There are more than 20,000 staffing agencies in the United States alone, and those agencies are responsible for hiring and employing nearly 17 million temporary and contract employees per year. With a growing number of qualified candidates making their way into the job market, it’s easy to see why hiring managers are beginning to look to these agencies for help sourcing employees.
Staffing agencies allow businesses to leverage the power of variety and flexibility, come hiring time. By partnering with a staffing agency, you will gain unprecedented access to a considerable talent pool, which will ultimately save your business both time and money.
Staffing agencies are especially helpful when filling temporary positions, as you don’t have to expend company resources recruiting for an employee who will only be with your firm for a limited period of time. Below, we have highlighted a few key benefits of partnering with a staffing agency, for those businesses looking to hire temporary employees.
Why You Should Use a Staffing Agency for Temporary Hires
They save you time and money
Any experienced HR professional knows what a time sink looking over resumes can be. Why inundate yourself with hundreds of resumes when you could pass that initial screening on to another party? A staffing agency will review resumes and candidates for you, so you can find a temporary employee that will get the job done without wasting company time and resources on a role that is not even a permanent position within your company. You can also forget about busywork like background checks, all of that and more is handled by the staffing professionals.
Your firm will also save money when you team up with an agency. Agency employees will complete work that you’d otherwise need to pay in-house employees to perform. Since they are experts at sourcing temporary professionals their work is oftentimes completed with quicker turnaround times and better results, streamlining the temporary hiring process.
They allow you flexibility
Business needs and demands are ever-evolving. The best way to address this fact is to adopt flexible hiring practices that can be easily adjusted to suit your needs. You can depend on a staffing agency to provide you with a wide pool of candidates featuring various strengths and skill sets. Since temporary hires are often brought on to complete specific tasks or help with busy seasons, this flexibility and range of candidates can be helpful to find creative solutions. You may even find a few new permanent members of your team along the way.
They grant you access to a massive network of candidates
With online job boards growing in popularity, most businesses don’t struggle to get their job postings out to the masses; not every hiring department understands how to leverage these tools, however, and even when they do, they can’t guarantee that people who see their listing are qualified candidates.
Teaming up with a staffing agency allows you to push your job openings to candidates and connections who are fit for your role. These agencies spend hundreds of hours creating valuable candidate pipelines, filled with qualified and eager individuals. Their experience in the temp staffing space and network of candidates can help identify someone quickly, while businesses may struggle on their own to find qualified candidates willing to take a temporary position.
Temporary hiring allows for a trial period
When you bring in a temp from a staffing agency, you’ll have ample time to observe their workplace behavior and determine whether they might be a good permanent fit for your company. Oftentimes, these employees work a “trial period” for this express purpose. This can bring down turnover rates, which improves employee morale and helps keep the down costs associated with turnover.
Nine out of ten candidates state that temporary staffing work made them more employable, and temporary employees are an integral part of virtually every industry. They make up 36% of the industrial workforce, 28% of office and clerical staff, and nearly 15% of professional and IT workers.
There are a number of reasons to partner with a staffing agency the next time you need to make a temporary hire. Atlantic Group has a professional team of recruiters focused on helping you with your temporary hiring needs.