Employment Agencies and Staffing Agencies - Research Paper Example

The paper "Employment Agencies and Staffing Agencies" is a great example of an essay on human resources. Identifying candidates who can fully respond to the needs of a particular position can be a major challenge for employers in the modern market. Employment agencies can help employers to identify appropriately qualified staff within a short period of time; in this way, organizational performance, as related to gaps in the workplace, is not threatened. The current paper focuses on the employment and staffing agencies operating in the US.

The performance and the industry’s trends are presented so that the role of the specific industry in the development of the local economy is made clear. The employment agencies of a well-developed region of US, Boston, are also presented in order to show whether these agencies can perform high both at local and at the national level. 2. Employment and staffing agencies in US – overview, and characteristics Employment and staffing agencies have a critical role in the development of the US economy.

The 10 largest employment and staffing agencies in the US are presented in Table 1 (Appendix); in the above Table, companies are ranked according to the revenue of their staff for the year 2011. In the particular table, it is made clear that the variety of areas covered is the key criterion for employment agencies operating nationwide while at local level specialization seems to be more important, as in the case of Boston analyzed below. According to a report published by the American Staffing Association, the employment and staffing agencies operating across US help towards the hiring of about 12.

9 million of people annually (American Staffing Association, Staffing Statistics 2012). It is also noted that the high majority of staff identified through these agencies is full-time staff, at a percentage of about 79% (American Staffing Association, Staffing Statistics 2012). The candidates who use employment and staffing agencies in order to enter the job market tend to have different criteria; for others, flexibility in the workplace is critical while there are employees that appreciate more the stability, as part of a job, a fact that leads them to choose a permanent role (American Staffing Association, Staffing Statistics 2012).

On the other hand, businesses value employment and staffing agencies because these agencies are able to offer to employers the chance to identify staff that will be more appropriate for a permanent role but also because these agencies are the most appropriate solution for identifying staff during busy periods (American Staffing Association, Staffing Statistics 2012). It should be noted that during the recent financial crisis, the employment and staffing agencies in the US helped towards the stabilization of the economy, contributing in the hiring of 786,000 people from 2009 to 2012 (American Staffing Association 2012).

Still, the consequences of the recession on the industry’s performance have been severe being characterized by ‘the loss of about 1.2 million jobs in the particular industry during the first 18 months of the crisis’ (American Staff Association 2012). In the future, the industry’s firms could face the market’s challenges by focusing on temporary and part-time roles that are highly popular, compared to the permanent positions (Rossheim 2012). 2a. Staffing agencies in Boston In Boston, there is an increased need for staff specialized in particular subjects.

Reference is made, especially to the tech sector but also to the finance and accounting sector. The area’s job market seems to offer many prospects to appropriately qualified candidates; still, the identification of these candidates is quite problematic, as revealed through the article of Farrell (2012). Most employment agencies operating in Boston are characterized as ‘client-intimate’ (Shaheen 2012), meaning that each staffing agency focuses on the promotion of interests of employers; in other words, in Boston ‘employers are considered as the clients of employment agencies’ (Shaheen 2012).

Using an employment agency helps employers in Boston to identify the right applicants for their vacant positions without having to face the difficulties that usually appear in the recruitment and the selection process; these difficulties are managed by the employment agencies without the intervention of employers (Shaheen 2012). A key problem in regard to the Boston job market is that it is related more to specific sectors, such as finance, IT and pharmaceutical sectors (Shaheen 2012). In this context, vacant positions are expected to refer to specific skills, which can be identified only in a small number of applicants (Shaheen 2012).

Still, the number of employment agencies in Boston is high, indicating the sector’s importance for the promotion of local business operations (Employment Agencies Boston 2012). The Boston job market has attracted employment agencies that operate nationwide, such as Michael Page (2012); the employment agencies operating only locally seem to be the majority. For example, reference can be made to ACE Employment Services Inc. (2012), an employment agency that can respond to the staffing needs of a high variety of firms, including hospitals, legal firms, and educational institutes. 3. Conclusion Employment agencies have a critical role in the economy of the US.

Through these agencies, the staffing needs of firms of all sizes are covered. In the US the employment and staffing industry is well organized, offering to candidates the chance to choose across different modes of work arrangements. In Boston also a similar trend exists. In the particular area, the job market is characterized by the increased demand for experienced workers in the areas of technology and finance. The employment agencies operating in Boston have aligned their operations accordingly so that they are able to respond to the particular need.

Still, the effectiveness of this area’s employment agencies could be further improved, so that the time required for the identification of appropriately skilled staff is minimized, as analyzed above.