State of Staffing: Unlocking 2025 Growth in an Uncertain Economy

This year, ClearlyRated has the honor of recognizing our first ever cohort of 10 Year Diamond Award winning firms! This award is the crowning achievement for Best of Staffing firms, earned only by a handful of elite organizations that have won the Best of Staffing designation for 10 consecutive years. Among them is Carlton Staffing, a staffing agency headquartered in Houston, TX, serving clients across the Houston, Dallas, and Fort Worth area since 1980.

Carlton Staffing has earned the Best of Staffing designation for Client Satisfaction 10 years in a row. We had the opportunity to sit down with Annette Monks, President of Carlton Staffing, to hear her thoughts on the Best of Staffing program and what the 10 Year Diamond Award means to the Carlton Staffing team.

Annette Monks, President, Carlton Staffing

What does winning the Best of Staffing 10 Year Diamond Award for Client Satisfaction meant to you and the Carlton Staffing team?

Annette: Well, to win it one time, the ClearlyRated Best the Staffing, is a big deal. However, if you win it 10 times I think it means that we’re not a one hit wonder. I think for us it’s just such an affirmation that we’re doing things right.

What does it take to maintain such a high level of excellence for such a long time?

Annette: I think it takes four things. The first thing is obviously the right people internally. They have to be hard working, have personal drive and passion for what they do, love our company, and hold themselves accountable – that’s for sure. The second thing is you got to have great systems in place: a great sales system and a great recruitment operations system, which we have. Then we have a disciplined execution. We track metrics and results, and we make changes where needed, so that’s critical. Number three: we listen – a lot – for opportunities for improvement, whether it’s this survey, internal surveys for our staff, for temporary employees, even our vendors. We listen and we try to improve on the feedback that we get. And then the last thing is, and I think the most important, is we just keep it fun. We celebrate all the victories, and we try to make it fun so people want to stay and work for us.

What’s an important lesson that you’ve learned from participating in Best of Staffing for so many years?

Annette: So this is very simple, but I think it’s important to keep your information about all your clients up-to-date. I mean honestly, even for back office-personnel, because people move a lot, and it makes it very difficult to reach the response rate. If you’re sending out surveys to people who don’t exist, or are not in that company anymore, it’s not helpful. That’s a big lesson we learned.

Were there any surprises along the way?

Annette: Yeah, there were good surprises and there were… opportunities, I would say. The good surprises were that the recruiters were surprised about all the Shout Outs that they got from their clients. They didn’t think that they made that kind of difference. I was not surprised at all, but they were surprised and that’s cool. One thing that surprised us, which I kind of mentioned earlier, was that it’s very hard to get the response rate, it really is. You think your clients are going to respond, but they’re busy. And they don’t find it as important as you do, and I think that was a big surprise to us.

What advice would you give to someone about to participate in Best of Staffing for the first time?

Annette: Ok, a few things. First, I would definitely use the material that you’re given from ClearlyRated regarding communication ahead of time with your clients. If they don’t know what’s coming, and they don’t understand the importance, they probably will not respond. And make sure your contacts that are no longer there are out of the system, so basically: clean database. Then the last one is, I would assign one person should own it from start to finish – on all the aspects – so that everything is properly executed. Otherwise things will go undone.

Do you have any exciting plans for showing off your 10 Year Diamond Award?

Annette: Well, the good new is that ClearlyRated gives us lots of ideas, and we’re using them all. We do have it on our [email] signature as well, which is really helpful because people ask about it, so that’s pretty cool. We’re going to use everything that you guys have given us and that’s awesome.

Is there anything we haven’t covered that you’d like to share?

Annette: The Best of Staffing designation is no joke – it’s an investment in time and money and it’s hard to achieve. The fact is, though, we’ve attracted clients and internal staff as a result of having this, so it really does pay for itself and it’s worth the effort.

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The perception often is the shelf life of company founders comes with an expiration date as it relates to leading and scaling from start-up to a large company. But many founders, across many industries, have bucked this trend. But what are the skills needed to transition from high-growth startup to sustainably growing enterprise? While hiring a new CEO might not be necessary, evolving to a CEO mindset is.

In this session, four staffing industry founders representing four different staffing industry segments share their stories evolving from founders to CEOs of large staffing companies. They’ll describe their experiences and lessons learned successfully leading alongside private equity partners, their mindset in making the decision to do so, and what it took to position their organizations to combined market valuations and multiple exits in excess of $2 billion.

