Choosing a therapy staffing partner involves more than finding a company that can send resumes. The most important questions to ask a staffing agency cover recruiting expertise, candidate qualifications, the hiring process, staffing costs, contracts, and ongoing support.
Healthcare facilities hiring physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, respiratory therapists, and therapy assistants need a staffing partner that understands their specific requirements. This guide answers 20 questions to help facilities evaluate agencies, compare responses, and make informed hiring decisions.
What Should You Prepare Before Speaking With a Therapy Staffing Agency?
Before contacting a staffing company, define the position your organization needs to fill. Clear requirements help recruiters understand the vacancy and determine an appropriate recruiting approach.
| Staffing requirement | What to specify |
| Therapy discipline | PT, PTA, OT, COTA, SLP, or RT |
| Work setting | Hospital, rehabilitation facility, long-term care, outpatient, or school |
| Qualifications | Required licenses, certifications, and experience |
| Schedule | Weekly hours, shifts, and coverage dates |
| Staffing model | Temporary, contract, temp-to-perm, or direct placement |
| Hiring process | Interviews, facility approvals, onboarding, and preferred start date |
Facilities comparing potential partners can also review this 12-point guide to evaluating a healthcare staffing agency.
With these requirements established, the following questions can guide your agency discussions.
Questions About Agency Expertise and Staffing Fit
These questions help determine whether a staffing firm understands your therapy positions and recruitment requirements.
Which Therapy Professionals Does Your Staffing Agency Recruit?
Confirm that the agency recruits for the discipline your facility needs, whether that’s physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, respiratory therapy, or therapy assistant positions.
Each profession has distinct qualifications and responsibilities. General healthcare recruiting experience does not necessarily mean an agency specializes in every therapy discipline.
What to verify: Which professions the agency supports in your geographic area and whether it recruits for your preferred staffing arrangement. Recruiting for a discipline does not guarantee immediate candidate availability.
What Healthcare and Educational Settings Do You Serve?
A therapist’s work setting can influence the experience, credentials, and scheduling requirements of a position. Hospitals, rehabilitation facilities, long-term care settings, and schools may have different expectations.
Ask about the agency’s experience recruiting for comparable organizations and how it approaches setting-specific requirements.
What to verify: Relevant recruiting experience and familiarity with the qualifications or onboarding requirements associated with your facility’s setting.
Do You Offer Temporary, Contract, Temp-to-Perm, and Direct-Hire Staffing?
Staffing agencies may offer different hiring arrangements depending on the facility’s needs.
Temporary and contract staffing can address defined coverage periods or vacancies. Direct placement involves recruiting candidates for potential employment with the hiring organization, while temp-to-perm may allow a later transition under agreed conditions.
Facilities comparing these options can also review the differences between direct-hire and contract staffing arrangements, particularly how employment responsibilities and contract terms may vary.
What to verify: Available staffing models, employment relationships, assignment duration, and any conversion terms.
How Will You Learn About Our Specific Staffing Needs?
A recruiting partner should understand the position before beginning its candidate search. This includes the discipline, work location, schedule, required credentials, experience, and employment arrangement.
The agency should also distinguish mandatory qualifications from preferences that may offer flexibility.
What to verify: How job requirements are documented, who clarifies outstanding questions, and how changes are communicated during recruitment.
Questions About Candidate Recruitment and Screening
Finding interested job candidates is different from determining whether they meet the facility’s requirements. These questions examine the agency’s recruitment and evaluation process.
How Do You Find Qualified Therapy Candidates?
Staffing agencies may identify candidates through applications, professional networks, outreach, referrals, and other recruiting channels.
Ask how the agency plans to reach therapists who match your position’s discipline, geographic location, and employment arrangement.
A large candidate database alone does not establish that qualified professionals are currently available.
What to verify: Whether the sourcing approach is appropriate for your position and how the agency plans to address difficult-to-fill requirements.
What Does Your Candidate Screening Process Include?
Candidate screening may involve reviewing resumes, evaluating relevant experience, confirming availability, checking references, and assessing stated qualifications.
Ask which steps occur before candidates are presented and which take place later in the hiring process.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission explains that covered employment agencies must comply with applicable employment discrimination laws when referring candidates.
What to verify: Which checks are performed, who completes them, and what information your hiring team receives.
How Do You Verify Licenses, Credentials, and Healthcare Screening Requirements?
