Employment and temp agencies are, essentially, a type of a dating agency for businesses and industries. The main idea is to find a good match between an employer and a potential employee and facilitate the filling of an open job position with a suitable hire. Why that extra step, you may ask? Why is there a need for a mediator between the businesses and the workers? An employment agency simplifies the whole process for both business and employees, and makes job finding more efficient.
Advantages of Employment Agencies
For a business, an employment agency acts as an external Human Resources department, pre-scanning and pre-matching potential hires. It also advertises open job positions to a large pool of possible applicants. For a person searching for a job, an employment agency is a great place to start looking. It offers a wide variety of job openings to consider and provides a general feel for what the job market is currently demanding. Furthermore, the worker only needs to submit his or her resume and general job application once, and the employment agency will make them accessible for review to many potential employers.
Additional Services
Some employment agencies take the issue of job searching once step further and provide additional help and assistance to clients, offering job-searching workshops and job fairs, and even matching workers with educational and skill-enhancement resources. Although certain agencies offer some of their most basic services for free, it is typical that they charge their clients on both sides of the process. Both businesses and workers are expected to pay a fee.
Temporary Employment
Temp agencies are employment agencies that specialize in temporary employment offers. Stereotypically, temp agencies are understood to provide unskilled or low-skilled laborers with short-term work placements. In many cases, that is indeed what temp agencies do; however, there is an ever-increasing volume of skilled and educated workforce willing to work temporary jobs. Temp agencies place employees in everything from data entry to HR work. Summer jobs and seasonal work also fall into this category.
Temp-to-Perm
Many job searchers accept a temporary work placement in hopes that their performance and connections may eventually help them to secure a permanent position. This may be an especially useful venue for workers, who are otherwise hard to employ due to many personal and social reasons, including advanced age, health problems or compromised personal past.
Permanent Employment
Some employment and staffing agencies are industry specific and offer a connection between specialized workforce, such as medical personnel, and the most suitable positions available. In these cases, the employment offered is of a permanent nature.
Using an Employment Agency
Although each agency has its own set of rules and regulations, most operate on a very similar basis. As a worker searching for a job, you should expect your encounter with the employment agency to look a lot like an application process with an actual employer.
The Ins and Outs
You will be asked to fill a job application, specifying your qualifications as well as all the different types of jobs you are willing to take. You will submit a detailed resume. These steps can typically be accomplished online or in person. A traditional employment agency is also likely to conduct an interview with the worker. Depending on your education and expertise, these interviews make take as little as five minutes and as long as an hour, for more specialized applicants.
Getting a Job
After filing all the necessary paperwork with the employment agency, you may be offered an open job position right away, or it may take several days or even weeks. Sometimes, you may be prompted to accept a temporary work opportunity until a more suitable option becomes available.
