Introduction
In staffing agencies, getting contracts is important for success. But how do these staffing agencies get contracts? It’s tricky. They have to build good relationships with clients and use technology smartly. It’s not easy, but with the right plan, they can do it. This guide, written by HR expert Malik Faisal Arfat, who boasts 24 years of experience in recruitment and serves as the Founder and CEO of AGT Services International, the best staffing recruitment agency in Pakistan, provides valuable insights into how staffing agencies get contracts, maintain client relationships, grow their businesses, and thrive in the market.
Understanding the Dynamics of Contract Acquisition
Before discussing how staffing agencies get contracts, let’s understand the basics first. Staffing agencies work in a people-focused industry where trust is really important. Making faith is all about building good relationships with the companies that need staff and the people looking for jobs. When staffing agencies show they can be trusted and depended on, it helps them stand out from the competition.
Recommended: How Recruitment Agencies Get Clients?
How do Staffing Agencies Get Contracts?
Recruiting contracts might seem tough, but breaking them into smaller parts is important. The main things to focus on are identifying a strong niche marketing, competitive research, cold calling, power of HR, networking and events, embracing technology payment terms, guarantee periods, and candidate engagement. Once you understand these factors, staffing agencies can talk to clients and confirm the contract works well for everyone.
1. Identifying a Strong Niche
Finding success in contract staffing depends heavily on finding and focusing on a specific sector that you’re good at. This could be a specific industry or type of job skill. When hiring agencies specialize like this, they become experts and gain trust. By knowing exactly what the industry needs and how it works, staffing agencies can better connect clients with the best candidates. It’s also important for agencies to have a lot of great candidates ready to go so they can quickly fill any job openings their clients have in selected Sectors.
Recommended: How to Calculate Recruitment ROI?
2. Adopt Digital Marketing
In today’s advanced digital landscape, depending only on traditional marketing strategies is no longer sufficient to ensure contracts for staffing agencies. Adopting digital marketing strategies is beneficial and necessary to effectively compete and succeed in this highly competitive market.
One of the primary ways digital marketing can help staffing agencies secure contracts is by improving their online presence. A well-designed and optimized website is important for attracting and engaging potential clients for staffing agencies. Regularly updating and maintaining your website with relevant and effective content can create a positive first impression and build credibility with future clients.
Moreover, allocating resources to search engine optimization (SEO) can significantly enhance the online visibility of your recruiting agency. By optimizing your recruitment website for relevant keywords and ensuring it ranks highly in search engine results pages, you can increase organic traffic and attract more qualified leads. Content marketing increases visibility, helps attract new clients and strengthens your agency’s reputation and credibility in the industry.
In addition to SEO, using other digital marketing channels such as social media, email marketing, and content marketing can further boost awareness about your staffing agency and its services. Engaging with your audience on social media platforms, sharing valuable insights and industry updates through email newsletters, and creating informative and engaging content can help position your HR agency as a thought leader in the staffing industry.
By strategically using digital marketing strategies, staffing agencies can increase their visibility, attract new clients, and establish strong relationships with existing clients, leading to more contracts and business opportunities. Adopting digital strategies is no longer just an option but necessary for staffing agencies looking to succeed in today’s competitive recruitment market.
Recommended: Recruitment Agency Fee Structure
3. Competitive Research
In staffing agencies, getting contracts isn’t just about luck—it’s about being smart and researching to stay ahead.
First, research helps staffing agencies understand what other staffing companies are doing. By looking at what your HR competitors are doing right, staffing agencies can learn what clients want and how the HR market changes. This helps staffing agencies make better decisions and stand out from the crowd.
Second, studying what other staffing companies offer in their contracts and what competitors (other staffing agencies) clients say about their services and staffing contracts can give you important hints about what clients need and expect. Competitive research information allows staffing agencies to adjust their services and pitches to get more contracts.
Third, researching competitors can help your staffing agency develop new ideas and ways to be different. By finding out where other hiring companies are lacking, your staffing firms can figure out how to offer something special that makes your staffing agency unique.
Lastly, keeping up with other HR agencies’ work helps staffing agencies improve over time. By comparing yourself to others, staffing firms can find ways to work better, be more efficient, and stay ahead in a tough industry.
Recommended: Art of Negotiating Recruitment Agency Fees With Clients
4. Cold Calling
Cold calling (ivr in the cloud) is key for staffing agencies to find new clients and get contracts. By using cold calling well, staffing agencies can make strong connections and build trust with potential clients. Here’s how cold calling helps staffing agencies get contracts:
A. Research and Getting Ready
Staffing agencies must research potential clients before making cold calls. Staffing agencies need to find companies in their field that need staffing help. You should learn about the company’s structure, who makes the important decisions, and what kind of staffing help they might need.
B. Personalized Approach
Instead of using the same script for every call, staffing agencies should customize their approach to each client. By talking about each client’s specific needs and problems, staffing firms can show they understand the client’s needs and how they can help in hiring.
