Global consultancy McKinsey & Company says, “For years, temporary labor has been vital to many organizations’ overall talent strategy.” According to the latest forecasting, the demand for contract and temporary workers is going to increase in the coming year by another 7%. Temp workers and temporary staffing services fulfill an important market niche for companies seeking to staff up during seasonal rushes or to shore up their staff with expertise they need for the short-term. These workers are also an insurance policy of sorts against a stagnant or declining economy.
Temp agencies in Virginia and around the country serve a valuable and trusted partnership to their business clients. But while there are many temporary staffing services firms out there, the best temp agencies in Virginia are the ones with decades of experiences to benefit their clients.
Staffing Agency Services for Job Seekers and Employers
Let’s start with the types of temporary staffing services available to clients in the Virginia market. Typically, when a company offers temporary staffing services, they also offer temp-to-hire services, and even direct hire recruiting. Let’s break these services down as a first step toward understanding how these services can benefit your business—and for the candidates whom we also serve.
Temporary Staffing Services
Temp agencies, temporary agencies, or temporary staffing service firms. No matter what you call them they do one thing incredibly well; find short-term talent to fill employer needs. Usually, the temporary staffing services company handles everything related to the employee:
- Sourcing (finding) the candidates.
- Interviewing, doing background checks.
- Hiring and handling employment paperwork.
- Some even do the training of these contract workers.
- Usually, the temp firm offers the employee benefits, not the employer.
The employer company pays a staffing company a fee for these workers, in addition to the temp wages. Interestingly, you may have the perception that calling these resources “temporary workers” mean they are short-term. There are temp workers out there on contracts that last for years. You’ll find temp employees in every industry, helping employers’ staff up when the need is great. Another category of temporary staffing service is temp-to-hire services.
Temp-to-Hire Services
Temp-to-hire means that the employee contract stipulates that the employer has the option, usually at the end of the contract assignment, to offer the employee a full-time job. These roles are often longer-term, at three to six-months. Many even allow for an extension of the temporary arrangement or the option to allow the employee to go full-time.
For an employer, a temp-to-hire services arrangement is like a probationary employment period. Many new full-time workers go through a 90-day or longer probationary period where the employer can let them go if the job isn’t working out. It’s a kind of “try it before you buy it” period that benefits both the employee and employer because it takes away the risk that either will be stuck in a work arrangement that isn’t beneficial.
Direct Hire Recruiting
Direct hire staffing is different from temporary or temp-to-hire services because the employer hires the candidate on but leaves the hard work of finding and screening to the agency. The employer typically pays a fee to the staffing firm to do this work. Direct hire jobs are most often full-time positions with benefits. When the candidate accepts the job, they go to work for the employer and not the staffing services firm.
Advantages of Temporary Employment Agencies for Job Seekers
Temporary employment agencies offer some clear benefits for employers. But what about the benefits to the candidates, who they also serve? A temporary staffing services firm can connect job seekers to top employers throughout Virginia in a variety of fields. But their benefits extend beyond that to include many other benefits like providing resume advice. These services are free to candidates because the employer pays the agency fees. Let’s look at these benefits more closely.
Build Your Resume with Temporary Employment
Recruiters see dozens of resumes every day they’re on the job. You’ll find they’re more than willing to share advice that will help your resume get noticed by employers. Sometimes just having a second set of eyes on your CV will help you pick up on small nuances that could sink your candidacy. You can also use temporary employment arrangements to build your experiences. Temporary staffing services connects you with steady pay even during market downturns. These services can help you break into a new field or fill gaps in your resume between full-time jobs that an employer may question.
Job Placement Agencies are Free
Temporary placement agencies will work with you for free. Some job seekers don’t realize this. So, instead of spending hours applying to job boards, many smart candidates seek out an experienced temporary staffing services firm to represent them to employers. The agency adds the candidate’s resume into a database, and as jobs come up, recruiters call you to let you know about them. It’s a more efficient way to work that often helps these candidates get jobs faster than doing it on their own.
Exclusive Job Opportunities
Temporary employment agencies have unique bonds with employers. They have access to jobs that aren’t even posted. Many enterprise-level organizations get all of their contract workers via a select one or two temporary employment agencies. These are great relationships that a candidate can easily take advantage of.
But the benefits of working with temporary employment agencies doesn’t end with the candidate. There is an equally strong benefit for employers to consider establishing a working relationship with a temporary staffing services firm.
Advantages of Staffing and Recruiting Agencies for Employers
Finding skilled workers today is a full-time job in every industry. Temp agencies in Virginia have a ready-made network of candidates seeking employment and they’re building new relationships every day with passive candidates who haven’t even applied to a new job yet. Building passive candidate networks is a critical part of recruiting today. However, most HR teams neglect this area because they simply don’t have the time to do it.
Temporary staffing services firms offer employers a variety of flexible staffing solutions on-demand. Experienced temp agencies in Virginia offer employers:
- Access to pre-vetted, qualified candidates.
- Faster hiring.
- Lower hiring costs.
Access to Pre-Screened Talent
Hiring can be a huge headache. Screening candidates takes a massive amount of time. Staffing agencies not only have more access to candidates than employers have, they also have access to better candidates because they are actively hunting them down. An established staffing agency does all of the work of sourcing candidates, carefully matching their credentials to your job description. Then they reach out to passive candidates who haven’t applied but who seem to fit the organizational need. The temp agency does the interviewing with the candidate, pre-screening them on your behalf. What you get is a select pool of pre-vetted talent within your price range and qualified to work at your company. Imagine the time this could save your HR team! It’s a huge reason to partner with a staffing agency in Virginia.
Accelerate Hiring Process
Temporary staffing services firms do one thing very well: Find and hire talent. Partnering with temp agencies in Virginia means you automatically accelerate your hiring processes. These firms have expertise that often exceeds what you have within your own human resources division. That’s because HR is tasked with many types of responsibilities from onboarding and policy development, to employee reviews, training, payroll, benefits administration—and more. Temp agencies in Virginia do one thing: Build relationships with talent by sourcing and screening them, then introducing you and moving the candidate toward the hire. That’s all they do all day long. This focus naturally speeds up your time to hire and increases your success.
Reduce Hiring Expenses
When employers hire temporary staffing services firms, they save money and time. The agency handles everything from LinkedIn licenses to the applicant tracking system. From a talent perspective, if the candidate is a temporary worker, the temp agency handles the employment arrangement. They supply and manage benefits and administer payroll. They handle the background check. All of these HR-related functions add risk and costs. While the employer pays the agency a fee, it’s the agency that handles a lot of the employer relationship overhead and risk.
Work with CTR for Your Next Talent or Job Search in Virginia
CTR Group is a leading temporary staffing services firm, celebrating 35-years in the industry. As a leader of the temp agencies in Virginia, we offer our clients unparalleled experience and a proven track record for more than three decades. We know talent in the professional, industrial, and shipyard staffing fields and we are standing by to provide you with exceptional services for job seekers and employers. If you’re looking at temp agencies in Virginia, contact us. We can help.
