Insights

What to Look for in a Staffing Provider

Being in the recruiting business, we talk to a lot of clients about what they’re looking for in a graphic design staffing agency. Most want things like industry specialization and geographic coverage. Some want their staffing provider to be involved in the community and to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. But, in our experience, all of them want a robust and efficient delivery model. After all, little else matters if your recruiting partner can’t deliver on creative and marketing talent.

It’s All in the Delivery

Delivery—AKA recruitment—is a critical way a staffing partner can add value to your recruiting process. Without an effective model, a firm won’t be able to fill your requisitions. So, if you’re in the market for a graphic design staffing agency, make sure they’re an organization that can put more than one set of eyes on an open position to ensure you find the right candidate for the job. But be on the lookout.

Some creative staffing firms are only focused on their time-to-fill rate, and will throw any ole consultant at you in hopes of securing a placement. This isn’t a good approach for anybody: That recruiter and that firm earn themselves a bad rep. The candidate is unhappy. And worst of all, you – the client – are out money, and have to reinitiate the process all over again. There are, of course, firms out there too that don’t have a bench or have zero built-in relationships and will take weeks to provide a single qualified applicant.

The Differentiators

An experienced creative staffing provider, however, can deliver quality talent in a timely fashion, already having several recruitment funnels and pipelines in place before setting out to fill a req. At Planet Interactive, for instance, we have networks of recruiters dedicated to forging national relationships with passive and active Creative, Digital & Marketing candidates. Proficient recruiting teams will not only spend the day responding to job orders and client requests, but are also actively building out their pipelines in multiple geographies with candidates of varying expertise and backgrounds: From Copywriters at large advertising agencies to UX designers working at startups.

The best graphic design staffing agency will have a depth of recruiting resources coupled with a nuanced understanding of the unique creative market. When we at Planet Interactive are engaged for creative staffing services, we can seamlessly divert resources to find qualified candidates on your behalf. This process only becomes more efficient over time, as we deepen our understanding of your particular design needs, tech stacks, and culture. We’ve been in this business a while. So we know from experience many staffing providers are only concerned with making that next placement. This, ironically, undermines their entire delivery model altogether because they haven’t put in the work to understand the market or you, the client. This isn’t the case with Planet Interactive. We’ve done the work to build relationships with communities of talent, helping us find referrals and fill positions even faster.

The Takeaway

Regardless of your company size or industry, an efficient delivery model should be at the top of your list of priorities in a graphic design staffing agency. From there you can build a working, mutually beneficial relationship enabling you to secure top talent. Remember, a successful staffing engagement ultimately boils down to whether your provider can present quality applicants.  So, if you have questions about running a search, or Planet Interactive’s commitment to delivery, feel free to contact us directly!

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