9 Benefits You’ll Love When Using A Staffing Agency

When it comes to business, any successful CEO will tell you that what builds you up is great people. Of course, you work hard, build your network and expertise, but the driver behind your growth is the people who help see it through: your staff. As you grow it becomes increasingly harder to hire the right talent while juggling the needs of your business. This is where a staffing agency can come in. As experts in their field, staffing agencies are designed to help you pinpoint great matches that will improve your business. And they do it all without getting in the way of your productivity. We’ve come up with nine benefits of working with a staffing agency.

1. Improved Productivity

The first big and immediate benefit of working with a staffing agency is improved productivity. Part of this will be due to having the right staff to work with. As you fill vacancies with skilled and able workers, you will see your productivity increase. You can also have your staffing agency take care of onboarding which creates efficiencies in time and implementation as well as reduces your liability. When workers are properly onboarded, the results are palatable. The other way you can achieve more productivity is possibly the most basic: if you take hiring, recruiting and screening candidates off your plate, you have more time to focus on what you do best.

2. Save Yourself Some Costs

There are, of course, a lot of ways your evolving workforce—both short-term and long-term—can cost you money. One of those ways is worker attrition. When you lose a skilled worker, you need to take time and money retraining a new person. Both the loss of skills and the time to retrain cost your business. But with staffing agencies, you can reduce attrition by hiring the best qualified candidates from day one.

A second way your workforce costs you money is with the loss of revenue when you dedicate internal resources to staffing or the loss to your bottom line when you leave a critical job vacant. Here are a few of the big ways using a staffing agency can save you money:

• Efficiency: If you are in a constant cycle of hiring, training and then losing staff this affects your bottom line. A staffing agency can help you find more qualified matches who last.
• Flexible workforce: Staffing agencies offer access to a pool of flexible, talented candidates allowing you to staff when you need and save money when you don’t.
• Experience: The team members at staffing agencies have experience that they bring to every hire that saves time and money.

3. Minimize Risk By “Road Testing” Employees

Today’s workforce is dynamic and more flexible than it has ever been. In fact, the most recent predictions show that freelancers will most likely account for the majority of workers by 2027.  This is good news for growing companies. Here’s why: your payroll is one of your biggest expenses on the books and you now have more flexible options to help you minimize risk. You do this simply by getting to know your potential hires—on the job. This shift towards a contingent workforce allows you to vet potential full-time employees before making a full commitment to a hire.

Many contract workers are open and excited to entertain a temp to hire position. In fact, a new NPR/Marist poll found that 34 percent of part-time workers are looking for full-time work. When you temp hire these flexible workers, you can see firsthand how the relationship fits. Interviews and resumes just can’t show you how someone works or how they will work within the dynamics of your team. Don’t underestimate the value in your candidate having the same evaluation period.

4. Become Immune To Unemployment Claims

In a traditional hiring situation, when you hire an employee you become liable for the potential costs of unemployment down the line. Hiring flexible workers from staffing agencies reduces this burden in several ways. First, it shifts the liability of these workers to the staffing agency including payroll, taxes and unemployment. This also brings stability to your workforce as you avoid major layoffs or staffing up that can cost you later down the line. With a staffing agency’s help, you can manage your flexible workers based on what helps your business: hiring when you need to stabilize and letting workers go as your business and their skills demand.

5. Take Advantage Of Expert Hirers

Consider for a moment what you are an expert in as a business owner. That is why you are in business, right? However, too often businesses get bogged down by feeling forced to perform duties you are just not equipped to handle. One of these things is hiring. Staffing agencies make themselves experts in your business.
Then they combine that powerful knowledge with vetting, hiring, and training
expertise. This translates into better candidates.

6. Increased Flexibility

As your business grows, your workforce will become your backbone. But sometimes your demands and your workforce won’t align. That’s where a staffing agency can help you fill flexible and less predictable needs. Your workforce needs can change so quickly you may find you need instant coverage for maternity leaves, sick leaves, vacation time, seasonal work, or unexpected surges in business. This type of contingent workforce helps you stay flexible and aptly respond to production upswings, economic slowdowns and more so you can avoid layoffs and downsizing.

Recently NPR reported on this flexible workforce and how it is changing how we work and who we hire: Gillian Hadfield, who studies legal markets at the University of Southern California…says the speed with which business evolves these days forces everyone — from businesses themselves to suppliers to the competition — to respond quickly. Employers need specialized expertise on demand, just not for the long term.

7. Access To An Extensive Pool Of Talent

Hiring is not an easy task. When you have an opening at your company the first instinct is to look within your networks to find people you can trust. It’s a logical first step that feels comfortable and reliable. It also limits your potential pool of talent. Staffing agencies do the same, with a much wider net to cast. This allows you to not just take the hiring off your plate, but know with confidence that you have looked at the most qualified candidates possible. This speeds up hiring and helps you focus on the business needs at hand.

8. Increase Your Speed

No matter what your industry, speed in business is a crucial measure of success. It also has many implications when it comes to hiring workers. For one, any staffing professional will tell you that the hiring process is time-consuming. If you shoulder the process yourself, you take time away from the critical work you do for your company. The other important speed factor for hiring candidates is how quickly you need a vacancy filled. Critical team members missing for a long time has an impact on the bottom line. The solution is handing off this critical work to a trusted staffing agency. They not only have intimate knowledge of your needs, they know the current trends and can match you with the right person for the job. As you build a relationship they will be able to hone in on candidates you’re sure to like.

9. You Can Focus On Candidates, Not Applicants

Ever been buried under a large pile of resumes? Chances are you have. And while the interest in your job and your company feels exciting—it’s also very time consuming. In your quest to find the best of the bunch, you can spend hours looking through resumes. When you opt to have a staffing agency screen applicants, not only do you reduce the pile, you can focus on candidates and not just applicants. As professional hiring experts, staffing agencies take the time to scour the applications and only bring the most qualified candidates to your attention.

CLOSING:

These are just a few of the reasons to consider a staffing agency. As we move forward from the economic recession, it is critical that we adapt to the market and the evolving needs of companies and workers alike. Yes, we have regained some of the jobs lost, but the way we use workers is changing dramatically. Staffing agencies can help as we adjust to today’s market.