Looking for gainful employment can be a daunting task. There is the resume process — the dates, responsibilities, and results. Then you have to put yourself out there to potentially get rejected by hiring managers. You have to sit through interviews where you are forced to answer questions such as, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” It’s all so exhausting.
Instead of job-hunting all on your own, you have the option of working with a staffing agency. These agencies make the process of finding a job easier. Here is how they work.
How Do Staffing Agencies Help Find You a Job?
A Conduit Between Businesses and Job Candidates
You can think of a staffing agency as a liaison between hiring managers and viable job candidates. When you start working with a staffing agency, also sometimes called a temp agency, they get to know you and your career goals. At the same time, they form relationships with businesses around the country. That way, they can perfectly match open positions with the most qualified candidates. That’s where you come in.
Staffing Agencies Help Fill Shortages with Qualified Personnel
When a business that works with the agency has a job opening, the staffing agency dips into its pool of candidates. Your hope is that they choose you for the job. If you have the right qualifications, chances are good that you could find a job fast.
You Don’t Pay a Staffing Agency. They Pay You!
Right now you might be asking yourself, “How do staffing agencies get paid?” You might also wonder if you have to pay the agency for doing the job hunting on your behalf. Nope. The agency gets paid by the businesses they work with, not you.
An employer pays a fee to the staffing agency to outsource the hiring process. If they didn’t pay the agency, they would have to hunt for job candidates on their own. For many employers, this process is just as daunting as job hunting is for you. Hiring can also be expensive, with employers having to shell out for job-board ads and internal recruiters. Instead, they pay a nominal fee, and the staffing agency does all the leg work of finding viable candidates to fill various positions.
Staffing Agencies Do the Job Hunting on Your Behalf
Instead of visiting job boards, going to employment fairs, and knocking on countless doors with a resume in hand, an employment recruiter hired by the agency does the job searching for you. For this relationship to be successful, the recruiter needs to know more about you and the job you hope to get.
You will first meet and interview with the staffing agency’s recruiter. The purpose of this meet and greet is to help the recruiter learn about your skills, personality, and career ambitions. The recruiter can then match you with jobs that match your qualifications. But the recruiter also wants to pair you with jobs where your personality will mesh with the company culture. This makes for the best long-term job prospects and long-term success.
Gain Valuable Feedback About the Application Process
Most staffing agencies will give you feedback throughout the application process. They can give you advice on how to revise your resume and actionable tips on how to successfully sit through an interview. This kind of feedback can be excellent for helping you land your dream job.
You Get Alerted When the Ideal Position Becomes Available
When an employer tells an agency they have a job opening, your recruiter may call you to inform you of the job opening. If you’re lucky, you may find that there are several jobs available, letting you pick the one that is the best fit for your career goals. Imagine having that much control over your job-hunting prospects.
If you can manage to be flexible, you may find that you have several types of job opportunities to choose from. These include:
Temporary Jobs
Companies search for temporary hires to fill spots during an employee’s absence or during a particularly busy work period. The business may also have a big project approaching and need extra team members to fulfill the extra workload. These temporary jobs can range from several weeks to many months.
Permanent Jobs
Staffing agencies can also find you a job where you will stay long term. In this way, the temp agency acts more like a traditional job recruiter.
With most staffing agency-employee relationships, the agency will pay you directly. If you become a permanent employee, your relationship with the agency ends and the employer puts you on their payroll.
Temp-to-Hire Jobs
These employment opportunities are also known as temp-to-perm jobs. When you land a temp-to-hire position, you begin as a temporary hire. This lets the company get to know you and to determine if you will work out long term. If the employer ends up happy with the work you perform, they have the option of hiring you directly.
As far as pay is concerned, the temp agency pays you while you are in the temporary phase. The employer then places you on their payroll when you become a full-time hire.
Get Hired Fast with Competitive Pay and Benefits
The best part about working with a staffing agency is that you have the potential to land a job faster than you would have all on your own. Most staff agencies also pay you competitive wages with benefits like insurance, sick pay, and retirement, among others.
A Chance to Improve Your Skills
Some staffing agencies offer free courses and training to help you become more marketable to potential employers. Taking advantage of these resources can improve your skills and prepare you for more advanced roles with higher pay.
Help Attaining Certification and Licensure
If you work in a field that requires certifications and licensure, here too is where you can get help from some staffing agencies. For example, travel nurses are often sent to other states to work at medical facilities like doctor’s offices and hospitals. Travel nursing staffing agencies can help these nurses get licensure in the new states and in record time.
The staffing agencies don’t fill out the applications or take the necessary tests, but they can point you in the right direction. This is yet another example of staffing agencies acting as your employment advocate, helping you get the ideal job that matches your skills and qualifications.
They Help with Contracts and Pay Negotiations
The pay you receive from employment opportunities varies depending on the role, responsibilities, and location. Staffing agencies can aid in helping you earn a competitive salary for your skills and qualifications.
Let’s go back to our travel nursing example. Travel nurses sign contracts for weeks or months at a time when taking on a new medical facility assignment. Those contracts come with certain salaries and bonuses.
If you are ever in this situation, your staffing agency recruiter can help you negotiate for top pay and bonuses, including benefits, so you don’t get the short end of the stick.
Negotiating for these things on your own can be stressful if you’re not accustomed to advocating for your own worth. A recruiter has been through this process many times and will steer you in the right direction to advance your career.
Prepare You for the Job
When you do land a job, your recruiter will give you all the pertinent details, letting you hit the ground running the moment you arrive on-site. You’ll be told about dress codes, scheduled hours, a description of the duties to be performed, and the duration of the job.
In some cases, you may be asked to interview a second time with the employer. Your recruiter can also prepare you for this meeting, giving you all the information you need to make an excellent first impression.
Staffing Agencies Make Joining Easy
Joining a staffing agency is simple. Most agencies have an online application process. Someone from the company will then contact you to follow up. If you meet the qualification requirements, you will go through the interview process with a recruiter. Here is where your job search begins, with the staffing agency doing all the legwork on your behalf.
Ready to Find a Job the Easy Way?
There are many staffing agencies to choose from. Make sure you choose an agency with a wide range of job opportunities and one that will advocate for you during your job search. One award-winning agency to consider is Prolink.
Prolink pairs you with a dedicated recruiter who is experienced in the job-hunting process. We have spent years fostering relationships with businesses all across the country. Your recruiter can tap these employers to find you a job in any field, and with the scope you prefer. Whether you are looking for a temp job, permanent hire, temp-to-perm, or any other, we will advocate for you.
We offer competitive salaries, attractive benefits, help with licensure, referral bonuses, and much more.
Your ideal job could be right around the corner. Fill out our easy application to get started. You can also search for a top job using our exclusive job listings.
