How Staffing Firms Can Help You Get Hired

Job searching is stressful, and it can take a great mental toll on candidates. JDP discovered that 93% of job seekers have experienced anxiety when job searching and preparing for interviews, which is a very alarming number.

What if there was a way to streamline the application process, have an expert provide all the resources and help candidates land a job in a much shorter amount of time? Luckily enough, there is!

Job searching can be an easier process when working with a staffing agency. Read below to learn how a staffing agency can be the key to landing a new job, stress-free.

What is a Staffing Agency?

Before we get into the reasons why working with staffing agencies is beneficial to job seekers, what exactly is a staffing agency?

A staffing agency is an organization that specializes in helping companies find talent for their open jobs and positions that need to be filled. Staffing agencies can help these organizations fill full-time, part-time, permanent, contract and temporary roles.

Some staffing agencies also will specialize in certain industries or aspects of work. For example, there are many agencies that are healthcare-focused, who primarily help companies fill positions such as nurses, doctors, medical assistants and more.

According to IBISWorld, there are 12,554 staffing agencies currently in the U.S. alone. This number does not account for the thousands that can be found across the world.

There is clearly no shortage of staffing agencies available, and they can be very useful for job seekers in any type of work or industry.

Application Process Ease

Job searching and applying to multiple roles can be very time-consuming for job seekers. According to SWNS Digital, it takes, on average, five months for a job seeking to find, interview and land a job. That is a long period of time, especially for a job seeker that may have recently been affected by layoffs or is dealing with other economic uncertainty.

This five-month window of job searching can be greatly decreased when working with a staffing agency. These agencies have many recruiters that are dedicated to helping candidates find their next role.

A recruiter will normally take care of researching different positions, submitting the application, optimizing resumes, scheduling interviews and more. Having these tasks benefits both the candidate and the client that is hiring. This allows the job candidate to have a less stressful application process and enables the client to only receive candidates that accurately fit their job description.

Instead of having to wait five months for a new job, a candidate that works with a staffing agency can start a new role within only a couple of weeks. However, it is important to note that staffing agencies are employed by their clients, so, they may be limited in the opportunities they have available.

Access to Multiple Employers and Jobs

When traditionally applying for jobs, an applicant is only applying for one position and one role. When working with a staffing firm, that applicant can be considered for multiple companies and positions that fit their skill set at the same time.

Many staffing firms utilize applicant tracking systems (ATS) that automatically source and search through resumes that fit certain job descriptions and responsibilities. So, when a candidate has their resume in an ATS system and a job is being filled that directly fits with their experience, their profile will come up as a match and can be considered for that position instead of the candidate manually searching and applying online for that specific role.

There is also a chance that the roles that staffing agencies are working on for companies may not have public listings for their jobs possibly due to confidentiality. Job seekers can get access to these roles and more when working with a staffing firm.

Different staffing firms work with many different types of clients, which can include smaller businesses, larger corporations and even Fortune 500 organizations. It is likely that the company that is working with the agency will not be publicly advertised, but most likely a candidate will find out who the role is with very early in the interviewing process, possibly in the first screening call with a recruiter.

Another benefit to job seekers who apply with staffing firms is that their resume will remain in the ATS system, even after a role or opportunity has closed. This means that if something were to open up in the future that matches a candidate’s skills or experience, the staffing agency can easily reach out about the opportunity.

Having an Advocate

When sending in resumes and cover letters manually, many job applicants may feel as though they are seen as another resume to be screened and not as a real person. This may be true, as Indeed found that hiring managers only scan a resume for six to seven seconds before deciding to call them for an interview or to completely reject them.

When working with a staffing agency, candidates are directly assisted by a recruiter that wants to see them land the job and doesn’t view them as just another resume in the stack.

Since the recruiter is looking out for their candidate, they are there to support the candidate, advocate on behalf of them and walk them through all stages of the interviewing and hiring process. For example, if a recruiter’s candidate is sent over for consideration for an accounting role and the hiring manager from the company has some doubts about their lack of experience, the recruiter can then talk to the hiring manager about the conversation they had with the candidate and how the candidate described their internship provided them with very solid groundwork for their profession. These types of conversations can help influence hiring managers and help candidates get an interview and ultimately land a job.

Even if a hiring manager decides to pass on a candidate, instead of being completely out of the running for the job, the recruiter can then look at other positions that are needed to be filled and recommend them for that position even if it was not the original role that they were working on. They also can gain insights and feedback as to why the candidate may not have been selected for the role. This is information they may have not otherwise received had they been going through the interview process without a recruiter.

Having a recruiter advocate for a candidate can make a difference in a job seeker’s experience.

How Do I Work With a Staffing Firm?

Now that all the benefits of using a staffing agency have been shown, how does a job seeker get in contact with one?

A great way to search for staffing firms is to research online by looking up firms that specialize in a type of role or industry. For example, if a job seeker is looking for a new role as a Biologist, they can search “STEM-focused staffing agencies” and see what companies are recommended.

Most staffing firm websites will have their own type of own type of job board or will have a general resume submittal section. Whether the job applies for a specific role or just submits their resume, that resume will automatically get uploaded to their ATS system and will now be in their database of candidates.

Job seekers should also consider researching staffing agencies’ social media pages. By doing this, they can see what type of roles the firm hires for and even find specific recruiters that work there. This can make the job-seeking process even faster by directly reaching out to these types of organizations and the people that work for them.

Not all staffing agencies are the same, and some are better than others. Consider reading online reviews about candidate experience on sites such as Glassdoor and Indeed. These reviews can save time by avoiding agencies that may not have the candidate’s best interest.

For more tips on how to reach out to a recruiter, check out this blog.

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Consider using a staffing firm to ensure a fast and less stressful process in your next job search.

Looking for a staffing firm that will get you a dream job in no time and always puts the candidate first? Check out Hunter International, a leading staffing firm!