Staffing Agency

A firm that places workers at client companies on a temporary, temp-to-hire, or direct-hire basis — acting as the employer of record during temp assignments.

A staffing agency (also called a temp agency or employment agency) is a company that recruits workers and places them at client businesses to fill temporary, contract, or permanent positions. For temporary placements, the staffing agency is typically the worker's legal employer — handling payroll, taxes, and benefits — while the worker performs their job at the client site under the client's direction. This arrangement benefits companies that need flexible workforce capacity without long-term hiring commitments.

Temp assignments come in several forms. Pure temporary ('temp') roles are short-term fill-ins — covering leave, peak seasons, or project bursts — with no expectation of permanent employment. Temp-to-hire roles start as temporary but include a defined period after which the client may offer permanent employment. Direct-hire placements are standard recruiting where the agency earns a finder's fee but the worker is employed by the client from day one. The agency's business model: they bill the client a marked-up hourly rate and pay the worker a portion, keeping the spread as their margin.

Working through a staffing agency has trade-offs. On the upside: you get paid for the work, maintain employment continuity, and often get a foot in the door at companies that don't have open permanent roles. On the downside: agency workers typically receive fewer benefits than direct employees, may feel like second-class citizens in the workplace, and have no job security. The 'co-employment' arrangement can also be legally murky — workers are supervised by the client but employed by the agency, which creates ambiguity around who is responsible for what.