We sometimes are asked by our clients and job candidates, why are some people calling our company a "staffing firm" and why others are calling us a "staffing agency". Of these two phrases, it seems that today more people are familiar with the term "staffing agency", but in the first two decades of our existence as Clark Davis Associates most of our clients were actually referring to us as a "staffing firm", so we took that as part of our marketing strategy and branding. But as times have changed, people have become more accustomed to referring to companies like ours as agencies rather than as firms.
However, we are also a "recruiting firm", so the phrase "staffing firm" is not the only label that can be associated with our company. If anything, our deep experience in the staffing industry and our seasoned team of recruiters and headhunters gives us an unparalleled service portfolio that helps us match the best job candidates with the best employers. So whether you consider us to be an agency or a firm, it does not matter, as our staffing and recruiting services are of the highest caliber!
What is the difference between staffing and recruiting?
These terms are similar and often used interchangeably in our industry, but there is a distinction between them. The term "recruiting" is more related to the challenging task of finding the right people for a given job position, while the term "staffing" is more closely tied to the actual process of placing people into jobs and onboarding them properly with minimal effort on the part of the employer (our client). Many search firms perform both of these services, but a good example of the importance of the distinction between these two words can be seen in the fact that executive search firms must focus more on finding the right person for the job due to the exacting nature of matching executives to the companies that they are hired by as well as the rarity of suitable candidates for such jobs. Firms that are focused on "staffing" on the other hand tend to be more process-oriented with typically higher volume of job placements for the more common lower-level job openings frequently seen on corporate job boards.
Merging the two fields together
Our agency owes its success in part to our ability to balance the staffing and recruiting aspects of the business in a way that actually benefits our customers and job seekers. This did not come by accident, but is built on the experience we have accumulated in this business since our firm was founded in 1987. By applying our expertise and knowledge at the right stages of the hiring process on behalf of our clients, we have learned the meaning and value of proper staffing effort balanced with the recruiting skills that we have honed over the years. So, whether you are looking for a staffing agency or a recruiting firm, or just for a search firm, we can do it all for you and our passion and commitment to doing it right remains strong!
Related topics and links
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