Why candidate experience still matters in a candidate-rich market

Ask any temp recruiter what happens when a client calls late in the afternoon needing workers for the following morning, and they'll tell you that having thousands of candidates in the database doesn't always make the job easier. Finding people who have the right skills, are compliant, available and willing to take the booking is another matter entirely.

It's a familiar frustration for agencies working across sectors such as logistics, construction and manufacturing. Application volumes might be high, but that doesn't necessarily mean there's an abundance of reliable, placement-ready workers. The CIPD's 2026 Resourcing and Talent Planning Report highlights the wider issue, with 58% of employers reporting an increase in applications from unsuitable candidates, compared with just 33% who had seen an increase in suitable applicants.

And while there might be plenty of people looking for work, the candidates your clients particularly value can still afford to be selective about which agencies they work with. Their decision isn't always based on who has the best-paid assignment available that week. The experience they've had with a recruiter, from that first conversation through to their last booking, can make a real difference to whether they'll pick up the phone next time.

Your most valuable workers still have choices

Consider an experienced HGV driver who regularly picks up shifts, a qualified tradesperson who comes highly recommended by clients or a contractor with specialist engineering skills. These are the people recruiters want to keep on their books, particularly when clients need reliable workers at short notice. They're also the people other agencies are likely to be trying to attract, which means they don't necessarily have to tolerate a frustrating experience.

If registering involves endless paperwork, unclear job details or waiting days for someone to confirm a booking, there's little stopping them from taking work elsewhere. And once they've established a good relationship with another recruiter, winning them back is difficult, especially if they've been consistently offered suitable assignments and kept informed about what's coming next.

Research from CV-Library's Candidate Behaviour Barometer 2026 found that 71% of candidates surveyed had abandoned an application because it was too long or complicated. Among employed candidates who weren't actively looking but were open to the right opportunity, that figure rose to 75%. Although the research covers the wider recruitment market, it's a useful reminder that candidates won't always persevere with a process simply because they're interested in the work.

What makes this particularly challenging is that recruiters don't always know who their most valuable candidates will turn out to be. Someone registering for their first warehouse assignment could become one of your most dependable workers, while a contractor who isn't available today might be exactly who you need for a major project next month. It's worth remembering that the value of a candidate relationship often becomes apparent over time, which is why everyone registering with your agency should receive the same basic standard of communication and support.

Candidate experience doesn't finish when someone starts work

One of the biggest differences between permanent and temporary recruitment is what happens after a candidate has been placed. For temp and contract agencies, securing the first assignment is often just the beginning of a much longer relationship, with opportunities to extend bookings, move workers between clients and offer further assignments as they become available.

That relationship is shaped by the everyday experiences workers have with your agency. Were they given accurate information about their shift, location and pay? Was their registration and compliance process straightforward? If something changed at the last minute, did someone let them know? And when their assignment was coming to an end, did their recruiter get in touch about what they wanted to do next?

These are the things candidates remember, particularly when they're comparing agencies offering similar work. A contractor who's been kept informed throughout an assignment and contacted about their next opportunity before the current one finishes has a good reason to stay engaged. Someone who's left wondering whether there's any more work available may start looking elsewhere, even if they've been perfectly happy with the assignment itself.

Of course, delivering that level of communication isn't always straightforward on a busy temp desk. Recruiters are dealing with changing shift requirements, unexpected absences, client requests and compliance checks, often all at once. Without a consistent process, follow-ups can easily become something that happens when there's time, rather than an expected part of managing every candidate relationship.

The importance of good communication is reflected in the Omni Candidate Experience Report 2026, which found that 46% of candidates said poor communication could cause them to withdraw from a recruitment process, while 49% said a process taking too long could lead them to leave.

Those findings relate to recruitment processes rather than specifically to temporary assignments, but the underlying frustrations are familiar to temp recruiters. Workers need to know what's happening, whether a booking is confirmed and who they should speak to if there's a problem. When an agency gets those basics right consistently, it has a much better chance of retaining candidates who might otherwise drift towards competitors.

