Hiring? Best Practices to Make the Most of Partnering with a Staffing Firm

Is your organization growing? Do you have special projects that have been budgeted for but don’t know where the resources are coming from? Have you experienced a leave of absence or a sudden vacancy? Does your organization have the appropriate amount of recruiting professionals to assist with recruiting niche skill sets that are not abundant in the market?  

These are a few real-life scenarios that have my phone ringing daily. If you are experiencing any of these situations, my team and I can help. Our goal is to act as an extension of your organization and not simply complete a transaction. 

In order to achieve a true partnership and have a staffing firm provide value, here are a few best practices I feel a client should experience when partnering with the right staffing firm.

1. The firm should invest TIME in you and your company.

I often get calls from organizations that ask can you help me fill a “(insert role)” and then immediately begin to go into the job description.  My first question is, “When can we meet?”  A meeting with a client representative is mission critical when it comes to completing a successful search, regardless of whether it is temporary or direct hire in nature.  The firm should be absorbing the atmosphere while on-site, asking questions based on observations of the office setting. For example, a client may have a ping pong table or a construction cone on a desk. What does this mean to a prospective employee? Understanding the company, its culture and its overall mission are top requirements many prospective candidates have today; as a staffing partner, I need to be able to articulate this effectively. Meetings should be ongoing throughout the relationship, not simply when needs are imminent. A reliable business partner is committed to truly understanding your organization at all times, so that when something suddenly pops up and staffing becomes the most important thing on your desk, you have a team ready and equipped to help you. 

2. The firm should have a standardized (but customizable) requirements document.

All great staffing professionals have a fully inclusive standard document to gather client requirements. This will ensure that the staffing firm truly understands your need and will have a guide to avoid missing important details. If you’re working with a staffing professional who asks detailed and thorough questions that go beyond the job description, you are working with a professional.

3. The firm should have a process. 

Many staffing professionals would not know how to explain the process, as they are often hired, trained for a week, put on the phones and expected to set meetings or interviews. To ensure a successful relationship, it is crucial that your staffing partners understand the WHY behind WHAT they are doing – not just mindlessly approaching the task sans strategy. When evaluating the process, there are a few things to consider: 

Research and Discovery – what has the individual done to understand what your company does, current industry trends that impact the organization, current trends that are impacting the specific skill set vertical you are looking to hire, employer brand in the market, market data or statistics to present and a comprehensive list of detailed questions to help educate themselves about your company so they can represent you as if they were an employee. 

1. Who will be working on this role? As a client, you should understand if there is a specific individual supporting the need or if there is a team of recruiting professionals working behind the scenes.  What systems or processes does the firm have in place to make sure a consistent message is being presented across all collective recruiting efforts?  Where do you stand as a client in terms of priority?
2. Strategy – Does the staffing firm have a recruitment strategy? Do they set expectations for the presentation of candidates and do they communicate?  This is a very critical component of the relationship.  It helps you understand WHAT is being done on your behalf and WHEN you’re going to hear back on the agreed upon deliverables.
3. Proactive follow up – Post placement or engagement, the relationship and communication should continue.  There should be a consistent follow up from the staffing firm with both the client and the prospect that fulfilled the role to assure the appropriate match was made for the long term and the engagement was successful.  
4. Feedback – Any and all firms should proactively be looking to improve or tailor their service to their customers.  There should be an independent person reaching out asking, “How are we doing?”and “Is there anything that you would have changed or wish the industry would implement to make your experience better?”. This process should be personalized not automated. 

These are the bare minimum expectations that you should have from your staffing provider. After reviewing my recommended best practices, ask yourself the following questions: Am I working with the right staffing professional? Can I trust them? Are we working towards the same goals? What do they do for me that is extraordinary?

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