Terminology varies around specifics and definitions of employee leasing, staffing, and recruiting services. As a result, you may get a completely different definition depending on the company you ask. To clear the fog and give you some general insight into the differences, we’ve laid out our interpretation of three commonly confused terms.
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What is Recruiting?
Recruiting involves identifying the right candidates for the right job and hiring them to achieve an organization’s goal. This is done internally at your organization by human resources or outsourced to a third party like staffing agencies. In addition, you can engage a specialized head-hunting firm. Employment for the employee can be through direct-hire, contract to hire, or strictly contract (long or short term). That’s why recruiting comes up when speaking about hiring someone full time or how the hiring process works.
What is Staffing?
Staffing is essentially the same as recruiting. However, staffing is associated more often with temporary and temporary-to-hire recruiting. When you hear the term staffing, it typically aligns more with temporary employees or when a high volume of employees need to be hired quickly. Another term, Recruitment Process Outsourced (RPO), correlates with high volume staffing.
What is Employee Leasing?
Finally, employee leasing is often confused with traditional staffing. This misconception arises because, with employee leasing, the employees belong to the employee leasing company. However, your business needs drive employee requirements. As a result, some companies choose to outsource a department or a function of their organization through employee leasing. The employee leasing company hires and trains employees specifically for your organization. But they never become formal employees of your company. These engagements benefit companies that do not want to hold many of the department’s liabilities or management. In addition, companies can use employee leasing to outsource labor for a specific project with a designated start and end date. A great example of this is engaging a PEO to handle your payroll operations.
Staffing, Recruiting, and Employee Leasing - Whats Best for You?
Staffing and recruiting services are helpful for scaling your businesses and getting the resources you need to achieve organizational goals. Employee leasing is useful for limited your liability and tapping a pre-developed labor force, but it limits your control. As you navigate which type of service aligns with your business needs, review all your options and don’t hesitate to ask your preferred HR service partners for advice.
Guest Posted by Tyler Cook - Talent Solutions at Suna Solutions
Tyler Cook specializes in developing plans to provide top talent while streamlining the hiring process with industry-leading best practices. He has worked at Suna Solutions for the past 4 years building lasting relationships with organizations in order to provide comprehensive total talent solutions to fuel recruitment success. Connect with him at tyler.cook@suna.com or on LinkedIn
