Hiring through an employment agency gets your open jobs filled quickly, saving the time and money you might have put in to recruiting. Agencies an also connect you quickly with hard-to-find, specialized talent, as well as temps. And agencies often have pre-screened, trained and tested candidates in addition to checking their backgrounds.

But agencies may charge up to 30 percent of the employee's first year salary. So selecting a staffing firm is also making a serious investment. Follow these steps to recruit the right recruiters for your business:

1. Do due diligence on the agency
2. Determine the criteria that's important to you
3. Shop around

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Find your candidates

You can search the database of the American Staffing Association's members by location, type of services you need, and occupational categories. Once you've come up with a list of possibilities from your Internet research, referrals from other business owners or advisors, you can whittle the list. If a firm isn't willing to visit your business to get a feel for your corporate culture and meet your top bosses, think twice. If a firm is an American Staffing Association member, you'll know it has agreed to conform to industry standards and is up on the latest human resources developments and trends.

I recommend: Search the ASA member database.

Know who you're dealing with

Find out key stats about the agency, including how long they've been in business, how they recruit workers and what type of compensation and benefits they offer. Determine too, whether the firm provides skills tests, training and whether it does background checks and drug tests.

I recommend: For more on employment agencies, you'll want to go to the American Staffing Association. Also check out the company with the Better Business Bureau.

Make sure your agency is a good fit

You want to work with a firm that has extensive experience in your industry. Also, make sure to inquire about their fee structure.

I recommend: See this article on Choosing a Staffing Partner; and read more advice on the topic from Manpower International. There are additional considerations to be made if you are hiring an IT specialist.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  For jobs that require extensive overtime, it may be cheaper to pay overtime to an existing employee than to hire a temporary worker from an agency.
• •  Know that temporary staff who work on an ongoing basis may be regarded as employees, which could have tax implications.
• •  Be sure that you clearly explain to the agency what's important in the candidate selection process, which qualities, skills, characteristics, for example, are most desirable.