While the staffing industry grew like gangbusters in 2021 and 2022, this year’s numbers and remaining projections reveal a slowdown with declining overall revenue. During economic lulls like this one, service quality and client satisfaction grow even more essential to maintaining business success. In fact, business leaders across sectors identified customer experience (CX) as a top priority in 2024. To understand how your service measures up year over year, you need a feedback tool that gathers insights and simplifies tracking—and gives you a metric that can be easily compared with your competition’s performance. Enter the Net Promoter Score® (NPS®), a service quality and customer satisfaction metric that serves as a leading indicator of revenue retention, growth, and brand differentiation.

What is NPS?

As a staffing firm, your NPS starts with a single survey question that asks both clients and candidates how likely they are to recommend your firm to a friend or colleague. Their response lands on a scale of 0–10, ten being extremely likely and zero being not likely at all. From there they have the option to offer more specific feedback.To calculate NPS, we subtract the % of detractors (those who respond with a 6 or lower) from the % of promoters (those who respond with 9 or 10). Click here for a more detailed look at the NPS methodology.

Why is NPS Uniquely Useful?

NPS offers standardized measurement for reporting on client satisfaction and service quality—one that can be applied across every level, from the industry as a whole to the brand-level, and even within each firm’s organization, including by lines of business, account manager or recruiter. This means that, on a high level, you can compare your firm to others and, at the firm level, you can pinpoint shining stars and areas to improve within your organization. Learn more about how NPS can help drive business growth.

Staffing Industry NPS in 2024 – Client Ratings

ClearlyRated’s Annual Survey Benchmark Study includes an industry focus on staffing services NPS. The staffing client industry NPS has been on a steady rise from 2020, landing at 45, from 28 in 2020, up 17 points. The jump in satisfaction was largest last year (from 2023 to 2024), with a 9 point gain from 36 in 2023.

Staffing  - Satisfaction Drivers in 2024

Staffing firms have made large improvements in the areas of Issue Resolution (+9 points), Culture Fit of candidates (+8 points), and delivering within expected Timeframes of service delivery (+6 points) from 2020 to 2024, likely driving much of the gains in NPS over the last few years.

Much of the gains driving the large bump in NPS from 2023 to 2024 lay in Timeframe of service delivery improvements (+8 points), taking a Proactive approach to service (+6 points), understanding client Needs (+5 points), and delivering Value, given the cost (+5 points).

Staffing Client Satisfaction – measured as NPS

Year-Over-Year Staffing Industry NPS (Client Ratings)

Insights on 2024 Client Ratings

For reference, per global NPS standards, organizations classify as excellent once they’ve earned at least a 50 NPS, and a 70 NPS would classify them as world-class. Some recognizable service leaders like Starbucks and USAA record NPS of 77 and 75, respectively, compared with Comcast, a notorious service laggard, whose clients give them a -25 NPS.The overall Net Promoter Score for clients of staffing firms has risen significantly, moving from -2 in 2019 to an all-time high of 45 in 2024. This is the highest recorded level of client satisfaction since 2010, when ClearlyRated started benchmarking the staffing industry. While this benchmark improvement is impressive when compared with past data, and achieving a higher NPS during a period of growth is impressive, staffing firms should remember that their industry continues to lag compared with global NPS standards. This means that there’s exciting potential for further improvement. Staffing firms that manage to deliver an outstanding CX and earn a high NPS as a result create the opportunity to easily outshine their competition. Get tips on how to improve your CX based on customer feedback.

Staffing Industry NPS in 2024 – Candidate

The staffing placed talent industry NPS was relatively stable from 2015 to 2022, averaging an NPS of 22.5 from 2015 to 2018, then a drop to 18.5 from 2020 to 2022. However, it then bumped up significantly to 30 between 2023 (an 11 point increase), where it remains in 2024.

Staffing  - Satisfaction Drivers in 2024

Overall, staffing firms have made significant strides in improving service to placed talent from 2015. Specifically in the areas of Communication (+37 points from 2015), Coaching (+31 points from 2015), Contact Prior to Transition (+27 points from 2015), and developing Relationships with talent (+27 points from 2015).

The largest gains among satisfaction drivers for placed talent coincided with the sharp jump in NPS from 2022 to 2023. Talent reporting that they were treated well at the organization where they were placed rose +13 points (Treatment is also the driver most closely correlated with NPS). Talent reporting that Positions (+10 points) were described accurately to them, and that firms set expectations for how to Communicate (+10 points) with them were also satisfaction drivers that rose sharply.

Placed Talent Satisfaction – measured as NPS

Year-Over-Year Staffing Industry NPS (Talent Ratings)

Insights on 2024 Talent Ratings

While the upward swing in talent NPS from 2020 to 2023 may have stalled out in 2024, remaining even at 30, talent NPS remains at higher levels compared to the historical average. This is likely due in part to staffing firms focusing on improving their talent experience (TX) while a potential recession simultaneously resulted in an influx of job seekers who leaned on staffing firms to find work, especially compared with the hot job markets of the past three years from 2020 through 2022. In fact, according to a Staffing Hub report, there may have been another reason for job seekers to flood the market: Employer-based NPS scores are down, with 63% of detractors saying they’ll look for a new job this year. As more people enter the job market, staffing firms have an opportunity for a stream of new talent—especially if they can deliver a great TX on their end while helping their clients understand how to create a positive employee experience (EX). Earn brownie points for both your CX and your TX by acting as a consultative partner that helps clients understand what talent wants (hybrid schedules, anyone?) and how to take advantage of expanding their talent pool across geographies thanks to remote work. When you deliver more attractive opportunities to your talent, you not only help your clients make great hires, but you also create happy candidates who are more likely to refer others to your firm. Referrals remain a top way to grow your talent network—and this is an area where NPS survey programs have proven hugely helpful. Finally, keep in mind that your recruiters play a large role in TX. We’ve already seen some wise staffing firms like Uniti Med improve their TX by factoring in their own employee experience. When recruiters are happy and well-trained, they’ll take better care of your firm’s talent. This is why a better EX builds a foundation for better TX—and better TX will help you retain talent, in turn providing an improved CX.

How does your firm stack up?

If you’re not already leveraging NPS at your firm, we hope you consider this article a call-to-action. Not only do client satisfaction, talent satisfaction, and service quality represent opportunities to differentiate in an increasingly commodified service industry, they are fuel for firm growth. Remember the adage: “You can’t manage what you don’t measure” – and you certainly won’t be able to improve it either. Up against reluctant leaders? Learn how to overcome common objections to survey programs so you can snuff out hesitation, gain buy-in, and finally get started.

Next Steps

• Ready to get started with NPS? Contact the ClearlyRated team for insights, best practices, and a tour of our survey platform (designed specifically to support professional services firms).
• Considering a survey program? Our veteran team of survey experts has compiled a Satisfaction Survey Checklist for Staffing Firms to help you avoid common pitfalls and build a road map for a successful client survey initiative.