5 Best Staffing & Temp Agencies in NYC, New York

Struggling to fill open positions or find strong candidates? A staffing agency can help you build a talent pipeline in a few New York Minutes. Staffing and temp agencies have evolved with the times, sourcing not just local talent but also remote and virtual workers, connecting businesses with freelance and independent (gig) contractors, emphasizing diversity hiring, and using data analytics to help with informed staffing decisions. But no two NYC recruiting agencies are alike; some are good, some are great. You want to stick with the best and integrate the chosen company into your recruitment system so that you can have talent on tap when you need it.

In this post, we explain what makes a great staffing agency and take you through the top recruiting agencies NYC. We also recommend a tool that allows you to easily perform a well-rounded candidate assessment.

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What Are Staffing Agencies?

A staffing agency is an intermediary between your business and job-seekers. It has an internal database of talent and scours externally - job boards, social media, and candidate networks - to find talent to your requirements. The moniker 'staffing agency' typically implies a company that focuses on permanent hiring, although it may also provide temp-to-permanent and direct placement (permanent) hires. The other title, 'temp agency,' refers to a company that serves employers seeking temporary or project-based workers. A temp agency in New York offers flexible staffing solutions to businesses, connecting them to qualified individuals looking for short-term employment opportunities.

What Are the Functions of a Staffing Agency?

A staffing agency exists to help you with all staffing-related needs and can take over all the tasks that an internal recruitment team typically fulfills. It's why a staffing agency might say it offers 'end-to-end staffing solutions', which can include:

• Understanding your company's workload requirements
• Determining the workforce needed to meet the workload
• Conducting interviews and shortlisting candidates
• Assessing candidates' employment history and performing background checks
• Drafting contracts and taking care of legal issues
• Providing training in case of gaps (not always, but depending on industry and role)
• Following up on hired workers' performance, and if unsatisfactory, helping client replace with a better fit

Temp agencies must comply with local labor laws and regulations. You're obligated to ensure that the New York temp agency you engage follows proper employment practices.

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The Current State of Staffing Agencies

A discussion on the evolution of staffing agencies is important to form the right expectations at the time of evaluating recruiting agencies in New York. Changing work skills and dynamics have led staffing agencies to adapt, with data and technology helping with the evolution.

If you've never used a staffing agency before, the changes may not be noticeable to you. But if you have some experience working with a staffing agency, you will see the difference. For example, staffing agencies have moved with the times, making diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) hiring a core offering. In New York, where differences are celebrated, you're likely to find recruiters that have a plan and network to support your diversity recruitment strategy.

Here's how staffing agencies have come of age, so to speak:

• They're more technologically advanced: Automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning are increasingly enhancing the recruitment process. AI screens resumes, conducts initial interviews, analyzes candidate responses, and assesses fit. Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) provide immersive job interviews, allowing interviewees to experience their potential workplace virtually and get an idea of the work culture.
• They're DEI-focused: With businesses becoming more intentional about creating diverse and inclusive workforces, staffing agencies have reevaluated and refined their hiring processes to be fair and unbiased. The DEI-focus is apparent in the inclusive job ads and structured interviews, in which each candidate is assessed against the same benchmarks.
• They proactively manage employer branding: The best job recruiters NYC are your allies, promoting your commitment to employee health and well-being before candidates. If you want to convey that you regard employees as whole individuals and meet your duty of care, staffing agencies can help showcase your brand in a positive light.
• They're supportive in building a fluid workforce: If you're in the tech industry or another sector that requires project-based roles, a temp agency New York City can help you dive into the fluid employment market. Staffing agencies connect you with freelancers and independent contractors offering specialized skills for short-term projects. You can save time and cost on building a flexible workforce that keeps contributing to your company's growth.

Recruitment requires a strategic approach. One of the best ways to find the right fit for the role is to select from a diverse talent pool. This is harder when you lack the time and/or resources to conduct extensive candidate searches. A staffing agency in NYC can make a big difference to whether you're able to find potential employees with the right skill sets and abilities.

Another (obvious) way is to screen candidates thoroughly, which is easier said than done in the face of time crunches and cost pressures. The good news is that you don't need a staffing agency to enhance candidate evaluation. Powerful and easy-to-use technology solutions exist to help you efficiently conduct a 360-degree candidate assessment. You'll be better able to make informed selections in an optimal amount of time.

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Top Staffing and Temp Agencies in NYC, New York

When seeking a staffing agency in NYC, explore reputed names, understanding why they're rated among the best, and how much they will cost you. Here are some of the best NYC has to offer:

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1. Atrium

In business for over 28 years, Atrium Staffing knows the local job market like few others of its ilk, which is advantageous to job-seekers and employers seeking local talent. The staffing agency provides customized talent solutions in various industries, including accounting and finance, information technology, lifestyle and fashion, healthcare, and human resources. It provides temporary talent, temp-to-hire talent, direct hire talent, and project-based talent solutions.

Atrium has a database of over 73% referrals, which means the agency can connect you to passive candidates that may work out to be a better fit for critical roles. You can save time on identifying potential employees on LinkedIn and pursuing them.

The staffing agency has used its decades of expertise in designing and deploying customized talent to create a proprietary Applicant-Centric approach. It approaches hiring from the candidate's perspective and clients receive personalized recruitment solutions. As they say, the proof is in the pudding: 93% of placements through Atrium are rated as excellent and candidates placed through Atrium stay in a position 3x longer than the industry average. What's also impressive is that some of Atrium's clients have been with them since the agency's inception, and candidates that used Atrium at the beginning of their careers are now the agency's business clients! That's longevity for you.

