Recruitment agencies have survived the internet. The best IT staffing agencies have not just survived the internet, but they have flourished in this time of everyone finding everything online. And that is because finding good staff online can be really hard. At one point, recruitment agencies were a huge business, and everyone worked through recruitment agencies to find staff. And then the internet came along. People thought that in the same way they could buy or find food, find travel, find holidays, find books, find dog food, and even find a social life on the internet, they could find staff on the internet too But this is the one thing that is really hard to find online, because it is so hard to find the RIGHT person. And that is why the recruitment agencies did not go out of business. To the contrary, they absolutely flourished and they still do.
What a staffing agency does
A staffing agency generally has teams that specialize in different job descriptions. There are IT staffing agencies, financial staffing agencies, marketing staffing agencies, hospitality staffing agencies, and so on. They will find you the staff member that you are looking for. They will make contact with the various people who on their books and who are qualified for the job, and they will also headhunt that person if they do not have them on their books. They will have conducted the necessary interviews already, to ensure the person is qualified and right for the job, and they will have checked their references and papers, way before they send them to you for an interview. They only send you the right people for the job and then you get to make the final decision.
What if the job does not work out?
You pay a staffing agency for their service, and this is something you negotiate beforehand. You either pay a fixed sum or a commission of the salary that you land up paying the employee. If the job does not work out, for whatever reason, you have recourse. This depends on what kind of contract you signed with the staffing agency, but they will either refund you or they will find you a replacement candidate.
Use one staffing agency
Try and work with one staffing agency only, one that has different divisions for different job requirements. Keep your IT staffing requirements with the same agency as your financial staffing requirements, and so on. In other words, work with a larger staffing agency, one who has several different divisions or teams. You get to know one another, the agency gets to understand your needs, and they give you top priority with the really good staff too.
You will sign a contract with the staffing agency, and the employee will sign a contract with you. The staffing agency will help and guide you all the way. If you use the best IT staffing agencies you will land up with the best staff.
