Is It Worth It To Use A Staffing Agency?

Hiring employees can be an effort in futility, especially in highly competitive industries such as tech, marketing, and so on. This challenge is exponentially more difficult for smaller companies that may not have the human or financial resources to hire effectively.

The perfect solution here is hiring a staffing agency as it can not only eliminate most of the hassle, but it’s typically a lot cheaper than hiring using your own, possibly understaffed HR department. 

So if you’re wondering is it worth it to use a staffing agency, the answer is a resounding yes. 

Here are some of the key advantages of outsourcing your staffing efforts to a specialized agency. 

1. Reduce Hiring Time

Considering we’re currently going through a major labor shortage, this problem is ever present, especially if you’re a small organization. Still, this isn’t to say that this is anything new. It always took a long time to sift through a sea of unqualified candidates, or waste time talking to candidates that you’ll end up not hiring. 

So when weighing the question of whether is it worth it to use a staffing agency, also ask yourself how much time you have to spare.

By working with professional recruiters, you can save an extraordinary amount of time tracking down qualified candidates. 

How quick, you may ask?

Instead of weeks or months needed to hire an employee, with a staffing agency, you can complete the entire hiring process in days. 

Furthermore, the agency will check references, conduct a detailed screening process, shortlist candidates, and complete full background checks on your behalf. So in a sense, you won’t only receive a list of qualified candidates a lot faster, but you’ll also avoid the hassle of interviewing candidates who aren’t a good fit for the role.

2. Reduce business liability

When handling critical projects, many organizations turn to hire temporary workers. This process is also simplified when hiring tempts through an agency, but it also works like a charm in reducing your business liability.

How?

Simple - the agency will cover things such as general liability insurance, workers’ comp, payroll taxes, and all the other employment costs. 

This is actually a great way to test out employees before making a full-term offer. You can observe their work performance, habits, skill sets, and their chemistry with your established employees - all without any additional hiring risks as you can let go of these employees if they’re not up to scratch. 

3. Extend your talent pool

Staffing agencies, in some cases, have spent decades building an extensive database of top talent. This is invaluable as you can consistently rely on an agency to deliver quality candidates, whenever you need them. 

Compare this to hiring internally and posting a position on countless job boards - you’re basically shooting in the dark and praying that a qualified candidate shows up. It’s also worth mentioning that this may take you months, which can be detrimental to the productivity of your business. 

4. Save money

If you’ve been doing your job for years, you are most likely familiar with the upfront costs necessary to market open positions to attract talent. With a staffing agency, you don’t need to worry about that as leveraging their services will typically cost less than marketing a position on your own. 

In addition, if you only need someone to cover a temporary position, you’ll also save a drastic amount of money on overhead as you won’t have to worry about benefits, health care, sick days, or 401ks. 

5. More flexibility

Many businesses go through economic hurdles or deal with slow periods. With a staffing agency you can overcome these challenges by hiring contractors in order to complete assignments, and simply terminating the contract when you no longer need them - without worrying about liability or losing money on severance.

This is a win-win scenario. Your company benefits from lower long-term employee costs, and the contractor receives ample compensation for their work. 

6. Gain insider knowledge

When thinking over is it worth it to use a staffing agency, the last thing on your mind is probably market knowledge. But this is also something you can benefit from by working with a pro recruiting firm.

You’ll learn information about salary ranges for different positions and market history, but more importantly, you’ll learn first-hand about the best passive candidates. These elusive candidates are already employed and are not looking for a job, but they’d be open to changing positions if a good offer came along. 

Using all that knowledge, you can adjust the salary and the benefits you’re offering, to increase the chances of making a hire with more ease. 

Are There Any Downsides Of Hiring Through A Staffing Agency

Even though we’re a staffing agency, for the sake of objectivity, we also need to mention the potential downsides of outsourcing your staffing. Here are some problems that you may potentially encounter:

• Cultural issues when hiring temporary workers

This one isn’t inherently the fault of a staffing agency, but it’s still worth mentioning. By hiring a temporary staff member, they may not bond with your long-term talent. 

This is natural, as the cultural differences between tempts and full-time employees are often too hard to overcome, and will result in less interpersonal interactions - which can affect the morale of the whole team. 

• Less control

While this isn’t always a negative, after all, you’re considering an agency because you do want to step back, and you will give up a noticeable amount of control This isn’t much of a problem if you’re working with the right firm, yet, some staffing agencies may not be familiar with your company culture, and may not present you in the best light possible.

Also, by outsourcing, you job your HR team of becoming more effective at hiring - which may be detrimental if you ever choose to hire on your own again. 

Overcome Those Staffing Challenges Now

While hiring through a staffing agency may not work for you, the benefits of doing so outweigh the small number of drawbacks.

In fact, some of the downsides aren’t even problematic if you find the right staffing agency.

For instance, here at Griffin Global, we take great care of your needs and your company culture and will do everything necessary to accurately represent your brand. Think of us as your partner and not just a third-party contractor, because ultimately, your success is also a success as a recruitment agency. 

So if you need a partner who will treat your brand as their own, fill out our contact form or call (855) 747-4334 to get started.