Let’s face it, looking for a job in 2023 has been ROUGH. Hiring in the U.S. has been down 23.8% year over year and is continuing to decline (as of September 2023). Job seekers are reporting that it may take them several months, hundreds of applications, and dozens of interviews to find a position. Knowing this, a savvy job seeker needs to be pulling every lever possible to find a role as quickly as possible.
What’s one of my favorite levers to pull? Staffing agencies.
Historically, agency recruiters tend to get a bad rap. I started my career at a technical staffing agency and personally, I’ve seen agency recruiters go above and beyond what most corporate recruiters would ever do for their candidates. For example, we personally walked each and every one of our candidates into any onsite interviews with our clients. One time, an account manager I worked with met his candidate in the parking lot and noticed he was severely underdressed for the interview. This account manager literally took the clothes off his back and traded outfits with his candidate, and the candidate ended up getting the job. This sounds made up, I know, but it’s not, and I have other similar stories from my time there that would warm the iciest of hearts.
I’ve heard the rumor before, “staffing agencies lowball you!”, but this couldn’t be further from the truth… at least when it comes to filling a fulltime, salaried role (more detail on this later). Most staffing agencies charge their clients (the hiring companies) a fee of somewhere between 20-30% of your first year’s salary.
Example: if you were to accept an offer for a fulltime role through a staffing agency for a salary of $100,000, the company hiring you would be paying the agency at least $20,000 (assuming a 20% fee), and the recruiter that hired you would get a cut of that in commission.
Taking the same example: if the agency recruiter had fought to get you an extra $50,000 (for a salary of $150,000), that would increase the agency fee to at least $30,000. So, when you win, both the agency and recruiter win too! The only loser in this equation is the company hiring you.
All of this being said, there is some truth to the rumor that staffing agencies lowball you, because the commission works in a totally different way for hourly roles. Let’s say the client expects to pay $50/hour for a contract role, but a recruiter finds a candidate willing to take $35/hour. That $15/hour difference is what we called “spread”, and that’s the commission being made.
Taking the same example of a $50/hour job, if the recruiter were to find a candidate for $45/hour, they would only be getting $5/hour in commission! Over a year, the difference in commission would be $31,200 for the $35/hour candidate vs. only $10,400 for the $45/hour candidate. So, to be fair, in a contract scenario… your agency recruiter might be trying to lowball you.
Now that you understand how staffing agency recruiters are financially motivated, check out my upcoming post “The Case for Using Staffing Agencies in Your Job Search” to learn more about why I consider agencies to be one of the most underrated levers you can pull in your job search.
Comments