If you are looking to start a new staffing agency the first thing to decide is who your staffing agency is going to serve. Offering generalized staffing services fails to differentiate your agency and drives up marketing costs. So, the first thing to identify is a business sector in your area that’s in high demand.
Seriously consider all sectors in which you have expertise and/or experience.
Identify the Sector You Want to Serve
You cannot be all things to all businesses. Choose a sector that’s big in your area and target it. It might be manufacturing, or high tech, or a heavy concentration of offices in need of clerical and administrative help.
Find out what types of skill gaps exist in the area you are planning to startup and find out how many staffing agencies are already there and who they serve.
Avoiding over-saturated areas will increase your success prospects.
Targeted Advertising and Marketing
Once you’ve identified who you are going to serve target your marketing efforts to your chosen niche. Doing this allows you to create highly specific campaigns that speak to your targeted sector.
This approach saves on your advertising and marketing costs by allowing you to aim at a selected demographic so that you reach a larger percentage of people interested in your services at a lower cost than if you were advertising general staffing services for any and all businesses in the area.
Customer Service and Hiring Considerations
Staffing is a people business and requires you to be able to provide great customer service to both clients and candidates.
This means being able to offer candidates job searching advice, negotiation help and the types of jobs they ask for while answering your clients’ urgent calls promptly.
Both your candidates and clients will expect to depend on you to solve their problems quickly, efficiently, and with a smile.
You must have a well-defined, hiring process that repeatedly identifies high-quality candidates or your clientele will go elsewhere.
Legal Considerations
Your staffing agency must follow a list of laws and regulations to ensure that you are not sued for failure to comply with health and safety, payroll and taxes, human rights, employment laws, insurance rules, etc.
Having at least one legal expert on your staff will minimize your risk of making mistakes that result in fines, penalties or, in extreme circumstances, jail time.
Many factors go into a successful staffing firm. Having a niche, a solid hiring strategy, outstanding customer service, and legal expertise are critical components.
