Found out what my agency make charge for me

[malvolio]

77% surely?

Well done. I was wondering if anyone would notice that...

[Cenobite]

Contractors win work not agents

1. The one malvolio talks about whereby the agency is paid £X amount and they negotiate a rate £Y with the contractor. Agencies see it that "you are taking a cut of their money" and they negotiate the best margin they can in the circumstances.

This kills me. If agents could get a contractor in to a firm with no interview then I could accept this. However, it's the contractor's performance at interview which wins the agent the work but I concede the agent has backed the winning horse.

[malvolio]

This kills me. If agents could get a contractor in to a firm with no interview then I could accept this. However, it's the contractor's performance at interview which wins the agent the work but I concede the agent has backed the winning horse.

Nonsense. What about the roughly 95% wasted effort spent by the agency before they get the chance to put the contractor in the interview?

[Wanderer]

gig at £300 a day (it was local). Two months in find out agent is charging client £450 a day for my services.

I walked..... Funnily enough I got a phone call from some director agent asking "WHO" refused me the increase and that we could come to some arrangement. After all their margin was down to zero now

Yeah, stick it to them! Funny how they come out with all this tulipe about it being non-negotiable and then when it comes to the crunch they say it would have been.

I would let slip to the client that the agency were ripping the arse too and hopefully they will review their way of doing business....

[SandyD]

Several times in the past I applied for roles, both permie and contractor roles direct via the client adverts, but sometimes I never get a reply other times I got an immediate automated rejection, but when applying for the same roles via an agent I got interviews and offers. I guess for most clients the HR who receive direct applications are just not as efficient as an agent (even though most agents also don't know much about the job, but they can sell contractors !!)

[Cenobite]

Nonsense. What about the roughly 95% wasted effort spent by the agency before they get the chance to put the contractor in the interview?

If all the contractors an agent puts through for a role, all make a mess of their interviews then the agent does not get the work do they? A good interview performance by a contractor wins the contract: it's the specific contractor the client wants after all, not a particular agent.

If the client were really choosing by agent and not by contractor, then the agent could win the work and pick the contractor themselves. But this never happens: the client wants to interview the contractor and decides which agent wins the business after the interviews.

[SandyD]

If all the contractors an agent puts through for a role, all make a mess of their interviews then the agent does not get the work do they? A good interview performance by a contractor wins the contract: it's the specific contractor the client wants after all, not a particular agent.

Spotting and selecting the right specific contractor to put forward is part of the agent work, the good ones don't submit randomly selected contractors.

[Cenobite]

the good ones don't submit randomly selected contractors.

Right, I must have never met those.

[Contreras]

77% surely?

Quite. 30% markup == 23% margin.

For most businesses, whether retail or B2B, reselling a product (or service) will be costed in terms of percentage margin or markup. There's something odd about agents if they perceive the opposite, i.e. that the supplier is getting a 'cut' of their revenue.

[Cenobite]

What about the roughly 95% wasted effort spent by the agency

What about the years of effort, training, qualifications, certifications and hard work a typical contractor has had to put in to position themselves in the contracting marketplace? This hardly compares with the unskilled school leavers most agents are and the numpty keyword searching nature of most of their work.