When you’re focused on growing other businesses by supplying them with talent, it can be easy to overlook your own staffing agency’s growth.
But you can’t afford that.
Whether you’re a business that specializes in temporary staffing or permanent staffing solutions, you need to grow to succeed, right?
To help you with that, we’ll highlight everything – from how to prep your company for growth to finding the right clients!
Here’s what this article contains:
(Click on the links below to jump into a section)
- Hire the Right People
- Develop a Repeatable Process to Reach Your Clients
- Differentiate from Your Competitors
- Automate Everything You Can
- Use Productivity Enhancing Tools
Let’s get started.
A. Hire the right people
You can’t succeed without the right people in the right places, right?
Your staffing company is built around acquiring quality candidates for your clients. But that doesn’t mean you have to spend all your resources looking for new candidates.
Let your placed candidates search the talent pool for you!
Did you know that the latest data says that placed candidates are the number one source of referrals for new candidates?
Just ask your placed candidates to refer you to their network!
This way, you can quickly find great candidates for your clients.
Additionally, as they’re being recommended by people you’ve already placed, you can rest assured that they’ll be good prospects.
Why?
Your placed candidates know the skill-level and competency needed to be part of your staffing agency’s roster. This way, they can quickly make a judgment about whether their recommendation is a good fit or not!
B. Develop a repeatable process to reach your candidates
Do you know the most significant challenge staffing firms face in the current market?
It’s maintaining a steady flow of candidates in their pipeline.
To get more candidates, you need to convince them that your staffing firm is the perfect fit. Help them realize that you value their time by providing them with the best career opportunities.
Here are a few techniques to get your name out there and attract more candidates in no time!
1. Sponsor community events
When more people in the field know your brand, you’re going to get more attention from them, right?
This is why many business development officers try to involve themselves within the communities of their respective industries. Being a prominent presence in your industry will help prospects view your agency as the best step for their career aspirations.
Don’t be afraid to sponsor the next networking event or conference. This will help your business integrate itself into the core of your industry. Your agency will then be the default recruitment agency for potential candidates!
2. Market your business
Marketing your business is key to boosting brand awareness. Here are two ways you can engage in marketing your staffing agency:
1. Content and SEO
One of the most popular marketing strategies is to create content for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). It’s one of the easiest ways to affect the way prospects think and can establish your firm as a thought leader in the industry.
SEO helps your business gain more visibility on search engines like Google. This way, whenever a prospect searches for something, your website pops up with an answer for them!
How do you do this?
Set up a blog and write articles about topics your prospects are interested in. Use keyword research tools to find keywords that fit the recruiting industry and include them in your content.
How does this help?
More job seekers will pay attention to your business once they realize your content delves into the challenges they face. This way, your business will gain valuable recognition and provide interested candidates the information they need to succeed.
2. Pay-per-click Ads (PPC Ads)
PPC ads like Facebook Ads and Google Ads are great ways to boost your outreach.
You can use PPC ads to target specific audiences who match your target demographic for candidates.
For example, you can target ads at college graduates looking for jobs. As this demographic clearly fits in with what your agency is looking for, the chances of you attracting talent is incredibly high!
But that isn’t the best part about PPC ads.
With PPC ads, you only pay for each person that actually clicked on your advertisement. This way, you’re not spending large amounts of money on ads that don’t convert!
C. Differentiate from your competitors
Lower rates and talented candidates can bring in more business, but what really makes your staffing company stand out from your competitors?
Exceptional service is the best value proposition you can give your clients. Focus on providing them a positive experience and you’ll find more business coming your way in no time!
Here’s a process on how you can deliver quality staffing services to your clients:
1. Focus on written expectations with clients
Tell them what they can expect from you and what you need from them. By writing these down, you’re showing them that you’re committed to what you say. This will ensure that they trust you more!
2. Request several meetings before you undertake anything
Ask your client to provide you with briefing meetings before you undertake any contracts, orders and assignments. This will help your staffing professionals understand the client’s needs better to deliver better service in the long run.
