- 4 November 2026
- 10 min read
While a staffing agency can quickly provide many qualified resumes, can these candidates perform in your facility, meet your requirements and take on the responsibilities your team needs? This is where specialized hiring becomes difficult.
For example, a laboratory professional must have experience in the appropriate testing environment, medical coders must know about your specialty and EHR analysts must understand how technology decisions will affect clinical workflow.
When US-based healthcare employers are evaluating healthcare staffing agencies, they should look beyond candidate volume and hourly rate. They need proof of relevant recruiting experience, reliable screening and accountability.
When selecting a staffing agency for specialized healthcare hiring, review the agency’s experience, screening processes and support. These steps will help you evaluate multiple potential partners and choose one that understands your organization’s needs.
Before you begin evaluating staffing agencies, define what “success” will look like for every role. If you provide a general job description, recruiters may make assumptions about the role’s requirements.
Create a hiring brief with your department head. Your brief should include:
Determine which of these requirements are necessary on day one and which can be learned during onboarding. This will help avoid rejecting qualified candidates over small gaps.
For example, someone may have outpatient coding experience but not be prepared for a complicated inpatient coding assignment. Recruiters need to understand this difference before submitting candidates.
While a recruiter may have experience in the healthcare industry, that doesn’t guarantee they can find the right candidate for your specific position. You want to know if the recruiter has successfully placed candidates into roles that are similar to yours at other companies with similar business requirements.
Request examples covering the role, location, hiring challenge, screening approach and outcome. References from similar employers can help you verify the account.
Some good questions to ask include:
Listen closely to the types of questions asked by the recruiter.
In general, specific questions reveal more about a recruiter’s ability to recruit than lengthy presentations.
A convincing interview does not replace verified qualifications. Ask the staffing partner to explain its process and show a redacted sample of its documentation.
Confirm how the partner verifies applicable licenses, certifications, educational qualifications, restrictions and expiration dates. For agencies certified under The Joint Commission’s Health Care Staffing Services program, credentialing processes should also align with the program’s requirements for appropriate, current qualifications.
Determine who will track renewals of credentials during the assignment; determine what happens when a credential is not renewed or a restriction occurs. Identify who can cancel an assignment and how your organization is notified.
Requirements for each role differ based on the role itself, the state in which the work is performed, the facility where the work is performed and the contract. The partner should use an agreed-upon checklist to verify requirements for each position, rather than applying the same verification process to all positions.
Credentials establish qualifications. Your evaluation should also examine whether candidates can perform the work.
Request a screening framework for one of your job openings. The screening framework must link questions directly to job responsibilities.
For example, for a laboratory position, this could include discussing quality control and asking candidates how they would respond to an unexpected test result. For an EHR Analyst, this could include explaining how you would test a workflow change before releasing it. When developing assessments, use fictitious scenarios and approved materials. Do not use identifiable patient information.
Ask how the partner assesses communication, documentation and judgment in escalation. Candidates need to know when to ask for help and how to communicate issues clearly. Determine which assessments the partner conducts and which decisions are made by your hiring/clinical team.
A large database will not tell you how many qualified people are looking for a job today. Ask how the partner locates professionals with the right skill set, location, availability and compensation requirements.
Find out if they maintain relationships with candidates who may not be actively seeking employment.
Estimating timelines for each step of the hiring process (submission, interview, offer acceptance, screening and first day of work) will help you understand how long it takes to hire someone. However, submitting resumes quickly does not matter if the candidate cannot get through the rest of the process.
What things might cause delays in filling this position? Factors such as local salary levels, preferred shifts, required notice periods and credentials can all affect when someone is available. An experienced recruiter will flag these potential issues early so you can adjust your plan.
Changes may include increasing compensation, adjusting schedules or providing additional onboarding time.
The handoff after offer acceptance deserves as much attention as recruiting. Assign an owner to every step before the employee starts.
Determine who will handle employment documentation, screening, occupational health clearance (if applicable), orientation, system access and facility training. Confirm what must be completed before work begins.
The HIPAA Privacy Rule requires covered entities to train workforce members on privacy policies and procedures relevant to their responsibilities. Determine how the staffing partner’s preparation aligns with your organization’s HIPAA training requirements and access controls.
In addition, determine who will address attendance issues, performance issues, safety reporting and emergency replacements. Identify after-hours contact information if your operations extend past normal business hours.
Find out how frequently the partner contacts both the worker and your manager. Early communication can help you spot unclear expectations before they lead to resignations or assignment disruptions.
Evaluate pricing alongside the work included. A lower bill rate may offer poor value if your managers spend hours screening unsuitable candidates or correcting onboarding gaps.
Request a written breakdown of:
Clarify the employer’s responsibilities and review applicable insurance requirements, including professional liability coverage where relevant. Review all insurance that will be needed for this arrangement; include professional liability if it is applicable. Your legal or procurement team should review the agreement.
Be realistic when you compare. How much would it cost your organization to have a delayed start, repeated vacancies or unsuccessful placements? Consider how much time your managers will spend on this, how much overtime you will pay and how much service disruption you may experience, in addition to the agency fee.
Broad claims about quality are difficult to assess. Request results for comparable specialties and locations, with enough context to interpret them.
| Measure | What to Clarify |
|---|---|
| Time to qualified submission | Whether candidates meet agreed essential requirements |
| Interview-to-offer ratio | The proportion of interviewed candidates who receive job offers. |
| Offer acceptance | The percentage of offers accepted by candidates and the reasons offers are declined. |
| Start-date reliability | Whether accepted candidates actually start as scheduled |
| Retention or assignment completion | Whether placements remain successful after hiring |
Ask about the reporting period and number of placements behind each figure. Results from a handful of hires may not represent wider performance.
Speak with references about problem resolution. Ask what happened when a candidate withdrew, a requirement changed or a placement struggled. Those answers show how the relationship works under pressure.
Selecting a healthcare staffing company requires trust in the candidates offered and the methodology used to place them. Your selection should be based on the candidate’s expertise, the screening process used by the staffing agency and the level of support provided after placement.
For specific hiring needs, SPECTRAFORCE is one of the best healthcare staffing agencies for laboratory, imaging, phlebotomy and pharmacy support needs through our allied health staffing services. We also recruit professionals for EHR systems, healthcare data and analytics, cybersecurity and digital health environments through our IT & digital health services.
Tell us about your hiring requirements, the systems you use and your recruitment timelines to get started.
SPECTRAFORCE can help from finding candidates to delivering outcomes.
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