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How to Run a Recruitment Agency in Canada

Learn the best and most effective ways to run your recruitment agency in this article.

A factor that recruitment agencies persistently rely on is the availability of job vacancies throughout the country, so you’ll need to improve your industry ranking to fulfill this demand.

Recruitment agencies are the 'middlemen' for organizations that seek employers and prospective applicants searching for a firm to showcase their talent and skills.

In 2020, the emergence of COVID-19 halted the industry, as firms restricted hiring and promoted from within. But now that we've moved out of it, owning a recruitment agency brings great opportunity.

Let’s go through some ways you can run your recruitment agency to ensure it grows and succeeds.

Innovate your agency

The recruitment sector is ferociously competitive. With an ever-increasing number of recruitment agencies proactively joining the market each year, you’ve got to reshape your management decisions and stand out.

Data specialization: data and analytics must be in your DNA. Inform your decisions with new, rapidly developing software that can monitor and track the ebb and flow of the industry.

Keep your clients and applicants happy: create unique ways to engage and retain your clients, and prove that you will add value to applicants in different ways.

Build an effective management process: re-evaluate your pipeline to guarantee that you are sustainably generating revenue. Optimize your daily operations to include digital processes.

Keep track of regulations

At both the federal and provincial levels, Canada has a plethora of employment legislation. Provincial employment laws protect around 90% of Canadian employees.

Part of running a successful recruitment agency is staying up to date with Canadian regulations, so you can demonstrate to both clients and applicants that you are credible and trustworthy. For example:

  • The probationary period is usually three months long.
  • Check each employee's Social Insurance Number (SIN) to see if they are a citizen or a resident.
  • If you have ten or more employees, you must offer identical compensation to male and female employees for equal or comparable labor.
  • Consider the regulations for foreign employees too.

Keep track of market trends 

The Canadian employment and recruiting industry has grown more rapidly than the Administration, Business Support, and Waste Management Services sectors. Consumer confidence and corporate profit are two elements affecting this industry.

Allegis Group, Adecco Group, ManpowerGroup Inc, and Randstad NV are the organizations with the highest market share in the employment and recruiting agencies in Canada.

Businesses account for the majority of sales (88.6%), followed by sales to governments (9.7%).

The following are the main activities that you need to consider:

  • Placement that is permanent/long-term.
  • Staffing/placement temporarily.
  • Headhunting for an executive-level and related.
  • Staffing services for co-employment.

Some industry facts


  • 912,600 job openings were recorded in the third quarter of 2021. This is attributed to the escalation in overall employment opportunities and decline in unemployment rates.
  • This industry generates more than $15 billion in revenue toward the Canadian economy.
  • Ontario is the leading and prominent province that generates employment services revenue in Canada.

Invest in your marketing

It is crucial that you pay attention to your marketing efforts when running a successful recruitment agency. Here are some ways to boost your presence:

Programmatic advertising

This cutting-edge recruiting method helps in streamlining the publishing of job adverts to your "standard" list of job boards.

ATS platforms like Recruitee allow you to build job advertising that targets certain attributes and talents you're searching for in a candidate. Your adverts will then be shown to the proper target demographic, increasing your chances of landing a qualified candidate.

Data-driven processes

Collecting and evaluating critical data can help you determine which approaches are working and which aren't, as well as what decisions need to be made in the future. Whether you use an ATS, HRIS, or another HR tool, you have access to a wealth of relevant data that should be guiding your hiring decisions.

Use chatbots

Beyond recruitment, interested applicants seek a plethora of information before clicking the "apply now" button. Answer them through chatbots. Even Forbes emphasizes the importance of doing so. It can save 40% of required human engagement time while growing revenues by up to 25%.

Think about financing your growth

Depending on your expansion needs, you can take advantage of government-sponsored projects or contact investment professionals.

The Canada Small Business Finance Act is something you can consider. It intends to boost the availability of financing to help Canadian small businesses start-up, expand, modernize, and enhance.

This interactive map displays all the lenders that are part of the Canada Small Business Financing Program.

Other advantageous resources include the following:

Plan your exit

When you're growing a new recruitment agency, the last thing on your mind is an exit strategy. A wise entrepreneur would recognize that the choices you make on day one can have far-reaching effects down the road. One of these choices should be to plan for your exit.

Calculate the worth of your company

Analyzing your company's current financial health, future earning possibilities, market value, and other factors will help you obtain a better sense of its economic worth and manage your expectations when putting a price on it.

Choose the most advantageous time to sell

Demand and purchase price are influenced by the economy, competition, industry trends, and your business’s existing profitability. Keeping track of all these factors can help highlight the best time to sell your firm.




Megan Kelly

About the author

Megan is Head of Content Marketing at BusinessesForSale.com. She is a B2B Content Strategist and Copywriter. She has produced multiple articles that rank on the first page of Google SERPS, and loves creating people-first content.

@Be_theBoss