Expecting 5 Star Professional Business behavior from ANY Staffing Agency is, well, an inch or so above ludicrous.
The ugly truths that nobody wants to talk about that must be understood before your do business with a Staffing Agency (whether as a business needing help, or a potential employee - we've done both), are that Staffing Agencies make most of their money from:
A) Either companies that only have a need for work for a little while, OR, MORE FREQUENTLY...
B) COMPANIES THAT ARE SEEKING TO TAKE ADVANTAGES OF LOOPHOLES IN FEDERAL, STATE, AND EVEN LOCAL LABOR LAWS, BENEFITS, ETC.
In our tragically distraught Economy, (another uncomfortable truth that no one wants to think about), Temp Agencies and their... ways of doing business, are what keep many businesses afloat, unfortunately.
If you are a Professional, and go into ANY agency, even the best, expecting Professional behavior, you are nearly certain of getting disappointed. We are not excusing these types of businesses for this, we are merely attempting to tell it like it is.
We are a family in the Ministry who have moved all over the Country and have seen a lot of Temp Agencies and aren't strangers to Austin Staffing from the "employee" side of things, and to be quite frank, THEY'RE VERY TYPICAL OF A STAFFING AGENCY NATION-WIDE. We've seen significant negative behavior on their part worth noting, but we've also seen significant high points.
In our experience, in general,
- their Staff doesn't waste time. If you are assertive, and give them the data they need, they don't usually just sit on it for weeks on end like we've seen other agencies do.
- their Staff also does at least attempt to give some semblance of Professionalism...
- however, when that "quick, must fill position, asap" comes available to them from some nefarious client, all that real or feigned Professionalism seems to go right out the window.
- as other posters on Yelp have brought to your attention, we too have seen, first hand, being offered an assignment and constantly having the start date pushed back ... even for months.
- when encountering a problem with an Address of a Position, and calling quite early to be sure that we were not late, the Secretary who answered got rather angry, but rather than hang up on us in frustration like many agencies would, she did at least follow through with us until we found the right location.
We could cite other examples, but again, Austin Staffing is basically a typical Staffing Agency and expecting great things out of even the best of Staffing Agencies is like searching the sewers for diamonds - don't be surprised if you get covered in feces and don't find anything precious, regardless of how talented, smart, experienced, or professional you are.
--by the way, it is our opinion that the Post by "Lauren A" on 3/27/2012 much earlier than this post is a FAKE post by one of the Employees of the Agency itself in a feeble attempt to make themselves look better. [Don't be surprised by such actions, we've actually been employed by agencies that offered to PAY US (also known as a BRIBE), to write positive reviews on Yelp and other rating sites]. read more