Top 10 Best Temping Agencies in London
A temping agency is a recruitment agency that specialises in placing candidates in temporary positions. After making initial contact, the candidate will usually attend a face-to-face meeting which will often include an assessment session which might be generic or related to the industry for which the agency recruits (e.g. an administration temping agency might assess typing speed).
Compiling a list of the best 10 temping agencies in London is challenging since an unplaced candidate may give a perfectly good agency a poor review. If in doubt over an agency’s reputation, check if they are members of the REC.
Although there is no limit to how many temping agencies you can sign up with, it can be more efficient to choose one or two of the most suitable and spend the rest of your time approaching employers directly.
Hays Plc
Hays plc are one of the most well-established recruitment agencies, having been in operation since the 1860s. Hays are a globally recognised brand that employ consultants in specific sectors to ensure jobseekers get to speak to someone who really knows their chosen industry inside out. Hays can place temporary workers in a wide range of sectors, including health, administration, telesales and finance & accounting. They have a fairly involved application process as they do want quality candidates on their books, but if you’re an expat looking for decent temp work, Hays should probably be somewhere near the top of your list.
Prospect-Us
If you’re looking to work for a charity, university or not-for-profit organisation, Prospect-Us is a name that crops up a lot – usually with glowing praise from happy candidates. Prospect-Us operate a non-commission policy for staff, ensuring they focus purely on finding a suitable match, and they have created several partnerships with companies to facilitate employing those who might struggle to find positions with a regular recruitment agency.
Manpower
Despite the name, Manpower provides both male and female candidates for companies in London. Most sectors are catered for, including secretarial & admin, engineering, customer service and transport & logistics. Manpower have their own Training & Development centre and a global network of nearly 3500 offices in more than 80 countries.
Pitman’s People
Pitman’s People are highly regarded suppliers of talent for the event planning sector with over a decade of experience placing candidates in the many large and small events that London is renowned for. Examples of jobs in the Pitman’s People portfolio are marquee crew members, waiters, leaflet distributors, stewards, door supervisors and casual event staff. Pitman’s balance the need to be professional with a sense of fun and social engagement.
Randstad
Randstad are a broad-brush recruitment agency who have built a solid reputation for matching suitable clients with decent positions. Although Randstad are not specialists in any field, they have been successful in supplying teachers and Learning Support Assistants to London schools, so if education is your area, they would be worth visiting.
Hydrogen Group
Hydrogen makes the list on account of their Top 100 placing in the Sunday Times ‘ ‘Best 100 Companies to Work For’ listing, the best result for any London-based recruitment agent. With 70 per cent of employees admitting they love being part of the business, some of that enthusiasm is bound to filter down to candidates. Hydrogen source candidates for both professional support (legal, finance, technology, etc.) and technical/scientific (e.g. oil & gas, property & construction) fields, specialising in global placements to over 75 countries. There are occasionally temporary contracts available.
Hydrogen’s London offices, which opened in 2013, are in EastCheap.
Reed
Reed is one of the most established and well-known of the online recruitment agencies, with over 50 years in the business. The reed.co.uk website is packed with useful information in addition to its user-friendly yet detailed job search screen which attracts tens of thousands of visits every day.
Simply enter relevant keywords (or leave blank to pick up everything), put ‘London’ in the location box and press the search key.
On the left hand side you will be able to tick a ‘temporary’ check box and other options to refine the search. At the time of writing, there were over three thousand temp jobs on the Reed system, two thousand of them offering an immediate start.
The Reed site also offers tailored search links for jobseekers with specific requirements (e.g. global, graduate and 50k plus jobs). Reed have a good reputation in the accountancy sector but offer a wide range of positions, from education and engineering to hospitality and more.
Office Angels
Office Angels are a big specialist recruitment agency with over 80 offices in cities throughout the UK, not least London. Most expat jobseekers looking for secretarial or office work would be sensible to put their name down with them, especially since they have a good reputation for excellent customer service and an in-depth consultation procedure that focuses on the candidate’s personality and skills mix. The agency attracts good write-ups on the whole and candidate feedback is generally positive. Despite its name, Office Angels positions both men and women and they usually have a number of good temporary positions on offer including customer service, telesales and research roles.
Tate
Tate are generally well regarded both for their honesty and their ability to find quality temporary positions in offices around the capital. Data entry, administration and customer service positions seem to be their forte.
Tiger
Tiger are another agency with a good reputation and a wide range of positions to offer. Tiger have a dedicated temp section on their website, and are specialists in recruiting office staff for numerous roles. They can source temporary work for expats looking for a position in administration, secretarial, event planning, accounting, recruitment consulting and more. Tiger are also one of the leading ESL recruitment agencies.