Therapy professionals must hold the appropriate authorization for their roles and work locations. Facilities should ask how agencies address professional license status, certifications, restrictions, and other required qualifications.
Healthcare exclusion screening may also be relevant. The HHS Office of Inspector General maintains the List of Excluded Individuals/Entities (LEIE) and recommends routine checks by healthcare organizations.
What to verify: Which credential and exclusion checks the agency performs, their timing, and which responsibilities remain with the facility.
How Do You Determine Whether a Candidate Fits Our Position?
Candidate suitability should reflect the position’s actual requirements rather than general claims about finding the right fit.
Ask how the agency compares candidates’ qualifications, previous work settings, relevant skills, availability, and employment preferences with your job description.
What to verify: What evidence supports the recommendation, which qualifications have been confirmed, and whether your hiring team has enough information to determine the next step.
Questions About the Hiring Process and Staffing Responsibilities
These questions clarify what happens after a potential candidate is identified, including interviews, recruitment timelines, onboarding, and assignment changes.
What Does Your Hiring and Interview Process Look Like?
Ask the agency to explain the steps from submitting a staffing request to candidate presentation, interviews, selection, onboarding, and the expected start date.
The process may differ between temporary staffing and permanent placement. Facilities should understand which activities the agency coordinates and which decisions remain with their hiring team.
What to verify: Who schedules interviews, collects feedback, communicates decisions, and coordinates necessary documentation.
How Long Could It Take to Fill Our Position?
Recruitment timelines depend on the discipline, location, schedule, qualifications, compensation, and candidate availability.
Ask whether an estimated timeline refers to the first candidate submission, an accepted offer, or the therapist’s actual start date. These milestones are not interchangeable.
What to verify: The assumptions behind the estimate, required facility approvals, and how recruitment delays will be communicated.
An agency that explains its recruitment stages and possible delays provides more useful information than one that simply promises a quick placement.
Who Handles Payroll, Onboarding, and Workplace Safety Responsibilities?
Employment responsibilities vary by staffing model. With direct placement, the facility generally hires the selected candidate, while temporary staffing may involve a different employing organization.
Clarify who handles payroll, benefits administration, orientation, training, and relevant workplace requirements.
OSHA’s temporary-worker guidance explains that staffing agencies and host employers share workplace safety responsibilities, depending on the circumstances.
What to verify: Written responsibility assignments covering the actual employer, site-specific training, safety procedures, and incident reporting.
What Happens if a Therapist Becomes Unavailable or an Assignment Changes?
An unexpected absence, schedule change, or early assignment ending may affect planned coverage.
Ask how the agency handles notifications, communicates with the facility, and considers alternative staffing options when available.
What to verify: The notification process, responsible contact, replacement provisions if offered, and any related contractual conditions.
A replacement should not be assumed unless the applicable agreement provides for one.
Questions About Staffing Costs and Contracts
Evaluating an agency’s pricing requires understanding the services and obligations included in the agreement, not just the quoted rate.
How Does Your Staffing Agency Calculate Its Fees?
Pricing often depends on the staffing arrangement. Temporary or contract staffing may use hourly bill rates, while direct placement may involve a recruitment or placement fee.
The bill rate charged to a facility is not necessarily the clinician’s pay rate.
When comparing staffing proposals, it helps to understand how therapy staffing costs, bill rates, and pay rates differ and what each amount represents.
What to verify: The pricing model, billable hours, included services, placement-fee conditions, and written rates.
What Additional Costs Should Our Facility Expect?
Some agreements may include charges beyond the initial quote, depending on the services and employment arrangement.
Potential examples include overtime, holiday coverage, travel-related expenses, cancellation charges, or other contractual fees.
Ask which charges are included and what circumstances may create additional costs.
What to verify: Itemized pricing, invoicing terms, payment deadlines, conditional fees, and billing dispute procedures.
What Are the Contract Duration, Cancellation, and Conversion Terms?
Staffing agreements should describe the expected duration and how the arrangement can be changed or ended.
Ask about start dates, extensions, cancellation notices, termination conditions, and any temp-to-perm conversion provisions.
What to verify: Written notice periods, financial obligations, extension procedures, and conversion fees where applicable.
Review these provisions before signing rather than assuming temporary staffing arrangements have no ongoing commitments.
How Are Compliance, Liability, and Other Responsibilities Documented?
The staffing agreement should clearly identify the services and responsibilities assigned to each organization.
