What are the consequences of choosing an inefficient temporary staffing firm?
Partnering with a top-notch temporary staffing firm can be a lifesaver during times of rapid expansion or increased customer demand. However, choosing to work with an inefficient one can cause a whole host of problems. Keep reading to find out from other business professionals why it is vital to do your homework before hiring a temporary staffing firm.
Michael Moran
Michael Moran, Owner of Green Lion Search Group. He began his career working for one of the largest professional search firms in the world and subsequently became a top ten individual producer in the finance division of a $500mm national firm.
Inefficiency Leads to Bigger Issues
More companies are turning to temporary staffing agencies right now to fill gaps in their team until they can hire more full-time staff. I think there’s a misconception that hiring managers don’t need to be as selective with temporary staffing agencies as they would be in choosing full-time employees. Even though it’s a short-term solution, however, these individuals still need to be capable of producing quality work, so it’s to your benefit to choose a well-run firm.
The main issue with an inefficient staffing firm is that they won’t be able to respond as quickly to your needs as a business. Most people turn to temporary staff because they have work that urgently needs to be done, and an inefficient agency won’t be able to match that level of urgency. They won’t be as responsive to changes or concerns that come up as you’re working together. As a result, their inefficiency affects your company’s ability to operate efficiently.
Inefficiency in any business leads to poor use of work time, and that very often means work isn’t done to the company’s highest standard, and the details are neglected in the rush to meet deadlines. [Inefficiency] typically isn’t the only issue the company has and is often a symptom of deeper problems with their processes, organization, or internal communication. In the context of a staffing agency, it can mean the staff they send you isn’t the best fit for your business needs, even if you get the correct number of workers when you need them.
The bottom line is that hiring managers and business owners should apply the same standards when choosing a hiring agency that they would look for when recruiting full-time staff, even if it’s seen as a quick fix.
The wrong temp agency can have an impact on your bottom line in several ways:
Prolonged Time to Hire
A temp agency can be a godsend when you want to hire fast. But, choosing one that doesn’t understand your business needs can result in an unnecessarily long time to hire and subsequently increase the cost to hire, increased overtime costs, and burnout among employees.
Legal Problems
Even though temporary staffing agencies are responsible for paying an employee’s salary, the client company can still be held liable, especially if they supervise the worker directly. [Salary disputes] is just one of the legal issues that a staffing agency must address. Non-compliance on the side of the staffing agency can take a financial toll on your company.
Financial Losses and Brand Reputation
One of the most important responsibilities of a staffing agency is to perform background checks on employees on behalf of the client, but not all agencies bother to screen workers. This deficiency can increase the risk of hiring employees with questionable moral character, which can not only generate massive losses but also put your brand reputation on the line.
Paul French
Tal Shelef
Lack of Authority Over the Hiring Process
One of the things we realized is that when we hand over the hiring process, the authority is also handed over. We don’t have control over who gets [hired]. You can relay what kind of employees you need, but in our experience, constant miscommunications resulted in multiple issues.
Investing in the Wrong Employees
When you let someone else do the task of recruiting and staffing for your company, there’s always a huge possibility of hiring the wrong people for the job, especially that they will only assess things in an objective manner and not based on a practical or actual set-up.
When your hiring team isn’t familiar with what the job is, how it’s done, and the workflow set-up, chances are, they will end up matching you with candidates who aren’t apt for the job, which will then result in a waste of both time and money. Since you won’t notice inefficiency until things in the office start to mess up, you will be forced to pull them out of the post since they aren’t as competent as you expect them to be – [Then,] you have to find another one, and that means another recruitment and training expense.
With an inefficient staffing firm, the risks of office trouble, workflow disruption, and repeated work are high, resulting in more expenses for the company.
Willie Greer
Sam Dolbel
Waste of Time and Company Resources
Turning to temporary staffing firms could save you time reviewing numerous resumes and doing interviews to hire a temporary employee. Choosing an inefficient one could result in the slower vetting of candidates for the position or candidates that are not thoroughly vetted to [meet] the company’s demands. This [shortfall] would significantly waste time and resources you invested, expecting the firm will get you the right temporary employee, which they didn’t.
Legal Responsibilities
Engaging with temporary staffing firms that disregard thorough handling of paperwork for the temporary staff may increase the likelihood of legal responsibilities for an employer. Worse comes to worst, these inefficient agencies do not assume full responsibilities for the temporary employees and would not share the blame if something wrong happens.
Matthew Roberts
Reuben Yonatan
Effect on Employee Productivity
An inefficient staffing firm will either get you subpar candidates quickly or take too long to bring you average-quality candidates. You won’t get fast, good workers on time and affordably with an inefficient temporary staffing firm.
The productivity of your employees can suffer because there are gaps in your workflows or temporary staffers who just can’t cut it. Remember that any hiring decision is going to have an impact on your wider company in ways you’re not always aware of.
This is a crowdsourced article. Contributors' statements do not necessarily reflect the opinion of this website, other people, businesses, or other contributors.