When choosing a staffing agency, employers seem to have no idea where to start. Generally, the stereotype is that all staffing agencies are the same or that they do the same thing. This, of course, is not true. There are many staffing agencies servicing a wide range of industries in an infinite number of ways.

The staffing industry is currently one of the fastest growing industries in the United States and is growing at a rapid rate throughout the world. According to the American Staffing Association, Americas staffing companies employed 2.96 million contract workers per day in 2006 and were not even talking about the hundreds of thousands of jobs filled on a permanent basis by staffing and recruiting agencies.

Still, how do you differentiate between all those agencies and choose an agency or a number of agencies that will serve your needs.

The first step is to understand your needs thoroughly and to understand where your priorities lie. If you dont know that then no one can help you.

Here are some categories to consider:

Geography

Where is your business located and will you need servicing in other locations other than your primary location?

If you are the owner or the HR business partner for an organization with a single location then maybe you will find that a local agency will serve your needs better than a national or global one. After all local agencies usually have a closer connection with their local community and are often actively involved in it. They would not only be able to provide the needed services, but you would get outstanding customer service, and promote your own business within your own community. However, if you had multiple offices throughout the country then you may want to consider a larger or national agency that you can build a good relationship with and reduce your total number of vendors.

Specialty

In the past, agencies did not specialize in any particular area. They simply provided temporary employees as needed wherever they are needed. However, as the market became more competitive, staffing and recruiting organizations found that they needed to specialize by profession or industry in order to gain a competitive advantage over their competitors. Therefore, the industry-specialist staffing organization was born (vertical market specialization).

Again, this goes back to your needs. What type of organization do you represent? Will you need a specialist in your vertical or will a generalist serve your needs? For example, will you only be recruiting engineers? Or will you recruit engineers and customer service representatives? To answer all these questions you must be able to somehow estimate your long term goals and choose an agency based on your current and future needs

Size

Its a well known fact that organizations that are roughly the same size do very well when they serve each other. Choosing an organization that is similar to your own corporate structure will make the communication process much simpler, will set the right expectations and will guarantee the expected level of customer service that you require. For example, a staffing agency numbering 10 individuals can not serve an organization with 1 million employees very well. The client will most likely have more resources and better market penetration. They dont need the agency. On the other hand, an agency with 100,000 employees does not necessarily need a 15 person client. Customer service levels COULD drop.

Niche Professions

Assuming you choose a specialist to serve your needs you may want to inquire about what niche they have been developing lately in your area. Its one thing to say we specialize in the Engineering market and its something else to say We are the best providers of structural engineering talent in this local area. If the niche profession development is something that aligns with your needs then this can be a definite indication of a great relationship and successful service.

Range of services

This is more of the horizontal that the agency has chosen. What services do they offer? Is it only direct hire services, temporary, executive search or a combination? If you need to hire more high level executives and only a few temporary employees here and there you may want to work with an agency that specializes in senior level executive search and choose a smaller and cheaper agency for your temporary positions. If you will be using them for a wide variety of positions then you may want to choose a horizontal generalist (different from the vertical discussed earlier).

Fees

You get what you pay for, but sometimes you dont. Fees for the industry vary widely and depending on the service offered. Executive search usually tends to be the most expensive and most agencies work in a retained fashion. Also retained agencies usually produce results more often then contingency (which is why they are retrained). If you work under a contingency agreement then you would not be obligated for any fees unless you hire a candidate that the firm has sent you. You pay nothing up-front and have a risk of zero but then that is usually offset by the fee after the hire. Choose wisely.

Tenure

Tenure is a common concept in any industry. The longer a firm has been around and successful the better the chance they would be able to provide quality talent to your organization. It also means that they are more stable and that they have met some level of success and that they can carry that level of service to your firm.

Choosing an agency that meets your needs is not an easy task. There are many organizations, local and national in different verticals and different business models. Evaluating all of them would be an impossible task. The best and truest method to choosing an agency is through referrals but even then one must evaluate some, if not all of the former categories.