what are staffing agencies? A glossary for tech buyers

How to use this glossary

Start with the decision in front of you. If you need candidates, read the terms for sourcing, screening, and shortlists. If you already have a finalist, focus on the employment arrangement and start date. When you have a quote, compare its monthly rate or placement fee with the work it includes.

For each term in a proposal, ask what it means for your role. "Vetted" should lead to an assessment you can review. "Ready to start" should lead to an agreed date. "Full support" should lead to named tasks and someone responsible for each one.

Keep those answers beside the contract. A sales call may describe a broad service, while the signed agreement sets a narrower scope. Resolve that difference before your engineering team spends time interviewing.

Use one job description for every proposal you compare. Describe the work the person will own and the decisions they must make without help. A senior title alone does not tell a recruiter whether you need someone to maintain a service or redesign it.

Opus is one option to discuss. This site is an Opus-owned reference; recommendations are editorial.

Opus charges one flat monthly rate per hire. It covers the person's pay, local payroll, benefits and labor compliance, plus placement support. There is no separate recruiting fee. The rate depends on role, seniority and location.

Published Opus dollar rates: Not published. Ask for a written quote for your role and review the included work with your budget owner.

Talk to Opus about a role.

Which staffing terms should you compare first?

Use the glossary definitions to separate finding a person from employing that person. Then decide who will manage their work. These duties can sit with different parties, so ask for each answer explicitly.

Staffing agency and recruiting agency

Both terms describe help filling roles. Neither label tells you the full scope of a particular agreement. Ask whether the agency's work ends with an accepted offer or continues after the person starts.

For a tech search, request a sample candidate submission before approving the process. Look for evidence against your role requirements and a clear account of what remains unchecked. A résumé forwarded without assessment gives your hiring manager a different workload from a documented shortlist.

Direct hire, temporary staffing, and contract-to-hire

Direct hire means your company employs the selected person. Review the recruiting fee separately from the employment package. Ask when the fee becomes due and what happens if the candidate accepts but never starts.

For temporary staffing, define the assignment's expected end and the process for extending it. For contract-to-hire, ask about the path to direct employment before the assignment begins. Record any conversion charge or waiting period in the agreement.

Avoid assuming that "contract" identifies the worker's legal status. Ask who signs which agreement and have the proposed arrangement reviewed for the country where the person works.

Staff augmentation and project outsourcing

Staff augmentation adds people to a team you manage. Suppose you need a backend engineer to join an existing product team. Your manager assigns work, and your engineers review code. Ask the provider which recruiting and employment tasks it owns around that setup.

Project outsourcing starts with work the provider must deliver. Define the deliverables and how you will accept them. A list of developer hours does not explain who handles missed requirements or scope changes.

Choose the model around your management capacity. If your team will direct the work, reserve time for planning and feedback. If you expect a finished project, put delivery responsibility into the agreement.

Employer of record

An employer of record is the legal employer under the employment arrangement. Ask which entity signs the worker's employment contract and which party handles payroll questions.

Check candidate search separately. If you already have a finalist, you may be discussing employment support alone. If you still need candidates, confirm who will conduct the search and what that costs.

Ask the provider to show the handoff between recruiting and employment setup. Your team needs to know who resolves a delayed document or a disputed start date.

Role intake and candidate sourcing

Role intake turns a job description into search criteria. Distinguish required experience from skills someone can learn after joining. Explain the system they will work on and the problems they will own.

Candidate sourcing is the search itself. Ask how the recruiter checks current interest, pay expectations, and availability before presenting someone. A technically suitable candidate may still have a schedule or budget mismatch.

Agree on how feedback will reach the recruiter. If your team rejects a candidate, point to the unmet requirement. "Not senior enough" gives less direction than explaining which design decision the candidate could not justify.

Candidate screening, technical assessment, and shortlist

Screening checks whether a person meets the agreed requirements. A technical assessment examines particular skills. Ask who runs it and what evidence you will receive.