Sure, this can increase onboarding time, but it shows the client that you really care about finding the perfect fit for their needs!
3. Identify the problems caused by the vacant position
Carefully look at what the client is struggling to get done because of their vacant position instead of just trying to fill it as fast as you can.
Remember, different organizational needs require different candidates.
A sales representative isn’t exactly cut out for a back office analysis job, right?
This will help you give your clients a candidate that’s well suited to their current needs.
4. Ask for deadlines and stand by them
Setting (and abiding by) a due date shows your client that you respect their business. When you set a deadline on your assignment, you promise to deliver on time and reduce the need for any additional client supervision.
5. Involve everyone in the hiring process
So how do you find the perfect candidates for your clients?
By getting the information out as quickly as possible!
Pass on as much information as you can to everyone in your form – from hiring managers to the recruiters. The more people that know what exactly you are looking for, the easier it will be to find a candidate that suits your client’s needs.
6. Share client testimonials
The easiest way to stand out among your competitors is by showing them how happy your current clients are.
Share testimonials on your blog and even on social media platforms like LinkedIn. You can also compile a case study or two to give your business credibility on job boards.
Remember client testimonials are still viewed as one of the most legitimate forms of advertising. As you’re not the one talking about how great your company is, people will view it as more authentic.
Testimonials let the world know about the quality of your service and how many satisfied clients you have in your portfolio.
D. Automate everything you can
If you want to grow staffing agency performance, you need to cut down on unnecessary costs.
And what better way to reduce costs than automating tasks, right?
Most recruiting firms have looked at automating and accelerating the recruitment process over the last few years.
But there are still many businesses who haven’t automated their processes yet.
Why should you automate?
Automating mundane and repetitive tasks can give your in-house staffing experts more time to engage in high-level tasks. This way, they have more opportunities to engage in higher level tasks to get more done.
How do you start with this?
Consider starting with automating your onboarding process.
Why?
Most of the tasks are standardized and repetitive, so they don’t necessarily need a lot of hands-on experience.
Your in-house employees can only come in if there’s an issue or a clarification. This way, you’re not wasting time onboarding prospects and have more time to procure new ones!
Once you see the benefits of automating the onboarding process, you can move on to automating other processes to save valuable money and time.
E. Use productivity enhancing tools
While acquiring new candidates and clients is vital, it’s not the only thing you should focus on.
Growing your staffing agency requires a ton of focus and productivity. Your in-house employees can get distracted at times, so it’s a good idea to use productivity enhancing tools to make sure they’re always at their best.
Sure, Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and industry-specific software are essential staffing solutions, but they’re not the only tools you should invest in.
Don’t forget to use productivity tools like Time Doctor to maintain high productivity rates at work.
What’s Time Doctor?
Time Doctor is a powerful time tracking tool used by startups as well as major companies. It lets you easily monitor your staff’s activities and track their productivity during work hours. With a powerful desktop and mobile app, Time Doctor can help your staffing professionals stay productive all the time!
Here’s what Time Doctor can do for you:
- Time Doctor is super easy to use so your employees won’t waste time figuring out how to use it.
- You can use Time Doctor’s Timesheet Report to track how your employees are spending their work hours to ensure that they’re productive
- Time Doctor’s built-in inactivity tracker guards against employees marking idle time as hours worked
- The built-in distraction management features deter employees from accessing unproductive sites during work hours
- The Poor Time Use report highlights the time an employee spent on unproductive sites and apps. Use it to deter unproductivity at the workplace.
Conclusion
2020 is an exciting time to grow your staffing agency.
There are countless opportunities for you to grow staffing agency performance and acquire more clients and candidates!
Just follow the tips here to take your staffing company to the next level in the staffing industry!
Did we leave out any tips on growing a staffing agency? Let us know in the comments below.
Andy is a technology & marketing leader who has delivered award-winning and world-first experiences.