Agency Lies

[northernladuk]

Taita and Boo warming up for handbags.... Two of the least likely contenders I can think of. This is gonna be good.

[Andy Hallett]

Agency Lies

Boo, you are very much entitled to your views.

Clients recruiting directly is probably one of the biggest threats to the recruitment profession. Many large corporates have already set up large sourcing teams and work like internal agencies.

I actually think that the crux of the matter as to why clients use agencies is because it is not a skill that recruiting managers need to learn or devote time to. There is a healthy market out there which regulates both price and quality of service.

Your point about kickbacks is pretty wide of the mark. That said being nice to customers and creating warm relationships (and yes I include lunches and corporate hospitality in that) is Sales 101. Individual contractors don't have the bandwidth either financially or time wise to compete here.

[socialworker]

I'll stick my two pennorth in here. In my area which is health and social care, clients wil only use agencies for bum on seat type roles. Although I have many criticisms of management, brown envelope type corruption is not one of them. I have never heard a sniff of anything like it over the last 30 years.

Obviously then the client does think the agency adds some value, and the client is paying the bill. I think the reasons are as follows:

Public sector managers are terrified of dealing with individuals on a B2B basis and are incredibly risk averse.

HR departments are very shrunken these days and do hardly any of the recruitment process, it is all dumped on hard pressed operational managers.

They would rather allocate a chunk of money to a manager and say recruit your own staff but you must use an agency, even though with five minutes consideration they could understand they would be equally protected using a limited co. contractor with PL insurance etc. and save a lot of money.

Some even use a further layer of expense by using something called Comensura, which as far as I can see charges to check that the agency is doing what the agency has to do by law anyway and which the client could easily check themselves with a half decent procurement process. It's a complete rip off of the taxpayer.

They have no one competent to look at a contractor's contract and approve it or not. They regard all legal paperwork as dangerous and magical; even in commissioning departments there can be no one with a basic knowledge of the law of contract.

To people on here with an entrepreneurial mindset it may be hard to believe, but they would rather throw money at agencies than understand and control the process themselves, and probably believe an agency provides a magic cloak of protection against ...something or other.

[eek]

To people on here with an entrepreneurial mindset it may be hard to believe, but they would rather throw money at agencies than understand and control the process themselves, and probably believe an agency provides a magic cloak of protection against ...something or other.

No its simply a case of spending money to be able to pass on the responsibility game.

[cojak]

No its simply a case of spending money to be able to pass on the responsibility game.

WES.

And you'd be amazed to know how much they're prepared to spend in order for them to take as little responsibility (over anything) as possible...

[Taita]

Taita and Boo warming up for handbags.... Two of the least likely contenders I can think of. This is gonna be good.

I was going to offer you a ringside seat but I see you are already settled in! Thanks for the laugh.

[Taita]

IMO the process is corrupt, nobody is stupid.


So what do you do for a living, Taita ?

Boo2

I usually project manage some excellent people...... and some Oiks... Perhaps, we have met?

[ITPRO2]

Boo, you are very much entitled to your views.

Clients recruiting directly is probably one of the biggest threats to the recruitment profession. Many large corporates have already set up large sourcing teams and work like internal agencies.

I actually think that the crux of the matter as to why clients use agencies is because it is not a skill that recruiting managers need to learn or devote time to. There is a healthy market out there which regulates both price and quality of service.

Your point about kickbacks is pretty wide of the mark. That said being nice to customers and creating warm relationships (and yes I include lunches and corporate hospitality in that) is Sales 101. Individual contractors don't have the bandwidth either financially or time wise to compete here.

I personally think it comes down to the size of the company and value of the resource.

Large blue chips usually just use agents as the cost to them is insignificant in the big picture sense, irrespective of the contractor rate.

I've seen several small consultancies hire directly, as they're relatively dynamic and can perform this activity at a fraction of the cost of an agent (i.e makes a real difference to their bottom line). This is especially important if they are taking on high value contractors (700-1000/day). If a company was only having bums on seats subbies (<300-400/day), then it prob wouldnt be worth it.

[socialworker]

WES.

And you'd be amazed to know how much they're prepared to spend in order for them to take as little responsibility (over anything) as possible...

That too.

[Taita]

Taita and Boo warming up for handbags.... Two of the least likely contenders I can think of. This is gonna be good.

I think Boo is off Hooing somewhere.