What is Direct Hire Staffing? 

Direct hire staffing is a service often provided by third-party staffing agencies for employers to help them source and hire permanent employees. 

These are typically contingent recruitment services, meaning you do not pay unless a candidate is hired for your open role. Some agencies also provide retained recruitment services for direct hires, typically for executive search and high-profile positions, which comes with an upfront fee to start the service agreement. 

The goal of direct hire staffing is to provide companies with long-term employment of highly skilled and qualified candidates who fit their workplace culture. These positions tend to be full-time, and typically offer compensation packages that include salary or hourly pay and other benefits like PTO, healthcare, and retirement. 

The trend of companies using direct hire staffing agencies has risen over the last few decades because they give employers access to talent and other solutions to help them with the recruitment process, and save them time and money in the long run. 

Direct Hire Staffing vs Permanent Staffing

Direct hire staffing and permanent staffing are interchangeable terms that describe the same recruitment service. 

Direct Hire Staffing vs Temporary Staffing 

While direct hire staffing is for permanent placements, temporary staffing is for positions that have contractual terms for the length of work with a planned end to employment. 

Temporary staffing, also called contract staffing, has other key differences. They are typically hired for short-term positions rather than long-term, and hired to fill employment gaps from employee leave, seasonal demands, and project work. 

Direct Hire Staffing Process 

When you work with a recruiting firm utilizing their direct hire staffing services, they typically approach recruitment in these steps. 

Initial Consultation and Needs Assessment

You meet with the recruiting agency to assess the needs of the open position, including education, skills, qualifications, and experience. They will get to know your company to ensure a good cultural fit as well. 

Once a service agreement has been signed, they will proceed with the next steps.  

Finalize Job Details 

Your recruiter will create your job description based on the criteria you need for the role and get it approved to be advertised. Job descriptions typically include an overview of the job, qualifications, requirements, and compensation. A great job description is very important to attracting the right talent. 

Screen Candidates

Once the job has been published, the recruitment agency will start to source and screen candidates for your role. This can include outreach to qualified candidates already in their talent pool, and sourced from other organic and paid channels like LinkedIn, Indeed, or other sources. 

As qualified candidates are picked for interviews, they will be submitted to you for approval, and interviews will be scheduled. 

Make placement

The recruitment agency will help you throughout the interview process. This can include scheduling interviews, negotiating terms of employment, extending the offer to the candidate, and more.  

After a placement has been made, recruitment agencies typically follow up to see how the new hire is performing, get feedback, and provide any additional support if needed. 

Should I Hire a Direct Hire Staffing Agency? 

This depends on your current hiring needs and if you are equipped to source and hire talent. 

Direct hire staffing is a great option for employers who want instant access to qualified talent, to work with recruiters with years of experience connecting businesses with that talent, and if they are having trouble filling a tough job. 

There are other benefits of hiring a staffing agency to do recruitment as well, including:

• A large network of active candidates, and passive candidates (roughly 70% of job seekers are passive), whom recruiters reach out to, who employers wouldn’t have access to otherwise.
• According to Jobvite, 72% of companies report higher quality candidates from staffing agencies. 
• Staffing agencies reduced time to hire by over 70%. 
• Employers and hiring managers can be more hands-off with hiring, focusing on their core duties.
• Reduce costly bad hires. 80% of employers say staffing agencies lower bad hire risks. 
• Reduce time to hire. Harvard Business Review reports staffing agencies cut time to hire by up to 40%. 
• Reduced administrative strain from the hiring process. Agencies can help with onboarding, payroll, and other administrative duties. 60% of HR professionals say staffing agencies reduce their administrative workload. 
• Reduced turnover and higher employee retention rates. 
• Long term cost savings, 55% of employers say third-party staffing reduced hiring costs.  
• Staffing agencies can operate on your behalf and make the job search confidential, popular with executive search. 
• Certain staffing agencies can specialize in specific industries, which helps them achieve all of the above more effectively. 

Work with Hunter Recruiting

Hunter Recruiting has been providing direct hire staffing services for 20 years and has filled over 15,000 positions. We have achieved this with our talent pool of 1.2 million skilled candidates, latest recruitment technologies, short time to fill, and staffing teams that work directly with candidates and employers in STEM, healthcare, manufacturing, and other industries! 

If you want to learn more about how we can help you with recruiting and other staffing solutions, you can request talent or schedule a free consultation!