Agencies to avoid....

[kevpuk]

LORIEN were awful<snip> continually chasing the client manager to resign<snip>

Guessing that is re-sign, but good info nonetheless

[Steelman]

Lorien - best avoided

I am sure I am not alone in getting previous contracts via agencies that I would rather not work with again. Generally I've been ok but had a recent bad experience with Lorien / VerticalIT:

- lengthly payment terms; 30 working days from last friday of month ie. this is a min term of 6 weeks from end of month even if you invoice weekly and you could be waiting over 10 weeks if you finish a contract at the start of a new month.

- Even when they agreed to reduce their term they conveniently forgot and needed chasing every month.

- the contract specifically stated that I could not 'resign' so I should insist on a rolling 1 month contract in future.

- Would not allow their contract to be signed without signing the 'optional' Suppliers EAA Regs Opt Out.

IT would be useful to get others views on agencies so that we know to scrutinise their contracts just a little more carefully.

LORIEN were awful. they got heavy about the Opt Out I told them they could not legally force me to Opt Out and they backed off.
Also they have a crap online timesheet system which timed out so you were continually chasing the client manager to resign. Ridiculous and a waste of everyone's time. They took 8 wks to pay me my final invoice and only paid up after I threatened legal action - as I had OPTED IN and therefore even if the the client hadn't paid them, they still had to pay me.
Best avoided.

[eek]

CAPITA

They are just terrible. I would never, ever use them by choice but a lot of companies like them cos they're cheap. Whaddya get if you pay peanuts?

A poorer quality project, delivered at greater cost, late?

[ladymuck]

Too lazy to read 11 pages, sorry if a duplicate nomination...

CAPITA

They are just terrible. I would never, ever use them by choice but a lot of companies like them cos they're cheap. Whaddya get if you pay peanuts?

[bikeman]

Did you call or email them? I am genuninely useless at giving candidates feedback. In such a time pressured environment, calling up a candidate and saying "you have no feedback" or "you were rejected, I dont know why". If I am sending 15-20 CVs to jobs a week and 10 of those are rejected (often without the manager telling the agent themselves) then it doesnt always get passed along.

Ever thought that making the effort to find out why candidates are rejected might just help you in your search for the right candidate? Recruiters who play the numbers game are of little to use to both candidates or employers and should go back to selling double glazing. Mind you if you're finding putting forward 15-20 cvs a week pressured then maybe you'd be better off working in MacD.

[benjiman]

I've used four tools to update recruiters since 1982: Royal Mail, telephone, fax and E-mail.

(Not that I have ever "trusted" a single one of the Bar Stewards.)

I guess in a recruitment system where the signal to noise ratio is so low it's not surprising it's hard to find trusted recruiters. That's why I built a tool to help.

Secret Status can be thought of as an eBay rating system for recruitment, in that it captures the recruiters that contractors trust. We can then generate reports like:

• Who are the top-rate contractors using?
• Who has the trust of specialists in "Tech x"?

[flipFlop]

Ive spent the last year and a half building a tool to allow contractors to keep their trusted recruiters up-to-date with their requirements.

I've used four tools to update recruiters since 1982: Royal Mail, telephone, fax and E-mail.

(Not that I have ever "trusted" a single one of the Bar Stewards.)

[benjiman]

Trust is individual..

I'm a lifelong city contractor and Ive spent the last year and a half building a tool to allow contractors to keep their trusted recruiters up-to-date with their requirements.

By selecting the recruiters they trust we can tell candidates who the most trusted recruiters are in a given field.

As contractors don't you wish you had a tool that let you secure contracts more efficiently?

We've pushed candidate requirements discretely to a number of recruiters now.

It's called Secret Status

I'd love feedback, I answer all questions personally

Thanks
Ben Ritchie
Founder

[cherhill]

RedRock Consulting based in Bristol are the only ones I would avoid. Currently have a small claims case being pursued as they owe me 4 weeks money.

A few agencies I found always offer rubbish rates but RedRock are the only oens in 15 years of contracting that I wouldn't touch again.

[Murder1]

It was something along those lines.

Me: "it's funny that agents always say that the client has reduced the rate. Nothing to do extending your percentage is it?"
Pimp: <nervous laughter> Errr.... no."

I'm hearing that "daily rates are down, it's the shape of the current market" but it seems to be only pimps that tell me this. These f**kers are getting worse.

qh

tbf I have seen in one instance a job spec being posted by an agent with a rate range of £400-£450 a day that the client was aware of despite not being prepared to offer over £350. I was asked to sit in on the interview process and the client admitted over the table to me that:

a) Good people will apply for the higher rate so the standard applying is better.
b) The sudden decrease in rate will not put all off from still applying so we'll still get some high quality people in to interview.
c) The agent will end up taking the brunt of the blame as the general perception is it's them that are doing the rate squeezing.