How to Acquire Contracts for Your Temp Agency In the competitive staffing and recruitment industry, it can be difficult to land major contracts with employers. From a business owner's perspective, there may be no reason to work with just one temp service when there are so many available. To break through this mindset, you need to show the hiring manager why your agency is the best or only choice. The people in charge need to understand that it takes both talent and experience to locate the right person to fill an open position. Fortunately, there are several steps you can take to prove to employers that your company can adequately meet its staffing needs.
In the early days of temporary employment agencies, people were most often needed to work in an office or factory. As changes in the economy forced more employers to consider using staffing agencies, companies within the industry had to come up with new ways to compete. One way to differentiate your company from other temp services is to focus on a specialty niche. For example, an agency specializing in placing nurses exists solely to serve the healthcare industry. In order to be successful in your niche, you must research the industry and the geographical area where you intend to do business. You then need to recruit in areas where people in your specialty are looking for work, which would be nursing colleges, hospitals and clinics in this example. It makes hiring managers feel more secure when they know that your staffing organization understands their industry. The more you can demonstrate specific knowledge about the niche you have chosen, the greater the likelihood of signing long-term contracts with prominent employers.
It is one thing for you to boast that you have the candidates to fill an employer's staffing needs, but it is another thing entirely to show how you go about finding those candidates. You need to describe your company's recruitment efforts to employers in order to demonstrate how and where you find applicants for specific openings. You should also be certain to explain the following to potential clients:
The most successful staffing agencies have mastered the art of headhunting to find the right candidates for a job. Describe to your potential client how your organization reaches out to potentially qualified people rather than waiting to receive resumes in response to a job posting. You then need to take it a step further by describing one or more instances of your successful headhunting techniques resulting in filling a position for your clients.
If you can't produce evidence that your agency can get results, your presentation ultimately won't be very convincing. Your prospective clients need to see visual proof that you can produce results. You can win their confidence by arriving at the appointment with charts, graphs and reports that show tangible results. Be sure to provide the hiring organization with detailed numbers on your business volume and placement rates. You also want to discuss the types of industries you work with in-depth and be prepared to meet any objections your potential client may raise. For example, assume that the hiring manager is concerned that workers from your agency won't complete the entire assignment. You need to empathize with this concern and show how you proactively address it. Some possible solutions to this problem are offering completion bonuses to employees or reducing the amount of money a client has to pay if the original employee doesn't complete the assignment. When you are proactive about solutions upfront, it increases the client's trust in the event the problem actually transpires.
Satisfied clients are the best possible form of advertising for your staffing agency. After you schedule an appointment to see a potential client, be certain to secure several letters of recommendation from people who have done business with your organization in the past. In addition to printed testimonials, solicit input from past and current clients for your company's website. You can print these out and bring them to the meeting with you or direct the hiring manager to the homepage of your business.
The economic recession of 2007 to 2009 has made many employers gun-shy about taking on new permanent workers. Between 2009 and 2013, the number of people working at a job through a temporary employment agency increased by 53 percent. As of July 2013, there were 2.7 million people employed as temporary workers in the United States. With the demand for skilled temp workers higher than ever, agencies within the industry must be prepared to attract new clients by staying one step ahead of the competition.
