Recruiters vs Staffing Agencies: Which Fits the Hire?

Alpha Apex Group reports 2,000+ candidate placements worldwide, a firm-wide figure. Its pages read in October 2026 give a 43-day average time to fill full-time hires, without saying whether that ends at an accepted offer or a start date. They also promise new candidates in the hiring manager's inbox within 72 hours, without stating the starting point or which searches it covers. Its pages show client logos, among them Meta, Siemens and Zendesk, without saying which service each used.

The executive search and recruiting page describes searches for executive and management talent, with permanent or interim assignments. The staffing page covers contingent recruitment for project, seasonal and project-to-permanent roles, with onboarding support. The firm also offers recruitment process outsourcing.

Korn Ferry's client story The Little Airline That Could (opens in a new tab), dated May 2023, says it worked with Avelo Airlines' CEO and head of people to identify and attract the airline's leadership team. It then recruited the front-line workforce through its recruitment process outsourcing service. Its about page (opens in a new tab) says three in every four of Fortune's best companies to work for are its clients, a claim that covers all its services.

The executive search page describes how a retained search typically runs, in ten steps, from discovery and a written success profile through a candidate slate, client interviews and reference checks to the offer. It says its consultants have recruited in 130 countries and that searches include salary benchmarking. Korn Ferry also sells assessment, succession and organizational consulting.

Michael Page's homepage carries client testimonials with names attached: Phil C. at Hess Construction describes a consultant "quickly providing qualified candidates", and Dan O. at US Capital Development says only qualified candidates were presented.

The firm recruits for permanent, interim and project-based roles, places temporary workers on its own payroll, and runs executive search for senior and board roles. Its enterprise unit offers recruitment process outsourcing and contingent workforce programs.

Adecco says it placed 54 direct-hire associates for an adhesives manufacturer and converted 39 of its temporary associates to permanent roles within three months of starting the program, in a case posted in February 2020. A second case (opens in a new tab), posted in March 2024, describes running the whole temporary workforce for a fashion company with three brands for more than a decade.

Its temporary staffing page (opens in a new tab) says Adecco manages recruitment, onboarding, payroll and administration for anything from one employee to 1,000. Its permanent recruitment page (opens in a new tab) covers direct hires from one to 5,000.

Aquent reports more than 400 of its temporary talent placed in 15 Google divisions. Its permanent recruitment page says it sourced and placed 133 candidates in specialized product design and research roles for Walmart, and placed 11 permanent hires at Revlon in 12 months.

The firm offers temporary staffing (opens in a new tab), where the talent are Aquent's employees, contract-to-hire with a 90-day evaluation period, permanent recruitment and an employer of record service (opens in a new tab) for people a client has already identified. That page says Aquent has been Eventbrite's employer of record since 2018 and has payrolled at least 100 people for it. Its temporary and contract-to-hire pages offered a refund plus an extra 10% if the client was not fully satisfied with the talent, on pages read in October 2026.

Kelly describes a master vendor program for an aviation manufacturer that produced 62 placements, zero safety incidents and a sixfold cut in turnover.

Its talent solutions page says Kelly "sources, vets, and employs specialized professionals on contract, temp-to-hire, and direct-hire terms". Specialty divisions cover education, engineering, government, therapy, science and clinical roles, and technology, alongside light industrial, office and customer service staffing.

Randstad describes hiring 1,100 customer service professionals in a two-week period for a business process outsourcing firm building a remote department, drawing on military spouses. For a Fortune 100 pharmaceutical company it trained developers in robotic process automation and filled 18 roles.

Its employer solutions page (opens in a new tab) covers temporary, permanent and contract positions, and the homepage describes temp-to-hire as a way to evaluate people in your workplace before a permanent commitment. Senior roles go through its Tatum executive search (opens in a new tab) unit, where an experienced director leads each search.

Robert Half's executive search page, published in March 2023, describes finding a Mandarin-speaking CFO for a global paper company's US division, and a CFO for a family-owned real estate financial services company that manages 150 project LLCs.

Its contract staffing page (opens in a new tab) offers professionals with the option to convert them to full-time hires and cites a database of 30 million candidates. A separate permanent placement page (opens in a new tab) covers full-time hires from early career to the C-suite, and the retained search team handles senior leaders and board members.

For an appliance manufacturer with more than $20 billion in annual sales, TEKsystems says it placed eight digital consultants, six of them on site within five weeks, and that several were later offered full-time positions.

The talent solutions page offers anything from one person to an entire team or full outsourcing, with recruiters segmented by skill area. It says its network covers 81% of the IT workforce, without explaining how that is measured.

A national e-commerce employer needed more than 130,000 associates across dozens of fulfillment centers in three months, Integrity says in a July 2026 case, with Integrity as its exclusive staffing partner. The engagement filled 98% of open positions. A September 2025 case (opens in a new tab) reports a 60% cut in attrition for a logistics client after Integrity embedded its own onsite team.

The homepage offers temporary and high-volume staffing, direct hire, recruitment process outsourcing and vendor management programs, with named client testimonials. Betty Scannell of Glovis America says the team "has always quickly provided our company with qualified candidates."

Joe Bales of Tekra says it supplied candidates for skilled temporary positions and "helped us recruit for hard to fill permanent positions as well". Chris Richards of Advance Electrical Contractors credits it with handling payroll taxes and insurance.

The services page describes four services: short-notice temporary staffing, temp-to-hire with the agency carrying insurance and payroll taxes before the hire, direct hire for "a finding fee", and payroll services. The homepage says it can provide from 1 to 1,000 people, and its professional services page (opens in a new tab) adds contract-to-hire and direct placement for professional roles with placement guarantees.

Oyster's Chili Piper case lists 124 Oyster hires. The scheduling software company chose Oyster in August 2021, and the case describes its total team as 250 people in 43 countries. Oyster's case-study index (opens in a new tab) shows other employers' international hires.

The employer of record page says Oyster generates compliant contracts, runs payroll and provides benefits without the client setting up local entities. It advertised onboarding in as little as 48 hours on the page read in October 2026. Its pricing page (opens in a new tab) showed USD 699 per employee per month for employer of record in October 2026, with setup and onboarding included in the subscription.