Four reasons to leverage staffing agency services on your next hire

How much did you really spend on your last hard-to-find hire? Did you include the productivity lost by your hiring manager? Did you factor in the revenue lost while waiting for your new hire's expertise? What about the hours your HR team spent poring over resumes and setting up interviews? When you add it all up, the cost of hard-to-find hires can put a serious dent in your budget. If your searches for the elusive purple squirrel have been more frustrating than successful, it makes sense to bring in an experienced partner to aid in your endeavors.  That's where professional staffing services come in.

The right agency can deliver top talent for even the most challenging reqs — and at a fraction of the rate charged by niche talent agencies. Before launching your next hard-to-fill req, consider the following:

1. Staffing agencies have valuable industry expertise

Top staffing agencies hire recruiters with direct experience in niche industries. Adecco's recruiters leverage proven expertise in eleven major industries and fields, covering everything from engineering and information technology to creative and marketing. Adecco's recruiters also offer unique insight into your industry's current hiring trends and best practices, helping you craft compensation and benefits packages designed to attract top talent.

2. Staffing services lead to a faster hiring process

Filling an open req that requires a hard-to-find skill set can take months. Every step along the way — launching the search, reviewing resumes, interviewing and negotiating your way to an executed offer letter — takes time a busy professional just doesn't have. And when the hiring process drags, you increase your risk of losing top talent to a competitor.

Fortunately, the staffing services that Adecco provides can cut your time-to-hire down to as little as a few days. Pairing Adecco’s database filled with millions of talented professionals with its team of niche recruiters focused on recruiting for specialized roles, Adecco can pinpoint candidates that match even the most specialized hiring profiles. This means the interview process can start sooner, helping you get the talent you need as quickly as possible.

3. Working with recruiters reduces friction among hiring managers

As more businesses turn to matrix organizational structures, reqs with two or more hiring managers are becoming increasingly common. But this can slow the hiring process and create internal tension, especially when those involved don't see eye to eye on the hiring profile.

Another point of friction, particularly among reqs that require highly specialized skill sets, is miscommunication or misunderstanding between hiring managers and internal recruiters. Positions in fields like IT, engineering and software development have specific requirements that can be hard to understand for talent acquisition generalists who lack direct industry experience.

A recruiter with experience in the desired field can be a valuable asset in situations like these. Their industry expertise helps them understand precisely what the hiring manager is looking for, with no need for time-consuming explanations. An experienced recruiter can also help multiple hiring managers reach a consensus on the desired skill set and avoid other potentially contentious issues like start date, title and compensation.

4. Using staffing agency services = less rogue spending

The talent acquisition process is a notorious source of rogue spending. When the req in question is difficult to fill, the problem only gets worse. Fortunately, a staffing agency can help you rein in rogue spending. They'll work with your HR team to develop a program with carefully defined guidelines on spending. They'll also keep your hiring managers within the established budget and provide customized reporting services on spending throughout the talent acquisition process. You'll know what you're spending — and where you're spending it.

The next time you find yourself searching for talent, you don't have to go it alone. The right staffing partner can take the toughest reqs off your hands, so you can get back to doing what you do best.