What is a staffing agency?
A staffing agency (also called a recruitment agency or placement firm) is a business whose job is filling its clients' roles. It receives a search mandate, runs the intake meeting, sources and screens candidates, then presents the best ones to the client, who decides.
There are two main models:
- Permanent placement: the candidate is hired by the client. The agency charges a fee, often a percentage of annual salary, sometimes with a replacement guarantee.
- Temporary placement (temp staffing): the worker is employed by the agency and assigned to the client, who pays the agency by the hour.
An agency differs from a headhunter, who mainly approaches employed candidates for rare profiles, and from RPO, where a provider takes over all or part of a company's recruiting.
Why do staffing agencies matter?
For a company without a recruiting team, an agency brings a network, time and expertise. For candidates, it is often the way into roles that are never advertised. But the model creates a particular responsibility: an agency handles many candidates for few placements. If it only answers the ones it places, most people are left without news.
Regulation is tightening. In Ontario, temporary help agencies and recruiters must hold a licence since July 1, 2024, and clients may not knowingly use an unlicensed one. In Quebec, personnel placement agencies have needed a licence from the CNESST since 2020. And when an agency interviews candidates for an Ontario employer with 25 or more employees, the employer remains responsible for answering interviewed candidates within 45 days. Rules differ by province, state and country, so check where you operate.
Concrete example
A four-recruiter staffing firm in Quebec City manages about thirty active searches in accounting and administration. Its database holds several thousand candidates built up over the years. For each search, it looks in that database first, presents three profiles to the client within a week, and sends every interviewed candidate an answer, positive or not, with a reason. Candidates rejected for one search are often right for the next: that is the whole value of a well-treated dormant talent pool.
Best practices
- Check your licensing obligations in every jurisdiction where you operate.
- Get the candidate's consent before presenting their file to a client.
- Search your database before posting. Your history is your competitive edge.
- Answer every interviewed candidate, with feedback grounded in skills and experience.
- Log every submission: which candidate, which client, which date. It prevents fee disputes.
To compare the tools on the market, read our ranking of software for placement firms in Quebec.
Common mistakes
- Presenting a candidate without their consent. It damages trust and can create fee disputes.
- Only answering placed candidates. The others are the raw material for the next searches.
- Juggling too many tools across a CRM, spreadsheets and email, to the point of losing a candidate's history.
- Competing on speed alone. Sending five profiles in a day impresses once; sending the right two, with clear reasons, builds the client relationship.
With RecruitEasy
RecruitEasy is built for small staffing firms: an agency mode to manage clients and searches, import of your existing database, candidate recommendations with the reason, and candidate replies reviewed by the recruiter before sending. Pricing is per firm, not per recruiter. See the agencies page.