If you’re an employer in the Pacific Northwest region, you’re likely familiar with the challenges of hiring and onboarding new employees. You need to spend valuable time and money locating candidates who have not only the right skills and experience to excel in their roles but the personal traits to fit in well within your organization’s culture and values. You need to spend further resources on interviewing candidates. And finally, you need to train and onboard your new employees so that they become productive members of your team as quickly as possible.
Many employers don’t realize they can avoid these challenges by partnering with a staffing agency. From direct hire to temporary placements to temp-to-hire staffing services, staffing, and temp agencies offer a range of solutions that can keep your organization optimally staffed so that you can focus your time and resources on other important business matters. This article will explore the benefits of partnering with a staffing agency in AK, OR, and WA.
How Do Staffing Agencies Provide Support to Employers?
Staffing and temp agencies offer a range of services that support employers by making their hiring faster and easier.
One of the most common services is temporary staffing, where the agency provides temporary workers to fill short-term staffing needs. This is a popular option for employers who need extra employees to supplement their core staff during peak seasons, to cover for unexpected employee absences, or to assist with special projects.
Another service is temp-to-hire staffing, which allows employers to “try out” potential employees before committing to a full-time hire. This can be a great way to ensure a good fit between the employee and the company while minimizing risk and cost.
Finally, many staffing agencies offer direct hire staffing, where the agency takes care of the entire recruitment process and presents the employer with a selection of qualified candidates to choose from.
But staffing agencies do more than recruit and hire. They handle the administrative burden of payroll, benefits, and taxes for temporary workers, freeing up employers to focus on other areas of their business. They often have expertise in specific industries, which can be invaluable to employers looking for candidates with specialized skills. Finally, staffing agencies can help employers navigate complex employment laws and regulations, reducing the risk of legal complications.
What Risks Do Employers Face When Onboarding Employees on Their Own?
Hiring and onboarding new employees isn’t just time-consuming – it can be risky. Below are a few potential pitfalls of employee onboarding that could result in negative outcomes for your business:
- Not providing an accurate job description. Believe it or not, there’s an art to writing job descriptions. If a description doesn’t accurately reflect the requirements of the position, the right people won’t apply for it. This could result in your organization never finding the right candidate for the role. It could also lead to hiring someone who isn’t qualified for the job, resulting in decreased productivity and increased training costs.
- An overly extended onboarding process. As an employer, you have multiple responsibilities to juggle and keep track of every day. A lack of focus on onboarding new employees can mean it takes months to hire, onboard, and properly train your new team members. This can result not only in lost productivity and wasted resources but in a poor candidate experience that can damage your reputation and prevent qualified candidates from applying in the future.
- A high turnover rate. A scattered or unfocused hiring and onboarding process can lead to a high turnover rate for your organization. If the duties of a candidate’s new position are quite different from what they came to expect during the hiring process, they’ll likely become frustrated. They may quit their new job quickly, forcing your business to start the hiring process all over again. A high turnover rate is expensive for your organization and can seriously harm your productivity, morale, and reputation.
Staffing Experts in the Pacific Northwest Summarize the Benefits of Partnering with a Temporary Staffing Agency
There’s a way Pacific Northwest employers can avoid the risks of handling hiring and onboarding by themselves: partnering with a staffing agency in AK, OR, and WA. Below, we explore a few of the top benefits of utilizing temporary, direct hire, and temp-to-hire staffing services.
Staffing Agencies Streamline the Hiring Process
One of the most significant benefits of using a staffing agency is that their recruiters can find excellent candidates quickly. Staffing and temp agencies have access to large pools of candidates with the specific skills you need and are well-practiced experts in determining good cultural fits for various organizations. Many temp candidates in recruiters’ networks are available for immediate hire, so if you have an urgent need for temporary workers, a staffing agency can often fulfill your job order within a matter of days. And if you’re searching for a new permanent team member, direct hire staffing services can reduce your hiring process from months to weeks or from weeks to days.
Reduce Hiring Costs for Your Business with the Help of a Staffing Agency
Some employers see staffing services as an unnecessary additional cost. But outsourcing your hiring and onboarding process to a staffing agency helps your organization save money in the long run. Staffing agencies handle all administrative expenses related to hiring and onboarding, such as background checks, payroll, and benefits, which can be costly for businesses to manage on their own. They are also typically responsible for all unemployment expenses for temporary and temp-to-hire employees. Additionally, partnering with a staffing agency results in better-quality hires who fit well within your organization. This can help reduce turnover rates, which can be a significant expense for businesses.
Employers Have the Flexibility to Hire on Demand
Traditional hiring processes can take so long that by the time you recruit, hire, and onboard your new employee, your organization’s needs have already changed. In contrast, using temporary and temp-to-hire staffing services allows you to keep up with business demands by hiring qualified employees at the moment you need them.
Temporary staffing services let you quickly fill gaps in your workforce due to increased demand or unexpected absences, allowing you to maintain productivity without assuming the costs of hiring new full-time team members and temp-to-hire services give employers even greater flexibility by allowing them to see how a new hire performs on the job before committing to adding them to their payroll. This empowers your organization to make more informed hiring decisions and to reduce the risk and cost of turnover.
Staffing Agencies are a Valuable Resource to the Internal Team
Staffing and temp agencies don’t just help your organization’s leadership – they’re an invaluable resource to every member of your team. Chronic understaffing or a failure to fill critical roles often means that existing team members are burdened with higher workloads or administrative, “busy work” tasks. If this situation becomes the norm, you may risk turnover due to unhappy employees.
In contrast, staffing agencies can relieve heavy workloads and provide support for administrative tasks. This saves time and resources for your internal team, allowing them to focus on the core competencies of their roles. Temporary employees from staffing agencies can also offer specialized skills or expertise that may not be available within the existing team, ultimately resulting in a stronger and more efficient staff.
Gain Experience and Expertise with Staffing Experts in the Pacific Northwest
Too many business leaders make the mistake of trying to do everything on their own in order to control costs. But experienced leaders know that in most cases, deferring to the experts ultimately saves money – not to mention additional gains in productivity, efficiency, and overall performance.
When it comes to hiring and onboarding, staffing agencies can provide the expertise your organization needs. Staffing and temp agencies are made up of teams of experts in both the general talent market and the specific industries your organization serves. Recruiters at staffing agencies can quickly and easily provide your business with a higher caliber of candidates, resulting in a more experienced and efficient team.
Set Your Worries Aside, Partner with a Staffing Agency in AK, OR, and WA to Help Onboard New Employees Efficiently
If you’re an employer in the Pacific Northwest looking for new ways to improve your hiring and onboarding processes, there’s a simple solution available: Partner with Opti Staffing. As one of the top staffing agencies in Anchorage, Alaska, Lake Oswego, Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Tacoma, and Vancouver, Washington. Opti Staffing provides comprehensive solutions, including temporary, temp-to-hire, and direct-hire staffing services. The expert recruiters at Opti have supported a variety of Northwest employers in hiring for a range of positions, including office support, skilled trades, engineering, construction, and professional and management roles. With Opti your side, your organization can uplevel your staff and avoid the risks and pitfalls of onboarding new employees on your own.
To learn more about how Opti Staffing can help your business, contact us today.