Looking for a Staffing Agency? Here’s Everything You Need to Know
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Here’s the gist of what hiring involves: creating job descriptions, screening applications, interviewing candidates, recruitment & onboarding, training & development. That’s a lot of tasks and it consumes an employer’s precious time. This is precisely the reason why business operation heads and HR managers look for a staffing agency . The staffing experts use the latest technology and offer a comprehensive range of solutions, filling vacant positions in a timely manner.
A staffing agency is an organization which acts on behalf of a business owner to recruit employees or new workers.
Work, workforce and workplace trends have undergone massive changes in the past few years. New business models, flexible schedules and work-from-home – all of these transformations - have impacted the hiring process and made it challenging. Due to the increasingly competitive job market, the average hire rate has gone up. This is where the association with a staffing agency can do wonders for an employer of any business size, reducing time and boosting hiring efficiency.
Contact via phone, schedule a zoom call or meet in person the staffing agency representatives that most suit the company's staffing requirement. Ask important questions like - How do they function? What methods are being used? Is technology a priority? If all is good, make the agreement and define staffing agencies’ roles and responsibilities plus share talent requirements.
Next up, the staffing agency will create a job description and get it reviewed by the business owner. The agency will try to find the candidate with the available talent pool. Sometimes, the agency will use social platforms to advertise the job requirements.
Once the job vacancy ad starts gaining traction and candidates apply for the position, staffing agency experts will review the applicants thoroughly.
Everything – such as certificates, additional skills, years of work experience, and background – is scrutinized, and candidates are called for interview.
Rule of thumb is that the final hiring decision is taken by the business owner after conducting a final round of interview with the candidate. Of course, it is based on the assessment done by the staffing agency. However, company HRs would prefer to know if the candidate is in sync with the culture and vision of the organization.
Once the new hire joins, the agency will handle the documentation process: employer-employee contract, taxes, payroll and more. Plus, the experts take care of the onboarding process and training too.
As India takes giant leaps of growth, companies are open to hiring freshers and experienced; permanent and contract employees; and even freelancers. Investing in human capital has thus become paramount for business growth in 2024 and beyond. Staffing agencies can help companies to find workers quickly and efficiently.
Find out the other advantages of choosing a staffing agency.
Talent wars are a real thing in the Indian job market. The IT industry is the best example; a highly competitive field with opportunities galore for experienced employees. This makes the hiring process time-consuming and difficult. A strong partnership with a reliable staffing company can help employers screen resumes, interview candidates and complete the hiring at the best time, boosting the hiring rate.
Building a strong, resilient and dedicated workforce is essential for business in the age of disruption. Given the crucial role HR departments play for companies, putting the pressure of hiring on them can backfire. Working with a staffing agency, on the other hand, can solve many problems. It takes care of the hiring process, frees up HR department and offers more time for productive work.
Employers today are constantly looking to find new ways to improve ROI; hiring flexibility offered by staffing agencies supports the objective. Instead of permanent hiring, which is expensive, companies are now inclined towards contract/temporary hiring. If the company is driven by time-based projects, contract staffing is a boon.
Globally, employers are preferring employees with skills over certification/degrees. Startups thriving on new business ideas want people with versatile skills, and the traditional job description doesn’t work. This has resulted in unique hiring needs, which can be achieved with a staffing firm.
[Case Study: How Calibehr Helped a Leading Indian Conglomerate with Unique Recruitment Needs]
Employers have a multitude of legal obligations when they hire an employee: complying with state and central labour laws, providing insurance coverage, minimum wages, offering leaves, taxes etc. A staffing agency can take care of legal obligations and reduce the burden on the company.
Hiring the best talent in the market needs a multi-dimensional approach. Experienced professionals plus the integration of technology give a much-needed boost to the staffing process and help companies build their workforce of the future.
Any business discussion today is incomplete without the topic of technology, especially Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Source: Economic Times
Common Myths about Staffing Agencies
we talk about staffing agencies, there are some common myths that prevent business owners from outsourcing their hiring responsibilities. One of the most prominent ones is that working with a staffing agency is expensive. It is not if the employer takes a holistic view of the matter. Let’s take a closer look.
Poor hiring quality is another misconception prevalent among the business. A good staffing company takes great care while screening and hiring candidates for a company and makes sure only the best walk through the door. Difference between Permanent Staffing and Contract Staffing Agency
Both types of staffing agencies fill job vacancies for business organizations. However, they differ in the type of employment offered to candidates.
How to Choose a Staffing Agency?
A business organization should discuss and forecast the talent requirement quarterly or yearly. Based on the set objectives, put your heads together if you need a staffing agency or an in-house hiring process would suffice. The HR manager should document the same for official records and discuss the same with all stakeholders.
Asking colleagues, putting a message in professional networking groups, and online search are the top methods for finding a staffing agency.
A staffing agency needs to know the hiring objectives of the company in order to find the most suitable talent. Beyond the usual job description and skills, explain in detail about the company culture and the kind of employee the company wants. Clarity helps staffing experts deliver a professional who can keep up with the vision of the company and offer great value.
Legal agreements should clearly define if the employee is part of the company or the staffing agency. Labour laws and taxes, for example, vary for employees at different levels. Provisions should be kept in the agreements that specify the responsibilities of both parties.
This is not a one-and-done process. Keep the doors open for the staffing agency to clear any doubts and update themselves whenever required. Provide feedback on the staffing service, quality of candidates hired and overall performance.
