Should agents margins be transparent?

[DimPrawn]

Am I missing something? You say the cost of placing someone is the same regardless of rate, and then you claim that you make a loss if you don't charge more for different rates?

Placing someone high up the ladder requires more hair gel and the most shiny suit.

[Bunk]

Placing someone high up the ladder requires more hair gel and the most shiny suit.

and a bigger knot in their tie?

[d000hg]

By the sounds of things you aren't just a CV harvester/invoice factorer

Correct, but that was my point earlier about consultancies Vs agencies.

[DimPrawn]

The other danger of course if you enlist the government to protect you from nasty agent margins, it becomes law that you must use an agent and can't go direct for work.

After all, if you expect agents to be "fair" on margins it is only "fair" that you must use one.

[DodgyAgent]

Am I missing something? You say the cost of placing someone is the same regardless of rate, and then you claim that you make a loss if you don't charge more for different rates?

On a contingency basis the costs of placing someone are pretty much the same no matter what the salary level is. As far as contractors are concerned 1.5% is about the cost of the money (not the staff time) to manage the transaction of paying a contractor.

[conned tractor]

A new train of thought... as a company which hires some contract workers I don't want to reveal my margins. I put in substantial time scouring all the crud in cheap countries to find the few gems who are both skilled and much cheaper than UK rates.

So you exporting the work this country has left to offer by undercutting the indigenous workforce.

At least the agents keep it in this country - apart from of course some of the bigger ones, tata, etc.

[gingerjedi]

A number of points on this one.

First of all I know what reasonable people you all are, so I am sure that whilst we are at it, revealing profits, why dont we force all contractors to reveal also what they earn?

Here you go: http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk//index.shtml

Can you now provide the link that shows agents margins please?

This would make it simple for clients, agents would find it very difficult to hide their margins.

And the contractor tulips out again?

[Halcyon]

I agree with DimPrawn - if you are in business then it is largely up to you to find out the figures involved in a deal and decide whether it is or it isn't suitably profitable for you, if you're not in business, feck off and get a permie job and clear the decks for us real men. And women, obviously (c;

There is a lot of whingeing on here about agents, in around fourteen years of contracting I have never worked with one who has refused to reveal their commission, and I have never failed to verify this from the client side if I tried (quite often I work with finance systems anyway, so end up seeing the invoices!)

I met up with an old school friend last year at a wedding in Croatia; he had been contracting for a while but decided that he could earn more as an agent so he set himself up as an agent, earned more money, and has a good tan, so second piece of advice, if being an agent is so much better than being a contractor feck off and become an agent!

</tirade>

[gingerjedi]

I agree with DimPrawn - if you are in business then it is largely up to you to find out the figures involved in a deal and decide whether it is or it isn't suitably profitable for you, if you're not in business, feck off and get a permie job and clear the decks for us real men. And women, obviously (c;

There is a lot of whingeing on here about agents, in around fourteen years of contracting I have never worked with one who has refused to reveal their commission, and I have never failed to verify this from the client side if I tried (quite often I work with finance systems anyway, so end up seeing the invoices!)

I met up with an old school friend last year at a wedding in Croatia; he had been contracting for a while but decided that he could earn more as an agent so he set himself up as an agent, earned more money, and has a good tan, so second piece of advice, if being an agent is so much better than being a contractor feck off and become an agent!

</tirade>

Well lucky you, I have a situation where the agent refuses to acknowledge the existence of a contractor who sits next to me and a client who swears blind they pay the same rate for the both of us.

I'm not normally one to moan about individual rates but when someone comes in on 40% more and I have to show them the ropes I get more than a little annoyed.

[TheFaQQer]

There is a lot of whingeing on here about agents, in around fourteen years of contracting I have never worked with one who has refused to reveal their commission, and I have never failed to verify this from the client side if I tried (quite often I work with finance systems anyway, so end up seeing the invoices!)

I've never asked an agent what their margin was, to be honest. I've had some tell me without being asked, though.