Whether you are running a small business or a large enterprise, you would agree that building a workforce is not an overnight process. Reviewing applications for different job postings, pre-screening candidates, interviewing the shortlisted ones, and then providing an offer letter, there are several steps involved in hiring the right people. However, the darker side of it is that it takes your precious time away from your regular business obligations, which can ultimately hurt your company’s growth in the long run.
This is where a staffing agency comes to the rescue. They provide services that can help you alleviate the time and cost needed to find and hire qualified individuals. Hiring a staffing agency can help almost every type of business. If you are considering this option to streamline the hiring process followed in your organization, you must know how it can benefit your business.
Why Do Organizations Prefer to Outsource Hiring Requirements?
As per statistics, there are around 25,000 staffing agencies in the United States operating in around 49,000 offices (Source). On the other side, the global recruitment market is expected to reach the value of US$542 billion in 2024 while growing at a 2.01% CAGR during 2020-24.
HR burnout and exhaustion can be considered the underlying reasons behind this growth. Many HR professionals deal with a wide range of challenges that fuel workplace burnout. Whether it is about setting up remote operations, planning a return to the workplace or hybrid model, or hiring the right individuals during the Great Resignation, they have a lot on their plate to work on. These tasks were in addition to the core responsibilities of hiring, onboarding, and retaining employees. A recent study confirmed the same, saying that 98% of HR professionals are burned out.
This is where taking external help from a reliable staffing agency helps balance out the work responsibilities of the HR team while also maintaining the operations.
7 Reasons Why Hiring Staffing Agencies Makes Sense in 2022
1. Fast hiring
With the changing job market, the hiring process has also changed and become longer than in previous decades. Finding the right talent, which includes reviewing resumes and conducting interviews, is difficult and time-consuming for your team, all while being responsible for their day-to-day tasks. For professional business services, the average time-to-hire is 25.2 days. Dig deeper into the industry-wise statistics and you will find this number going up to 49 days for health services.
For a growing organization like yours that has dynamic workforce requirements, waiting for this long can have a long term impact on the business. This is where working with a staffing agency can make things quicker and easier for you. Their team of recruiters will evaluate job candidates on your behalf. It also implies you can hire a potential candidate from a small group of professionals suggested by the agency instead of spending weeks reviewing hundreds of resumes.
2. Extensive network of potential candidates
The Future of Work Report 2022 revealed that nine out of ten employers struggle to fill open positions because of skill gaps. For your organization that depends only on the in-house hiring process, this would mean screening and interviewing hundreds of candidates just to find a few suitable prospects.
If you regularly need niche professionals having specific skills and experience in your industry, a specialized staffing firm can make the process painless. You get access to their wide network of professionals in different industries will make it easier for you to outreach the right candidates in less time.
For example, some staffing agencies specialize in recruiting employees for tech organizations. Using their network and expertise in picking up the red flags during employee screening, you can benefit from improved quality of hire. Also, their knowledge about industry-specific salary ranges can save you money for the better.
3. Access to pre-qualified candidate database
While hiring individuals for your organization, your HR team might only have a limited database of individuals who applied for a job but couldn’t get selected earlier. But with staffing agencies, this database is quite large. They can connect with qualified, experienced professionals that are fit for open job roles in your organization. Interestingly, they may also have access to candidates who are outside your search perimeter or those who approached the agency to find an exact job you now seek to fill. With simpler access to talent specific to your industry, you can find more professionals to help your company grow.
For example, if you are running a technology firm and have recently transitioned to the Linux operating system, you seek professionals who are already proficient in this OS and can also train the rest of your team. Here, a tech-specialized staffing agency can help recruit experienced, Linux-certified candidates from their existing database.
4. Reduced hiring risk
There are several legal responsibilities of an employer related to hiring new employees, be it taxation, labor laws compliance, and health insurance coverage. From both operational and financial standpoints, there is a certain level of financial risk associated with the hiring process, especially in cases where a new joinee has to be fired in a short period. A staffing agency may assume many of such liabilities for you.
Take the case of temporary associates that are hired for your organization. For them, you can select a staffing agency that acts as an employer of record and takes responsibility while they are on duty. If the need arises, you can also share such responsibilities with the agency depending on the scale at which the hiring continues in your company. Also, the parting of ways is quite streamlined in such situations.
5. Reduced team workload
One of the upsides of hiring a staffing agency to streamline the regular recruitment needs is that it frees up the bandwidth of your in-house HR team to some extent. In fact, it assists them in following a targeted approach to hiring candidates that are a perfect fit for a job role. Other than the HR team, it also helps in relieving time for the core team members who are likely to take a few rounds of the interview.
While the staffing agency focuses on the hiring part, your employees can dedicate their time to their day-to-day routine and work with higher productivity.
To be more specific, the right staffing agency will take most of the redundant, time-consuming tasks off your schedule so that you can utilize your time elsewhere.
6. Higher ROI
Many individuals think of the compensation package as the only cost associated with the hiring process. If you are of the same opinion, you might haven’t realized what goes beyond the employee package offered. Starting from posting a job opening on various job boards to conducting interviews and getting the background verification, there is a certain cost involved. Besides this, you have the in-house HR team which is also paid for maintaining the recruitment process.
Hiring a staffing agency does involve an additional cost angle. But it eliminates several intermediate cost components you would pay otherwise. This will ultimately increase the return on investments to run this side of your business.
7. Candidate background check in place
Many candidates lie about their qualifications and experience as mentioned on their resume. As they proceed with the hiring process, it often becomes hard to find any sort of fraudulent information unless you get their background checked and verified. With complete background verification, you can benefit from the improved quality of hire in staffing and weed out applicants that would pose a threat to the company’s culture.
In many cases, staffing agencies provide background screen and verification as a part of their services. This way, you can easily have a third-party background verification supplier help you deal with the risk of negligent hiring.
Common Misconceptions Around Hiring a Staffing Agency
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Hiring a staffing agency is too expensive
This is one of the most inaccurate beliefs about outsourcing your hiring needs to an external manpower supplier. While you might think you save money upfront by doing it all in-house, getting external help actually saves more money for your organization in the long run.
An open position also costs a lot to a company. Pair it up with the reduced productivity and you will realize the high-cost element involved. Working with a staffing firm can reduce the time to hire along with maintaining workplace productivity.
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Staffing agencies do not provide experts but only newbies
Some business owners believe that workers coming from a staffing agency are mostly beginners and are only available as they couldn’t get work opportunities anywhere else. This is not necessarily truthful as many employees suggested by staffing agencies are overqualified for the jobs they are hired for.
In fact, the extensive network of these agencies has experienced professionals who are ready to hop on a new opportunity.
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There can be reputational consequences
Another myth about staffing agencies is that they often result in reputational losses for their clients. In case a candidate has a bad hiring experience while being in touch with the agency, negative reviews can lead to long-term damages for your company. However, this is not entirely true if you are hiring a renowned, niche-specific agency to work for you.
In fact, establishing a stellar recruitment process with a staffing agency will strengthen your brand’s reputation with both current and prospective employees.
Hire Right Talent in Less Time with Connect Tech+Talent
To find quality employees, you want to rely on a staffing agency that has a stellar reputation and specializes in niche hiring. Hire Connect Tech+Talent – a staffing agency based in Austin that takes pride in the employees it sends to tech organizations. Discuss your time-sensitive hiring needs with Connect Tech+Talent today!
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