Staffing agencies can be lucrative businesses with massive growth potential if managed smartly. They provide benefits for both clients and employees as agencies match the skills and qualifications of job seekers with the specific requirements of employers.

But staffing agencies also need to manage risks and a significant operational workload related to employment, such as payroll, benefits, contract management and legal compliance. Agencies may also provide training and support to their temporary workers to ensure they are prepared for their assignments.

In this blog post, we will provide a quick guide on how staffing software solutions will mitigate any risks, streamline your operations, stay profitable and ultimately grow your business.

What is Temporary Staffing Software?

Temporary staffing agency software is an all-in-one platform to digitally transform your staff management while scheduling the best candidates for each client. There are some core functions that each staffing agency should look out for:

Temporary workforce database
Scheduling automation
Staff App for GPS time tracking and communication
Automated timesheets for payroll
Absence management system
Invoice automation for charging clients

As there are many workforce management solutions in the market, staffing firms should choose their providers carefully. We will outline the main challenges that a good staffing agency software solution will help overcome.

1. Manage Fluctuating Demand

Temporary staffing agencies often experience fluctuations in client demand. This is one of the main risks that need to be assessed. Client companies' staffing needs can change rapidly depending on market conditions, seasonal demands, or unforeseen circumstances. Managing and balancing the supply of temporary workers with the fluctuating demand can be challenging.

PARiM Temporary Staffing Software provides a no-per-user pricing model that significantly reduces any risks related to fluctuating demand. This means that if, for some reason, your temporary staffing agency hits a low season, your costs will also be reduced proportionally as you only pay for scheduled hours. This will help you remain competitive even with fluctuating demand and hire more temporary workers without any additional risks.

Staffing agencies can continually keep their hiring process running and fill any temporary positions and job vacancies as they come in. This can provide immense growth potential for medium-sized staffing firms as an unlimited staff database will offer the ability to accelerate sales. UK-based Event Support Team managed to do precisely this as they increased their recruitment process and managed to grow the company from 50 employees to 387 employees in less than two years.

2. Cut Scheduling Costs

Managing a large pool of temporary workers handling administrative tasks can be time-consuming and labour-intensive. This is true even for medium-sized temp agencies but especially for larger staffing firms. Scheduling your temporary workforce can accumulate workload and require hiring more schedulers and administrative staff.

Parim software interface showing employee schedules

PARiM workforce scheduling software provides you schedulers with automated staff allocation features while ensuring your recruiters that each job will be given to the top candidates. Additionally, you can create open shifts. Qualified candidates will instantly receive notifications to their mobile apps and can apply to open shifts on a first-come-first-serve basis.

This significantly cuts administrative costs as scheduling will become much more efficient. This is especially apparent for larger staffing firms, such as Interim HealthCare Staffing Solutions in Minneapolis, which was able to increase their operational efficiency by 50%.

3. Avoid Timesheet Errors (and Cut Costs)

Timesheets are another challenging aspect for staffing agencies as they can also be very labour-intensive. Even more, if there are manual tasks involved, there are probably human errors involved as well, and this can cause conflicts with both your workforce and clients.

For accurate timesheets, you need accurate time tracking. PARiM GPS Time Clock will ensure that your staff clocks in at the right job site without you having to worry about buddy punching or other forms of fraud. Based on pay rules set either by location, job, person, or client, timesheets will be automatically created with calculated salaries.

Timesheets can be quickly exported to any payroll provider with ease. This process guarantees that each staff member will get paid the right amount while ensuring employee accountability and efficient working. New York-based Eastern Security Corp is one of the best examples of how solving timesheet errors can quickly grow your company.

4. Comply with Labour Laws

Temporary staffing agencies need to navigate complex labour laws and regulations. Compliance with wage and hour laws, employment contracts, worker classification, health and safety regulations, and other legal requirements is essential. Staying updated with changing regulations and ensuring compliance across various jurisdictions can be demanding.

PARiM provides a simple, customisable solution for managing working time directives to ensure that the scheduled hours will not exceed the maximum amount set. As this is done automatically, it's another quick win for schedulers avoiding any manual work that would otherwise be required from them.

It's equally important to manage minimum wage requirements. This can be done with PARiM Pay & Charge Rules to ensure that no worker will be paid under the amount required by the law. As in many countries, for example, in the UK, this can be a yearly subject to change; you can easily update the information.

5. Keep an Eye on Profit Margins

When your staffing agency grows in business, you will have more temporary workers with different qualifications and skill sets suitable the right candidates for different positions. This will require more administrative work to manage salaries and charge your clients accordingly, especially when having to keep up with changing minimum wage requirements.

parim staffing software pay and charge rules

PARiM lets you create custom Pay & Charge Rules for each position, location, client, employee or any combination between them. This will significantly reduce any manual processes and human errors. You will have an overview of your profit margins for each shift without having to worry about the margins, and your invoices will be generated automatically.

6. Manage Your Reputation for Client Retention

Maintaining a loyal client base can be a challenge for temporary staffing agencies. Client companies may choose to work with multiple agencies simultaneously or switch between agencies based on their needs or pricing.

If you can provide the most qualified candidates for your clients for each shift, charge them transparently and provide the tools to mandate streamlined communication to make the process easier for them, you have laid a good foundation for client retention.

vendor management system inside parim software

PARiM Client Portal is designed to provide precisely these benefits. You can create a profile for each client and provide them access from their desktop computers or mobile apps. Clients will instantly see when open positions are filled, jobs are completed or if there are any changes in terms of staff. Additionally, you can provide the overview of charge rates for transparency and the option for clients to approve timesheets further streamline operations.

7. Keep Your Workers Happy

Retaining temporary workers can be challenging, as they may seek permanent employment or better opportunities elsewhere. Ensuring fair compensation, offering benefits, providing clear communication, and demonstrating a commitment to professional growth can help improve worker retention and job management.

example of tracking leaves and absences inside parim app

PARiM Staff Portal makes it easy for temporary workers to manage their availability and preferred locations. Requesting holidays and applying to open shifts can be done on the mobile app, which avoids any unnecessary communication with management to provide workers with flexibility and efficient scheduling.

As salary is most of the time the main motivation for any type of work, software platforms like Wagestream can provide workers with quick and easy access to their salaries with reduced waiting periods and increased financial well-being.

8. Make Your Recruitment Process Efficient

The staffing and recruiting industry can, at times, be mixed, but there are specific differences. Recruiting agencies usually work with organisations seeking permanent employees, while staffing agencies provide temporary staffing while managing workers' payroll processes.

But staffing agencies themselves need to have an efficient hiring process with candidate assessments to recruit the best candidates. For this, you will need to turn to recruitment agencies or software-based recruitment tools and applicant tracking software to hire only more qualified candidates.

Implementing recruiting software with an applicant tracking system like BambooHR will provide you with candidate sourcing and candidate management. BambooHR seamlessly integrates with your PARiM environment while providing further integration options, such as BreezyHR for resume parsing and posting on multiple job boards.

How to Get Started with PARiM?

If you are managing a staffing agency and want to take your temporary staffing to the next level, you can dive into PARiM with these easy steps:

Get your Free Trial. No credit card is required.
Book a Free Demo. Have our experts guide you through the features personally.
Build your temporary workforce database. Add your workforce manually or integrate with other platforms.
Automate Scheduling. Create schedules and automate staff allocation.
Automate Timesheets and Invoicing. Avoid human errors and manage healthy profits.

Solve These 8 Issues with Temporary Staffing Software