Anyone worked thru Hyphen?

[SteelyDan]

Chance of a new gig thru these people. Any words of caution/horror stories/things to watch out for/contract/payment issues, etc?

[CloudWalker]

Was with them some time ago, took 6 weeks to get my first payment but once things settled down no problems

[NickNick]

Same for me, I did a 2 year gig through them and all went well as far as they were concerned. Payment was always on time after the initial one, which was only a few days late.

[bracken]

Chance of a new gig thru these people. Any words of caution/horror stories/things to watch out for/contract/payment issues, etc?

I did a few gigs at Lloyds with them a few years back, they're fine - always paid on time.

[SteelyDan]

Cheers guys.
Were/are payments weekly?
Or do they do this bizarre thing where you have to work 4 weeks then actually receive first payment on your 6th week sort of thing? Had this with Experis and it was 5hit.

[BolshieBastard]

Chance of a new gig thru these people. Any words of caution/horror stories/things to watch out for/contract/payment issues, etc?

About 4 years ago they put me forward to the then LTSB Group who I'd worked with approximately 18 month previous. I had to re submit everything although that was probably down to LTSB.

However hyphen said my passport picture looked like it had been photograghed instead of scanned(!) and could I re send? I said I had no scanner but would send another pic.

According to them that wouldnt do and it had to be scanned. Told them I didnt have a scanner, again and Id send another pic. No can do, has to be scanned. Told them that was bollocks as Id always sent a picture of my passport and never had any issue with it.

They wouldnt budge so I told them to foxtrot oscar. Wouldnt touch them with a barge pole after that.

[NickNick]

Cheers guys.
Were/are payments weekly?
Or do they do this bizarre thing where you have to work 4 weeks then actually receive first payment on your 6th week sort of thing? Had this with Experis and it was 5hit.

Might be different for others, but mine was invoice weekly with 28 day terms.

[CloudWalker]

Might be different for others, but mine was invoice weekly with 28 day terms.

This.

Had to sublit weekly time sheets on their contractor portal but they pay monthly

[SpontaneousOrder]

This.

Had to sublit weekly time sheets on their contractor portal but they pay monthly

Which is (or could be) the the same as working 4 weeks and getting paid on week 6 or 7 (like I do) ? Timesheet every friday, invoice by whatever the month-end deadline is (normally between 28th & 5th), and get cah in the back on the 21st of the following month ?

I.e. I guess what I'm asking is that still 28 (or however many) day terms? Or does 28 days imply that I'd be paid weekly, but 28 days after that particular week?

[DTexas]

Chance of a new gig thru these people. Any words of caution/horror stories/things to watch out for/contract/payment issues, etc?

If you go through an agency and ever deal with their so-called screening team, it's a complete nightmare if you have any gaps at all on your CV.

It starts off OK. You get a few forms to print out, sign and send. The usual - credit check, criminal check.. etc.

Then they ask you to turn up to your agency's office to show your passport and utility bills. Email or post not acceptable. Your agency's office is 200 miles away? Tough.

The fun begins when they start making additional evidence requirements on your CV. This kicks in if you have a gap of more than 2 months at any time in the last 2 years. Immediately you are suspected of being the biggest fraudster ever. They can't fathom how you could support yourself for more than 2 months, being a contractor and all that. I mean, contractors are paid badly aren't they?

The rationale given for the additional evidence is they want you to prove you were NOT working. Yes, they want you to prove a negative. This never ends well. Or in fact, well, it never ends. Think about it.

You claimed Jobseekers Allowance? That should prove it huh? They deny the contents of these letters. The existence of dates and amounts in the first paragraphs will be denied. So there.

JSA P45? No, these are not accepted either.

How about tax return, accountants reference or a HMRC tax calc, perhaps a P800? Not accepted.

I mean, had you concealed a job from them and paid no tax you'd be a tax fraud surely. Nice way to make a contractor feel good before the job starts.

It's even worse if you had a gap and didn't claim JSA in your gap.

They will claim the only way you will get clearance is to provide your personal bank statements, so that they can check it doesn't look like you have been working. (Not that a bank statement proves any such thing.)

They start off all friendly, claiming they don't need to see your spends and are only interested in examining the pattern of incomes on your personal bank accounts, which may indicate an undeclared employment.

One candidate provided 6 months worth of bank statements, which contained only a handful of one-off payments into his bank accounts, between £100 and £650, not even coming in on a regular date (hence one-off). They declared these as 'regular' payments and demanded further documentary evidence to substantiate these, to ensure they were not from an assignment.

One of them was a tax refund, calculated from the HMRC P800, which they had already dismissed as a worthy document. Ironic wouldn't it if they accepted P800 to back up that payment yet denied P800 for its greater purpose of listing all your P45s for the tax year for HMRC to recalculate your tax...

Another payment was a £259. They demanded to know what it was in respect of. It was a refund from his heating bill. He asked them how they could establish whether he had worked for that power company or received it as a customer. An incomprehensible answer was provided.

Their focus moved to other one-off amounts coming in less than £5. They demanded to know about these, despite such payments being less than minimum wage legislation.

Then they declared they wanted to see even more bank statements as they had decided to reject the reference from his accountant. Quite understandably, after 2 weeks of this nonsense following the job offer, the contractors said "no thanks, can you suggest an alternative way to get clearance?".

Then they said his only other option was to show 1 or 2 emails per months applying for work.

Fine, easy enough said the candidate. Presumably scanned copies OK? With 3rd party details erased, in order to be professional and not violate any Data Protection Act requirements by disclosing the personal details of competitors and individuals ? Presumably the emails replying to agents with your CV asking them put you forward would be OK?

No. No. No.

This left the candidate having to find 1-2 emails each month from 'job applications' from 10% of his job application emails, the 'application confirmation' from jobsites were all that would be accepted.. And they would have to be forwarded directly to the screening team, as a scary sounding 'audit trail' might need to take place.

Clearly the candidate could not find that volume of emails, as 90% of his email applications were the "thanks, looks good, please put me forward mr agent, here's my CV" type. (Remember all of this would have had to be put to Hyphen via the recruitment agency, who would get to see all your contacts and previous interview details, contacts, success rate... oh my.)

He informed them he could not provide any more evidence and urged them to consider the wealth of evidence already provided and judge him on that basis. The screening was failed and so the job offer was withdrawn. None of these details were communicated to the actual line manager who had offered him the job. No appeal.

I've even heard that females who have a gap due to pregnancy have had to produce the birth certificate of their child to 'prove' their gap. I mean, what if their pregnancy had failed and the baby died? The mind boggles at what they'd ask for in this instance.

Contracting is just not gonna work when companies outsource their screening to the likes of Hyphen who clearly employ very inexperienced and immature jobsworths in their screening team, who have no grasp of what consists of proper documentation and are on a power trip. They just don't get it. Especially when it comes to contractors.

Companies like Aviva, Lloyds Banking Group, EE etc. should be ashamed of what's being done on their behalf. Quality contractors are treated appallingly. I am selling my shares in anyone who uses Hyphen.