The questions to ask a staffing agency before you sign come down to five areas: how they vet, who the engineer actually is, what the contract locks you into, what happens when a placement fails, and what it costs to hire the engineer yourself later. Ask them on the first call, write down the answers, and compare them across agencies. How specifically they answer tells you as much as the answers themselves.
I run a staff augmentation company, so read this knowing I'm on the other side of the table. These are the questions I'd want asked of us.
Key Takeaways
- Ask for specifics: numbers, steps, and contract clauses. Agencies that answer in adjectives usually have nothing behind them.
- The contract questions (minimum term, notice, non-solicit, conversion fee) cost you more if you skip them than the vetting questions do.
- Ask who legally engages the engineer and who owns the code. Both should be clear in writing.
- A good agency will happily answer every one of these. If they won't, that tells you enough.
Vetting: Questions to Ask a Staffing Agency About Quality
1. What does a candidate go through before I see their profile? Good answer: a named sequence, like a technical interview, a graded coding assessment, and an English check, with what each one tests. Evasive answer: "We have a rigorous multi-step process."
2. Who evaluates the technical work? Good: an engineer or a structured, graded assessment. Evasive: "Our recruiters are very technical."
3. Can I see a sample assessment or scorecard? A real process leaves artifacts. If they can't show one, the process may live only in the deck.
4. How do you check that the person I interview is the person who works? Fake and proxy candidates are a real problem in remote hiring. A good answer includes identity verification and camera-on interviews. See how to identify fake candidates.
The Engineer: Who Are You Actually Getting?
5. Is this engineer dedicated to me full-time? Some agencies split engineers across clients. You want this answered in writing.
6. Who legally engages the engineer? Employee of the agency, a contractor to the agency, or a subcontractor of a subcontractor? The answer affects misclassification risk and who you'd call if something goes wrong. For the tax paperwork that changes with each setup, see do you issue a 1099 to a foreign contractor.
7. How many hours overlap with my time zone, guaranteed? Good answer: a specific window. Evasive: "They're flexible." We explain why this matters most in why time zone overlap is the number one remote hiring factor.
The Contract
8. What's the minimum term, and what's the notice period after it? Know both numbers before you sign.
9. How is pricing structured, and what can change it? Flat monthly, hourly, or blended? Can the rate change mid-contract, and with how much notice?
10. Who owns the code and IP, and does the agency's contract with the engineer assign it through to me? You need the chain of assignment to be complete. See who owns the code a contractor writes.
11. What's the non-solicitation period, and what's the conversion fee if I want to hire the engineer directly? This is the one most founders forget. For context on typical recruiter fees, SHRM reported contingency recruiters "usually earn a fee in the area of 20 percent to 25 percent of the role's first-year cash compensation" (SHRM, 2016). Conversion fees are negotiated separately and vary. We break them down in staffing agency conversion fees.
When It Goes Wrong
12. What happens if the engineer underperforms? Good answer: a written replacement guarantee with a defined window, a defined trigger, and a defined process. Evasive: "We'll make it right."
13. When does the guarantee clock start? Signature date and first working day are very different. An engineer often starts weeks after you sign.
14. What's your engineer retention, and what happens if they quit? Ask for a number and how they measure it.
15. Can I talk to a current client? References from a CTO who has worked with them for over a year are worth more than any case study.
A Concrete Version
Here is how this played out on a hypothetical call between a Series A CTO and two agencies.
Agency A answered question 1 with "a rigorous vetting process" and question 12 with "we always make it right." Asked about the conversion fee, the rep said "we're flexible." The contract arrived with a 12-month minimum term, a 24-month non-solicit, and a conversion fee equal to 30% of first-year salary, none of which came up on the call.
Agency B named its steps, sent a sample scorecard, quoted a 90-day initial term and 30-day notice afterward, and explained that its conversion fee drops the longer the engineer has been with the client.
Assume the CTO wanted to convert one engineer after a year at an assumed $90,000 salary. Agency A's fee would be 30% of $90,000 = $27,000. Agency B's fee was lower and in the contract from the start. The CTO only found out about A's terms because she asked question 11 before signing.
For what it's worth, at Ruzora the answers are: AI interview plus a graded coding assessment before you see a profile; a 90-day initial commitment, then month-to-month with 30 days' notice; a 60-day replacement guarantee from the engineer's first working day, and you pick the replacement from a new shortlist; and a conversion fee that steps down the longer an engineer has worked with you. You see blind profiles first, and identities and interviews come after a founder call and a signed agreement.
The Honest Counterpoint
A list of fifteen questions can turn into box-checking. A polished agency will have smooth answers to all of them. Answers are cheap. What protects you is the contract. Ask each agency to show you the clause behind every answer, and treat any answer that isn't in the contract as a nice thing someone said on a call.
Also, don't let the call become an interrogation that hides the real question: do their engineers fit your stack and your team? Ask for blind profiles early, and judge the agency by those.
Frequently Asked Questions
What questions to ask a staffing agency as an employer on the first call?
Start with vetting steps, who legally engages the engineer, minimum term and notice, the replacement guarantee and when it starts, and the conversion fee. Those five catch most bad contracts.
What are red flags when talking to a staffing agency?
Vague answers about vetting, refusing to put the guarantee in writing, and a conversion fee nobody mentions until the contract arrives. See staff augmentation red flags.
What should I ask a staffing agency about pricing?
Ask what the monthly rate includes, what can change it, and what the first invoice covers. Then compare the all-in monthly cost against a US hire's fully loaded cost, and compare the terms. Our evaluation checklist covers the comparison.
The Bottom Line
Ask for specifics, then ask for the clause. The agencies that answer in numbers and contract terms are usually the ones worth signing with. If you want to try these on us, request a shortlist or read how we vet first.
Roberto Espinoza is CEO of Ruzora, which helps US startups hire pre-vetted senior LATAM engineers, with a vetted shortlist in 72 hours. See available engineers.
