No Better Time to Work with a Staffing Agency

For Employers and Jobseekers No Better Time to Work with a Staffing Agency
Staffing firms provide skilled workers for one side, jobs for the other

Employers and jobseekers often look at business from different directions. The employer runs a business in which he’s trying to produce a product or service at the lowest possible cost. The jobseeker provides skills that can produce products and services, but seeks the highest possible pay.

Yet there is one thing that both sides can agree on in the current economy: this is the ideal time to be working with an employee staffing firm. With reports that the Great Recession is finally nearing a bottom, many employers are trying to position themselves to capitalize on whatever sort of business recovery might occur. Meanwhile jobseekers, some of whom have been unemployed for many months, want to avoid missing an upswing in hiring that should accompany an expansion.

Employee staffing firms are positioned between the two groups and capable of helping both achieve their goals. Companies contract with staffing firms to provide qualified labor. Job hunters turn to employment agencies to connect with firms that can use their unique skills.

The bottom of business cycles is a difficult payroll management time for employers. Will a recovery occur or will the economy stay flat for the foreseeable future? How strong will it be? Can they expect an increase in demand for their goods or services and if so, how much should they ramp up production and manpower?

The risk of being overly optimistic is prematurely hiring permanent staff. Payroll expense rises, but the expected new business doesn’t materialize. Management then has to cut costs, possibly by laying off recent hires, a move that could cost them money by raising to the company’s unemployment insurance bill down the road.

At the same time, employers who delay adding to their workforce could find themselves shorthanded if a surge in new business happens. Unable to meet that demand, they watch the business go elsewhere and lose an opportunity to grow revenues after a period of declining sales.

By working with an employee staffing firm, employers can add to their workforce without adding to their permanent payroll. As business grows, they make adjustments by turning to the staffing firm for qualified temporary employees. Costs that accompany new hires, such as health care and workers compensation insurance, are carried by the employee staffing company and not the employer. Since the contracts with the employment firm are often short-term, when the surge in business levels off, employers can make appropriate staffing adjustments.

Meanwhile, with the nation’s unemployment rate at its highest level in decades, the competition for jobs is intense. Jobseekers need to be connected to staffing firms to be matched to new openings. Often employers will contact a staffing agency to fill several openings, rather than run advertisements and conduct interviews. Jobseekers who haven’t established a relationship with an agency will never hear of those openings.

Many people who are unemployed ignore staffing firms, because they assume temporary help agencies don’t work with people in their profession. But the days when "temping" meant jobs for secretaries and stenographers are long gone. Today, professionals in many fields who consider themselves "free agents" use staffing firms as partners in their career strategies. They take short-term assignments, gain valuable experience from the companies they work for, then move on to jobs with different responsibilities, greater pay or in different locations.

The best staffing firms have personnel with experience in manufacturing, light industrial, medical devices, financial services and other fields, who conduct thorough interviews with prospects and understand their skills and experience. That’s a benefit to employers who are assured of being assigned an individual who is capable of doing the work they need. It’s also important to jobseekers, who are more likely to be matched with the job that best suits their abilities. That leads to a positive employment experience for both sides.