Moderator

Eric Gregg, Co-Founder & CX Strategist

With two decades of research experience in B2B professional services, Eric Gregg and the team at ClearlyRated have analyzed more than 7.2 million surveys with the goal of determining what drives success for professional services firms.

Eric has served as an adjunct faculty member in Portland State University’s marketing program, and has published numerous articles, business cases, and technical notes in the field of marketing, client loyalty and employee satisfaction. His research and consulting have been featured in articles and as a noted industry speaker.

This is a milestone year for ClearlyRated. We’re about to publish our 15th annual staffing industry benchmark study on staffing buyer behavior—and it couldn’t come at a more crucial time. 

To shed some light on what’s going on and offer guidance on how to navigate the future, ClearlyRated’s co-founder, Eric Gregg, recently hosted a webinar sharing early information from this year’s findings: Inside the Mind of the Hiring Manager: 2024 Staffing Buyer Survey Sneak Peek. 

In case you missed Eric's webinar, we've written up this recap.

[Some background on our report and related survey: Over a two-week period (Sept. 27, 2024 – October 10, 2024), we collected responses from 505 hiring managers across four countries who have recently used a staffing firm to help with hiring.]

Staffing by the Numbers: Two Years of Choppy Water May Soon Calm

The high-level takeaway: Hiring is down, so is the use of temporary labor. Read on for the details—and below that, some positive news. 

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), job openings peaked in early 2022 and have since dropped. The number of job openings today is 34% lower than that peak. That said, today's total is still 12% higher than pre-pandemic. However, while there may be more job openings, actual hiring is down both from its peak in early 2022 and from pre-pandemic levels. 

At the same time, BLS data shows a startling new trend: While overall employment has continued to rise, the use of temporary help has declined since late 2022. This trend bucks 17 years’ of data during which those two forms of labor have consistently traveled the same path.

“We’ve been in this industry since ‘05-’06 and have never seen this kind of decoupling,” Eric said. While temporary help made up 2.14% of the workforce in late 2021, this number has steadily declined to 1.7% per the most recent numbers. This marks a 15-year low (not counting a steep drop during the early days of the pandemic that quickly bounced back).

What’s causing the decline in temporary labor?

Eric explained that the following factors that may be contributing to the decline in temporary help:

• Companies are doing more in-house.
• Automation, nearshoring, and offshoring have all increased.
• The diversification of the workforce: While temporary help is declining, there’s been an increase in SOW-based projects, the number of independent contractors and consultants, and undocumented workers. 
• Inflationary pressure could be turning companies away from hiring temporary help, which could be attributed to backlash from pandemic price increases.

The good news

Thankfully, while researching and comparing economic and industry data for this report, we found signs that companies may soon hire more temporary help. Eric explained that he and other industry experts discovered an interesting relationship between what’s called the “Anxious Index,” or percentage of economists who believe a recession will come in the next quarter, and the amount of temporary help companies hire. 

When they overlayed historical Anxious Index data on year-over-year changes in temporary help, they found that when the Anxiety Index begins to fall, a bump in temporary labor follows. The good news: Right now, the Anxious Index is beginning to ebb while optimism flows. This means we could soon see a rebound in temporary help.  

Beside this indication of an industry recovery, we found two silver linings:

• Average quit rates are down 32% from their peak in the first half of 2022 and down 11% from pre-pandemic numbers.
• Average layoffs are also down—28% lower than their peak in late 2020 and 12% lower than pre-pandemic.

These silver linings are likely due to a tighter job market in which talent wants to stay put longer for fear of not finding work. That said, with hiring down and a declining demand for temporary help, staffing firms are facing increasing pressure from competition. That makes their customer experience (CX) more important than ever.

The State of CX in Staffing

After studying data from Staffing Industry Analysts, we found that CX-focused staffing firms grow 16.1% faster than competitors. This means a $100 million firm that focuses on providing a positive CX can expect to generate an additional $16.9 million over four years. 

Client NPS in the U.S. staffing industry has been on the rise since 2019, and it’s currently at an all-time high. Eric points out that when we look at historical data, we find that it’s common for staffing NPS to improve during industry recessions, which is exactly what we’re seeing now. 

