What to look for in a staffing provider

Posted by: Chris Hediger

Lately I’ve been thinking about putting together a list of the key elements of a successful staffing company that businesses can use as a reference. In my first attempt, my list looked something like this:

• Industry match. Maybe this is obvious, but it is also a crucial part of your search criteria. Is the professional staffing provider successful in providing the types of talent your company needs most often? Is it able to find talent in the locations where you need personnel? (This does not necessarily mean that it has offices in these locations.) If it does not specialize in your most frequent needs, does it have unique areas of expertise that you might need to leverage from time to time?
• Good reputation. Is the professional staffing provider well respected in the industry? Its reputation is not only important to know if it will be a good partner, but also because contractors know which companies to trust and which ones to avoid. A solid company with a good reputation will attract the best talent.
• Company size match. Is the professional staffing provider a comparably sized company as your own? This might be applicable using the 80/20 rule. A comparable match is probably the most beneficial since you don’t necessarily want to be the firm’s biggest customer, or just a blip on its radar. A solid partner should have stability without you, but also see you as essential to its business success. That being said, sometimes smaller companies and the major market holders are necessary to ensure a strong flow of candidates to your programs.

I was feeling pretty good about the list, and I still think these are key elements to choosing a staffing partner. However, I was given reason to adjust my thinking when our business review season came around.

I am responsible for supporting our managed services engagements in many regards, including helping them build out their business reviews. In these reviews, we provide an overview of our metrics, provide analysis of their spending, and discuss our successes and challenges for the quarter.

A part of this process involves detailing the challenging roles we’ve experienced, and how we filled or intend to fill those positions. In these discussions, it’s not our industry match, reputation, or size that customers care about. They care about the more intangible attributes.

This experience made me reassess my original list to include the following aspects of a successful staffing provider.

• Honesty. Some positions are difficult to fill because of location, price, or an unrealistic expectation from the hiring manager regarding skill sets. Your staffing company needs to be experienced enough to know when the job is too difficult to fill, and courageous enough to inform you that this is the case. If it is not, your hiring managers could languish in a hiring process that is too unrealistic to be filled effectively.
• Tenacity. While honesty about the likelihood of a fill is important, it is equally important that your staffing provider has the drive to fill your positions. This tenacity can be a cross section of committed resources and willingness to keep working on a position. A staffing company that has these skills will be a vital partner.
• Creativity. Even in bad economies, there is a constant battle to identify, attract, and hire talented people. Organizations can have the drive to consistently look for talent and bring them on board, but if they are not thinking of unique ways to find talent, they will be one of many voices in the marketplace. A professional staffing service provider that is creative and constantly seeking additional avenues from which to pull talent will be a strong partner in filling positions quickly with the right person for the role.

In the initial phases of partnering with a professional staffing service provider, it is important to consider the traditional attributes of the company. As your relationship with it matures, it will be beneficial to leverage the more intangible attributes to ensure its continued support of your program. If you can find ways to identify these attributes early, you will be more likely to secure a strong partner that truly supports your need for talent.