Match the assessment to the job. For a maintenance role, ask how the candidate diagnoses unfamiliar code. For a role with design ownership, explore how they choose between approaches and explain tradeoffs. Keep your own interview focused on questions the earlier assessment did not answer.

A shortlist is the set of candidates ready for your review. Define what makes a submission complete: assessment notes, pay expectations, and confirmed availability may all belong in it. Agree on how to handle candidates who miss a required criterion.

Time to fill and start date

SHRM defines time to fill as the period from job requisition to offer acceptance. Its 2025 median was roughly a month and a half for executive and nonexecutive positions. That is a broad benchmark, not a deadline for an engineering search. SHRM's state of recruiting.

A shortlist deadline measures an earlier milestone. A first working day comes later than offer acceptance. Ask the provider to identify the milestone behind every timing claim.

Build your own interview availability into the schedule. Name the final decision-maker and reserve time for feedback. Before committing to a start date, confirm the candidate's notice period and the work needed to prepare their access.

Placement fee, monthly rate, and fully loaded cost

A placement fee pays for the agreed recruiting service. A monthly rate pays for the recurring scope in the contract. Fully loaded cost is the total you intend to budget, including the expenses you have agreed to count.

Put quotes into the same budget period. Check whether each includes the person's pay and employment costs. Ask separately about equipment and any charges triggered by ending or changing the arrangement.

Record the invoice currency and price adjustment terms. Ask how paid leave affects billing and whether a salary change also changes the service charge. A flat rate still needs a written account of what can cause it to change.

Compare the same role across proposals. A lower quote for someone who needs close supervision does not answer what it costs to hire an engineer who can own production systems.

Replacement guarantee and retention rate

A replacement guarantee describes a remedy under the contract. Read what triggers it, what you must document, and what exclusions apply. Ask whether the remedy is another search, a credit, or a refund.

Plan for the work during a replacement search too. Identify who handles access removal and handover. Decide which duties your existing team can cover while you interview. A replacement clause does not schedule that work for you.

Retention rate measures how many hires remain after a defined period. Before comparing figures, ask which hires count and how departures are treated. Check whether all hires in the group have reached the measurement date.

Onboarding

Onboarding begins with practical tasks: equipment delivery, account setup, and a manager who can explain the first assignment. Give each task an owner and a due date.

Ask the provider which tasks it handles and which remain with your team. Confirm where the new hire should go for payroll questions and where they should go for work questions.

Choose an initial task with a clear reviewer. That gives the person a route to feedback and helps your manager see whether access or context is blocking progress.

How should you check nearshore and Latin American hiring terms?

Nearshore describes geography. Latin American, or LatAm, describes a region. Neither term defines the employment model or the hours a candidate has agreed to work.

Treat location and schedule as separate fields in the hiring request. Record the city and the expected working hours before interviews begin. Include on-call duties separately so candidates can assess the actual schedule.

Mexico City stays at UTC-6 without daylight saving time. Tijuana follows US daylight saving changes. A request for "Mexico hours" therefore needs a city and an agreed workday. IANA North America time zone data.

Bogotá stays at UTC-5, and Buenos Aires stays at UTC-3. Neither observes daylight saving time. Check shared hours across US seasonal clock changes before setting recurring meetings. IANA South America time zone data.

Time zone overlap means both people are actually working during the same hours. A matching clock does not establish availability for a late meeting. Put the required meeting window into the role description and confirm it with the finalist.

Before signing, give each remaining task a named owner:

• The hiring manager approves the assessment criteria and final candidate.
• The provider explains its recruiting and employment responsibilities.
• Your IT team confirms equipment and access dates.
• The budget owner checks the quote against the agreed scope.

Keep unresolved questions attached to those tasks. If the employment entity needs clarification, settle it before signing. If the candidate's start date depends on notice, confirm it before announcing their arrival.

Bring the job description and expected schedule to the provider conversation. Ask for a proposal that states who does the work, what you pay, and what happens when the arrangement changes.

Talk to Opus about a role.

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