Direct with the client and agreeing a rate... room for movement with the agent?

[SlipTheJab]

But if the rate is 100 quid less than market the percentage won't work. 5% of not much might just not be worth it.

Agree if you're on less that 400 notes a day then 5% starts looking as unfair as an agency who's doing no more than payroll taking 12.5% on top of 600 quid a day.

[clearedforlanding]

12.5%!!! As the agency did no work finding the role and are just there to do the payroll I would say 5% is a fair sum

I think 12.5% is just a figure that major accounts settled on for large volumes, and agencies have adopted it as their benchmark. As many are factoring their invoices I think 10% is OK, as we must keep some 100 Octane in their Audis.

I did negotiate a fixed per day rate with Alexander Mann on one occasion, for simple intermediary stuff.

Agree if you're on less that 400 notes a day then 5% starts looking as unfair as an agency who's doing no more than payroll taking 12.5% on top of 600 quid a day.

Agreed, but if they have fixed this in their PSL upstream contract then it is sadly a case of one size fits all, regardless of whether they actually performed the recruitment or not. HR do not give a tulip and OP doesn't have other invoicing avenues.

[SlipTheJab]

Saying that I'm direct but the client use an agency for payroll, they're on 4% and pay weekly, mind you they have tens of 'direct' contractors on the books for this client so economies of scale kick in.