5 Things Your Staffing Service Needs to Know
Every business in the current employment landscape is looking for that next awesome hire. Whether you’re hiring for temporary placements or searching for the perfect new long-term member of your team, you’ll probably find yourself working with a staffing service. Staffing professionals specialize in connecting professionals to positions that fit well together. Professionals often don’t know where to look for their next dream job and businesses today need all the help they can get recruiting great professionals from the fully-utilized workforce.
However, many businesses make a distinct mistake when working with staffing service: less than full disclosure. What do you really need in an employee? Not just the sugar-coated job-description version, but really the kind of person you need and what you expect from them.
Let’s take a closer look at five important things every business should share with their staffing service to get the best possible stack of resumes.
1) Expected Hours and Environment
Work-life balance and working conditions are the biggest concerns of most professionals. It’s not just about finding people who are willing. A great staffing agency is looking to connect people who will truly enjoy working the hours and conditions your job has to offer. So be honest. If you want someone who will enthusiastically tackle the job at hand, then fully describe what will be expected.
Be sure to include the hours, both official hours and any overtime that might be assumed of the role. Mention the building, the working conditions, and the general environment that the position entails. After all, you want candidates who will view these core conditions positively.
2) Absolute Skills Needed
Job advertisements tend to have long lists of skills and requested experience, many of which are employer wishful thinking. These long lists may help your job adverts appear on keyword searches, but they also scare away qualified-but-not-overqualified candidates who don’t have everything on the list. Others who are not qualified may apply because they have non-requisite listed skills without the core requirements.
So be honest with your staffing team. What skills and experiences does the job absolutely need? What are the real requirements for an applicant, so that you get a complete list of candidates who qualify, and no candidates who don’t qualify?
3) Nice-to-Have Skills
Once you’ve covered the required skills, then talk about the skills and experiences that would be a bonus. Every team has a wishlist of things a new team member might bring to the table. You might really like to have a 3D digital designer on your team or someone with management experience, but these things are not actually necessary to do the job. These listed skills will help your staffing service pick out your potential top candidates and help target the best group of candidates without ruling out great professionals who lack your nice-to-haves.
4) Company Cultural Fit
Next, consider your company culture. Hiring for cultural fit is an important aspect of smart staffing, which is exactly why you need to tell your staffing team about the company culture. Are you jokers who are constantly throwing puns around in the breakroom or a serious office that works without music or radio during the day? Are you a team of energetic go-getters or a slow and careful company where every action is triple-checked? Accurately describing your company culture will help your staffers find people who will enjoy joining your team and will be rewarding to have on the team.
5) Deal-Breaker Conditions
Finally, tell your staffing service what your deal-breakers are. If you would turn down any candidate with certain criteria, then there’s no need to go through the interview process with them. Let your staffing service pre-screen candidates so that you never have to go through an awkward rejection based on predictable conditions. Deal-breakers matter, even if you’d never say them directly to a candidate.
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When working with a staffing service, honesty is key for both businesses and professionals seeking connection. For more information on how to get the best candidates from your staffing service, contact us today!
