Part of the staffing & recruitment agency hub — an educational cluster covering how agencies work, the placement models and how employers and candidates work with them. For decision-style reading, see the staffing & hiring comparisons.
This page organises the checklist into stages you can work through. It is educational and neutral, with no fee figures, rankings or provider recommendations, and it complements the existing staffing comparison resources.
Who this page is for
- Employers running an agency engagement end to end
- HR teams standardising how agencies are used
- Operations and site managers receiving agency workers
- Founders setting up a repeatable process
Core concept
The value of a checklist is consistency. By working through the same stages each time — plan, brief, agree, induct, run, review — you avoid the gaps that cause friction: vague briefs, unclear supervision, weak induction and missed problems.
Each stage has a clear purpose. Planning confirms the need is real and well-defined; briefing turns it into something an agency can act on; agreeing responsibilities prevents on-site confusion; induction sets the worker up to perform; and review captures what to repeat or change.
A checklist does not replace judgement, but it makes good practice the default and reduces reliance on memory under time pressure.
How it works
- Plan: confirm the need, role, volumes, timelines and budget owner
- Brief: give the agency a clear, specific role description
- Agree: set screening, employment, supervision and replacement terms
- Induct: prepare access, equipment, safety and a short induction
- Run: approve timesheets, raise issues early, track performance
- Review: capture lessons and decide on conversion or renewal
Plan the hire before you source with the recruitment planning checklist, and keep screening consistent using the candidate screening checklist.
Key considerations
- Whether the need is genuinely temporary or actually ongoing
- Who owns supervision, equipment and safety on site
- How quickly issues are surfaced and resolved
- How performance is tracked across the assignment
- How conversion or renewal decisions are made
Advantages
- Consistency reduces avoidable problems
- A clear brief produces more relevant candidates
- Defined responsibilities prevent on-site confusion
- A proper induction lifts early performance
- Structured review improves the next engagement
Trade-offs
- Working through stages takes a little time
- Checklists need updating as needs change
- Process can feel heavy for a single short assignment
- It still depends on people following it
- Judgement is still required at each stage
Common mistakes
- Skipping the planning stage and over-briefing later
- Leaving supervision and safety undefined
- Treating induction as optional for temps
- Not raising issues until they are serious
- Closing an assignment with no review or lessons
Practical checklist
- Confirm the need, role, volumes and timelines
- Write a clear, specific brief for the agency
- Agree screening, employment, supervision and replacement terms
- Prepare access, equipment, safety and a short induction
- Approve timesheets and raise issues early
- Review the engagement and decide on conversion or renewal
For interviews, draw on the interview question bank and the hiring scorecard guide; to plan the wider workforce, see the workforce planning guide.
Free, printable hiring resources
Plan, interview and onboard consistently — whether you hire directly or through an agency. No signup, no gating.