5 Staffing Agency Marketing Ideas that Add Value

For the past several years staffing employment grew faster than the economy and employment overall. Here are five staffing agency marketing ideas that can help your agency stand out from the rest of the pack – and make it indispensable to your clients.

Add Value for Employers with Five Staffing Industry Marketing Ideas

According to IndustrySelect.com (and despite the negative impacts of COVID-19 on the U.S. jobs market in 2020) the forecast for the staffing industry is projected to be $126.1 billion in 2020. While this represents a 17 percent decline from the previous year, it is still 4 percent higher than the original estimate of $119B.

With the economic recovery of the last decade came opportunities for recruiters, temporary employment and staffing agencies to rebound, big time. Not only were more jobs available overall, but many employers, unsure of how quickly the recovery would happen and whether it would last, were hesitant to hire regular employees, and so opted for temporary workers instead. It is reasonable to expect continued opportunity for temporary employment agencies as the economy comes out of COVID-19 slowdowns and shutdowns, since employers may be uncertain for some time what their “new normal” number of employees and jobs should be, or to hedge against additional short term temporary closures.

5 Ways to Make Your Staffing Agency Indispensable

1. Look for value beyond the skill set

As a staffing agency recruiter, you (or your software) may scan hundreds of resumes relative to the skills, software, and specialties of candidates. Bring candidates to the table for temporary employment or temp-to-hire placement opportunities that have what it takes not only to do the job, but who will enhance the culture of an organization, and who may possess valuable skills beyond those specified in the job description.

The more often you place candidates that produce well, bring additional value to and fit well within an organization, the more likely it is that employers will turn to you when the next hiring opportunity arises.

2. Network to fill your back pocket

Hiring can be an expensive, time consuming process. Temporary employment and staffing agencies that network well can create a pool of individuals who, while they may not be actively looking for a new position, would be open to considering a change for the right opportunity.

Reach out to already-employed people, not just those who are actively looking! 35 percent of workers say they would change their field of work if they lost their job. That means that more than 1 in 3 people currently employed might be interested in changing jobs if they had an opportunity to do something they are more interested in doing, or which represents a better path for professional growth in the future.

Being able to serve up one or two quality candidates for potential openings immediately could easily make your staffing agency more valuable to employers when the need to fill a position quickly is paramount.

3. Write better recruiting copy

When you have an awesome job opportunity to fill or an outstanding employer to recruit for, why would you write boring, cliché, job description-like copy? Set your staffing agency apart by writing recruiting copy that engages top candidates and creates intrigue so that they want to know more. Plus, when you talk up the brand of an employer in creative copy, you are telling candidates that you think the employer’s brand is just as special as they believe it to be!

4. Soften your approach

If you only reach out to employers with sales calls and emails, you are doing it wrong. You might get lucky by hitting someone up at the moment they need to fill a position once in a while, but you may well turn off the vast number of contacts on your list.

Soften your approach with employers and think about nurturing relationships instead of pursuing accounts. Reach out with information that people can use to build their businesses – interesting articles about their industries, information about their competitors they might not be aware of, and so on. Become so interesting and helpful that your clients will welcome your phone calls and open your emails and will keep you top of mind when opportunity arises.

5. Specialize

Instead of casting a wide net, carve out a name and a niche for your staffing agency by identifying industries which are emerging or evolving, which are underserved, or even better understanding which industries your own firm’s expertise is best-suited to serve. When you become the “go-to” for certain industries or certain types of temporary job openings, you build top of mind brand awareness that is invaluable in providing your staffing agency with opportunity to get the first shot at filling opportunities.

Many past temporary hires turned into regular employees as employers developed more confidence in the economy. While the job market rebounds, competition will also increase among staffing and temporary employment agencies as well.

For staffing and temporary employment services firms, competition can be a good thing! Not only does it reflect more opportunity overall, but competition can light a fire when it comes to continuous improvement within a staffing agency. For temp services and staffing firms that want to create a competitive advantage, it is vital to identify areas where they can become indispensable to their most valuable clients.

You might also like: Benefits of Factoring Staffing