Authored by Phil Cohen
With the help of LinkedIn, it is very easy to find potential clients that might be interested in your staffing business. But the work shouldn’t stop there. It is important to make sure that your business is able to beat out the competition with professionalism and thorough tactics for recruiting. It is also important to understand each client’s needs individually. No two companies are the same, nor should your plan of actions be. The question you need to be asking yourself is, “What are businesses looking for from my agency?”
Transparency is Key for Staffing Clients
Clients will need to pay continual fees for your recruiting work, but they will want to know exactly where this money is going. Make clear to the clients and management what your process is, and show them how they would not be able to do this themselves.
Explain exactly where and how you are getting potential employees for interviews. If you simply respond with something like, “I found them online” your clients will most likely be upset. Anyone can do an online search. Businesses hire recruiters not only for the convenience of having someone do the interviewing and weeding through, but for the experience factor.
Clients hire staffing companies in the hopes that they will find the absolute best fits for the positions they need. This means a staffing firm with an effective recruiting algorithm.
Listen, Listen, Listen
Potential clients want to feel like you know their business like the back of your hand. A good way to show that you are dedicated to a business is to learn every aspect of their company, not just their hiring needs. Learn the company culture, demands, and anything that may be important for a potential employee to know about.
Also be sure to ask about growth opportunities within the company. If it is a business that allows a person to move between different departments, or offers new positions often, be sure to interview candidates that may be a good fit for that. Hiring someone that does manual labor but also is good with computers might be just what a business needs.
Making a special trip out to a unique job site will show clients that you are willing to deep dive into what their company does. This will also show that you care greatly about getting them the perfect candidates for their needed slots.
Understand All Staffing Industries
Unless are specifically a special type of staffing company, such as nurse staffing, make sure that your company understands the needs of all industries. Clients will easily be turned off if they see all of your clients are administrative. This will lead them to believe that you have no knowledge on the types of employees are needed for an industry such as construction.
Be sure to have your marketing team on top of this. Letting it be known that you can handle any type of industry will give potential clients the security they need to know that you will be the right company for the job.
Ensure Your Own Employees are Experienced
Staffing agencies tend to have a lot of turnover in general, as many new HR graduates are hired on and trained accordingly. If your particular staffing agency is constantly hiring new clients, there might be reason to believe the structure in your own company is off. A client may see this as a red flag for how you do your own hiring and think this is the way you will treat their business as well.
Having recruiters on your team that are dedicated to their work as well as their own company are the ones you want new potential clients talking to. A recruiter who treats every business the same will be a turn off to clients.
Distinguish the Needs of the Client
Make sure you understand what your clients need. It is important to find out exactly what they mean when they say “temporary”. A lot of companies may hire someone for 3 months to cover someone who is on maternity leave. If the person on maternity leaves and decides not to come back and the person you hired is moving out of state at the end of their time, it will put some stress on the client. It is best to hire someone who is willing to take the temporary position with a slight hope in being hired on permanently, rather than hiring someone who is disinterested in a permanent position.
If both parties are strictly interested in a short term employment contract, then there is no need to worry about either getting the short end of the stick. Do not try and force a candidate into a temporary position if there is absolutely no hope of them getting a permanent position, if that is what they are hoping for. This puts your staffing company in a bad light. It also might encourage some negative reviews from candidates on websites like Glassdoor.
Hitting Staffing Goals This Year
If your staffing company is interested in hitting a certain number of clients this year, be sure you are following the right steps to get there. It takes a great deal of work to nurture a client enough to make them sign a contract with you and give them all the responsibility of their hiring needs. Be prepared to take criticism! Take any reviews of your business on both ends to help build your company up into a better version of itself.
Is your staffing company considering expanding or making some changes for the better? You might need some extra working capital to get there. We can get your business the advanced payments it needs to grow. Many factoring companies also offer payroll and back office support for some added help.