Do staffing companies save your business money?

August 10, 2022

As a company grows or fluctuates, business owners and managers are tasked with hiring for that growth and change. But as most business owners know, time is money and money is time. So the value of bringing in a staffing agency really revolves around how much time it saves you and your company in the long run.

Staffing agencies take on the following:

  • Advertising for the position
  • Reviewing resumes
  • Interviewing candidates
  • Onboarding tasks (such as background checks and drug screenings)
  • Payroll
  • Scheduling (in some cases)
  • Legal responsibility
  • And more

Because every situation is different, you would need to do the math on how much you are paying the staffing agency for the employee to know just how much this process would save you at a minimum.

Once you have this data, you can compare it to the billable hours that it would take from your company time.

This is more complex than simply looking at how much you're paid hourly versus what you're paying the agency and how many hours you think you would put toward the tasks like hiring, interviewing and payroll, however. There's also the cost of legal responsibility which is difficult to put a number on without specific incidents (which hopefully wouldn't happen, but that's the risk you're paying for). There's also the flexibility associated with temporary workers, which is also a hard value to put a number on, and the cost of turnover which would hopefully be reduced with this staffing option. After all, high employee turnover can harm your business from a financial standpoint.

Keep in mind, however, that in addition to the markup fees you pay to the agency for their work, there can sometimes be finder's fees or temp-to-hire fees, according to Business.com.

Hiring
This part is a bit easier to crunch the numbers on because it takes a certain and set amount of time and resources to review resumes, interview candidates, and hire. These are the more obvious and upfront costs of staffing that an agency could take over for your business.

Flexibility
Using a staffing agency awards flexibility. Flexibility is a major value add and the "cost" of it varies from person to person. In this case, it allows for a company to bring in temporary workers without needing to hire full time. So if your company is going through a period of growth or perhaps a seasonal need for more help, you can bring in all of the employees you need without the expectation to have work for them after the agreed upon timeframe. It also allows you to vet workers and potentially hire them full time, if they are interested. It's not uncommon for an employer to be happy with the talent a staffing agency brings in and decides to keep them around.

Legal responsibility
As an employer, you are generally responsible for your employees. So when it comes to labor laws, insurance, and certain taxes, you could be looking at some serious risk. However, with a staffing agency, they take that on, per Business News Daily.

There are both pros and cons when it comes to using a staffing agency, but whether or not it can save your company money all depends on the kind of work it is and the value it brings you, the employer.