How to choose a staffing agency for a warehouse: 7 things to check

Short answer: you'll recognize a good staffing agency for a warehouse by the fact that it takes responsibility for staffing levels after the launch, not just for 'sending people over.' Before deciding, check seven things: legal standing (KRAZ registration), specialization, its absence-cover mechanism, how it handles onboarding, its approach to pay rates, transparency of reporting, and whether you can get a reference call with a current client.

1. Legal standing: KRAZ registration

Every legally operating employment agency in Poland must be entered in the National Register of Employment Agencies (Krajowy Rejestr Agencji Zatrudnienia, KRAZ). You can verify a KRAZ number in the public register (stor.praca.gov.pl) — check that the entry is active and the company details match. No KRAZ number on the website or in the contract is a red flag that should end the conversation there. Veln's KRAZ number is 32854 — and for procurement teams we have a vendor-verification page with a full set of registration documents.

2. Specialization instead of 'we do everything'

An agency staffing IT, hospitality, and warehouses all at once rarely knows the specifics of any one of those markets well. In a warehouse, what counts is real operational know-how: what a no-show does to a morning shift, how long it takes to recruit a VNA operator, how commute distance affects turnover. Ask directly about experience with similar operations: scale, shift system, type of processes.

3. The absence-cover mechanism — the question that separates agencies the most

There will be absences — the question is what happens next. A weak agency finds out about a gap the same time you do, at 6:10 in the morning. A good one confirms staffing before the shift and keeps a pool of people who already know your site and are ready to step in as cover. Ask for this process described step by step: who confirms it, when, what happens once a gap is spotted, and how quickly cover shows up.

4. Onboarding: the first few days decide turnover

The highest turnover among blue-collar workers falls in the first days and weeks. Ask what day one looks like: does the team come in with a team leader or coordinator, who teaches the workstation, who answers new hires' questions. An agency that just 'drops people at the gate' hands you the entire cost of onboarding — and the entire risk.

5. Approach to pay rates: honesty instead of bidding

A good agency knows the local market and will tell you outright what rate will actually fill the schedule at your location — even when that's an uncomfortable message. An agency that will take any rate just to get the contract signed hands you a project that has no chance of being staffed: the job ads will sit there, and the few people you do hire will leave for a site paying more.

6. Transparency: what you see during the cooperation

Ask how you'll see the state of staffing, recruitment, and hours. A weekly email report is a decade-old standard — check whether the agency gives you a live view instead (at Veln that's the MyVeln platform: shift staffing, recruitment statuses, hours, and documents all in one place, with no need to call the coordinator).

7. References: a conversation instead of logos

Logos on a website prove nothing. Ask for a contact at a current client of the agency with a similar type of operation, and put three questions to them: is staffing stable, how does the agency respond to problems, and is the reporting reliable. An agency confident in its own work will make that conversation happen — at Veln we connect interested prospects directly with a reference client.

Start with a pilot, not a contract

Even the best procurement process can't replace testing the cooperation in practice. Set up a pilot: a small group, defined metrics (shift staffing, attendance, quality of work), a short period, and clear pass criteria. After the pilot, the decision to scale rests on data from your own site, not on promises from a presentation.