Agency margins in "current climate" ...

[d000hg]

Let's all become agents. I wish I had the funds to set up!

[Ruse]

The very idea that you are not fully committed to a contract that you have signed up to sais a lot about your character and I have to say that you are not the sort of person that I would want to employ.
If I were your agent I would dump you now before you caused any further trouble.

There are plenty more where you came from - anyone can read a few books from Microsoft and operate a point and click development tool.
It seems that everyone thinks that the world owes them a living these days. If you had a PhD, hot C++ and were a master in algorithmic trading systems then you may have a case. However you are one step up from desktop support and there are thousands of your likes for every role that becomes available.
HTH

IMPORTANT NOTE: before anyone flames me or sends me any more PM's; Im not an agent, though I have recruited a lot of contractors over the years, so I guess that I am in the recruitment business.

PZZ

Where exactly did he say that he was not committed to the contract or are you a mind reader ? What he said was he was unhappy with the very high agency margin and we have an agency posting to agree with him.

Attacking someone on the basis of their skill set is very far below the belt. He isn't asking for £600+ per day for his skills he is asking for between £200-300 so WTF are you going on about algorithmic trading systems for ?


You are full of it so get back in your little hole.

[pzz76077]

Let's all become agents. I wish I had the funds to set up!

I suppose the ideal role would be working for an agent based in the Caymans that pays you 10% of what they invoice the client.

Did I mention that you are also a director of said agency??

PZZ

[minestrone]

I know I have had 150% margin once, now my agents are on 9%.

I'm making the same on both.

p.s. PZZ is a sockie by the way.

[pzz76077]

Where exactly did he say that he was not committed to the contract or are you a mind reader ? What he said was he was unhappy with the very high agency margin and we have an agency posting to agree with him.

Attacking someone on the basis of their skill set is very far below the belt. He isn't asking for £600+ per day for his skills he is asking for between £200-300 so WTF are you going on about algorithmic trading systems for ?


You are full of it so get back in your little hole.

He signed the contract in full knowledge of what he was doing what else do you want to know??
Too late to be asking questions now.
He gets 200pd because that is all he is worth, thousands more like him will gladly work for less.
HTH

PZZ

[pzz76077]

I know I have had 150% margin once, now my agents are on 9%.

I'm making the same on both.

p.s. PZZ is a sockie by the way.

You of so little imagination...you wish.....

PZZ

[jmo21]

Well HR should be doing much of this anyway and even if a company has no HR people then in the "current climate" maybe it would idea to spend a few minutes apply the same CV filtering that agents do, make a few calls and then they would be at the interview stage all without any agents being involved.

I dont think its that much of a burden, and if you're filling a role that will be taken for six months or more its really insignificant ... IMHO

Companies have outsourced to agents in this way for a very long time, for the reasons I mentioned. I'm not sure this will change anytime soon no matter how much you want it to.

Is it annoying that agents are able to work the system in this way - OF COURSE.

If you had the niche skill, there were loads of companies wanting to employ you at large rates, would you milk - OF COURSE.

At the moment, the agents have the upper hand as there many many people trying to get so few positions.

You signed the contract. Deal with it at extension time.

If you are that annoyed about, and you have the balls, push for the amount you think is correct.

You may well get it...... you also may lose the extension. We can't tell you if you are worth it to clientco.

Can you objectively say you are worth the raise?

and not just because "I want it, it's not fair those guys are getting it".

Good luck!!

ps. don't get me wrong.... I loathe agents (even though at current client co, my agent is paying my co way before the direct contractors are getting paid - think they are 2 months behind me)

[jmo21]

thats not the point. the point i was making is that having an additional contractual layer between the contractor and the end client can cause problems for the contractor (and possibly the client) in itself.

It is my point however.

If it causes that much of a problem for clientco, then they wouldn't use agents would they?

I agree, it may well cause problems for us contractors.

[Lammy101]

are there no sites that can bypass the agencies, ie the client posts their lead and we reply to it offering what we would want to be paid (within reason) or we post our profile and the clients can check them out.

[singhr]

are there no sites that can bypass the agencies, ie the client posts their lead and we reply to it offering what we would want to be paid (within reason) or we post our profile and the clients can check them out.

clients dont have time to trawl through the squllions of cv's this would attract. There is another 'site' I've seen used this year - it's called London Bridge and you sometimes see out of work IT folk standing with sandwich boards proclaiming 'hire me' and listing their skills.