Resourcing portals

**malvolio** · 9 August 2014, 10:20

Originally posted by KJH View Post

So it is the usual case of being contacted by at least a dozen agents about the same role and I wonder a) where did they all get same information from and b) why should any of them get 20-40% of my daily rate.

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know how it works? I guess there must be a portal where companies post their resourcing requirements and agencies get sent an email about the request and then they start frantically phoning candidates.

"Has anyone else contacted you about this role yet?" (never heard that before...)
"If anyone else contacts you about this role bla bla blaa..." (yes, yes...)
"We have an exclusivity agreement with this client." (yeah, right!)

It would be nice to get access to that portal that agencies use. How do I do that? Do I need to start my own one person recruitment agency?

Go look up "Broadbean". Designed for agencies. No intelligence required.

**northernladuk** · 9 August 2014, 15:02

Originally posted by KJH View Post

So it is the usual case of being contacted by at least a dozen agents about the same role and I wonder a) where did they all get same information from and b) why should any of them get 20-40% of my daily rate.

I have to say this sounds like a total exaggeration to me. 12 agents for one role? I can't believe that one for minute. And 20%-40% of your rate sounds a bit ridiculous as well. You are part of the negotiation cycle so if you can't get an agent to less than 20% then you are gonna have to grow some wide shoulders and put up with it.

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know how it works? I guess there must be a portal where companies post their resourcing requirements and agencies get sent an email about the request and then they start frantically phoning candidates.

"Has anyone else contacted you about this role yet?" (never heard that before...)
"If anyone else contacts you about this role bla bla blaa..." (yes, yes...)
"We have an exclusivity agreement with this client." (yeah, right!)

It would be nice to get access to that portal that agencies use. How do I do that? Do I need to start my own one person recruitment agency?

I also think you are misunderstanding the process here. I don't know anything about the Broadbean thing that Mal mentioned but in all the contracts I have had or even applied to the resourcing agent is on the PSL for the client. In some cases there can be a number of agents on the PSL, in others there is only one and they tend to be on a fixed marging of around 6%.

These agents go in to the clients to sell their services and the client keeps them updated with resourcing requirements. I haven't seen any evidence the clients put them out to random open portals.

**malvolio** · 9 August 2014, 17:16

Originally posted by northernladuk View Post

I have to say this sounds like a total exaggeration to me. 12 agents for one role? I can't believe that one for minute. And 20%-40% of your rate sounds a bit ridiculous as well. You are part of the negotiation cycle so if you can't get an agent to less than 20% then you are gonna have to grow some wide shoulders and put up with it.

I also think you are misunderstanding the process here. I don't know anything about the Broadbean thing that Mal mentioned but in all the contracts I have had or even applied to the resourcing agent is on the PSL for the client. In some cases there can be a number of agents on the PSL, in others there is only one and they tend to be on a fixed marging of around 6%.

These agents go in to the clients to sell their services and the client keeps them updated with resourcing requirements. I haven't seen any evidence the clients put them out to random open portals.

Being on a PSL means you have the contract with the client. It doesn't necessarily mean you have the people on your list to service any given requirement. So you re-advertise it and the easy way to do that is to use put it out to your own network of smaller agencies to see if they have anyone, rather than invest in a campaign of your own (after all, you already have a cash cow in all the contractors already on site so why waste money looking for more). Net result, one role, multiple agencies, who in turn are using Broadbean and other meta-tools to post to a multitude of job boards 'cos it's cheap and a lot simpler than advertising and hoping.

Why do you think most agents seem to have sod all idea about the role? Could it be they have no idea what the role is, they just have a brief requirement from the team further up the food chain?

The job market is not linear; in fact it's mostly f*** all to do with recruiting. It's a commodity market. The cheap way to fulfil the requirement is the target.

**KJH** · 9 August 2014, 22:15

Originally posted by northernladuk View Post

I have to say this sounds like a total exaggeration to me. 12 agents for one role? I can't believe that one for minute. And 20%-40% of your rate sounds a bit ridiculous as well. You are part of the negotiation cycle so if you can't get an agent to less than 20% then you are gonna have to grow some wide shoulders and put up with it.

Well, I was once contacted by 10 agents one day about the same role, so it is nearly a dozen, isn't it? And the calls were from agents all over Europe, not just UK. So it really made me wonder where they get the information from.

I know one agency who openly mentioned that they take 10%. The rest of them take a lot more than that. Besides, how would they otherwise finance their plush offices in central London and other top locations?!

I have a pretty good idea of what my skills and experience is worth, so I know what to ask for.

**KJH** · 9 August 2014, 22:23

Originally posted by malvolio View Post

Being on a PSL means you have the contract with the client. It doesn't necessarily mean you have the people on your list to service any given requirement. So you re-advertise it and the easy way to do that is to use put it out to your own network of smaller agencies to see if they have anyone, rather than invest in a campaign of your own (after all, you already have a cash cow in all the contractors already on site so why waste money looking for more). Net result, one role, multiple agencies, who in turn are using Broadbean and other meta-tools to post to a multitude of job boards 'cos it's cheap and a lot simpler than advertising and hoping.

Why do you think most agents seem to have sod all idea about the role? Could it be they have no idea what the role is, they just have a brief requirement from the team further up the food chain?

The job market is not linear; in fact it's mostly f*** all to do with recruiting. It's a commodity market. The cheap way to fulfil the requirement is the target.

Thanks Mal. That really explains it. Most of the time these agents know absolutely nothing more about the role except the description. They cannot answer any specific questions, because they have not spoken to anybody in the company about the role or the project. It has got absolutely nothing to do with recruiting.

Resourcing portals