Staffing 101 for Employers: Partnering with a Staffing Agency

At NW Staffing Resources, we believe that staffing agencies are meant to be a resource and business partner for their clients. If we’re not making your job easier, then we’re not doing our job.

Businesses typically partner with a staffing agency because doing so provides access to a precision recruitment team and an existing talent network – lowering the hiring cost, reducing time-to-hire, increasing retention, and removing the hiring process administrative burden.

Whether you’re ready to hire directly to your payroll, want to evaluate the fit of an employee over time before committing to hire, or need temporary staff coverage or a seasonal workforce, we can help. And, if you’re looking for a long-term partner to assist with your hiring process and shorten your to-do list, we’re here for you.

If you haven’t partnered with a staffing agency in the past, below you’ll find an introduction to our process. This should help you decide whether a staffing agency is the right resource for your company. As always, we welcome you to contact your local branch with any questions you may have.

We start by identifying your unique staffing need.

When you reach out to chat with us, one of the first things we’ll ask is for information on the type and duration of your hiring need. Are you looking for a Direct Hire or Temporary-to-Hire placement? Short-term Contract or Temporary staffing? A seasonal workforce? Event staff for a few days? Providing this information up front helps us serve you most efficiently and effectively.

Direct Placement (or Direct Hire) allows a company to focus on their business while we focus on identification of top talent – both sourced and from within our existing talent pool – who are well-qualified and a great company fit, with the goal of long-term employee retention.

Temporary-to-Hire (or Contract-to-Hire) placements are mutually beneficial, allowing companies and employees to evaluate a position fit prior to hire, typically over a period of 4-6 months.

Temporary (or Contract) staffing ranges in length, and typically covers things like peak workload seasons, time-bound projects and events, or short-term absences due to staff PTO, vacation, or medical leave.

It’s important to note that, for Temporary and Temporary-to-Hire (during the evaluation period) placements, we provide and administer employee benefits – which are available immediately upon hire. (See our industry-leading NWS associate benefits)

Staffing agencies can typically cover a wide range of industries and positions. Here at NW Staffing Resources, we typically staff positions in:

Office Administrative & Clerical
Accounting & Finance
Customer Service / Call Center
Light Industrial / Warehouse
IT / Technical / Help Desk Support
Professional placements including Sales, Marketing, and Engineering

And we specialize in placements for:

Legal and Legal Support
Dental Support
Medical Front and Back Office

Don’t see what you’re looking for? Just ask! We may be able to help. If the position you’re looking to fill isn’t in our wheelhouse we’re happy to steer you in the direction of other agencies that can serve you best.

Next, we get to know you and your company.

Something that makes NW Staffing Resources stand out from other staffing agencies is our history of and commitment to building mutually beneficial, long-lasting relationships with both our clients and our associates. Proactive, transparent communication is one of our keys to success.

Each new client is partnered with a local Account Executive who will walk you through the staffing and hiring process and answer questions that come up along the way. At the start of the relationship your Account Executive will likely ask to meet you in person and tour your office or facility space to get a sense of your company culture, candidate desires, and to do a facility safety walkthrough.

In addition to your local branch staff you’ll have a corporate team – our Service Group – supporting you from behind the scenes. Although you may never meet those folks, know that they’re on your side as well.

Then, we’ll get to work finding the right candidate.

Once we understand your need and have an accurate job description and a timeline of when you’d like to make your hire, our recruiters get to work screening and vetting potential candidates.

For candidate sourcing we rely on our existing talent network, job boards, community partners, and referrals from current NWS associates. We’re proud to work with a wide variety of job seekers. who are looking for everything from a short-term gig to a career placement where they can settle in with the company long-term.

You can rest assured knowing that we thoroughly screen all applicants in our talent pipeline. Applicants interview with our exceptional recruiters before providing three work-related references for immediate contact. Candidates are informed of and agree to our hiring standards before becoming NWS associates. And, depending on your hiring needs, candidates can be run through a background check, given a drug screen, and complete related skills testing. Through our computer skills-testing provider we can thoroughly assess a wide variety of skills, with access to hundreds of up-to-date skills tests.

Clients looking for a long-term placement typically will hold interviews with several of our pre-screened candidates. If this is the case, we’ll provide you with comprehensive candidate profiles prior to your interviews. You’ll be able to directly compare candidates and consult with our recruitment team to feel confident in making the right hire.

Depending on position type and duration, some clients prefer that we pre-qualify candidates and send them to start working right away – with no vetting done on the client’s part. Those clients are often prioritizing filling multiple of the same open position, as quickly as possible. If this is the case, we’ll provide candidate overviews, including a short bio and/or resume reflecting relevant job experience.

The final step is placement – and beyond.

Once the right candidate or NWS Associate is identified for your position, we provide them with everything they need to know for a successful first day. We’ll let them know where to go and who to check in with. We’ll remind them of your parking situation and dress code as well as instruct them on how and when to input their hours worked. If you’ve hired a remote associate we’ll coordinate a successful virtual workplace. Our goal is always to make the process as seamless as possible for you.

At the end of the first week of employment we’ll conduct a first week check with both you and our placed employee to ensure that the match is right, and things are going smoothly. The information that we’ll ask for will help facilitate early placement success.

After that, depending on the length and nature of the assignment we’ll continue to conduct ongoing quality and performance checks with supervisors. Associate soft and technical skills, performance, quality of work and relevant knowledge will be covered during these check-ins.

Should performance coaching be necessary we’ll handle it. And, in the unfortunate incidence that the employee just isn’t the right fit, we’ll have that conversation and end the assignment, while finding you a replacement. Our job is to make your job easier – it’s that simple.

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When assisting our clients our main goal is to make your hiring process easier and more efficient – our flexible employment services are designed to fit your specific employment requirements.

A thorough understanding of your company’s unique hiring needs allows us to make the best fit both for you and our associate. We take pride in our long-lasting relationships with our clients and associates, and take care to respect and advocate for both. (Check out our Client and Talent Testimonials)