C. Showing Skills:
During cold calls, staffing agencies should discuss their experience, past successes, and what they know about the industry. Sharing stories of how they’ve helped other clients and giving examples can make potential clients trust them more and see how they differ from other agencies.
D. Offering Solutions
Instead of just trying to sell hiring services, staffing agencies should focus on solving problems for the client. By listening to what the client needs and offering staffing solutions that fit, agencies can show they’re dedicated to helping the client and getting good results.
E. Building Relationships
Cold calling entails more than just making an immediate sale—it’s about initiating a relationship. Staffing agencies should focus on building trust and connecting with potential clients, even if they don’t get a contract right away. Following up with emails, sharing helpful information, and staying in touch can help build relationships and lead to contracts later on.
F. Keep Getting Better
Cold calling takes practice, and staffing agencies should always look for ways to improve. They should keep track of their calls, see what’s working and what’s not, and make changes to get better results. Agencies can get more contracts through cold calling by always trying to improve.
Recommended: How to Start a staffing Agency with No Money from Home?
5. Becoming a Talent Acquisition Partner
A really important way staffing agencies get contracts is by acting as a “Talent Acquisition Partner.” Talent Acquisition Specialist means staffing agencies must listen carefully to what their clients need from their staff and what problems clients face. By understanding and caring about your client’s needs and finding fit solutions, staffing agencies can show that they’re more than just a company providing a recruitment service. They become important partners that clients can trust and work closely with. This helps them build strong, lasting relationships and get more contract opportunities in the long run.
Recommended: What is a Manpower Recruitment Agency?
6. Harnessing the Power of HR
In today’s changing job world, HR (Human Resources) is very important for finding and managing talented people. Staffing agencies need to team up with HR teams at the companies they work with. HR folks are the ones who decide who to hire and which companies to work with. By getting to know HR people better, staffing agencies can find more job contracts and do better in the job market.
Recommended: What is Staffing Agency? Types of Staffing Companies and their Working Process
7. Introducing Contracting Early and Often
When staffing agencies first talk to clients, they must immediately tell them about their contract staffing services. Contracting from the Get-Go means introducing the idea of doing temporary work for them early on. By reminding clients about these services, the hiring agency ensures they don’t forget about them. Contracting right from the start makes it more likely that the staffing agency will get contracts in the future.
8. Utilizing Marketing Collateral
After talking with potential clients, giving them helpful information about contract staffing is important. Sales assets could be things like how contract staffing can benefit them, how the process works, and what insurance is involved. Marketing resources materials are like guides that clients can use to learn more and feel confident about working with the staffing agency. They help show that the agency is reliable and can be trusted.
Recommended: Types of Recruitment Agencies
9. Payment Terms
Payment terms include the staffing agency’s money and when they get the contract. Deciding on a fair amount, usually between 10% and 30% of the worker’s pay, is important. Agreeing on when the HR firms get paid is key to confirming enough money. Usually, staffing agencies expect to get paid within 30 days after the worker starts their job, which helps them plan their finances better.
10. Guarantee Periods
If a hired candidate leaves, the guarantee period is like a safety catch for staffing agencies. Usually lasting 30 to 90 days, this period spells out what the agency must do if a candidate leaves suddenly. Staffing firms can protect themselves by making smart guarantee rules. They can also ensure they get paid on time, which helps them stay safe if a client doesn’t pay up.
Recommended: How to Start a Recruitment Agency?
11. Candidate Engagement
The candidate engagement condition explains what the staffing agency and the client can do with job candidates. It sets rules for sending candidates, who owns them, and who gets paid. Staffing firms must discuss these rules early to stop arguments and ensure everyone gets paid fairly.
12. Using Client and Candidate Referrals
Referrals from clients and candidates are important for staffing agencies. When agencies do a great job and get good results, they make contracts, and candidates want to tell their friends about your staffing firms. Giving benefits and helping with paperwork make people more likely to guide others. This helps the agency become well-known in the industry. It’s smart for staffing agencies to work on building up their referral networks so they can get more job opportunities.
Recommended: How To Choose The Right Recruitment Agency For Your Business?
13. Networking and Events
Networking events are great chances for staffing agencies to meet new clients and important people and make new contracts. Talking to people in person helps you become friends and show that you are trustworthy, which is important for working together in the future. Going to events focused on your industry helps you learn about what’s happening and meet people who work in the same area as you. By meeting new people and making connections, staffing agencies can find more chances to work on new projects.
14. Embracing Technology
In today’s world, technology is important for staffing agencies to attract more clients and make new contracts. They use special software and computer programs to help them keep track of clients, find new leads, and make their work easier. This technology helps them stay organized, respond quickly to clients, and keep up with the competition. By using these cool tools, staffing agencies can set themselves up for long-term success in getting contracts.
Final Thoughts
Getting contracts is really important for staffing agencies if they want to do well in a tough market. To get contracts, agencies need to focus on building good relationships, finding their own special areas to work in, and using technology smartly. This can help them get better contracts that bring in more money. It’s also important for agencies to keep learning and changing with the market so they can stay ahead and be leaders in the staffing business.