Ask how it addresses employment status, screening, insurance, administrative obligations, and applicable workplace requirements.
The IRS explains that worker classification depends on the actual relationship, including behavioral and financial control, rather than a contract label alone.
What to verify: Relevant agreement clauses and whether they accurately reflect the staffing arrangement. Appropriate HR, legal, or compliance personnel should review unresolved responsibilities.
Questions About Agency Performance and Long-Term Partnership
Past performance and communication can inform agency selection, but they should be evaluated using relevant evidence rather than unsupported promises.
What Evidence Can You Share About Past Staffing Performance?
Ask whether the agency can share information about previous recruitment assignments involving comparable positions.
Potential performance indicators include time to fill, fill rates, and assignment completion. Their usefulness depends on how each measure is defined.
For example, presenting a candidate is different from completing a placement.
What to verify: Reporting periods, metric definitions, included professions, and the relevance of the results to your vacancy.
Historical performance can inform your decision but does not guarantee future outcomes.
Can You Provide Relevant Client Testimonials or Satisfaction Data?
Client references and testimonials may provide insight into an agency’s previous working relationships.
If the staffing company shares satisfaction scores, ask when the feedback was collected, who participated, and what was measured.
A recent score without information about its sample or methodology may have limited value.
What to verify: The relevance and recency of client feedback, supporting survey details where applicable, and permission to contact references.
Who Will Be Our Main Contact, and How Are Staffing Issues Resolved?
Clear communication helps facilities coordinate recruiting activities and address concerns.
Ask whether the organization will work with a recruiter, account manager, or designated client service contact.
Clarify who shares updates, receives feedback, coordinates changes, and handles escalations.
What to verify: Contact responsibilities, communication expectations, escalation procedures, and any written service commitments.
How Can Your Agency Support Our Changing Therapy Staffing Needs?
Facilities may require different staffing arrangements as vacancies arise, schedules change, or longer-term hiring needs develop.
Ask how the agency approaches recurring vacancies, multiple therapy disciplines, and possible transitions between temporary and permanent staffing.
A useful response should explain available services rather than promise particular business outcomes.
What to verify: Supported professions, geographic locations, staffing models, and procedures for submitting additional recruitment requests.
How Should Facilities Compare Staffing Agency Responses?
After speaking with potential staffing partners, compare their answers against the requirements of your facility.
| Evaluation area | What to compare |
| Therapy expertise | Disciplines, settings, and geographic coverage |
| Recruiting process | Sourcing, screening, interviews, and timelines |
| Candidate qualifications | Licensure, credentials, and verification responsibilities |
| Staffing models | Temporary, contract, temp-to-perm, and direct placement |
| Costs and contracts | Rates, fees, cancellation, conversion, and responsibilities |
| Performance | Relevant metrics, references, and client satisfaction |
| Communication | Primary contact, updates, and escalation procedures |
Prioritize essential requirements such as discipline coverage, qualifications, and staffing arrangements before comparing pricing and service preferences. Document unresolved questions and request written clarification of material terms before signing.
Conclusion
Choosing the right therapy staffing partner requires more than comparing rates or candidate availability. Healthcare facilities should evaluate recruiting processes, qualifications, employment responsibilities, contract terms, and evidence of past performance. Clear answers help hiring teams assess whether an agency’s services align with their staffing requirements.
Flagstar Rehab is a therapy staffing and recruiting agency connecting healthcare and educational employers with therapy professionals. Facilities considering temporary, contract, temp-to-perm, or direct placement can explore Flagstar Rehab’s therapy staffing services and discuss their recruitment requirements.
FAQs
Can a healthcare facility work with multiple staffing agencies?
Yes, healthcare facilities can work with multiple staffing agencies unless their agreements restrict this. Review exclusivity clauses, candidate ownership terms, and potential fees before engaging additional agencies.
What happens if two staffing agencies submit the same candidate?
Duplicate candidate submissions may lead to disputes over referral ownership and placement fees. Facilities should track submissions and review their staffing contracts to determine how duplicate referrals are handled.
How should facilities handle candidate information shared by staffing agencies?
Facilities should protect candidate resumes, employment records, and other personal information throughout the hiring process. Limit access to authorized personnel and follow applicable privacy requirements and data retention policies.
When should a facility reassess its staffing agency partnership?
Facilities should reassess their staffing agency partnership periodically or when hiring needs change. Review recruitment results, communication, and whether the agency’s services continue to meet the organization’s staffing requirements.