How Does an HR Agency Work? A Guide for Employers

As economic growth restarts, Hungarian companies are forecasting cautious but positive hiring plans for the second quarter of 2025. According to ManpowerGroup’s Employment Outlook Survey, 33% of employers plan to expand their workforce, while 25% anticipate layoffs. Despite the positive outlook, acquiring qualified talent, an aging population, and rising employee expectations remain serious challenges.

This challenging environment is prompting many companies to collaborate with professional recruitment agencies. These agencies do more than just find workers—they serve as strategic partners in HR processes, employer branding, and contribute to organizational growth and competitiveness.

What is a recruitment agency and how does it work?

A recruitment agency acts as a bridge between employers and job seekers. Its primary goal is to quickly and effectively match candidates with company needs. Agencies work with companies across various industries and have extensive experience and networks.

Manpower’s local consultants support their partners through the following main steps:

• Assessing recruitment needs: A dedicated consultant identifies the required profile, skills, experience, and personality traits.
• Candidate sourcing and pre-screening: A combination of job ads, databases, social channels, and active headhunting.
• Managing the selection process: Interviews, competency tests, motivation assessments.
• Hiring support: Presenting selected candidates, contract coordination, and offering replacement guarantees.

Consultants not only introduce the right professionals but also support employer-candidate communication, salary negotiations, and onboarding.

What does a recruitment consultant do?

Recruitment consultants—also known as HR consultants or recruiters—act as intermediaries between job seekers and employers. Their role goes beyond finding suitable candidates: they also seek to understand the job requirements and the company's culture and goals.

Consultants:

• Help define the desired profile
• Source and pre-screen potential candidates
• Conduct interviews and assess competencies
• Advise on salary ranges, motivations, availability
• Support salary and contract negotiations
• Guide the process until successful hire and offer replacement guarantees if needed

Why work with an HR agency?

They know the labor market
If you're hiring in an unfamiliar industry or for a niche role, finding the right candidate can be difficult. HR agencies understand how the market works, what candidates expect, and current recruitment trends. They also have access to wide candidate pools and can quickly respond—even for hard-to-fill roles.

They speed up recruitment
If you've been struggling for months to fill a key position, a recruitment agency’s experience and network can be a huge asset. They support every step of the selection process, shortening the time to hire.

They reduce the risk of bad hires
A poor hire can be costly and time-consuming. Agencies use expert screening processes to filter out candidates who may not be a good cultural or role fit.

They offer tailored solutions
Professional agencies don’t offer one-size-fits-all services. They tailor strategies based on your company’s size, culture, and business goals—making recruitment more targeted, faster, and more sustainable.

Employers and agencies often form long-term partnerships to improve hiring results and reduce risk.

HR agencies are especially beneficial when:

• You need to fill hard-to-staff positions
• There’s urgent or seasonal demand
• You lack an in-house HR team or recruitment experience
• Quality and reliability are key
• You want to save internal capacity

Temporary vs. Permanent Solutions

One of the biggest advantages of HR agencies is flexibility in employment models. Depending on your needs, you can choose between temporary solutions or long-term recruitment. Manpower offers both options:

• Temporary Staffing: The employee is legally employed by Manpower but works for your company. We handle HR admin, payroll, and equipment. Ideal for seasonal, project-based, or fixed-term replacements.
• Recruitment Services / RPO: The selected candidate becomes your employee. We manage the full recruitment process—from needs assessment to interview coordination and onboarding.

Our Additional Services

Manpower’s service portfolio goes beyond traditional recruitment. We provide tailored solutions covering the full HR lifecycle for administrative, technical, and leadership roles—including outsourcing and consultancy.

We also support with:

• HR outsourcing and payroll services: From contracts and benefits to legal compliance—ideal for companies without an HR team.
• Labor admin and records management: Onboarding, medical exams, vacation tracking, social security administration.
• Benchmarking and labor market research: Salary data, industry comparisons, and recruitment trends.
• Outplacement services: Career coaching and support during layoffs.
• Reception and office outsourcing: Admin and front office tasks handled by our staff.
• IT services and outsourcing: Short- or long-term IT professionals, including full teams.
• Training and academy programs: Internal training, onboarding, IT academies for tech employee development.