Wise firms won’t slack on their CX, especially in this economic environment. As the competition for requisitions rises, so does the likelihood that competitors are also focused on improving CX to win and keep business. Don’t miss the boat. Take a look at the following resources on how to measure and improve your CX:

• On-demand webinar | From Good to Great: Amplifying CX, Trust, and Reputation in Staffing 
• On-demand webinar | CX for Staffing – How Best of Staffing® Firms Outpace the Industry
• Blog post | Preventing Customer Churn – Why B2B Clients Leave and How to Keep Them
• Blog post | How to Grow Your Bottom Line by Developing CX Maturity

For more industry insights and benchmarks, stay tuned for our full benchmark report coming in early 2025. In the meantime, watch Eric’s full webinar to get detailed insights on the state of CX in staffing, including the method he uses to predict changes in temporary help penetration numbers, and the five lessons he pulled from our report with the key opportunities they present.

With industry revenue on the decline the past two years in staffing, growth has been challenging for many firms. Join ClearlyRated founder and CX strategist, Eric Gregg for a fast-paced, 30-minute discussion of how Best of Staffing® firms leverage the program to outpace the competition.

More than just a survey, learn how ClearlyRated is helping firms unlock growth through better service, stronger social proof, and improved reputation, with the industry's largest database to benchmark your performance.

What you'll learn:

• The role that CX has in accelerating staffing firm growth
• How the Best of Staffing designation is earned, and how the program impacts growth
• Simple tools for improving retention and increasing expansion
• How to turn client and talent testimonials into new opportunities and new job orders

About our Moderator

Eric Gregg, Founder & CX Strategist

With two decades of research experience in B2B professional services, Eric Gregg and the team at ClearlyRated have analyzed more than 7.2 million surveys with the goal of determining what drives success for professional services firms.

Eric has served as an adjunct faculty member in Portland State University’s marketing program, and has published numerous articles, business cases, and technical notes in the field of marketing, client loyalty and employee satisfaction. His research and consulting have been featured in articles and as a noted industry speaker.

As an industry partner since 2007, ClearlyRated has helped more than 300 staffing firms annually navigate growth through various economic conditions—from the downturns of 2008 and 2020 to the rapid expansions of 2021 and 2022. However, the sustained decline of the past 24 months presents an unprecedented challenge. While current conditions make growth challenging, it is not unattainable. Below are five proven strategies to help your firm gain market share and unlock growth in today’s market.

Our 5 Strategies for Staffing Firm Growth In An Economic Downturn

1. Make your firm the safe option for prospects and candidates

Most staffing firms focus their marketing and sales efforts on differentiating themselves from competitors, yet they often neglect to provide tangible proof of their claims. Today’s prospects and candidates expect evidence of quality. Ratings, reviews, testimonials, and referrals are significantly more trusted than traditional marketing and sales efforts. In times of economic uncertainty, risk aversion increases. It’s crucial not only to be the best firm to partner with, but also the least risky.

2. Double down on sales enablement resources

Many staffing firm leaders aim to increase their pipeline but often overlook the importance of equipping their sales teams with essential resources to help them both get meetings, and also turn those meetings into orders and revenue. Benchmarks, thought leadership, and industry-specific tools can be invaluable for prospective clients and job candidates. To see a rise in meetings and engagement, invest time in understanding how to add real value. Share industry-specific hiring trends, wage fluctuations, interview best practices, or other high-value content. This approach helps your account managers and recruiters demonstrate their expertise in a credible and differentiated manner.

3. Focus on the candidate experience to minimize churn

With volume down, many firms concentrate on securing new orders. While this focus is natural given the decline in order volume and revenue, it’s essential not to overlook the historically low unemployment rate. Talent remains hard to find, and in our industry, an unfilled order is worse than no order at all. Both scenarios have the same revenue implications, but an unfilled order also drains resources that could be better utilized elsewhere. Economic downturns demand diligence with clients, but not at the expense of your candidate experience.

4. Minimize unwanted turnover of internal staff

Here’s a quick calculation: Multiply the average weekly margin generated by a productive recruiter by the number of weeks it takes to fill a position and get the new hire up to speed. For most firms, this yields a loss of over $250k in margin for each productive recruiter or account manager who leaves. In 2024, ClearlyRated data shows that the typical firm lost more than 1 in 3 of their account managers and recruiters to churn. Although the market isn't as heated as it was two years ago, your best talent will still have other options. Ensure you have robust retention strategies in place to keep your top performers through challenging times.

5. Focus marketing and sales resources narrowly to win

Firms that successfully navigate economic uncertainty often resist the urge to broaden their focus. Instead, they concentrate their marketing and sales efforts on the two to three areas where they excel the most. This might be a specific type of placement, industry, or project type. Identify where you have a competitive advantage and target your efforts towards prospects that fit this profile.