How many workers are you losing without realising it?

Most temp and contract agencies will have a good understanding of how many bookings they're filling, how many workers are currently on assignment and which clients are generating the most revenue. What can be harder to see is how many candidates are choosing not to continue working with the agency, particularly when those decisions happen gradually rather than through a formal withdrawal.

A worker might accept a shift and then cancel because the details weren't confirmed quickly enough. Another might finish an assignment and never respond to future opportunities, while someone else may repeatedly decline bookings after experiencing problems with a particular client. Some of these decisions will be outside the recruiter's control, but if the same issues keep appearing, it's worth investigating whether the experience you're providing is contributing to them.

Candidate-initiated withdrawals and booking drop-offs are a useful starting point. Recording when workers choose to withdraw, cancel an accepted booking or stop engaging with the agency can help identify where relationships are being lost. It's important to distinguish genuine candidate withdrawals from client cancellations, unsuitable matches or workers who simply aren't available, otherwise the figures won't tell you very much.

The next step is to look at the reasons behind those decisions and whether there are patterns across particular clients, recruiters or assignment types. If candidates regularly withdraw because shift information arrives late, for example, that's something an agency can address. Tracking the results over time will show whether the changes are helping to reduce avoidable drop-offs.

But retention is only part of the picture. Candidate referrals and repeat assignments can also tell you a great deal about the relationships your recruiters are building.

A reliable warehouse operative who recommends three former colleagues could help you fill a client's next urgent requirement. A contractor who's had several positive assignments might introduce someone with similar specialist skills, or recommend your agency when they hear that another business needs workers. These introductions are particularly valuable because they come from relationships you've already invested time in developing.

Tracking how many referrals you receive, how many lead to placements and how often candidates return for further assignments gives you a better understanding of the commercial value of those relationships. It's also worth looking at redeployment rates and how many workers move into another booking soon after their previous assignment finishes. Together, these measures can help agencies identify whether they're retaining their most useful candidates or continually having to source replacements.

Making more of the candidate relationships you already have

There is a considerable amount of value tied up in the relationships recruitment agencies have already built. Firefish's Recruitment Agency Report 2026 found that 80% of surveyed agency leaders rated their existing candidate database positively for return on investment. That makes sense when you consider the time and money involved in attracting, registering and assessing a candidate before they're ready to work.

For temp and contract agencies, getting more from that investment means maintaining accurate candidate information and keeping those relationships active between assignments. Recruiters need to know who's available, who's approaching the end of a contract, who's previously worked well for a client and which candidates haven't been contacted recently. If that information is spread across individual inboxes, notes and disconnected systems, it's easy to miss opportunities that are already sitting within the business.

Having a clearer view of candidate activity, communication and assignment history makes it easier to identify those opportunities before they disappear. It also helps agencies understand where their recruitment processes could be improved, whether that's following up with workers approaching an assignment end date or investigating why certain bookings experience unusually high cancellation rates.

The agencies that do this well give themselves a better chance of keeping reliable workers engaged, filling repeat requirements and reducing the time spent continually sourcing new candidates. When the market is busy and clients need people quickly, those established relationships can make a substantial difference to what a recruitment desk is able to deliver.

Candidate experience deserves attention even when applications are plentiful. Every worker who completes an assignment, recommends a colleague or returns for another booking contributes to the strength of your candidate network. Looking after those relationships consistently, and understanding where you're losing them, is good recruitment practice that can also have a meaningful impact on the bottom line.

See how Firefish can help

Firefish has worked with recruitment agencies for years, helping them manage candidate relationships and make better use of the information already in their business. For temp and contract agencies, that includes keeping candidate records connected to availability, assignments and recruitment activity, so recruiters have a clearer picture of the workers they can engage and redeploy.

If you'd like to see what that looks like in practice, book a demo with the Firefish team. We'll show you how Firefish can help you manage candidate communication, keep track of upcoming opportunities and get more value from the workers already in your database.