The most common supplementary service that staffing agencies provide is advice on subjects like workforce management. Companies are increasingly offering the option of "helping you devise more efficient and effective strategies for screening, onboarding and deploying talent," Wahlquist says.
In fact, for some temp agencies that's the most rewarding part of their job. "Small businesses are the ones that I really enjoy working with because they depend on me not only for staffing and recruiting but they also, from time to time, want my advice on HR issues," Renick says. He also appreciates that smaller ventures usually make decisions faster than their larger corporate counterparts.
Dig Deeper: How to Hire Your First Employee
Finding the Right Temp Agency: When to Opt For a Headhunter
Not all hiring situations call for a temp agency, but it's not too challenging to decide whether to search for talent using your human resources team, a temp agency, or a headhunter.
Making your HR staff central to your talent hunt only works when you have sufficient resources to let them handle that on top of all their other responsibilities. Silman notes that "one HR person may be responsible for all the new hire paperwork, all the documentation, handling benefits, and a compensation." In a scenario like that, you'd want to call in a headhunter or a temp agency.
"If I was going to hire a CFO, like a C-level executive that wasn't readily available in my network, that kind of thing, I might imagine going to a headhunter," says Paolucci. Essentially headhunters, or recruiters, are good for meeting your need to speedily find a full-time staff member who is central to your business.
But, before using an executive search firm or other head-hunting service, keep in mind that the process can be costly. "A lot of time you're paying this big fee in advance so you're sort of stuck with the process and maybe sometimes you make compromises in your decision cause you've already paid for it," Paolucci says.
Dig Deeper: How to Hire an HR Director
Finding the Right Temp Agency: Working One-On-One
Temp agency experts generally agree that the staffing team you're working with needs to take a very hands-on approach to assessing your HR needs, which can be jarring for some entrepreneurs.
"There's a tendency with people to say, 'well, I just need this, or go find me that.' Well there's more to it," says Silman "It's very difficult for us to work with one hand tied behind our back if we don't understand the culture."
Gaining that heightened understanding can require an in-person meet-up, which allows the staffing professional to go into more detail. They will want answers to questions such as "what does the headcount look like? Who do you have doing what? Do you have any particular new products or services that are launching?" Wahlquist says.
Seeing the physical layout of your office can even help your temp agency understand "little things like where is a temp employee going to park and how you handle your work breaks and lunch periods," Wahlquist adds. That makes matching a contractors personality as well as their skills that much easier.
It's not only helpful to hold these meetings before a single temp has been placed but to stay in touch with your agency so they can know he the placements are going. For his larger clients, Renick will hand deliver paychecks as an excuse to stay current on any developments with either the client or the talent.
Dig Deeper: How to Fill IT Jobs in Hot Categories
Finding the Right Temp Agency: When to Drop Your Agency
Every once in a while, a temp worker won't pan out too well. Then the question arises: Where you should draw the line? Is it time to switch agencies? Or are a few botched placements are to be expected?
"We're not with these people 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and people can do some pretty crazy, silly things," Silman says. "If I was evaluating a staffing service, it would be less about that particular situation than how quickly they rise to the challenge and how quickly they are able to turn things around."
Paolucci believes that as long as Solvate takes responsibility for a poor placement and gives its client a refund, one bad placement would not ruin the relationship. The company also has protocols in place to preempt a problem.
"We make sure the work that's being done is delivered to the client in micro deliverables," Paolucci says. This "minimizes the kind of damage that can occur because it's not like somebody's going off to work on their own for 40 hrs and then coming back with a project that the client says hey that's not what I wanted."
Dig Deeper: Vendor Management for Small Retailers