Economic headwinds make growth challenging, but not impossible. By focusing on delivering exceptional experiences and honing in on areas of strength, your firm can not only weather a weak broader economy but also be well-positioned for accelerated growth when conditions improve.

Join Eric Gregg, Founder of ClearlyRated and Leslie Vickrey, CEO of ClearEdge for another insightful webinar on the latest trends shaping the staffing industry in 2024.

Macro trends around quitting remain high, and turnover continues to be a challenge for many firms. By leveraging feedback from over 50,000 staffing internal employees and job candidates, we will uncover what employees really want and need to stay engaged and committed to their roles.

We'll explore the latest research and data on turnover and retention within the staffing industry, including:

• Valuable benchmarks and critical data points to drive effective strategies for enhancing engagement and retention
• The leading indicators of churn, and how race and gender impact the likelihood of turnover
• The top priorities, fears, and expectations that drive employee satisfaction and decision making

Presenters

Eric Gregg, Co-Founder
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Leslie Vickrey, Founder & CEO
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Join Eric Gregg, Founder of ClearlyRated and Leslie Vickrey, CEO of ClearEdge for an insightful webinar on the latest trends shaping the staffing industry in 2024.

We’ll delve into the wide range of factors influencing staffing buyers and candidates, including AI advancements, mental health considerations, the impact of remote work, generational dynamics, opportunity gaps, and more. 

What you'll learn:

• Client and candidate concerns about AI and its perceived impact on the level of personalized service they can expect from their staffing firms
• The weight of mental health considerations in the workplace and how it affects candidate choices
• What’s desired vs. reality when it comes to remote work arrangements and schedule flexibility, and the implications for recruitment and retention
• Generational and opportunity gaps and how the staffing industry can enhance inclusivity and foster multi-generational collaboration

Presenters

Eric Gregg, Co-Founder
Connect on LinkedIn

Leslie Vickrey, Founder & CEO
Connect on LinkedIn

Join ClearlyRated's co-founder, Eric Gregg and Leslie Vickrey, CEO of ClearEdge, for a deep dive into key findings from the new Inside the Staffing Mindset report.

What you'll learn:

• The correlation between customers' satisfaction and their feeling of being "heard."
• The sources that staffing clients and candidates trust most when choosing a staffing firm.
• The important roles that the overall firm reputation and those of recruiters/account managers play in shaping perceptions and influencing decisions of clients and candidates.

Empower your firm with actionable insights into client expectations and learn how to craft exceptional client experiences that not only prevent churn but also pave the way for organic growth within your existing accounts.

Presenters

Eric Gregg, Co-Founder
Connect on LinkedIn

Leslie Vickrey, Founder & CEO
Connect on LinkedIn

Discover 10 Key Trends Shaping the Staffing Industry

Each year ClearlyRated puts its survey capabilities and research experts to work to provide a deeper look at that question and numerous others facing the industry. 

This year, we've partnered with ClearEdge to bring you a comprehensive guide that offers valuable insights into the perspectives and attitudes of staffing clients and job candidates. We unveil the 10 trends that are reshaping the landscape in our new industry report, "Inside the Staffing Mindset." 

Dive in and learn what we are hearing about the state of employment to explore the issues on the minds of candidates and clients, and consider the impacts they are having.

Here's what you'll discover inside:

• What priorities are driving candidate behavior?
• Have economic and AI-driven uncertainty changed what candidates want?
• Is your staffing brand really having an impact on talent engagement?

Enjoy exploring the answers in the report. Get your copy now.

Get your copy today!

A world-class experience awaits

Get the recognition you deserve and grow your business with ClearlyRated.

Discover 10 Key Trends Shaping the Staffing Industry

Each year ClearlyRated puts its survey capabilities and research experts to work to provide a deeper look at that question and numerous others facing the industry. 

This year, we've partnered with ClearEdge to bring you a comprehensive guide that offers valuable insights into the perspectives and attitudes of staffing clients and job candidates. We unveil the 10 trends that are reshaping the landscape in our new industry report, "Inside the Staffing Mindset." 

Dive in and learn what we are hearing about the state of employment to explore the issues on the minds of candidates and clients, and consider the impacts they are having.

Here's what you'll discover inside:

• What priorities are driving candidate behavior?
• Have economic and AI-driven uncertainty changed what candidates want?
• Is your staffing brand really having an impact on talent engagement?

Enjoy exploring the answers in the report. Get your copy now.

Get your copy today!

A world-class experience awaits

Get the recognition you deserve and grow your business with ClearlyRated.