According to a latest report from ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey, the hiring sentiment among Indian businesses is one of the highest in the world for the next three months and 37% of employers are planning to increase the employee strength. Business managers and HR professionals are therefore the right people who can answer if your business needs a staffing agency or not.
Conclusion
Working with a staffing agency can accelerate the hiring process, elevate the candidate quality and make it more cost-effective and efficient. Business owners should define the staffing goals and make the decision whether or not to partner with a staffing company.
Introduction
Partnering with a staffing agency isn’t necessary for every company. However, business owners can be assured of benefits such as an efficient hiring process and a faster hire rate. If you are considering tying up with a staffing agency, this blog provides you with everything you need to know.
What is a Staffing Agency?
Expert staffing firms work with companies to understand the talent needs. The large database of workers enable the staffing agency to find most suitable candidates for different industries. They also help employers to fill different types of requirements with permanent staffing and contract staffing . Permanent staffing involves hiring permanent employees for a business, whereas contract staffing includes hires with a specified start and end date.
A staffing agency uses different methods to find candidates. Traditionally, staffing experts tap into their large network of recruitment partners and associates or visit educational institutes to hire quality candidates based on qualifications, skill sets, and experience required. Lately, staffing companies have embraced platforms such as LinkedIn, Indeed and Naukri if the job requirement is unique or complex. The keyword filtering options based on location, skill and experience make the process effective.
There’s a difference between staffing and recruitment too; people often confuse the two. Staffing includes the complete hire to retire or joining to termination process; recruitment is a part of this process related to the initial steps in hiring.
The staffing agency screens applications, conducts and manages different rounds of interviews, determines salaries and carries out background verification if needed.[Check our blog on: Is Background Verification Mandatory in India?]
If everything falls in place and the business manager of the company is satisfied, the candidate is hired.
How do Recruitment and Staffing Agencies Work in 2024?
Working with a staffing solutions agency involves the following process:
What Benefits a Staffing Agency Offers?
“Clients approach us for several reasons. However, the one reason that we often hear is that HR managers do not have time to review candidates and interview them – along with running their operations,” said our Staffing and Recruitment experts at Calibehr.
Staffing Solutions: Impact of Technology on the Staffing Industry
A global survey conducted by Censuswide on behalf of Indeed found that HR professionals are keen to use AI and technology for hiring process.
Leading staffing agencies are already leveraging technology to transform the staffing process. The advanced algorithms are powerful enough to match the keywords in the job description with the potential candidate’s resume and scan through countless applications in a quick time.
Predictive analytics enable staffing experts to forecast how the job market will behave in the future plus what candidate skills will be in demand, say a year from now. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is another advanced tool that takes over repetitive staffing tasks and frees up people to focus on other tasks.
Large Language Models (LLM) are perhaps the most exciting concept that will change forever the staffing industry. Simply put, it understands the hiring intent of the employee and the context, and sorts vast amounts of data to find the most suitable candidate for a company. [Read more about staffing technology: The Synergy of Technology and Staffing: Shaping the Workforce Trends of Today and Tomorrow ]
Why turn to a staffing agency and pay extra for hiring? Why not ask the in-house team? These are some common questions that arise around the discussion table. However, companies fail to realize that an open position costs a business organization much more than hiring an agency. Plus, a fast hiring rate helps companies save a lot of time and money.
For example, let’s assume a healthcare centre receiving hundreds of patients every day have a vacant position for an insurance manager. More the days it takes to hire, the more will be the number of dissatisfied patients, unable to get their insurance queries solved, ultimately impacting the brand image. This is where a staffing agency plays a critical role of hiring fast and helps a medical facility like a hospital or clinic.
Contract staffing agencies provide temporary employees to a company who work on a project for a specified duration. In other words, short-term employees. Once the contract expires, the employee leaves. The best examples are restaurants and malls, where more people are needed during holidays or the festive season. Permanent staffing agencies, on the other hand, are focused on hiring employees for a company who will work permanently and drive the company forward.
Business leaders or hiring managers should discuss this within the team. Experienced professionals generally will have heard about leading and reliable agencies. To be more specific, for example, if you want a staffing agency in Mumbai, word-of-mouth through partners and associates can help to find well-known and trusted firms. A thorough research via web and social platforms can help too.
“Trusted and experienced staffing and recruitment agencies should be preferred by employers. This is important for one single reason: companies can focus on their core tasks and be at peace while the specialized and reliable staffing experts continue to supply the best talent,” explained experts at Calibehr.
Does Your Business Need a Staffing Agency in 2024?
For example, if the operations team is in dire need of hiring a team of executives to complete a project, a staffing agency is the best bet. Their vast experience and talent pool can fill vacancies immediately.
If the company is growing at an exponential rate and positions need to be filled PAN-India, staffing agencies with a country-wide network of partners and associates can be a game-changer. In addition, agencies can help employers save time and cost.
However, many businesses weigh their requirements and opt for partial staffing services. For example, screening incoming applicants can be a daunting and tedious task for managers. Hence, they outsource this particular process. Otherwise, companies could conduct a final interview round on their own to gauge if the candidate is a cultural fit for the organization. A mix of in-house hiring and staffing services is a good option too.
Staffing services provide great flexibility to companies, which is the need of the hour in the dynamic business landscape of today.
Calibehr is one of the leading staffing agencies with 15+ years of experience. The staffing and recruitment experts – along with the PAN-India network of partners and associates – have helped leading Indian companies to achieve hiring goals. Contact us for more details.