There aren’t too many career paths that almost anyone can do, in terms of education requirements or technical training. Staffing is one of those few. You’d be shocked to learn that almost no recruiter planned on being a recruiter as a child, or while in school. Everyone that gets into it, just fell in.

So, as a hiring manager, how do you decide who is the right fit for your team? You can’t look at their degree, and most of the companies are unknown. I hope this list helps!

Know your Rep

Just like you wouldn’t trust a chef who’s never cooked a meal, don’t trust a staffing rep without a solid track record. When they give you their pitch on all the companies they’ve supported, ensure you differentiate on what they personally have supported, and what accounts were supported at some point at their firm.

There are massive staffing companies and old staffing companies where the rep you talk to hasn’t supported any of the accounts they boast of.

Know who is doing the recruiting

In most staffing situations, the person you talk to is a sales person. They may have recruited briefly, but they are not the one calling the candidates. Their job is to bring the job requisition to their recruiting team, and try to translate what they heard from you, to the team.

The recruiting team can be extremely competent, or fresh out of school, and you will never know. If you receive a few candidates that are not a fit for your role, it’s likely both the rep and the recruiter don’t know what they’re doing.

Refuse to talk about the positions you’re hiring for without the person doing the recruiting on the call. Games of telephone add up to weeks of lost time, costing you time and money.

Elaborate on your personal hiring needs

A recruiter cannot find the perfect fit if they don’t know what that perfect fit looks like. The most common error in recruiting is a lack of upfront communication. Recruiting teams will go out hunting, and come back with what they think is a trophy buck, but they were supposed to be hunting pheasant. There’s no path to success if the search partner is looking for the wrong person. A good staffing rep will know how to ask the right questions to ensure there’s no room for error on the first call. That call should be at least 30 minutes, potentially an hour.

Don’t be afraid to make them compete

The best reqs in staffing are rated on exclusivity. If we can get exclusive roles, that means that we are much more likely to fill that req. If you have a trusted partner, you will get the best results with exclusivity. However, if they begin to slip, or something seems off, give the next company a chance to prove themselves. You are the customer, and your needs must be met.

Establish timelines and deadlines

As always, it’s all about incentives. If there is a hard deadline, your recruiters will work harder. If there are interview slots on calendar prior to sourcing, the recruiters will work to fill those since they can’t assume that they’ll have another slot later.

Let your preferred partner know that you’ll open it up to other staffing providers after 2 weeks. Urgency is common in the staffing world, and you can use that to your advantage.

Know your payment model

Fees that are paid in totality upon the start date are often the roles that are left unfilled. A large effort is put into getting a candidate to the start date, so the firm is assuming a lot of risk.

Some staffing firms like to ask for retained search fees. While this will result in you getting the best service, it is wise to work in some sort of guarantee that you will benefit from their services. Have the retainer paid in tiers, upon the first batch of candidates, upon the first interviews, and then upon a start date if you want more protection.

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This is not an exhaustive list, but it is a good place to start. Paying for staffing services can be expensive, or a drop in the bucket, depending on the size of your company, just be sure to spend that money carefully, but confidently!

The Page Group works to find what solution is best for you, and will always provide a seamless hiring experience for you. Let’s make sure your next hire isn’t just another name on the payroll for a few months, but a real asset who takes your company forward!