Use this before you sign with any agency. A good agency can answer every one of these clearly. A bad agency will change the subject. Ask us the same seven — we'll answer all of them in 30 minutes.
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Any agency worth hiring can answer this with a number, not a story. Ask for their 30-day and 90-day fill rates for orders like yours. "We do our best" is not a fill rate.
WHAT TO LISTEN FORA specific percentage. Anything below 90% for day-one show rate deserves a follow-up.
Most placements that fail, fail in the first two weeks — quietly. If an agency can't give you a retention number, they're not tracking it. If they're not tracking it, they don't know their own performance.
WHAT TO LISTEN FORA number. Not "we have low turnover" — an actual percentage.
Retention requires proactive contact in the first two weeks. If the answer is "the worker calls us if there's a problem," that's your answer. Problems don't get reported. They become no-shows.
WHAT TO LISTEN FORA named role, a fixed schedule (day 1, 3, 7, 14), and a process for what happens when a worker raises an issue.
Most no-shows are transportation failures, not attitude problems. Ask specifically what percentage of their placements use public transit, personal vehicles, or agency-provided transport. If they don't know, they haven't solved the problem.
WHAT TO LISTEN FOREvidence they've thought about this. Routes, drivers, backup plans — or at minimum, data on the transportation breakdown of their workforce.
Screening should happen before the first shift, every time, within the limits of the law. And in Ontario, a temporary help agency must be licensed — ask for the Temporary Help Agency licence number and verify it.
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR"Before placement," not "upon request." A licence number you can verify. Documentation they can produce.
A real process has a checklist, a timeline, and a named owner. "We handle it" is not a process. You want to know: who does what, by when, and what happens if something isn't ready 48 hours before day one.
WHAT TO LISTEN FORA specific sequence. If they can't describe it in 90 seconds, it doesn't exist.
Every agency has no-shows. The question is whether they have a backup system — a bench, a pool, a call protocol — or whether they start scrambling and calling you with excuses at 5:45 AM.
WHAT TO LISTEN FORA backup pool behind every active order. A named escalation path. A response time commitment.
Then ask us the same seven. We'll answer all of them on the record in 30 minutes, no pitch.
Speak with a Workforce Specialist — we respond within one business day, usually the same day.
