There are many factors to consider when choosing an
employment agency. Here are a few from
both the point of view of an employer and an employment seeker.
The job
search landscape in today's global economy is improving, at least in the U.S.,
but with unemployment percentages
lingering in the teens for many cities and states, many people are still
struggling to cope in the bleak landscape.
Gone are the days of landing a job right out of college, sticking with
one company and remaining loyal in order
achieve stability and establish a career. Even a full time job seems like a far off
concept, let alone one with benefits and a retirement plan as business look to
cope in ever changing circumstances and employees focus on furthering and
switching careers to remain relevant. A
vital cog in the wheel of this interchange is the employment agency. Designed to seek out and recruit capable
employees for outsourcing companies, staffing agencies are a useful tool for
both sides of the employment divide.
There exist a great many of them however, and choosing the right one can
be a critical one, especially given the competitive reality of there being so
many qualified workers in the job market.
There are important steps to take in order to arrive at the correct and
most helpful agency, both as a job seeker and as a business.
Step
1: Determine your goals
Is your
goal to find temporary employment during a hiatus in other employment or are
you looking to the agency as a stepping stone into permanent employment at one
of their client businesses? As a
business, are you seeking temporary staffing for a specific project or are you
looking to recruit new long term staff?
Step 2:
Research several employment agencies
Both job
seekers and businesses seeking staff should shop around for an employment
agency that meets their specific needs as closely as possible. A quick online search will bring up a good
number of staffing agencies in the area so it is important to know how to
filter through them and find out which is the best for you or your
business. Some agencies specialize in IT
or administrative hiring and focus on placing candidates with those specific
skills so if that is within your career path and meets your skill set as a
candidate, they should definitely go on your list. Others are more general, with a wide variety
of clients and can even require employment
testing to determine if a candidate is truly capable.
Businesses
seeking to outsource their recruitment process to a staffing agency should look
for similar qualities. If your business
requires skills that only a handful of people are likely to have, it would be
worth searching for employment agencies that specialize in recruiting these
types of employees, possibly through employment
testing.
Step
3: Contact the employment agency and ask questions
Once you
have established a list of potential recruitment agencies, contact them with
the purpose of interviewing the agency to see if it meets what you need. For a business, does the fee that the agency
asks for fit within your budget? Your
business might be tempted to go for a slightly higher price if the agency has a
proven record of hiring high quality and well qualified candidates. The agency establishes a set pay rate for
employees and then charges client businesses a rate on top of that.
So it would
make sense for the candidate to know his or her value in the market. It would be well worth it to search around,
find what the going rate is for your skill set and use this information to
determine if you are being fairly compensated.
It would also be worth asking if they require employment testing for specific skills.
About Author:
This article was written
by Darren Creasey, a college career counselor who for five years has been
getting graduates the information they need to get the jobs they want, as well
as issuing career aptitude tests and free
pre employment testing. When not giving career advice, Darren fishes, rock
climbs, and is an avid theater-goer.
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