Are you looking for that perfect employee to add to your team, but not sure where to find them? Consider the help of a staffing service. Why? The same reason you would hire an accountant or an electrician – because they are the experts in their field.

A Gallup poll conducted in 2005 showed that 90 percent of companies in North America are using staffing services to hire temporary and full-time staff.  More than two million employees per day are employed by staffing companies; of those, 25 percent are in office administrative professional fields.

You may still be thinking, “Why partner with a staffing service when I can do the hiring on my own?” Or “That is what I have a human resources team for.”  When is the last time that you had an opportunity to review the responses your human resources team received after posting a job opening in the paper or on your company’s general Web site?  If you have not taken that opportunity in a while, I suggest that you inquire about the responses.  Human resources professionals that I work with state that they receive an average of 75 responses for one general administrative posting. Out of those 75 responses, they will typically weed out the “absolutely not qualified”, “partially qualified”, “could work”, and hopefully they find the diamond in the rough for a “perfect fit”.  How many are actually in the later category? If you are looking for that diamond in the rough, the sources that you use to identify the caliber of employee that you are looking to add to your staff could be the difference between “diamond” and “cubic zirconium.” Typically, when someone is in the job market, if they are a top player they will not post their resume on a general job board because they never know who might see that resume. When you partner with a staffing service, it is their job to find candidates that are top talent but might not be in an active job search through access to a number of different recruiting sources.

A staffing service not only has their social network, but they also have access to the recruiting sites that a number of smaller companies may not have access to due to financial limitations. A good staffing partner is always on the cutting edge of all new job boards and recruiting sources.  Professional recruiters are highly networked and well trained in social networking and will ask about your competition not be afraid to cold call and recruit its top talent for your company.

While your human resources staff is sifting through those 75 resumes, who is handling their other job duties like projects and employee relations? This is why some of the largest companies partner with staffing firms and allow their HR staff to focus on core duties and responsibilities. 

When you partner with a service, you may wonder what should you expect or receive from the service.  A service will help your company save time and money. Time:  Only the most qualified (diamond in the rough) candidates will be presented to your company for the position you are looking to fill.  The candidate will have already completed a comprehensive interview with the staffing recruiter.  That recruiter will know the candidate, their work history, what is motivating the candidate to make a career change, and how your company would benefit from the candidate’s experience.  References and skill verification will also be presented.  You will have one point of contact and you will not have to worry about tracking all of your candidates during the hiring process, as this is streamlined through the agency.   

Money:  This is the bottom line to every company and watching costs is extremely important.  Have you calculated the cost to run an ad in the paper or to join a job posting service? How about he cost of your HR department’s time to review 75 unqualified resumes?  These costs are growing rapidly every day. When you partner with a staffing firm, there are no hidden costs.  Rates are discussed up front and reviewed before moving forward. There is not a cost to interview candidates and you are not billed until there is an offer and acceptance from the candidate. The staffing firm covers the cost of all of the recruiting, sourcing candidates, references, first interviews and assessments.  You only pay when a perfect placement is made!

Here’s an example of how one of my clients saved both time and money by partnering with my company, Celebrity Staff.  A current client was in need of a specialized recruiter. They posted the position on a local job board, and had a few interviews. The client commented that they were, “not seeing anyone that really impressed them.” The client stated that if Celebrity was able to present them with a candidate who was above the caliber that they were seeing on their own, they would be interested in meeting them. A candidate was presented to the client the same day, was interviewed, and is today the client’s specialized recruiter. The client had already invested two weeks of time interviewing candidates who were not “perfect” fits and invested valuable money in advertising, along with HR’s investment in screening the resumes and the conducting the interviews. 

The owner of the company commented to the manager of the department that the recruiter was a great find and wanted to know where they found them. This client saw the benefits of partnering with a staffing firm – we provided a candidate of high caliber and made the interviewing/employment process streamlined and simple. If this client is in need of staff in the future, I believe the first call will be to Celebrity.

If you find yourself in a legal matter, you would call your lawyer. When you have a staffing need, call the experts at a staffing firm.  You have nothing to lose, but time and money to gain. I think everyone should have the number for a good doctor, lawyer, and recruiter – for my clients, that number is Celebrity Staff 402-938-2000.

Leslie Shook, Celebrity Staff Senior Account Manager

About Leslie Shook
Leslie began her career with Celebrity Staff as a recruiting supervisor nearly a decade ago. Since then she has been promoted several times and is now a senior account manager. In combination with her year’s of experience, Leslie holds an Associates Degree in Business Administration – and has been nominated by her peers as Employee of the Quarter. She is a member of HRAM and is currently working toward her Certified Personal Consultant distinction. 

In her free time, Leslie enjoys playing with her new grandson, Lane or taking a nice, long ride on her motorcycle with her husband Richard.