Will 2025 be your agency’s make-or-break year?
The staffing industry isn’t crashing. But it sure isn’t booming.
Clients want more. Candidates ghost you faster. Tech changes daily.
And your margins? Yep, getting tighter.
Welcome to the new normal in staffing.
But here’s the kicker:
While some agencies will limp along, barely making it to 2026…
Others will thrive.
What separates them isn’t luck or size.
It’s who takes action now.
Adapt or Die: Why 2025 is a make-or-break year
The data's clear: stalled growth is the new "good year."
- Commercial staffing? 1–2% growth projected this year.
- Healthcare staffing? 5% drop forecasted (at least locums remains strong).
- IT staffing? Holding on, but competition is now offshore, nearshore, and AI.
But it’s not just a tougher sales environment.
Finding skilled candidates, navigating the complexities of remote work, and adapting to changing employee expectations top the list of recruiting challenges.
Of course, let’s not forget the pressure to update technology and integrate AI into just about every aspect of your business.
So, what does this all mean?
In 2025 (and for the foreseeable future), every sale—and every placement—will have to be earned.
We have entered an era of “adapt or die” and far too many small and midsize staffing companies are not changing fast enough.
Some are saying,
“Things will get better.”
“AI is not for me. Our clients want more human connection.”
“Our team doesn’t like making calls.”
“Business is down. We don’t have the resources to invest in new technology or marketing.”
If any of these sound like you, it’s time to move.
Embrace tech (without losing your soul)
AI and automation are no longer buzzwords. They’re baseline.
- 75% of staffing firms are using AI already.
- Those firms report 30% faster time-to-hire.
- And 50% better placement quality.
Automation is saving firms serious money and recruiter hours.
But this isn’t about robots replacing humans. And it isn’t using ChatGPT to write emails.
It’s about using tech to free up your salespeople and recruiters to do what they do best:
Build relationships. Consult. Connect. 10 ideas to leverage tech in 2025:
- Audit your tech stack – If your ATS doesn’t have AI, you’re behind.
- Audit your workflows – Where are you losing time on tedious, repetitive tasks?
- Audit your client and candidate experience – Where are you adding friction?
- Automate low-value tasks – Screening. Scheduling. Proposals.
- Train your team on AI best practices – Giving people access to AI is one thing…teaching them how to really use it requires a more deliberate plan.
- Use AI to improve the quality of your communication – It can actually help you be more empathetic, more persuasive, and (ironically) more human!
- Use Deep Research to better understand the challenges your clients are facing.
- Automate routine touch points in service delivery to ensure more consistency (and quality) in your candidate and client experience.
- Create a GPT to allow your salespeople to roleplay selling scenarios (it’s surprisingly easy!).
- Upgrade your website to create more engagement and increase response…it’s your highest ROI marketing investment!
Keep the tech. Keep the touch.
Think like a client (understand your real value)
Staffing buyers want more than resumes.
They want:
- Outcome-based solutions (76% now use SOW contracts)
- Real-time responsiveness (VMS expectations are hours, not days)
- Rock-solid compliance (multi-state headaches are real)
What does that mean for you?
You need to:
- Talk outcomes, not job orders.
- Deliver faster (think talent pools, self-service portals)
- Know the laws better than your clients do.
In 2025, the winners will be:
- Consultative – Showing the economic value of staffing
- Tech-enabled – Faster response, and smoother service
- Adaptable – Change will be a constant going forward
Small firms can still punch above their weight. But only if they act like big players where it counts.
Marketing meets recruiting: solve the talent crunch
Job boards? Fading.
Direct outreach and social? Rising.
- 52% say job boards are underperforming.
- 1 in 10 of hires now comes from social media.
- 61% say candidate expectations have risen.
Winning in 2025 requires:
- Treating recruiters like marketers.
- Building personal brands on LinkedIn.
- Using automated SMS/email workflows to reduce ghosting.
- Creating talent communities for recurring roles.
And this may sound obvious, but don’t forget mobile. If you’re the majority of your candidate interaction isn’t seamless on a phone, you’re losing talent daily.
Marketing leads sales (or at least plays nicely together)
Personally, I hate the term “sales enablement.” But that’s what your sales team needs.
Marketing that enables them to sell more. And that doesn’t mean a cold email automation campaign (although that might be part of this mix), I mean marketing that:
- Opens doors by capturing the attention of staffing buyers.
- Creates meaningful sales conversations by addressing the real pain points employers are dealing with in this market.
- Tells your story…the way you want it told…during the sales process.
- Nurtures relationships in a way that strengthens your positioning and keeps you top-of-mind.
What are the fastest-growing staffing companies doing with their marketing?
- Re-engineering sales to differentiate HOW they sell.
- Incorporating CRO to maximize website response.
- Doing more personalized outreach with video.
- Providing more value…before selling.
- Creating omnichannel outreach campaigns (40+ touches).
- Implementing programmatic SEO.
- Ensuring that marketing (and sales) speaks the buyer’s language.
- Integrating digital and non-digital touch points.
- Expanding social proof.
- Incorporating AI to create deeper, richer, more personalized content.
- Building leader brands at the team/company level and personal brands for salespeople and recruiters.
- Developing more sources of leads, including: direct marketing, advertising, event marketing, partnerships, and influencers (referral sources).
Most importantly, marketing must be integrated with sales to help break through the biggest barriers in your sales process.
STATUS QUO = DOA
Our world is fundamentally changing.
Technology is changing.
Expectations are changing.
And the staffing industry is most definitely changing.
This is not a time for caution…it’s a time for bold action.
What will happen if you wait too long?
- You’ll have fewer sales opportunities.
- You’ll experience lower fill rates.
- You’ll lose contracts to tech-enabled competitors.
- Recruiter and sales burnout will increase from manual workflows.
- You will put your business at a permanent competitive disadvantage.
- You risk obsolescence.
I’m not trying to be overly dramatic.
But your competitors are upgrading. Clients are expecting more. Candidates are pickier. Standing still isn’t neutral anymore – it’s moving backwards.
What to do now:
- Pick one area (sales, recruiting, marketing).
- Invest in one upgrade that saves time or improves productivity.
- Train your team. Track results. Iterate.
This isn’t about perfection.
It’s about progress.
2025 should be your “MAKE IT” year
The staffing industry isn’t in crisis.
But it is at a turning point.
The agencies that:
- Lean in
- Adopt new tools
- Rethink their value
- Evolve their delivery models
…will build the foundation for growth in 2026 and beyond.
The rest?
They’ll be reading next year’s trends report…
Wondering what went wrong.
Your move.
Not sure where to start? Hit reply. Let’s figure it out together. |
