Employment Agencies Need to Sell Themselves Too

Employment agencies are always in flux, working to respond to clients' fleeting job vacancies and trying to maintain the interest of a transitory workforce. Despite this constantly shifting business climate, their needs for promotional products are anything but temporary.

"Employment services" companies, as they are referred to categorically, can take on several different forms. Some list job openings and help companies recruit permanent employees to fill those positions. Others specialize in providing temporary employees. And still others essentially serve as an external human resources department, providing not just recruiting and job placement, but also payroll, accounting, benefits administration and other services.

"In any one of those companies you can basically split the company into three concerns," says Tim Sheridan, vice president and director of sales for Blue Mack Inc., Northfield, Ill., a distributor that has worked with several types of staffing firms. "One is the client, their customer who needs somebody to fill a position. The second is the candidate, which is the person who will fill the position. And the third is their own internal [needs]."

Promotional products often play a major role in maintaining a stable supply of job candidates, attracting new and repeat business from clients, and keeping the internal staff motivated.

MAINTAINING SUPPLY AND DEMAND

In the employment services industry, the job candidates are the "inventory." At any given moment, a client may contact an employment firm regarding a position that needs to be filled. Whether that position is permanent or temporary, the agency will ideally have a pool of qualified, willing job candidates on hand.

"You obviously want to keep your 'inventory,' your cadre of people, happy and wanting to work for you," Sheridan says.

Promotional products are an important part of attracting and maintaining that stable inventory. In temporary staffing agencies, for instance, they are often used as gifts to reward good performance or a certain number of hours of service, or just as a seasonal employee appreciation gift. Employment agencies that work with permanent placement might also give away gifts in exchange for filling out an application, submitting a résumé or signing up for a job placement service.

FINDING THEIR FOCUS

All types of job placement firms are likely to participate in and give away promotional products at community events of some sort — whether job fairs, professional trade shows, local fundraisers or festivals — to raise awareness of their companies and to meet potential job candidates. Many of these agencies also have "refer-a-friend" programs, in which they give a gift to a candidate who recruits other job candidates.

Some job placement firms offer general staffing and target a wide range of different industries, while others focus on a particular industry such as medical or clerical, the target audience determining the appropriate promotion.

"Clerical is different from clinical or medical, which is different from accounting," Sheridan explains. "Certainly the medical field is very female-focused, even the clerical area tends to be more female-oriented, but [the recipient] could be anybody, so we try to focus more on useful generic items."

One of the biggest considerations for items aimed at candidates is the per-item cost. Since there is such a high turnover rate among candidates, it makes economic sense to strive for a minimal investment in each individual.

"Motivation of the people is key, but because the people are transient, they [the employment agency] don't necessarily see it as worthwhile to invest in somebody too greatly," Sheridan explains, adding that the agency's entire pool of candidates may be much larger than the number of positions the agency fills.

"In effect, staffing firms might have thousands of candidates they want to try to recognize, so they're not going to make a huge investment in these people. But they do want to recognize them in some way, and they say they get solid responses from [promotional products] even though the items are small."

On the other side of the relationship, staffing firms are always looking to attract new clients and convince them to return. Making a strong first impression, building a memorable, recognizable brand and maintaining visibility is an important part of that.

"One of the biggest concerns is always keeping the information in front of the client," Sheridan says. "They have a lot of staffing firms calling on them, and often if they can't fill the position with one staffing firm, they call the next. So you want to make sure they call [your firm] first."

INDUSTRY EVENT OPPORTUNITIES

Trade shows and job fairs are a big part of recruiting candidates and wooing clients. When possible, employment firms like to create promotional products handouts that can work for both audiences in order to save further on costs and make things as efficient as possible. Many staffing companies also attend the same events as their competitors, so it benefits them to do something creative that differentiates them, although they may not always have the financial wherewithal to do it.

Despite this frugal attitude toward the per-item cost, overall profit margins tend to be around 40%, according to Sheridan. Sometimes these agencies may not see the value in promotional products, or they may assume they are too expensive, which means it may take a little convincing.

"[Employment agencies] sometimes focus on the financial bonuses or rewards for their people," Sheridan says. "We all know that money is kind of fleeting. It doesn't have as long an impact as promotional products will."

MOTIVATING THE STAFF

As a very personal business that depends on creating relationships, keeping the employment agency's staff motivated is critical to its success. Permanent employees of the agency typically recruit and interview the job candidates, determine their qualifications and match them up with a client's job opening.

"Everybody's working with clients or candidates at some point," Sheridan says. "It's important that they be very up front and kind and caring both to the candidates and the clients."

Part of motivating them to give that extra care is giving gifts and incentives on a regular basis to show appreciation.

"We've done nice pens and padfolios when they've launched a promotion or a new software package within the company," Sheridan says. "I did juggling balls, and they were great because on each one we identified [the three main parts of the business] — clients, candidates and corporate — and it showed how they all have to work together. We'll do T-shirts and hand sanitizers, little personal things they can carry with them. We use those for the clients and candidates as well."

Employment agencies don't typically need a lot of promotional apparel. While garments may be used as internal gifts for employees, neither the employees nor the candidates typically wear logo apparel during work because they are expected to wear professional business attire or dress appropriately for their industry or position. Instead, smaller items that can be reused, passed along or remain visible for long periods of time are ideal. "Usually desk items like candy jars are very popular because they can reuse them as well," Sheridan says.

FINDING THE BUYER

Because a typical employment agency has a relatively small permanent staff, there are generally only one or two contacts to handle promotional products ordering for internal and candidate- or client-focused needs. In some cases, however, a particular person might be assigned to a certain event or promotion and be expected to handle that promotional products order. Or a particularly large firm may have multiple departments with different managers for each.

"Most staffing firms are not huge," Sheridan says. "You're probably dealing with an owner or the operations person, and that could be a manager or director or vice president. Then you might have some of the assistants who will reorder, but you'll have various managers who might be given responsibility for a certain event. They'll sponsor community events, a breast cancer walk, things like that, and then you're doing T-shirts for the team and water bottles and everything else."

Carly L. Price is a Dallas-based freelance writer and former senior associate editor for Impressions magazine. She has written for national trade and consumer magazines, including Cooking Light and Southern Living.