Why use a staffing agency?
You may think it’s to get quality candidates. And yes, that is partially true. But the real reason you need a staffing agency is so you can buy time.
“Time,” you say? “Why would I need to buy time?”
Because time kills deals.
Time kills deals?
Yes. Seriously, if you get nothing else from this article, just remember:
TIME KILLS DEALS.
Now to illustrate this concept, let’s take a look at a typical example.
Most companies who do their own staffing usually use job boards to find candidates. The service only costs a few hundred dollars and can usually produce a decent response rate. So let’s pretend you decided to run an ad on one of these job boards. And let’s assume that you spent at least an hour or two developing the job description. This will ensure that it’s well-written and you are at the right salary range to entice interest. If you were to spend a few hundred dollars, you will get submissions. As a matter of fact, you’ll probably get hundreds of e-mails a day.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. Things are looking good. Seems like you’ll have plenty of qualified candidates to choose from, right?
Well, let’s see.
Let’s say you grab a few off the top of the inbox and you start scanning the responses.
Your eyes grow wider and wider as you read each one.
Wait a minute!
None of the resumes match the job description you posted. Most of them don’t even use appropriate grammar. Whose ad are they responding to? It couldn’t be yours. These candidates are nowhere near qualified for the job.
Yikes, right?!
“Well, maybe it’s just a fluke,” you say to yourself. “I did only look at the top ten in my inbox. Maybe if I spend more time looking through these, I can find someone actually qualified to do the work.”
So, you start scanning through the sea of resumes. And after hundreds of emails and three coffees later, one finally hits you.
Bam!
There he/she is. The perfect candidate.
Except…
Wait. Hold up. HOW MUCH are they asking for? There’s no way our company can afford that.
You’ve already spent hours–if not days–of your time on this hunt, and you haven’t even brought in a single candidate yet. But, let’s just say that the stars aligned and you hit the jackpot by actually finding someone in your initial search. The next thing you would do is call the candidate.
And… probably get a voicemail.
If the candidate actually replies, you’ll most likely end up playing phone tag for a few days. But don’t worry. This is normal.
Now, for the sake of time and brevity, we’re going to forgo the rest of the “worst case scenarios” (even though they’re more like “real life scenarios”), so we can play this out to the end. So again, you’ve crafted the perfect job ad, placed it on a job board, got responses, found the perfect candidate, and got a hold of them–all within a reasonable amount of time. The next thing you need to do is schedule an interview, so you can meet the candidate face to face. After a brief exchange of information, you both agree on a date and time, then mark it down in your calendar.
How exciting, right?
Well, yes…
If they actually show up for the interview.
That’s right. On the day of the interview, it might be 10,15, or even 30 minutes after the appointed time and they still haven’t shown up. Then you’ll find yourself asking, “Where are they? Did they get lost? Why haven’t they called?”
The term “No Call, No Show” refers to a phenomenon whereby a candidate does not show up for their interview and neglects to call the prospective employer regarding the change in plan. Basically, they flaked out on the interview. According to articles in USA Today, CNN (and frankly, in our own experience), the percentage of your candidates that will actually show up for the interview sits somewhere around 50%. Now, let’s give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they got their dates mixed up? That does happen. Maybe they forgot about the meeting? Maybe their obscure great-grandnephew, twice removed, fell ill and they had to care for them?
Maybe…
Or maybe they already got a job somewhere else.
So real quick let’s recap everything you’ve done up to this point. Over the last few days, you (or an employee) crafted at least one job ad, posted it, got responses, reviewed them, found a candidate, contacted them, scheduled an interview, and then… they didn’t show up. Just imagine how much more work this would be if you had multiple listings. (Probably keep that in mind in case you have more than one job opening.)
Now back to our hypothetical. If they don’t show up, you’ll either have to reschedule, or worse… restart the whole process over again.
Granted, you could try to sift through the rest of the resumes you received from the first job posting and find someone else. Because you know, your ideal candidate could still be lost in the deluge of emails drowning out your inbox.
But the reality is: even if you found that person, it’s likely they’ve already been hired by another company.
That’s because TIME KILLS DEALS.
Both research and experience shows that the majority of quality candidates are off the market within days of starting their job search. Which is why you need a staffing company.
Not to place job ads. Not to sift through resumes. Not to find qualified candidates. Not to call them. Not to schedule appointments. Not to interview them.
(Although we do all of those things.)
You need a staffing company to buy time. Time that will give your business the opportunity to get quality candidates before someone else does.
Ultimately, time will be the deciding factor. Not just for the candidate, but for your business. How much time, energy, resources, and stress can you afford to spend looking for the right person, while also maintaining business operations? The cost of your new hire is not just the money spent on job boards. It’s the hourly rate of whoever you have sifting through resumes multiplied by the number of hours they are spending NOT working on revenue-producing tasks. It’s the amount of energy and effort that will take away from more important tasks. It’s the amount of stress that will distract you from making other important decisions.
I think you get it.
But now that you understand the problem, how can it be fixed? I mean, you’ve read this far, you understand that a staffing agency is vital to the growth of your business. But you still need to choose a company to do that work. Someone who is professional. Someone who has your best interests in mind. Someone you can trust.
And this is where we come in.
Here at Optimum RTS our job is to understand your job well enough, so that we can find you superior candidates.
Let us handle the 50% cancellations, unqualified applicants, sloppy resumes, and the plethora of other headaches that come along with finding the right person, so that you can focus on the things that are most important to you and your business.
Suzanne is the glue that holds Team Optimum RTS together.
She wears many hats in our office and her organizational skills are OUTSTANDING!