Atrium Staffing NYC offers advanced solutions to enterprise clients, including IC compliance, Employer of Record (EOR) payrolling, direct sourcing, early talent administration, and workforce intelligence data.

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2. Michael Page

Michael Page is a familiar name in the recruitment industry. Located in 622, 3rd Avenue, the staffing agency has been around for over 40 years, and suffice to say, can claim to meet your local, regional, and global recruitment goals. The consultancy offers permanent, contract, temporary, and interim recruitment solutions, and specializes in recruiting for a number of sectors, including analytics, finance and accounting, banking and financial services, engineering and manufacturing, healthcare and life sciences, human resources, information technology, marketing, legal, and sales.

As part of its Page Outsourcing service, the company designs a recruitment program to your unique needs, screening, assessing, interviewing, selecting, background-checking, and onboarding candidates - essentially taking care of end-to-end hiring for you. Michael Page also offers an executive search service, helping employers recruit at the senior management, executive, and leadership levels.

One of the top NYC recruiting agencies, Michael Page's sourcing methodology focuses on providing targeted candidate solutions. It maintains an international database of candidates from all over the world, all of whom have been interviewed and screened prior to registration. The agency uses its extensive network, social media, and online advertising to meet all types of hiring needs.

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3. Korn Ferry

Located in the heart of NYC's Midtown, Korn Ferry is a leading name in the executive search industry. Established in 1969, the veteran staffing consultancy also offers professional talent search, interim talent, project recruitment, and a recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) service. It serves mid-tier to Fortune 500 companies and can boast of having 98% of the Fortune 100 list as its clients. Its dedicated team of job recruiters NYC has a reach extending the entire East Coast and maintains contacts in a number of practice areas and regions throughout the region.

Korn Ferry has retained its competitive edge by acquiring, over the years, talent firms and staffing agencies, adding to its repertoire of services. It offers recruitment solutions in various industries, including financial services, technology, clean technology, healthcare and life sciences, sports, government, and the public sector.

The recruitment consultancy assists clients with diversity recruitment, removing challenges that get in the way of fair and unbiased hiring and towards a transition to a more inclusive workforce. Its recruiters maintain one the largest talent networks in the world and use collaborative methods to identify and recruit high-caliber candidates. Korn Ferry's expert recruiters provide companies with talent analytics and help build a flexible, intelligent talent acquisition strategy.

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4. Clutch Talent

Also located in the Midtown, Clutch Talent is a woman-owned business specializing in tech recruitment, helping employers hire the city's in-demand software engineering talent. The Clutch team consists of five members, which includes two Senior Tech Recruiters having experience across internal and agency recruitment, and human resources. The team uses a blend of strategic consulting and recruitment marketing to match NY companies with the right tech talent.

Clutch offers virtual embedded recruitment, contingent technical recruiting, and diversity recruiting. In virtual embedded recruitment, the agency's recruiters work directly with your hiring managers to source, screen, and track candidates, adapting to your needs. Contingent technical recruiting from the New York staffing agency follows a process that's typical for this service. You send over job descriptions to the agency, it develops a sourcing and messaging strategy, and begins the search for software engineers who meet your requirements. In case of any feedback during the candidate submission process, the team recalibrates accordingly.

Clutch Talent is among the NYC recruiting agencies offering diversity recruiting. The company uses its personal network, formed through deep engagement in diverse communities within tech, to connect you to talented engineers from underrepresented backgrounds.

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5. Robert Half

Robert Half is the world's first and largest specialized staffing firm. It routinely features in Fortune's Most Admired Companies and Forbes' Best Employers lists. The agency's Midtown recruiters and local staffing experts help employees hire talent in various industries, including technology and IT, finance and accounting, marketing, administrative and customer support, and legal services. Robert Half offers contract talent, permanent talent, and executive search solutions. It takes a personalized approach to hiring, understanding your business, staying in the know about your evolving business requirements, and adapting as needed.

The agency maintains a proprietary database of 30 million candidates. Its experience counts for a lot in a challenging market, in sourcing candidates with niche skills, and in providing a wide variety of candidates. If you're looking for a reliable temp agency New York, Robert Half can be valuable to your search, easing access to contract talent that's not available in the hiring market.

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Improve candidate fit and minimize turnover with a talent assessment tool

NYC recruiting agencies are crucial to building a talent pipeline and continuing to recruit painlessly in a challenging market. Even as you source candidates more easily, you want to assess talent at your end to ensure you're selecting only the best person for the job. HiPeople helps you do exactly that and build high-performing teams.

Powered by intelligent AI, the talent assessment tool lets you easily create assessments specific to your requirements using a large test library and custom questions, and generates easy to understand reports and AI-driven insights. HiPeople Assessments help you hire top performers quickly and maintain a high quality of hire.

The HiPeople Talent Assessment Library allows you to test candidates on hard skills, soft skills, cognitive abilities, language skills, and personality, enabling over 300 types of evaluations in all. You can easily run structured assessments to support your diversity hiring goals.

A cool feature is the ability to effortlessly detect fraudulent candidates. The platform's proprietary algorithms check relationships between candidates and references, and alert you to discrepancies and potential fraud.

HiPeople's candidate experience analytics keeps your employer brand looking attractive and does its bit to attract people to your company. The platform seamlessly integrates with your ATS, automating workflows in seconds and helping you build out candidate assessment processes quickly.

Sign up with HiPeople or book a demo to check out the tool's features.