Are you an employer of labor, or a potential employer in a few years’ time? These are some things you need to know about professional employment agencies.
To the employee, finding a good-paying job is a problem. And if they do find one, the demands might be very exorbitant. However, to the employer, finding and keeping employees is one of the most important problems. Despite the fact that the labor market in most countries including the United States is at an all-time low, employees have become very selective on the job opportunities they accept or not.
There was a historically tight labor market that was accelerated by the pandemic. Employers now agree that finding and keeping staff has become increasingly more difficult and this not getting any better.
Why is employee availability so low?
LinkedIn plays a pivotal role in the recruitment of labor. A LinkedIn Survey of 2022 adults in the US in 2021 showed that since the onset of the pandemic, more than half of the participants (59%) have experienced a form of career awakening referred to as the Great Reshuffle. About 33% of employees are looking for an entirely new role, and 34% pursuing a side hustle or passion project in the rise of the Passion Economy.
These drastic change in job-seeking behaviors of employees was partly facilitated by fear created by COVID-19 and the emergence of a new Delta variant. Job-seekers have had to delay their job search due to these factors, further making finding employees even more difficult for employers.
One last reason in support of an increasing need for professional employment recruitment revolves around the prospects’ desire to find a great-paying career opportunity that offers them a healthy work-life balance as well. The rate of recovery from the employment recession is significantly faster than that of previous recessions, where there are more jobs available than people who are looking for work. Thus, increasing employees’ options or choices.
A combination of these factors above has made it extremely important to employ the services of a professional employment agency in reaching out to your target candidates if you are a hiring company.
What is a Professional Employment Agency?
You may call this Professional Employment Agency 101, but what is it about?
A professional employment agency or staffing agency is a company that finds qualified personnel for companies in need of workers. These companies can hire associates as agency clients, from professional employment agencies, either on a temporary, part-time, or full-time basis based on the positions the company needs to fill.
Staffing agencies offer services that assist businesses in reducing time and price requirements in recruiting skilled personnel despite lengthy hiring processes. Businesses often use staffing firms to fill temporary positions, broaden their candidate pool, or speed up the hiring process for the human resources department.
Procedurally, professional employment agencies/staffing firms or agencies help identify appropriate individuals for roles specified based on the organization’s needs determined by human resource managers. Staffing agencies then design job descriptions and advertisement that strategically targets the values and skills that the company needs.
Recruitment agency staff review resumes of applicants, schedule an interview, and finally, provide a list of qualified candidates for the position(s) for the employing company to decide from. Thus, professional employment agencies not only make the search for adequate capable staff for the company but also makes the entire a lot easier.
Benefits of Using a Professional Employment Agency for Recruitment
If you are a hiring company, here are five benefits you get from utilizing a staffing firm:
1. Facilitates collaboration with expert recruiters who understand your employment needs
Even without the services of a professional employment agency, you might need some expert opinion and knowledge about the latest hiring regulations, employee protection rights, applicable standards, and legalities, as well as changes to workplace acts and regulations. Your company will need to carefully navigate through all these requirements until they find capable staff.
Also, the needs of your candidates can frequently be quite too precise and can make the hiring process especially more challenging. For instance, if you are employing a manager, you might need professional knowledge of the latest hiring regulations for such positions.
Professional employment agencies stand as the all-in-one solution to these challenges, as they are expert recruiters. Their forte is in finding the best candidates, analyzing salary ranges, employee career expectations, current hiring challenges, and skill shortages; and they will regularly inform the hiring team of their progress. Expert recruiters can also offer advice on alternate options where necessary.
2. Achieve a wider reach
A professional recruiting company has access to the best candidates who are currently seeking employment as well as those already employed, as they may have worked with several companies and championed several recruitment exercises.
Recruitment agencies are oftentimes effective and job seekers are more likely to sign up with them. Additionally, most professional staffing agencies will list job openings on multiple job boards since they know the advantages of such marketing campaigns.
Finding qualified people for the roles can occasionally be very difficult because candidates who do not identify as “actively seeking a job” are more like to have likely to employ the services of a reputable or specialized recruitment consultant and commit to job applications on their behalf. Thus, offering the recruitment agency, and by extension the hiring company, access to a “talent pool” that might otherwise be unreachable.
Each consultant at a recruitment agency can use their many networks to link you and/or your company to suitable applicants.
3. If offers a time-saving recruitment exercise
If your company decides to use a recruitment agency, the time and internal resources required for recruitment will be considerably reduced. This can result in a speedier turnaround in filling vacancies, and a rise in organizational efficiency.
Instead of spending time searching through applications and CVs, a recruitment agency can handle these for you while you carefully commit your time to analyzing those who are deemed deserving of consideration.
The process of recruitment does not end with reviewing CVs, a professional recruitment agency will also schedule interviews, and take care of all administrative matters related to the recruitment process including reaching out to successful applicants and those whose applications were rejected. They confirm applicants’ information, credentials, and references. All you simply have to do is show up or inquire about the updates so far.
4. Using a professional employment agency is cost-efficient
Creating advertisements for a single one-off position/role in your company can be very costly when you are working with an advertising agency. Recruitment agencies, by default, will have slots on all leading job boards, so you can be sure that your company’s job advertisement is taken care of, and at no extra advertisement costs.
The cost of reviewing resumes and holding preliminary interviews adds up when done internally, but you use recruitment agencies for the recruitment, not only is the cost reduced but the recruiter agency can also assist in negotiating the best salary for the roles after providing you with guidance and advice on what is fair pay. This also increases your chances of hiring the best candidate for the job.
5. Boost employee retention rates and company growth
New hires are costly and risky because it is almost impossible to truly access employee performance, productivity, and organization loyalty merely by analyzing the CVs. However, professional employment agencies can access these parameters through data collection and analysis, in order to lower employee turnover, save time and money, and enhance their corporate culture and brand reputation.
Employers can concentrate on their primary business operations and expansion while using professional staffing and recruitment services to handle those tasks. Reputable recruitment agencies may also offer their clients top-notch talent, which helps companies and businesses achieve growth and their corporate objectives.
Wrapping it up
If you are struggling to fill job positions at your company, you are definitely not alone. With the new normal described as the Great Reshuffle and shortage of employees, you might need the services of professional employment agencies.
Alongside that function of providing employees, staffing/recruitment firms provide a range of other beneficial services related to the recruitment process as you have seen in this post. These include knowledge, time and cost savings, access to talent, and providing your company competitive advantages in the employment market.
