I was honored to speak last week at an HR seminar. The topic of the talk was how to get the most out of your staffing vendor. I think the talk was well received and I had a few interesting observations from that talk that I thought I would share.
First, I mentioned to the group that there are two main areas an HR or Hiring Manager should negotiate with a staffing firm. The first is the obvious, price. The second is on the guarantee. What happens if the person placed does not work out? I believe the price (for contingency search= staffing firm only gets paid if you hire someone) is not important. After all, you will only pay that price if the firm finds you someone you feel can contribute in excess of that cost.
The guarantee though is where the focus should be. It is important to have this conversation up front and come to an agreement. What happens if the company moves? What happens if the job significantly changes? What happens if the new employee's skills are not at the level as advertised? All issues that should be talked about up front.
When I asked the assembled group of HR Managers for a few horror stories? Most seemed to revolve around a candidate/employee not working out and the agency's response to that. This is a solvable problem as long as it is addressed up front!
