Recruiting vs Staffing - The Strategic CFO® (2024)

• Tags:agency, employee, employer, hiring, placing, recruiting, recruitment, staffing
• By: Dan
• January 3, 2018

Difference Between Recruiting vs Staffing

The difference between recruitingvs staffing is that recruiting is acquiring talent to be a full-time employee. Whereas staffing is the hiring of an agency to provide temporary workers.

Recruitment / Placement

There are many recruitment agencies or placement agencies. It may also be referred to as a retained search. They typically charge a percentage of the hire’s salary as a placement free. Those agencies then collect resumes, interview, vet, and eventually get the client’s approval for hire. After the client approves and hires the recruit, the agency has finished their job. The client company not only hires the recruit, but is also responsible for the Social Security, Medicare, and employment taxes. In addition, those employees usually expect benefits such as health insurance and 401K.

Staffing Agency

Conversely, a staffing agency fills the gap when a client company needs a number of employees immediately but does not have the resources (capital) to afford all that is involved with hiring an employee. Staffing provides temporary workers that can be specialized to the client and bills them on an agreed to hourly rate

Hiring Process Through a Staffing Agency

A staffing agency has numerous job ads published to recruit the best talent. The agency then reviews the resumes, interviews potential candidates, and eventually, finds the perfect employee to fill a position at a client company. Depending on the demand, agencies can have a significant amount of employees that they can deploy.

Hiring a Staffing Agency

When hiring a staffing agency, it is important to assess your needs. Are you seeking specialized workers? Do you need 80 employees tomorrow or just 2? Different staffing agencies are going to be able to help you with what you need.

Advantages of Hiring Through a Staffing Agency

Some advantages of hiring through a staffing agency include seeing a potential employee in action before making the commitment to hiring them. Companies also are able to offset the costs of hiring to the staffing agency – essentially stretching their dollar. Additionally, companies are able to get a number of employees quickly, bypassing the weeks hiring usually takes.

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