Staffing Agency Cultivates Winning Culture With ‘Relationships Matter’ Mantra

By definition, staffing agencies are two-way dot connectors. They find and place workers with employers, who are their paying clients. Businesses across all sectors, from tech to nonprofits, rely on staffing firms for a pipeline of high-quality candidates for jobs.

With a focus on meeting client needs, the staffing agency experience could leave contingent employees feeling relegated and inferior to their counterparts within the same company, much like a cog in a wheel. Differentiation in the staffing industry comes down to one simple skill: Developing strong relationships with all stakeholders. Even with the oversized presence of big firms in the staffing space, Mackin Talent has earned its keep – by sticking to that very concept. The company takes its core value, that ‘relationships matter,’ very seriously and applies it to all areas of their business.

For Mackin Talent, which started in 2014 by placing three employees with a leading Silicon Valley-based tech giant, organic growth has come from referrals of satisfied clients and employees. Hiring managers refer Mackin to other hiring managers, past employees move on to other companies and relay to their new teams how well Mackin treats employees, and, on several occasions, employees who went on to full-time roles with the large tech firms turn to Mackin as they build out their own teams. This referral network has allowed the firm to grow quickly in the last eight years with little marketing efforts. “Our clients and our employees are better than any advertising campaign we could put together,” commented  Leniece Lane, Mackin Talent’s Chief Marketing Officer. 

Achieving success for Mackin Talent is measured through the quality of relationship with clients and dedicated support for the contingency workers. The traditional nature of how staffing agencies work often make people feel like “just a number in a spreadsheet or a dollar figure in their book, for us it’s different,” Lane says of the company’s approach. “We truly develop relationships with our people. I have clients that send me pictures of their kids’ graduations and wedding videos, employees that send us vacation pictures while they are still on vacation, all because they want to share those memories with us. That means more to us than any bottom line.”   

Combining a global presence with the ability to sustain relationships with employees has allowed Mackin Talent, which has several U.S. offices including California, Texas, Washington and North Carolina as well as offices throughout Europe and Asia, to create viable career paths for their employees. Its small size compared to larger staffing firms is actually leveraged into hands-on, valuable consulting, with Mackin providing workforce planning services that save money and optimize hiring. Lane provided an example in a client that wanted to hire a team of 15 engineers, several project coordinators and lab technicians. After a consultation with Mackin, it was discovered the client really needed just 11 engineers, affecting the firm’s bottom line and producing a more efficient and effective team.

“We can be a really valuable partner to a startup company where they have gone through a couple rounds of funding, are ready to hire, but only have this one recruiter who’s doing it all,” Lane said. “We can partner with them and they get access to our entire recruitment team at a fraction of the cost it would take to build their own. Also they may not know which positions are more important to hire and when. That’s just one of the areas we can consult on. We’ve helped many international companies enter the U.S. market with staffing options that allow them to scale as their business grows.”

The focus on clients doesn’t detract Mackin Talent from putting emphasis on the contingent workers. In an industry where retention is difficult and people rotate out of jobs with a staffing agency every 6-12 months, Mackin has employees that have been with them over 6 years. There have been employees that have left Mackin for “full-time” placements and then returned because of how well they were supported. With dedicated support, competitive pay, and benefits typically offered to full-time employees, as well as access to LinkedIn Learning and career coaching, the company earns its loyalty with its placed candidates.

Mackin Talent fosters a close-knit, family-like culture across its teams specializing in engagement, talent acquisition, finance, operations, and leadership. The company is helmed by namesake and CEO Andy Mackin, with key leadership roles held by Leniece Lane , CMO, and Fiona Donnelly, Chief Operations Officer. Mackin and Donnelly are based out of their headquarters in Ireland and lead the Europe and Asia operations.

“People feel connected to us and part of something bigger, whereas at a larger company you may get lost in the shuffle and don’t feel your individual impact matters – after the pandemic, people are looking for that,” Lane said.

To learn more about Mackin Talent and its workforce staffing services, visit www.mackintalent.com.