Agency 'Cut'

[DodgyAgent]

Who the **** cares!? You got the rate you wanted for the job, you have a job yet you seem to think the 2 birds in the bush are better.

Do you question the builder's mark up on materials when he does a job for you? Or the electrician? Or the plumber?

One Caveat- If the client is being charged £2000 per day and you are getting £300 per day- what might the expectations of you be?

[MarillionFan]

Who the **** cares!? You got the rate you wanted for the job, you have a job yet you seem to think the 2 birds in the bush are better.

Do you question the builder's mark up on materials when he does a job for you? Or the electrician? Or the plumber?

Yeah, I bloody do question it actually. Everytime I have a quote, Im always interested on how long the job is going to take.

"Yeah mate, do you gutters, gonna take a day and gonna charge £3k ok?'

Not it's not ******* ok, no daft ass builder is going to charge more than I do. On your bike!

[JustMe]

My agent takes 20%

My agent takes 20%.
I do not have a problem with that.
I receive good service, fast payment.
I am happy

[Support Monkey]

Agree with Bolshie and Northern you were happy with the rate so thats all that matters and yes as the others have said they would question the percentage initially but its a bit late once your on the job, its annoying but so what, ask the questions before you sign don't wait till the builder has knocked your house down.

Just use it has a lever to negotiate a payrise at renewal time

[TykeMerc]

How much is normal for an agency to take a cut??

!0%, 15%, 25%... etc???

Cheers

Whatever they can get away with.

If it's below 10% of what you're getting paid you've done well and over 20% badly (my opinion).
I'm happier when there is a fixed margin agreement between the agent and client.

[BolshieBastard]

One Caveat- If the client is being charged £2000 per day and you are getting £300 per day- what might the expectations of you be?

Oh look, a truthful agent just flew past my window!

[d000hg]

Do you question the builder's mark up on materials when he does a job for you? Or the electrician? Or the plumber?

If I found my builder was charging me for his time and then sold me a bathroom suite at 5X the price he paid then yes I would question it.

The agency is TOTALLY within their right to keep as much of the money as they can, while still sourcing a decent contractor. But there are limits. I'd say the main limit is what % the client would get annoyed by - in that case they are upsetting their customer.

A consultancy is maybe different, they employee people more often and train them - they are doing (some) work rather than just putting the client/contractor in touch, sitting back and taking a cut. So fair game for them to make as much profit as possible.

[tim123]

One Caveat- If the client is being charged £2000 per day and you are getting £300 per day- what might the expectations of you be?

+1, I've seen it happen.

I used to work for a very laid back company (A) that paid below market rates.

20 miles away was a (with hindsight) "work em like slaves" competitor company (B) that usually paid over the odds.

Often agents (C) would see people working for company A and think "this guy will work for below market rates", get them a job at B and offer them a low rate to do so.

When they got to B they thought, this is a BS company that expects me to work like a slave for below market rates and would be back at A within a few weeks having either been "let go" for not working hard enough or walking out voluntarily.

Now, does this result give C a good reputation?

tim

[IBM Agent]

How much is normal for an agency to take a cut??

!0%, 15%, 25%... etc???

Cheers

It depends how 'good' they are.

Your mainstream agencies are likely to work on large volume, low margin. Whereas your niche agencies are going to be the other way around - low volume, high margin.

BUT, the odds of your niche agent vastly increasing the odds of getting you the contract before you've even interviewed (if an interview is even necessary - niche agents should know their market, client and candidates intimately (within reason!)), actually understanding what you do and subsequently offering you more interesting and being able to command you more lucrative contracts, are all very high.

If I had a £ for every time you IT contractors had told me how poorly the mainstream agents treat you people, I'd be a very rich man.

Therefore a higher margin shouldn't be taken at face value, it is the value add - as long as you are getting that value add.

[Tarquin Farquhar]

If I had a £ for every time you IT contractors had told me how poorly the mainstream agents treat you people, I'd be a very rich man.

If you had a £ ??? You lot take hundreds of £££ !!!