I have compiled a sampling of questions (from my book) to help you when interviewing a staffing service. Naturally, the areas that are most important to you and your company will drive which questions you need to ask.
If you are not in the market for a new staffing service, perhaps you may want to circle back to your present staffing service and clarify certain points with them, if they were not previously discussed.
- How long has the staffing service been in business?
- How many locations does the staffing service have?
- Is the staffing service a family business or a partnership?
- How many full-time employees does the staffing service have?
- What is the staffing service turnover rate internally? (It should be lower than 40%.)
- How many staffing service representatives handle temp placements?
- How many clients does each temp placement representative handle?
- What is the average length of experience for staffing service reps that place temps?
- Does the staffing service specialize in any certain industries? If so, which ones?
- How many clients does the staffing service have?
- How does the staffing service gain new business?
- Where does the staffing service business expect to be in two years? Five years?
- Will the staffing service provide three business references in my industry?
- What is the staffing service’s busy season? Slow season?
- How does the staffing service increase their temp pool to meet increases in demand?
- Explain the temp placement process when requests are placed.
- What is the response time for “same day” temp requests?
- Explain their “after hours” coverage should there be a new or last minute temp placement request?
- Do account representatives carry smart phones?
- Describe one of the staffing service’s toughest temp placement challenges.
- What are their rates? Are they ever negotiable?
- What type of satisfaction guarantee is there?
- If dissatisfied with a temp’s performance, what are the remedies?
- How often has the staffing service placed temps that were not satisfactory to a client?
- What are some of the reasons for clients for why they found a temp to be dissatisfactory?
- How does the staffing service handle ending assignments early when a temp is not performing as expected for a client?
- What are some of the specific items that the staffing service offer temp coaching in?
- Does the staffing service coach temps on the challenges unique to temps?
- How does the staffing service ensure that temps are aware of sexual harassment and discrimination policies in the workplace?
- How does the staffing service ensure that temps are aware of client technology policies?
- How does the staffing service ensure that temps adhere to client confidentiality policies?
- Does the staffing service place “temp to perm”?
- What are the rates/guarantees for “temp to perm”?
- Does the staffing service waive their placement fee when a temp goes to perm status, say after 90 days? If not, is that fee negotiable?
- What percentage of temps does the staffing service place on short-term assignments?
- What percentage of temps does the staffing service place on long-term assignments?
- Describe the staffing service’s ideal client.
- How often does the staffing service typically visit their clients on-site?
- Why is this staffing service different/better than others?
- If the staffing service were to pledge five things to a client, what would these be?
- What is the one benefit clients should know about that this staffing service provides?