How to Select the Best Staffing Agency

Managing a staffing agency takes a lot of dedication and attention to detail.

12:00 08 February 2021

Even small mistakes can have a big impact on business success. Especially the timesheet workflow from Temp work on facility to payroll, invoices and collections must be exact because each hour of work paid to Temp must also translate into one hour paid by the customer. Proper accreditation of the workforce is also very important because it affects the reputation of the agency with its clients and can also create legal risk. Specialized software helps maintain a high level of precision in business operations.

 

In addition to the need for precision, the benefits of using staffing software become apparent early on as the staffing agency begins to grow. Business automation significantly reduces time spent on day-to-day operations, increases quality, and ultimately leads to higher revenue and lower costs. Software that supports business automation can be, for example, a database to manage the growing pool of candidates and recruitment activities, applications to simplify scheduling, or an integrated workflow system to manage timesheets from work on the premises until the bill is paid.

 

There is a long list of applications that was developed for managing various tasks of a staffing agency. While many of these are fairly generic and apply to a wide range of different industries, some have been developed for very specific environments. Each of these types of software has its pros and cons that must be understood before signing up for often expensive subscriptions.

 

Agency workflows

 

There are many applications that can improve staffing agency operations. This makes it difficult to select those that best suit business requirements. These can differ widely between agencies due to the definition of parameters such as strategy, the industry in which the agency is located, the size of the company, the types of clients, etc. Therefore, it is important to first understand agency workflows and operating principles, determine how the software can improve each of these workflows, and then begin with vendor selection. For example, if an agency pays Temps every week, the payroll system should be able to support this. The main departments where software can significantly improve workflows are:

 

Sourcing and recruiting
Planning
Credential management
Timesheet Processing
Paysheet
Invoices and collections
Accounting and reporting
Software types

 

With an understanding of business processes, the next step is to determine what type of software is most appropriate. There are three general types:

 

1. Generic,
2. Generic staffing and
3. Industry specific.

 

Generic software works for a wide variety of businesses in many industries.

 

Very good examples are Quickbooks for accounting and Microsoft Outlook for email. The advantage of working with generic software is that there is usually a large support community and it is relatively affordable. At the same time, since it is not specific to the industry the staffing agency is in, it may not be the most effective solution. For example, Quickbooks supports a timesheet management system. At first glance, this is great for managing scheduling and payroll, but it's also error prone because there is very limited validation of user input.

 

Generic staffing software is specific to staffing agency work, but not to any industry. Many applicant tracking systems, for example, work very well for almost any type of staffing agency. Consequently, there is still a wide variety of systems supporting individual aspects of the agency to choose from. However, because they are not specific to any industry (for example, healthcare, truck drivers, or consultants), each application generally supports only one aspect of the staffing process. The agency then needs to interface between various applications to maintain a seamless flow of information throughout the organization, from candidate search to invoice management.

 

Industry-specific staffing software generally comes as an integrated software package that covers virtually every aspect of business operations. It works only for one industry (eg healthcare) and offers the highest alt