The Staffing Agency

We have all been there. You have a position to fill and there is no one internally with the time and resources to dedicate to finding a qualified candidate.  It is time to go outside of the company for help. But where do you turn?  Most of the time you call what you think is your only choice: the staffing agency….and you resent it.

The resentment is normal. Staffing agencies never feel like a good value because the cost is too high and the candidates presented are not the caliber of employee that you truly want for your company.  Worse yet, you feel like the staffing agency only spent about 15 minutes on you to earn their excessive fee.  

The dirty little secret is that staffing agencies are unfortunately just P.T Barnum-style sales organizations.  They come in and tell you about all of their “successes” and give you references that are suspect and promise you the moon and the stars but rarely deliver. Employee retention rates for agency-hired employees are terrible because the agencies don’t actually do any real recruiting. They just refer you to people that they have in their database that are out of work. They are designed to fill their work orders as quickly as possible using as little manpower as possible. 

The job of most Staffing agencies is to go out and get more business.  Their job is to sell you on their product and then go to their “vast database” of potential candidates and pull the five candidates that are the closest match to your hard-skills qualifications and present them to you as the most qualified candidates.  This often means pulling the five candidates who were most recently fired from their last job, or the candidates that have been cycling through staffing agencies for months and sometimes years. They have no stake or time investment in finding you the best-qualified candidate whose vision and values match those of your organization.  Their job is to SELL you on their product and move on to the next sale as quickly as possible.

Staffing Agencies are simply not invested in your success or the success of your business.  They do not take the time to get to know you and your values, vision and culture. They do not take the time to meet with other key players in the organization or other employees in similar roles.  They do not make the time investment necessary to understand your objectives.

My People Person was built with the small to medium sized business in mind.  Our process is designed to make sure you don't hire just anyone who has the hard skills that a company is looking for in a candidate, but to find the right fit for your business. Unlike the cookie cutter approach of staffing agencies, our approach is customized to suit the unique needs of your organization starting with a Vision and Values Interview  to identify what makes your company unique and what type of person will be successful in your organization.

I limit the number of concurrent clients that I work with so that I can personally work on your search for top quality candidates who are as unique as your business. I use the latest quantitative assessment tools that most small and mid-size business don’t have access to so that you can evaluate every aspect of a candidate.  I look at non-traditional qualitative factors in my Right Fit Process. I get to know you and your business so that I can truly hire the right person because I care.

Don’t waste your valuable time and energy being frustrated by staffing agencies.  Get good value for your money. Call me today to discuss how I can be your people person.

Warmest Regards,

Martha