Airbnb of recruitment agencies

[DodgyAgent]

AirBnb and Uber is a market place which allows you to extract income out of your assets, namely your property or car.

Now, how is this concept applicable to companies looking to source IT contractors via agencies?

They are indeed fixed assets with no mind of their own

[scooterscot]

Ignore him. He hasn't even worked out the difference between fixed expenditure and outsourced service costs and the impact on a company's bottom line.

If you're trying to telling Crapatia pulling millions out of our businesses is better for them than they had not existed... Yes to a point decades ago but now they're just taking Micky.

A number of small German companies (and now Swiss ) work with me directly. There's no way they'd get the same consultation through an agent who's vested interests are hell bent on commissions.

[LondonManc]

The reason is simple, if you've ever met a HR team. They're very good at the huggy-feely, being nice to people and organising courses type stuff but they don't know what anyone in the business actually does. As such, they'll get 100 cvs in for a role and it'll be high odds that the wrong ten get sent through to the hiring manager (whether perm or contract). Imagine sifting 100 x 10 open jobs and consider the number of applicants whose cvs should have been looked at rather than the ones who were.

An agency has several advantages on that:
specialisation - different parts of the agency deal with different parts of the business; specialist IT, law, construction recruiters and so on.
candidate track records - they'll know which candidates are more likely to do well; they've typically had multiple extensions at most of their clients and have feedback from previous clients
middleman negotiations - they are sales people; they negotiate for a living.
legal - standard upper contract, agent deals with candidate negotiations.

That's in addition to the factors that Dodgy and Mark have mentioned.

If there's one change that I would make to the contract recruitment industry, it would be to have everything on a fixed markup - £50/day, 10%, etc. rather than giving the agency a budget. This will take away all stiffing over of candidates and clients and allow clients to compare cv to day rate and decide how much they want to spend on the quality/cost scale.

[scooterscot]

It begs the question, what are HR departments for?

I speak to many agents who have no clue what I do yet profess to know from personal experience.

I agree on retention, too much cash leaks out from % of hr rates etc when it should be in business R&D.

[malvolio]

It begs the question, what are HR departments for?

The clue is in the name - Human Resources. They do lots of background stuff for permies that we don't ever think about. They are, of course, fairly bad at it on average, but that's their problem. Hiring and firing is only a part of their purpose.

Their mistake is buying the myth that agencies are similarly full of HR experts rather than failed estate agents, and that outsourced HR is as effective as an in-house operation. Plus, of course, the accountants love moving costs off the balance sheet.

I agree on retention, too much cash leaks out from % of hr rates etc when it should be in business R&D.

And there you demonstrate your lack of knowledge of how business works and what it is for.

[darmstadt]

I work at times through agencies here but HR at the hiring company has nothing to do with it. The hiring manager of the department does everything from budgeting, contacting the agency, going through all the CVs, interviewing and so on. HR have diddley squat to do with IT contractors although they might get involved in temps...

[LondonManc]

I work at times through agencies here but HR at the hiring company has nothing to do with it. The hiring manager of the department does everything from budgeting, contacting the agency, going through all the CVs, interviewing and so on. HR have diddley squat to do with IT contractors although they might get involved in temps...

I'd say that it varies from company to company - in some places it feels like HR want to run the show.

[scooterscot]

And there you demonstrate your lack of knowledge of how business works and what it is for.

Of course. And yet you know nothing about my business or its success yet somehow you're qualified to comment.

Little wonder there's so many wanabe Alan Sugar types in the UK.

[scooterscot]

I work at times through agencies here but HR at the hiring company has nothing to do with it. The hiring manager of the department does everything from budgeting, contacting the agency, going through all the CVs, interviewing and so on. HR have diddley squat to do with IT contractors although they might get involved in temps...

So how do we get the manager to the resource? LinkedIn is for US and is slowly dying. Xing never really got off the ground.

My last two direct jobs were done with pen and paper! But not very 21st century but hey it works.

[tomtomagain]

I'd say that it varies from company to company - in some places it feels like HR want to run the show.

Whereas it's the accounts departments that really run most of the show's.