If you’re thinking about using an employment agency to fill a gap in your staffing, you may wonder how to choose. They all promise more or less the same things, and it’s so hard to tell when a salesman is just giving you a line. If you need a trustworthy staffing agency, then you likely need them quickly. Here are a few ways you can sort out the right employment agency.
Effective Employment Agencies Treat Employees Well
There’s a reason tech firms in Silicon Valley are shelling out on beautiful campuses and generous services for their employees. They know, from data and experience, that happy employees are productive employees. This intuition keeps with common sense: a well-supported, healthy individual who feels part of a greater mission will have more capacity and more desire to contribute to the end goal of a firm. If this end goal involves work with customers and clients, these relationships will also benefit from a culture of respect and partnership between employer and employee.
Treating employees well means more than compensation and benefits. It means rewarding quality work with opportunities for growth and career advancement. It means setting clear and reasonable expectations while adhering to those same expectations as an employer. It also means establishing a culture where feedback is accepted and valued. Communication, transparency, and respect serve as the pillars of any successful employment agency.
Effective Employment Agencies Offer Thorough screening
The end-all-be-all of any employment agency is its ability to recruit and deliver high-quality talent that excels in suiting the needs of its partners. At the heart of this project lies the task of screening potential applicants. This requires experience, investment, and attention to detail.
While technology and artificial intelligence have proven effective and efficient screening tools, nothing replaces the intuition of experienced professionals working to hand-pick staff and match them to the right company. This involves investing time and effort into understanding the requirements of each position and developing open relationships with partners in the community.
Making quality placements also involves a thorough vetting process that assesses the credentials, past experience, and current skill set of each applicant. While some of these attributes can be measured relatively easily through resumés and references, other aspects can prove trickier to gauge. Good employment agencies use tools like personality questionnaires to determine where applicants will prove most effective. These tools help agencies understand whether applicants work more independently or whether they do well in more collaborative settings.
By spending the extra time and energy on a thorough screening process, quality employment agencies can ensure a good fit in each placement for both the company and the employee.
Effective Employment Agencies Have Knowledge and Experience
The process of matching staff to positions requires a deep knowledge of the needs of each business and each industry. While staffing agencies must work with client companies to understand the specifics of each job, they must also possess adequate background knowledge to fill in any gaps in understanding. The best staffing agencies can tell the type of worker each company needs beyond what that company shares. This means knowing about the type of business, its workflow, and the type of employees that work effectively in that particular setting.
Much of this knowledge comes from years spent working in the field. Experienced recruiters will learn from each placement they make and use this data to inform their future work. The more placements each agent makes, the more data they have on which candidates will struggle and which will succeed in different types of work environments. The best recruiters will also have extensive experience of the geography they serve, knowing the layout of the local market and each of the players in the business landscape.
Effective Employment Agencies Use Due Diligence
Many staffing companies simply answer phone calls and make placements as quick as possible – the “churn and burn” approach. They invest little time into ensuring the right fit, onboarding the employee, or following up on the placement. While this can increase the overall volume of placements and bring in short-term revenue, it does a disservice to the employee, the client company, and ultimately the employment agency itself.
Excellent staffing agencies, on the other hand, will follow through on their work. We’ve already discussed the rewards brought by investments in screening and matching, but this is only the first step in making a solid placement. Next is the onboarding process.
Providing support and communication during the critical first days of employment helps set up employer and employee for success. Employment agencies should have a good knowledge of their clients’ onboarding process so that they can set the proper expectations with their recruits and help them navigate their first days on the job. While many employment agencies and recruiting firms are increasingly turning toward automation in the onboarding process, the presence of a supportive human being capable of listening and troubleshooting is critical.
This communication must also extend beyond the first days of the job. Quality staffing agencies spend time following up on their placements to support their employees, evaluate their fit in their position, and provide resources to their client companies. The more an employment agency communicates from the onboarding process through the duration of the placement, the more successful the employee, the client, and the agency itself.
Enterprise Staffing connects employers with their new favorite employees
Enterprise’s clients return again and again to the company because of its service, expertise, and above all, its ability to fill positions with talented professionals. With deep care and personal attention, Enterprise treats employees as members of the family, getting to know each individual while supporting their growth. Enterprise uses a 25-question survey to gauge the style and capabilities of each applicant, making a strong effort to get to know all its recruits. This dedication extends to Enterprise’s clients, who speak of the agency’s reliability and commitment to finding a skilled match for each opening.
While other companies prioritize volume and profits, Enterprise invests in its relationships. Each time you contact Enterprise, you can be assured that you will speak to someone with the power and insight to provide personalized solutions. The agency’s lead recruiter has more than a decade of experience in the field and a wide-ranging knowledge of the areas served. With this expertise Enterprise’s team makes sure to follow through on all the nitty-gritty details of the hiring process. Turn to Enterprise for the personal touch and quality talent to fill any position.