Americans are optimistic about the job market. A May 2019 poll found that 71 percent of respondents believed it was a good time to go looking for a job; that’s the highest confidence level since 2000. As of springtime, the unemployment rate was also 3.6 percent, the lowest rate in 50 years. That means that many job searchers have more options than ever.
That’s good for workers, but it can complicate things a bit from the employer’s perspective. There are a few different strategies for finding employees, and one of those is hiring a staffing agency. Here are some situations where it makes sense for your business to use a staffing agency.
You’re hiring for a specialized field
Many job markets are tighter than others. There are some cases where the demand is high but the supply is not as good, for instance.
Fields like engineering, finance, and information technology are struggling with a “skills gap”. While there are openings, not enough people are applying for those openings. And the ones who are applying may not quite have the right mix of qualifications to really succeed.
That’s where specialized staffing agencies can make a big difference in how your business fills open positions. A specialized staffing agency is not the same as a general staffing agency. Specialized staffing agencies work only in a specific type of industry.
For example, let’s say your business is looking to hire a mechanical engineer. Engineering staffing agencies can cut through the fog of applications and connect you with the best candidates on the market.
While demand is high, that doesn’t mean you can afford to lower your standards. Specialized staffing agencies get that: they know the business well, and they also know how to recruit candidates the right way. They’ll vet people before introducing them to the decision-makers at your company.
You won’t have to worry nearly as much about falling for a candidate and then discovering some critical gap in their resume. If a specialized staffing agency brings someone to you, then there’s a very good chance they have the resume you need. At that point, it’s a matter of finding the person who best fits into your company.
You’re spending too much time finding candidates
Hiring for an open position almost always takes longer than you think it will. While a departing employee who gives you the standard two weeks notice isn’t doing anything wrong, it often takes much longer than that to find a qualified pool of applicants, start the interview process, name finalists, do a second or even third round of interviews, and then make a job offer.
And if the job offer is not accepted, you have to backtrack one or two steps at best. At worst, you have to start the whole process over.
The vast majority of businesses lose productivity whenever a job opening pops up. That’s not just because there’s one less worker to perform the same amount of work. It’s also because of how other employees get sucked into the work of finding a replacement. A staffing agency removes some of that burden.
You’ll still get plenty of input into the process, of course. But you won’t have to spend quite so much time stressing about everything. You can put more of your attention into the employees you already have rather than ignoring them in favor of potential hires.
Think of working with a staffing agency as like working with a matchmaker. Sure, you could spend a lot of free time browsing through profiles on your own, or you could work with someone who knows what you’re looking for.
Luckily, good staffing agencies are easier to find than good matchmakers. They’ll give you what you’re looking for in an employee without all the extra stuff that stresses you out.