How To Partner with a Staffing Agency- the first rule of engagement
Posted on 26. Feb, 2010 by ggunn in Blog
A good staffing agent, when allowed, can manage all aspects of the hiring process and help move a candidate from discovery to final offer quickly and professionally. And why not use the agency to their fullest potential? Depending on the fee arrangement using an agency in either their minimal or maximum capacity usually costs the same amount.
MGD Services is a professional staffing agency. Simply put: we approach companies and determine if we can help fill their job opportunities and when they agree that we can we present candidates to fill them. When it goes well, the job search experience can be like a great date and everyone walks away feeling positive about the start of an exciting new relationship. When it doesn’t, well, we’ve all had bad dating experiences and some of us may still carry collateral damage from them. I use this analogy because it is important to remember how vulnerable job seekers are and that they will be vocal for a long time if they feel they have been mistreated by a company during the interview process.
Case in point: Last month I was speaking to a college alum with whom I had ‘met’ on LinkedIn. We connected after I read a frustrated post she made saying how a company had invited her in for nineteen (nineteen!) interviews and then she never heard from them again. Not only was this an unpleasant experience for her, do you have any idea how much time and money was wasted in the process for all parties involved?
Can you imagine getting dressed and securing a baby sitter nineteen different times? How many of you have enough interview outfits for all those interviews? Add in any kind of travel time and you are looking at ½ of one work week lost for this interview process. And then, after all that time was invested, no one from the company followed up with her to thank her for her time and to tell her that unfortunately she didn’t get the position – for whatever reason.
How do you think she feels about that company? Not very good, right? There’s a saying, that bad news travels faster than good news and sadly, I have heard enough negative press about companies from candidates that could have been easily avoided to appreciate the validity of this saying. This candidate was presented by a staffing agency. The staffing agency failed her – in my opinion in more than one area. We will get back to this over the next several weeks.
For now, I want to focus on the first part of this ongoing topic: How to partner with a staffing agency whether you are a client or a candidate. Over the years, we have instituted certain business practices which have proven successful for all parties in the hiring dance; the client, the staffing agent, and the candidate. Engaging in these practices not only save time and money, they promote good will at no additional cost. Whether you are a client who is looking for the right person to fill a position or candidate who is searching for their next career move, these professional guidelines when adhered to will make filling an open job a professional and rewarding experience for everyone. I specifically want to share with clients and candidates what to expect, demand and absolutely not tolerate when working with a staffing agency.
Let me propose something that most people do not think is true. The relationship among the staffing agency, the client and the candidate is really an equal relationship. Image a triangle where each side of the triangle represents each player equally. If any one side of the triangle becomes dominant, the relationship can breakdown.
Today I’m going to discuss the foundation of a good relationship between only two of the three parties of this triangle: the client and the staffing agency. The Client/Staffing Agency business relationship must be official and include a formal agreement which lays out how they will work together. The candidate is purposely being left of out this relationship because without a formal business agreement, a candidate should never be submitted to a client by a staffing agency.
When clients and staffing agencies build a business relationship with one another and you can expect some formalities. Every company, no matter how small, has at the very minimum a vendor invoicing process – and most companies have a much more robust vendor vetting process and a specific procurement department. Before a staffing agent presents any candidates to a client a written agreement identifying the type of relationship and the type of staffing opportunity that will be fulfilled needs to be executed.
These agreements usually fall into two categories: fulltime placement or staff augmentation. Each of these relationships is structured and the contract will identify what the staffing agency will fulfill on behalf of the client and the compensation for the staffing agencies services.
The worst thing that can happen to all parties is for this groundwork to be bypassed and then at the end of an interview process it is determined that the staffing agency has not been properly vetted and cannot work with the client based on stringent vendor management guidelines. Everyone loses in this scenario. The client cannot hire a candidate they spent time interviewing. The staffing agency doesn’t get paid AND they have done damage to their reputation because they misrepresented their ability to find their candidate a job. Of course the biggest loser is the candidate who is still unemployed.
Over the next several weeks, we will be presenting more best practices that will make the process of working with a staffing agency a professional, pleasant and successful experience. I hope you find them beneficial.
~Gretchen Gunn
