Linkedin.com - Client - Agency triangle. FFS!

[Andy Hallett]

Linkedin.com - Client - Agency triangle. FFS!

...a lot of people that have been on the other side would agree that it is way less hassle to set up a new supplier than dealing with "know nothing" people to get key competencies to work on business critical systems – rather than risking getting an amateur that screws everything up, on the expense of getting a well-regarded wizard (that was cut of by the know-nothing people, because they wanted a better margin for themselves).

For office workers - fine. Use an agency if you have to "bulk recruit". For IT specialists - go direct and use the ones you currently have on board to assess the next coming in before they leave. In a few minutes they would deliver so incredible much more in terms of CV assessment/ interviewing, than 95% of the agents would ever be able to achieve – they simply lack the competence!

It’s nothing but a misconception that there is more hassle with the admin than getting the crucial core bits of the business right! Again - it's bad habits by lazy HR people. The business should put more pressure on HR to get their thumbs out and do the standard paperwork (that is easy enough to do because of systems supplied by people like us), so that the non-standard bits can function well.
I respect your view, but it is a little bit because people too easily hold on to this misconception that the bad habit persists.

Also, client has almost as many agencies as contractors, as there seem to be a never ending list of these nonsense businesses and they all sending through CV:s.
Another benefit is that a contractor would commit to the client to a larger degree if they actually owned the client relationship (and this is where it has all gone wrong) – it is very annoying to them when a contractor just bails out and goes to the next contract prematurely – just because they don’t have any client relationship to care about.

All considered – there are in fact no benefits with using an agency. It is well and truly ONLY bad habits!
It is partly because of these habits that the UK IT utilisation and sophistication level is way below where it should be; in international comparison we’re not in a very flattering position (in one study we’re at number 22 from the top). Partly this is because the IT industry is controlled, not by the people that possess the knowledge, but by the people who don’t – useless, low educated and low achieving middlemen!


LET’S CHANGE THAT BAD HABIT and make UK IT one of the best in the world – something it is very far from today, but certainly has the potential to be!

You sound a pretty decent professional contractor, you are let down by a small number of your peers though. You only have to glance through the threads on here about the guys looking to exit their contracts because they offered got 25p an hour more on another contract.

My personal view is that there will be increasingly more direct contracts with business networking sites, but the majority of contracts will always be via safe intermediaries to give the buyers at End Client protection.

"Nobody ever got fired for choosing IBM"

[darrenb]

...

Surprised that nobody has pointed out that Mr. Hallett is a director at the notorious SThree Group. Yes, it's in his profile, but casual readers of the forum could easily get the impression that his posts are intended to benefit contractors rather than agents. It's a highly insidious process.

[BolshieBastard]

Surprised that nobody has pointed out that Mr. Hallett is a director at the notorious SThree Group. Yes, it's in his profile, but casual readers of the forum could easily get the impression that his posts are intended to benefit contractors rather than agents. It's a highly insidious process.

Er what? He's declared in a few threads he works for the S3 Group. And its in his profile so wtf more do you expect him to do?

You need to wind your neck in a bit.

[cojak]

Surprised that nobody has pointed out that Mr. Hallett is a director at the notorious SThree Group. Yes, it's in his profile, but casual readers of the forum could easily get the impression that his posts are intended to benefit contractors rather than agents. It's a highly insidious process.

Andy has been completely upfront regarding who he works for and has given helpful advice to posters here.

You will treat all posters with respect on the Professional forums please.

[darrenb]

After all these years finally earned my first infraction, but can't seem to locate the tattoo-coupon-thingummy under my account.

Anyway I've learnt my lesson and from now on will take special care not to upset the sponsors.

[Andy Hallett]

Linkedin.com - Client - Agency triangle. FFS!

After all these years finally earned my first infraction, but can't seem to locate the tattoo-coupon-thingummy under my account.

Anyway I've learnt my lesson and from now on will take special care not to upset the sponsors.

Hi Darren,

I have been reading the site for years and took a very deliberate decision to 'come out' last year and start posting. I do so with a genuine interest in the industry. Whilst I accept that many contractors do see SThree as notorious, I have to balance against all the positive engagement with clients and contractors I have had over my 14 years.

In a lot of ways we have grown up as a company. When I joined in 1999 we numbered a few hundred and were pretty much a UK based IT company. Fast forward to 2013 and we are multi-sector in 18 countries with a workforce of over 2000 people.

I'd be interested in any experiences you have had with SThree brands that haven't met your expectations, and when provided with evidence I will act - a number of forum members could support me on that.

Happy to discuss on a new thread here (this one has veered off topic), via PM or in person.

[GB9]

From experience I can confirm that Mr. Hallett is indeed a man of his word.

[cojak]

Anyway I've learnt my lesson and from now on will take special care not to upset the sponsors.

Thanks for that sly dig, darrenb. Actually we don't have sponsors on the website, we have advertisers of whom the rules apply on the forums as much as any poster (and I have infracted representatives).

But S3 is not an advertiser.

Just to clear that matter up - and I refused a request to uninfract you btw...