Billie Harvey
9 Recruitment Best Practices for Staffing Agencies
Recruitment Best Practices For Staffing Agencies

As a staffing agency, you need to have a strong recruitment process in place to differentiate yourself in the competitive staffing market and win contracts.

So, how can you make sure that your process is effective and efficient, especially as recruiting continues to be more remote-based?

According to a survey, 51% of recruiters have recently interviewed candidates remotely, with 42% making a job offer remotely. And even though there are now more candidates available on the job market, companies still have problems finding people with the right skills. With hiring moving remotely and skills shortages approaching, staffing agencies need to rethink the way they hire. 

The good news for staffing agencies is, incorporating digital tools like video interviews, pre-employment assessment, and using automation, changes can be made to meet the ever-evolving environment. 

We’re sharing 9 best practices staging agencies can use for recruitment—let’s get hiring!

What’s in?

1. Focus on clients’ specific needs

The first step to recruiting the right people is knowing exactly the type of employee your client needs. 

Ask your client:

  • What is the role about?
  • What are your requirements?
  • What is your budget?

Asking some simple questions at the start of the recruitment process can shine a light on what your client is looking for. You can then use this information to determine the best recruitment strategy for each role.

It’s important to remember that some clients will have different needs for different roles, which you can help them understand. For example, some roles will require recruiting candidates that have a certain level of specific skills and experience, while others will focus on broad abilities like conversational skills.

To prepare your staffing agency for this, you should create a flexible recruiting process that lets you build in specific client needs, like skill tests, and add in extras like background checks if you need to.

Client Experience in Staffing

Focusing on what your clients need and finding a tailored solution for them helps you improve your client experience

2. Set a clear timeline

You don’t have to have a day-to-day plan for each stage of the hiring process.

But what you do need to do is be realistic and set a clear timeline and deadline. This is important not only to keep your staffing agency operations organized but also for your clients. Adding a timeline into your process means your client will have a date in mind for when you’ll have a candidate in place, which will give them confidence in your process.

And if there are any delays in that process, make sure to communicate them to your client immediately.

The easiest way to establish a timeline with your client is to figure out when they need the job’s start date to be. Once you have a start date, you can build a recruitment process backward from that day. For example, if a client needs a role filled in 8 weeks, you can use that data to map out a timeline like:

  • Sourcing and pre-employment tests to happen in 3 weeks 
  • First round of interviews in 4 weeks
  • Second round of interviews in 5 weeks 
  • Onboarding and training in 6 weeks

Mapping a timeline out will make it easier for your agency to manage your workload and your client’s expectations. 

Difference Between Staffing and Recruitment - OLX People

3. Design a virtual recruitment process

As we’ve already highlighted, you won’t always be able to meet the candidates in person. 

So, you also need to make sure your recruitment process works in a remote setting. Even if you haven’t used the technology before, now is the time to start exploring remote recruitment tools like video interviewing and digital skills tests to streamline hiring over the internet.

For example, with one-way video interviews, candidates can use the tech to record answers to written or video-based questions in the initial application process, which reduced the need for time-consuming phone screens.

In short, digitizing your recruitment process will help you learn a lot about what a candidate is like before you ever invite them to interview. What virtual interviews also do is broaden your talent pool. As you can attract and interview candidates virtually, you will open up your hiring options to candidates that live abroad.

This same tech can also be used for a bunch of different recruitment techniques, like hosting a virtual job fair to attract even more talent to fill open positions.

Don’t forget that the best part about adding new tech into your recruitment process is the flexibility it gives you. Depending on your client’s needs, you can mix and match tools like virtual interviews and job fairs to attract their ideal candidates.

.