as the company is ready to participate in the interview process and make an offer, there is no reason to wade through a lengthy interviewing period, which may not even yield the desired results.

2. Staffing agencies take on some of the burden of risk management in the hiring process. Staffing agencies can act as the employer for contingent workers so that companies don’t immediately need to make a full-time hiring commitment. This is the “try before you buy” approach to staffing.

By trying out new team members on a contingent basis, companies can reduce the time and monetary costs associated with hiring the wrong fit.

3. Through market-driven research and further reaching networks, staffing agencies have more access and better techniques for finding people to work.

Staffing agencies have unique perspectives on what is going on in the job market and can help companies create well-tailored job postings that are aligned with competitive market rates. This helps to lend transparency and save time and money in avoiding a lengthy recruitment process which can ensue as a result of misleading or unclear postings.

Staffing agencies like nTech Workforce are quickly becoming the new norm in candidate sourcing and with good reason. As we know, staffing is more than just filling seats, it’s about building a winning workforce and we have the tools to find people and get work done.