What’s the Difference Between Recruiting vs. Staffing?

Karen Grace Larsen • Mar 31, 2023

Company leaders, HR staff, and business managers use “staffing” and “recruiting” interchangeably. And although the industry generally groups them together, many HR companies differentiate the two words in terms of the services they provide.

Understanding the difference between staffing and recruiting may seem trivial, but it could be the key to communicating your company’s talent needs, achieving desired outcomes, and managing workforce operations more efficiently and effectively.

Staffing vs. Recruiting: Similarities and Differences

The main similarity between staffing and recruiting is that they’re both essential functions within the human resources branch of an organization. According to HRM Handbook, both processes “ensure an organization has access to the best-fit candidates to meet its objectives.”

While both processes play significant roles in talent acquisition, they have different scopes, involve different functions, and address different needs.

What is Recruiting or Recruitment?

Recruiting, also known as direct hire, typically refers to finding, screening, and introducing quality talent to be interviewed and hired directly onto a client's payroll. The recruitment process may also include a grace period (typically 90 days) where the recruitment company guarantees the employee’s quality of work.

In talent acquisition jargon, recruitment often refers to acquiring talent for full-time, often higher-level, employment. According to HR technology company Timerack, recruiting aims to attract long-term employees who add value, participate in company processes, and contribute to company culture.

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) defines recruitment as a function encompassing all aspects of hiring new individuals to work for a company. It includes the following responsibilities:

Attracting, identifying, and engaging candidates
Ensuring qualifications and assessing background information
Interviewing and selecting a quality candidate for hire
Making a job offer and onboarding the new employee

What is Staffing?

Like recruitment, staffing includes finding, screening, and introducing quality talent to employers. However, staffing involves agencies placing qualified candidates in open positions as their own employees for an agreed period of time.

Staffing Organizations by Herbert Heneman III and Timothy Judge defines staffing as “the process of acquiring, deploying, and retaining a workforce of sufficient quantity and quality to create positive impacts on the organization’s effectiveness.”

Staffing is widely used to refer to hiring an agency to provide workers for short-term roles, seasonal work, or specific projects, addressing employers’ limited budgets and tight deadlines.

Staffing also includes temp-to-hire, a hybrid between direct hiring and temporary staffing. Staffing agencies place a qualified employee to work for your organization for a fixed period. When the temporary staff’s contract ends, and you’re happy with their performance, you can offer them a permanent position with your company. Companies with unions often turn to temp-to-hire staffing to overcome strict termination protocols. This type of hiring allows the company to ensure the employee is an ideal candidate for the position before they fall under the union’s umbrella of protection.

Staffing vs. Recruiting: Which Should You Go With?

Well, it depends on your organization’s talent needs.

Are you looking to directly hire someone for a permanent or full-time position?

Are you looking for higher-level talent to potentially play a leadership role?

Are you more concerned about the candidate’s compatibility with your team’s culture than you are about compensation?

If so, recruitment is the option for you. You can either have an in-house recruitment team or partner with a third-party recruitment firm. How much you spend on their services depends on the new employee’s salary. Recruiting agencies typically charge a flat fee or a percentage of the new employee’s annual salary.

Does your company have a lot of roles that need to be filled as soon as possible?

Are you looking for temporary workers to fill in a short-term or project-based role?

Are you experiencing a temporary influx of tasks your current workforce can’t handle?

If so, consider staffing. Because staffing is time-consuming, companies usually partner with a trusted staffing firm to run it for them. For the cost, staffing agencies can charge 25% to 100% of the hired employee’s wages.

Grow Your Team with Nexus HR

Nexus HR and its experienced talent acquisition specialists has the recruitment side of your company's needs covered. We'll take the time to get to know your company’s unique needs, sort through stacks of resumes, and find the right people with the right skills at the right time to help your business grow.