Giant fees

[Wanderer]

Giant fees


I keep reading the title of this thread and thinking that the good times are back. Oh yeah, I'll have some of that.

[Xtrain]

Brolly Fees

In the "old days" brollys used to charge either a weekly fee or a monthly fee dependent on how often your agency paid. For monthly paid the fee would work out cheaper as the brolly only has to do 1 payment process per month rather than 4 if you were paid weekly. I've noticed recently that a lot of the larger brollys have pushed their prices up for the monthly process to match the equiv. in weekly fees (they have profits to maintain and agency commissions to pay!). So its looks to me like you are paying £140 per month for someone to do 1 payroll process per month on your behalf! Virtually every accountancy company charges less for a full, limited company service.

[The Agents View]

and agency commissions to pay!). .

People that take these bungs REALLLLLY upset me....

[MarkOD]

i once worked through an agency where the brolly gave them cash and they passed it over to the contractor. Their point was that they'd took a margin already which they were happy with so why take the mick. it's all brown paper bags with some of the brollies / agencies. I hear through a mate who works for a brolly that when they submitted a tender for a pretty huge PSL with a pretty big agency hated by pretty much every other recruitment agency in the industry that in their proposal one of the questions was something like "would you like to make a gesture of goodwill towards the upkeep of our contractor admin department that will come about due to the business levels you have with us" they wanted £x per payment processed

scumbags!

[The Agents View]

i once worked through an agency where the brolly gave them cash and they passed it over to the contractor. Their point was that they'd took a margin already which they were happy with so why take the mick. it's all brown paper bags with some of the brollies / agencies. I hear through a mate who works for a brolly that when they submitted a tender for a pretty huge PSL with a pretty big agency hated by pretty much every other recruitment agency in the industry that in their proposal one of the questions was something like "would you like to make a gesture of goodwill towards the upkeep of our contractor admin department that will come about due to the business levels you have with us" they wanted £x per payment processed

scumbags!

These people are unethical, and quite frankly a disgrace - Worse, are the people who actually take the bungs.

For me, a brolly is an extension of my brand - I work with a couple, who I trust and have good relationships with. They might take me for a drink once every 6 months or so - but pay me for my contractors? What if I make my recommendation, and the brolly screws it up?

There are SO many reasons agents shouldn't take brolly bribes, but my friends who work for them, still get asked regularly, "what are you going to do for me if I give you this contractor?"

Other agents on the board - am I alone in thinking this is wrong??

[Wanderer]

These people are unethical, and quite frankly a disgrace - Worse, are the people who actually take the bungs.

There are SO many reasons agents shouldn't take brolly bribes

Since when did a referral fees and commissions become "bungs" and "bribes"? That's a normal way of doing business, there's nothing wrong with it.

[The Agents View]

Since when did a referral fees and commissions become "bungs" and "bribes"? That's a normal way of doing business, there's nothing wrong with it.

Wrong.

Commission - Reward for doing a job well (ie a candidate getting a job because you've intro'd them, prepped, scoped, referenced, and between you convinced the manager to hire).

Referral Fee - a gesture of goodwill for passing information to another company, where you have no vested interest in the outcome, like me passing you details of a job at another agency for example. It's not a referral fee, if you're given a reason to influence the outcome with made up advice.

The other side, is that agencies should not be recommending umbrellas anyway - sure they can state facts like "alot of our contractors use XYZ" but we're talking about restricting who people opt for here, on the basis of who had the most cash for referrals - not for legality, or service levels.

It is wrong to take money in order to influence the decision of a contractor, end of.

[Xtrain]

I think it is up to the agency how they want to run their business. If they recommend a brolly then it is up to the contractor to decide whether that recommendations suits them. In an ideal world the recommendation would be based on service rather than commissions paid. It is however not an ideal world and because of the economic climate agency margins are being tightened and they are looking at other avenues to increase their "take". Unfortunately for brollys they are looking in their direction which of course gets passed onto the contractor in fee increases. I think there is only so far these fees can be increased and when brollys are charging more than "real accountants" like it appears now it really is a no-brainer on which type of service to use.

[Wanderer]

It is wrong to take money in order to influence the decision of a contractor, end of.

So a contractor gets a job direct with a client and that client demands that they use an agency on their PSL. Client pays out less commission to the agency and gets less admin hassle which also saves them money/time. Would see this as wrong too?

I'd rather that such things didn't happen but that's the way people do business in the big bad world.

[The Agents View]

So a contractor gets a job direct with a client and that client demands that they use an agency on their PSL. Client pays out less commission to the agency and gets less admin hassle which also saves them money/time. Would see this as wrong too?

I'd rather that such things didn't happen but that's the way people do business in the big bad world.

Of course it's wrong! Thats a simple case of a fair price comparative to the amount of work - if the client is paying a low margin because it's a "put through" then there's a reason for that - the agent and agency should not then be looking to bolster it by taking bungs for referrals.

We are however, not talking about agencies - the arrangements are generally with the agents, and that money goes straight into their back pocket, for nothing more than influencing the contractor.

Maybe I'm naive, maybe I strive to be ethical, but to be honest - any kind of additional money that I haven't worked for, feels wrong - on that basis, I would therefore not take it.

TAV