Whether you should use a staffing agency or a recruiter to hire employees doesn’t have a fixed answer. Any time you open a position for your company, you have a goal to fill it as soon as possible. You are implementing a particular strategy to reach the goals, and there are various tactics to it. We will walk you through two possible hiring tactics that will help you with the process.
First, let us see the difference and potential benefits of both staffing and recruiting.
Using staffing agencies to hire employees
Staffing is the whole process of filling all open roles at a company. Most of the time, the management sets up a goal for new positions. Hence, staffing agencies are hired to fill those roles. However, staffing agencies mainly focus on short-term goals and single projects. Thus, these agencies might hire, say, for a project or an event.
The focus of staffing processes and hence staffing agencies are active job-seekers, which means that staffing agencies select from people seeking a job rather than engaging in the competitive environment of headhunting.
Staffing agencies are also suitable for hiring unskilled workers and temporary staff. However, these agencies tend not to focus on the whole picture and hire only short term. Hence they might ignore background checks and fringe benefits for employees.
Staffing is most often used as an outsourced service. Companies gather their roles’ requirements, and the staffing agency takes care of the hiring.
It would be best if you considered staffing agencies in case you
- Have short-term projects and need faster hiring.
- Have a lot of roles to fill in a short period.
- You can’t afford a full-time employee.
So, when choosing a staffing agency, make sure they have a candidate pool. Most of the time, staffing agencies maintain a resource pool of candidates. Those might be candidates of various types who frequently find jobs through the agency.
A good staffing agency will build up a candidate pool for various kinds of jobs. If the staffing agency has a candidate pool, it can do your job faster. It will take only a little time to shortlist active candidates and contact them for your project.
Additionally, staffing also focuses on the length of your project and compensation. The candidates connected to the agency tend to know how long the contract will last and how much the compensation is.
What are the advantages of using staffing agencies to hire an employee?
- You will reduce costs.
- Increase ROI
- Save time on training
- Lower the hiring risks
- Get access to a talent network
Using a recruiter to hire employees
In parallel to staffing services, we also have recruiting services. Recruiters are skilled professionals. It is again an outsourced service for your company. If you choose to work recruiter, you can expect better candidates. They also save time for you and deliver faster results.
In this case, you provide the requirements, and recruiters give you ready-to-interview candidates. As recruiters do detailed background checks and screening for the position, your hiring success rates will be higher.
In contrast to staffing agencies, recruiters are specialized in hiring long-term or permanent employees. They are focusing on finding talent with unique skills. Practically they are doing the hard job of revealing talents.
When choosing recruiting services, you can expect an increased diversity in your candidate pool. Therefore, you can best use recruiting to find more and better candidates than you can find on your own.
Although recruiting will give you the option of various skills, keep in mind that it will be harder to evaluate the candidates. Here you will need a screening plan, so you better let the professionals do the job.
Advantages of using recruiters to hire employees
- You get more skilled professionals
- Save time on screening and searching for talent
- Hire permanent employees.
A great tip: When working with staffing or recruiting agencies, establish and clarify all the fees and payment methods ahead. Also, these agencies typically guarantee a refund within a period (can be 60-90days) if the candidates don’t work out well. However, these policies vary, and you should clarify everything beforehand.
In Sum:
Both staffing agencies and recruiters are working strategies if you cannot afford a full-time in-house recruiter. Depending on your goal, you can choose between these two options and save your budget. Having an in-house full-time employee will be more costly for you. Maintaining an in-house recruiter entails raises and giving all the fringe benefits. You can choose withing staffing and recruiting agencies and give it a go. Plan carefully and prioritize before outsourcing the process.
Good luck with your hiring processes. Contact us for consulting on your hiring processes.
