Surprising Ways Using a Staffing Agency Reduces a Company's Overall Costs

If you’ve never used a professional staffing firm before, seeing their prices for the first time may paralyze you with sticker shock. 

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The average cost to use a staffing agency to fill a position is 25-30% of the position’s annual salary. That number may initially seem steep for many companies who need to hire but are on a budget. 

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While using an experienced staffing agency does incur a cost, it can actually be more cost-effective than handling the hiring process in-house. In fact, a staffing firm can save you money over the course of the big picture. 

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Here’s how. 

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Helps Reduce Overtime

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Open seats mean that someone has to pick up the slack . If the rest of your team is already giving 100%, paying them to work overtime is the only answer. 

If you’re having other employees cover a full-time job, that’s 40 hours of overtime every week. The longer the position stays unfilled, the more money your company is shelling out.

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How a staffing firm helps: You need a step-by-step plan for filling your open positions. Professional staffers are connected with a long list of experienced applicants who are already vetted and ready to work. Using an agency can get your open position filled several weeks faster than if you handle it in-house. Add up all those overtime hours…and you see the savings of using a staffing firm.

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Minimizes Costly Hiring Mistakes

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Companies that hire quickly just to get someone in the seat set themselves up for big issues down the road. The new employee may not have the experience they need, they may not fit in with the company’s culture, or they might be a job-hopper. If the new hire doesn’t work out, the money you’ve spent onboarding and training them goes down the drain. Hiring the wrong person is one of the costliest mistakes companies make during the hiring process. 

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How a staffing firm helps: Professionals who do nothing else except place candidates offer a deeper understanding of the individuals. They may have even worked with the candidate before and have a relationship that allows them insight into their dream job. A staffing company helps your company guard against spending money on new employees who leave before you recoup your investment. In addition, most reputable agencies offer a guarantee on their placements. 

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Related Article: 10 Questions You Should Ask During the Job Interview…and 3 to Never Mention

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Increases Team Productivity

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When team members are happy and thriving, your company benefits from their stellar work. Overworked employees offer diminished returns. If your employees are working lots of overtime, you’re most likely not getting the same quality of work out of them. By filling your open positions quickly, every dollar you spend in payroll is getting optimum productivity, which helps your company reach its goals and stay profitable. 

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How a staffing firm helps: As we mentioned above, staffing firms can dramatically decrease the time it takes to find a great addition to your team and get them settled into the position. Moving quickly (without cutting corners) keeps your workforce balanced and operating productively. 

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Frees Up HR and the Hiring Team

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There are several highly-paid people involved in the hiring process. There may be 5 or more people involved at any given time. Advertising, sorting resumes, interviewing multiple times, and deciding on who gets the offer can take many hours, which translates into big expenditures for your company. 

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How a staffing firm helps: By reducing the steps your company has to handle, staffing firms reduce the resources your company needs to use in finding the right hire. With much of the legwork being handled by an outside expert, HR and other members of the hiring team are available to handle other important projects on their desks. 

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Shortens Your Time-to-Fill

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We’ve already mentioned the importance of filling positions quickly, but wanted to focus on just how valuable it is. When an open position lingers, it can reduce productivity and frustrate other team members. There’s nothing good about an unfilled position 

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How a staffing firm helps: Available, high quality candidates ready to make a move are just an email away with experienced recruiters. By cutting out the lengthy process of attracting candidates and choosing the ones you want to interview, you save literally weeks of time. And, as we all know, time is money. 

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Related Article: Top Ways HR Can Ease the Burden of Filling Open Positions

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On the front end, it may seem like staffing firms charge an large amount for their services. Once you dig into how much you’re spending by handling your hiring in-house, you see that working with a staffing agency may actually save you money. 

Not all staffing firms are created equal and you should definitely interview them before hiring them. If you need help filling your open positions fast, call Talent Experts. Hiring is in our DNA, and your dream hire may be in our contacts list.