Working with a staffing firm can be beneficial for all parties involved – you, the staffing firm, and the employer. A staffing firm is designed to help organizations with their hiring process. It allows organizations to redirect their efforts to efforts other than hiring. American Staffing reports 25,000 staffing agencies have been in business since before the pandemic. Many staffing agencies also provide direct hire options aside from temporary and contractual hiring.
You can use the services of a staffing firm whether you’re employed or job hunting. However, when choosing a staffing firm to work for you, it’s best to be careful and look for both the red and green flags. You won’t usually see them upfront. Sometimes, it will take speaking thoroughly with your assigned human resource staff to know more and better understand them.
Beware of the Red Flags
1. Questionable Background
Ensure that you have personally checked the background of the staffing agencies that may have caught your interest. Reports of wage theft and unsafe work conditions should not be taken lightly. You can scour the internet through forums and social media posts of anecdotal experiences of past and current employees of the staffing agencies. Additionally, check if the firm has built a good reputation or is affiliated with reputable organizations. Reputable affiliations are a good indicator of accountability and credibility.
2. Toxic Family Work Culture
This can be a double-edged sword. Being in any organization that treats its members like a family can help as you spend most of your waking hours for the organization, from traveling or preparing to work, to the actual working hours themselves. However, you can also expect that certain lines will be crossed or become blurred when you or other colleagues become overly dependent upon the organization. It can also backfire when individual and professional growth is compromised for the sake of the organization. As a result, you may be asked to sacrifice more hours without overtime pay or be okay with meager pay.
3. Empty Work Agreements
Staffing agencies are known to provide organizations with temporary workers for various reasons, including satisfying a surge in business processes that need to be expedited, such as deliveries piling up in warehouses. With temporary work and contractual agreements also comes a reduction in the quality of the work contract. Your staffing firm should respond to any questions on discriminatory practice or inserts in the contract before requiring you to sign it.
4. Limited Employer Database
Having an extensive employer database ensures that you have employment options available. If you’re a temporary worker currently in the process of switching careers or upskilling, a job placement means a sustained income stream. You should have reservations when a staffing firm seems to have no employment for you but intends to keep you in their candidate database. A limited employer database can also reflect poor skills in maintaining sustainable relationships with employment providers.
Remember the Green Flags
After searching through LinkedIn, cross-referencing contacts, and social media/forum posts, you finally have your list of qualified staffing agencies. Your thorough research indicates that these do not have any of the red flags mentioned above. You have a few options now, but have still haven’t decided which to choose. Here are some green flags to help you shorten the list further:
1. Promotes Equal Opportunity
You might have heard of women being passed over for higher positions, even with proven credibility. Reports of discrimination and unfair treatment happen because prejudice and bias still prevail in our society. Many people of color are still denied job opportunities due to stereotypes and racism. A staffing firm which promotes equal opportunity, regardless of race, gender, disability, or age is a green flag.
Any form of discrimination is prohibited in a good staffing firm, as it should be for all organizations and units. You should look for a staffing firm that allows people of color, women, those with disabilities, the young, or those with veteran status to pursue careers that would best suit them based on their skills and knowledge.
2. Practices High-Touch Service
High-touch service ensures that you do not feel abandoned by your chosen staffing firm. It promotes a feeling of safety, where you can expect a healthy correspondence with the hiring staff assigned to you; no lost emails or unanswered phone calls on the status of your employment. You can expect that a real person who can understand your needs as a candidate will listen to you.
Even after employment, a good staffing firm will ensure that you are cared for by your employer. You can expect them to respond to your questions about potential employment options presented to you with clarity and honesty.
3. Values Data Privacy
A good staffing firm will honor your data. You can expect that your information will be protected at all times and at all costs. You, as the candidate, should be their biggest resource. Thus, protecting the information collected from your educational background to your work experiences will be kept private and used only for job placement procedures.
A staffing firm must follow state and federal legislation to ensure that your data is legally protected. You can expect the staffing firm to be held accountable for any misuse of your information. Valuing your data privacy is honoring the trust shared between you and the staffing firm.
4. Ensures a Candidate-Centric Approach
Your chosen staffing firm should honor human connections. Human resources are the biggest asset of a staffing firm. Thus, human connections should be a priority. Your staffing firm should want the best job placement for you as it is the most sustainable and profitable for all parties.
Onboarding and training new hires can be costly for organizations. Putting people first will breed healthy relations with you, your staffing firm, and the employer. You can expect that the staffing firm will find job placements that promote a healthy work-life balance, provide employment benefits, and promote employee growth.
Choosing You to Win
You should feel valued by your staffing firm and your needs heard and honored. If you’ve chosen the right staffing firm, you’ll feel that you’re building a healthy and positive relationship. The right staffing firm will be thorough in your placements and ensure that your preferences in location, work arrangement, schedule, and compensation are considered to match you with the right employer.
WORKING WITH ACS PROFESSIONAL STAFFING IS A GREEN LIGHT.
The job market is becoming more and more competitive. Hence, arming yourself with enough arsenal by partnering with an efficient staffing firm is your utmost advantage. With ACS Professional Staffing, your job search is made easier through our advocacy, such as providing equal opportunity, high-touch service, data privacy, and a people-centric approach.
Our human resources team only has your best interest. Your growth in your job placement is our success. We will help you narrow the best green flags that could provide you with income and a healthy sense of belonging in your next workplace. Contact us today!