Meet Canada's Best Recruiting And Temporary Staffing Firms 2025

Forbes

5 days ago

Colleagues at Altis Recruitment Altis Recruitment
Canada's economy is facing a significant shift—due in part to the ongoing trade war with the U.S.—and the ensuing uncertainty has helped usher in an employer-driven job market. As a result, companies are working closely with recruiting firms to ensure a proper fit before making high level job offers, says Jamie Savage, founder and CEO of the Leadership Agency, a Toronto-based executive search firm. 'The board is a lot more involved now in hires, even if the job is more removed from the board,' she explains. 'There's a lot more process and texture than there used to be.'
As for the candidate side, executives want more than ever to be sure they're going to a company that has a market-ready product with the possibility for longevity, says Elizabeth Tufegdzich, the Leadership Agency's COO and partner. 'It's no longer enough to just be a cool company, leaders need to feel connected to the problems they are solving and the mission they are joining,' she says. In short: executives want to be able to get behind whatever they're building.
To find out which recruiting and staffing companies are making successful matches between Canadian employers and job seekers, Forbes partnered with market research firm Statista and compiled our very first rankings of Canada's Best Executive Recruiting Firms (which place managers in permanent positions with an annual income of more than $100,000 CAD), Canada's Best Professional Recruiting Firms (which place professionals in permanent positions with an annual income of up to $100,000 CAD), and Canada's Best Temporary Staffing Firms (which place temporary and contract workers). The lists are based on survey responses from more than 15,000 participants in Canada—composed of human resources managers, hiring managers, recruiters and employees who recently worked with a recruiting firm. The companies that received the most recommendations landed on our rankings, with 80 firms on our executive search list, 120 firms on our professional search list and 120 firms on our temporary staffing list.
Tufegdzich says companies come to the Leadership Agency—which ranked at No. 66 on our executive search list—because the staff operates with extreme agility, often by hiring targeted teams within a tight timeframe, which is a necessity for early-stage startups that need to build their business quickly.
At Altis Recruitment, which earned the No. 9 spot on the executive recruiting list, No. 3 on the professional recruiting list and No. 12 on the temporary staffing list, each team member is focused on an area of specialization while company leaders stay on top of hiring trends across sectors, says 's CEO Andie Andreou.The firm is also in the process of replacing its technological systems and embracing AI, though Andreou is mindful of rooting out unconscious bias that may be inherent in the training data, reflecting historical hiring patterns. For instance, the company is conscious of avoiding screening pitfalls like favoring male candidates due to a history of hiring men in certain roles, or passing over candidates with gaps in their careers that could indicate a period of caregiving. Altis has even developed an anti-bias training guide that outlines how unconscious bias can show up in everything from the way job postings are written to screening algorithms. 'Whether we use AI to match resumes to jobs, we really make sure we have no bias in that,' says Andreou.
Tim Dupree, who leads the professional and industrial division at Kelly (No. 28 in professional search and No. 4 in temporary staffing) and oversees the firm's operations in Canada, says the company is heavily invested in building digital infrastructure to make it easier for job seekers. 'We designed a unique app called Kelly Now that allows job seekers to build a profile based on their skills and experiences and then matches these skills to jobs in their area,' says Dupree. On the client side, the app gives companies the ability to see candidate profiles, and then hire and onboard workers within minutes, he adds.
For some firms, taking a targeted approach to hiring pays off. Adam Gellert, the founder and CEO of Linkus Group (No. 37 in executive search, No. 22 in professional search and No. 50 in temporary staffing), says he purposefully keeps the firm focused on local talent in Canada and the U.S., and works with a select number of companies within each industry and category so that he can focus on quality over quantity. Also, by limiting the firm's clients within each sector, Linkus Group is able to recruit candidates from competitor companies 'because we don't have a conflict of interest,' says Gellert.
Another way Gellert goes against the grain is by suggesting caution about the role of generative AI in recruiting. He notes that while AI may eventually improve speed and efficiency in recruiting, a human touch is still very much needed when working with candidates and keeping clients happy. 'You still need context and someone who can say, 'This is a good place for your career,'' says Gellert.'
Jeff Aplin, CEO of Aplin (No. 34 for executive search, No. 16 for professional search, and No. 40 for temporary staffing), says his firm is also focused on a specific group of clients so that it can offer deep specialization. 'We say no to a lot of business, and that gives us the freedom to say yes to the ideal clients,' he says.
Founded by Aplin's father, David Aplin, 50 years ago, the firm has also evolved over the years—for example, by adding temporary staffing to its business model within the last decade. And the firm's evolution is ongoing: Aplin consistently invites feedback from clients in the form of surveys to figure out how the company can continue to improve. Giving clients a voice, says Alpin, 'helps build trust and deepens our relationships'—and it's these relationships that are at the heart of building successful teams.
For the full list of Canada's Best Executive Recruiting Firms, click here .
For the full list of Canada's Best Professional Recruiting Firms, click here.
For the full list of Canada's Best Temporary Staffing Firms, click here . Methodology
To produce our inaugural rankings of Canada's Best Recruiting and Temporary Staffing Firms, Forbes partnered with market research firm Statista and surveyed more than 15,000 participants in Canada between mid-February and mid-April 2025. The respondents included human resources managers, hiring managers, recruiters and employees who recently worked with a recruiting firm. The companies that received the most recommendations made it onto our rankings.
The executive recruiting list consists of the top 80 companies that specialize in filling positions with annual salaries of more than $100,000 CAD; the professional recruiting list consists of the top 120 companies that focus on filling positions with yearly salaries totaling up to $100,000 CAD; the temp staffing list includes the top 120 companies that handle short-term and contract positions.
As with all Forbes lists, companies pay no fee to participate or be selected. To read more about how we make these lists, click here. For questions about this list, please email listdesk [at] forbes.com.