Reply to: Interested in your thoughts on client and agency

[bennyhedgehog]

When they ask for references, just give the names of previous Agencies & agents that have got you the previous gigs.....

Everybody's happy.....

Well done on getting gig

Cheers for the ... it would be great if the references were that simple.

A lot of my work has been direct, some others have been quite convoluted (sub-sub-contracting) and frankly even remembering over that time period has been a bit of a trial. It has meant I've ended up catching up with a few colleagues over the last couple of days which is nice, but then also the odd kafka-esque phone call to a HR department for a company I didnt work for trying to detangle who the agent was... you see, if the dates don't match, they will assume I am lying, this is what it is all about, aint it... so I want to ensure they are correct prior to giving the contact details.

Incidentally, they have actually relented on a couple of these things today, and I have gotten them to question the suitability of signing some of these bits and pieces off before going on site... so ho hum.

[SeekingIT]

Simples

When they ask for references, just give the names of previous Agencies & agents that have got you the previous gigs.....

Everybody's happy.....

Well done on getting gig

[bennyhedgehog]

Lets apply a bit of common sense here. Put it another way. If you were going to employ someone to look after billions of your pounds how intensive would you be checking their past history for crimanal activity, liabilty to blackmail, financial matters and past employment? That in mind what they are asking now seems pretty reasonable no?

I would have thought this level of check would have been expected when working in these environments but it still surprises me the number of people that question it.

Just fill it in and get on with it. You arn't the first person to question this and won't be the last and everyone else seems ok. Your not exactly gonna tell them to take a hike and lose the contract are you?

I agree they need to be rigorous... but how do I sign off the workstation suitability checklist, say, when I haven't even seen the workstation or stepped foot in the room it exists in? How do I sign to say I agree to the AML procedure when I have never read it or seen it and the document they refer to is an intranet webpage and not an internet webpage?

I appreciate people may not question this kind of thing, but they really should, shouldn't they? Otherwise your signature on something just isnt worth the ink, is it?

[northernladuk]

Lets apply a bit of common sense here. Put it another way. If you were going to employ someone to look after billions of your pounds how intensive would you be checking their past history for crimanal activity, liabilty to blackmail, financial matters and past employment? That in mind what they are asking now seems pretty reasonable no?

I would have thought this level of check would have been expected when working in these environments but it still surprises me the number of people that question it.

Just fill it in and get on with it. You arn't the first person to question this and won't be the last and everyone else seems ok. Your not exactly gonna tell them to take a hike and lose the contract are you?

[vjmac108]

The RPO's like Hays, RS do this not to make contractors lives that more difficult but at the insistence of the end client (i.e. the bank). The criteria and extent of checks is dependent and predetermined by the end client.

[Hex]

I've worked for a few investment banks and I've had the same sort of thing to one degree or another. The banks use Hays, Resource Solutions etc. as in-house Agency and they ask for all sorts of documents that you shouldn't have to provide. The Agency probably does this to cover their a**e in case they bring someone dodgy into the bank. So they are always OTT with their requests. It's very difficult to fight against as they have too much power compared to the department you'd be working for.

[ratewhore]

I had to provide more info for my banking gig than non banking, primarily down to money laundering regs and such like.

On the bright side, they were handed to the client, not the agent...

[malvolio]

It's not hjust agencies...

She Who Must Be Obeyed is off for an interview for a new post soon. She's had the details and they want her to bring:

* Evidence of any essential qualifications as identified in the person
specification (e.g. RSA diploma, professional registration details)

* Three forms of identification, at least one of which should be
photographic (e.g. passport; driving licence; birth/marriage certificate; UK ID card - non EEA foreign nationals; EU national identity card - EU only) and one should confirm your current address (e.g. utility bill or
bank/building society statement that is not more than 6 months old)

If you are unable to, or have difficulty in, providing this evidence, please
contact us using the contact details below.

If you are successful at interview you will be required to complete an
occupational health questionnaire and, where appropriate, a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) Disclosure.

Thing is, this is for a promotion at a hospital where's she's been working at a fairly senior level for the last 30 years...

[Tarquin Farquhar]

Glad I'm getting some positive response in thinking it is over the top... the agent had me apologising to him for being a little obtuse in questioning all these requests... giving it the "we've got x thousands of contractors and I've never been questioned" blather... makes me feel quite a bit better - thanks again.

Standard agent BS when you question anything: you're the only one who has questioned it, everybody else is OK with it.

[bennyhedgehog]

The references I understand as they are just checking you are who you say you are etc. But the financial documents are OTT as they can just credit check you and any company you are director off as if you had the inclination you could fake them.

Glad I'm getting some positive response in thinking it is over the top... the agent had me apologising to him for being a little obtuse in questioning all these requests... giving it the "we've got x thousands of contractors and I've never been questioned" blather... makes me feel quite a bit better - thanks again.

[SueEllen]

The references I understand as they are just checking you are who you say you are etc. But the financial documents are OTT as they can just credit check you and any company you are director off as if you had the inclination you could fake them.

[bennyhedgehog]

I was offered a role in early November, working for a well known Bank. As soon as the offer was made I was asked for two reference (no problem there). Then a wonderful HR type email was sent via the agent that explained that I needed to produce further Id (Done this before, so I thought ok). This was followed by another email which was from a third party mob, via the company's HR department. This lot wanted so much info that I thought they were having a laugh. I had already sent a copy of my passport to the agent, but was now being asked for (Birth certificate, bank statements from 2006 to 2009, utility bills from 2006 to 2009, Clarification of all outstanding loans) and a few more bits, which I won't bore you with. I wanted an explanation as to why a Team Lead role for 3 months, which would only ever invole using test data, needed all this info.
I sent an email to both the agent (the HR department via the agent) and this third party mob, as the agent insisted that they were not allowed to get involved in this part of the process. There was no response from HR for 5 days, even though they were chased up, they eventually sent me another email and asked why I had not sent all the docs to the third party mob. I asked for a response to my original email, and was told this was standard for this type of role. I just don't trust all that personal data being viewed/held by some crappy third party who are making money out of other people's fears/stupidity.

My response (even though I've been out of contract since the 2nd week in September)

And since then I have had a great Christmas, and still have a healthy warchest............

I can understand the need to verify who I am, and if I can do the job. But the rest of this stuff is utter tripe. To me it looked like some slicko company was making a nice killing out of sticking their nose way to far into my life.

What will they ask for next, if these company's are allowed to get away with this?

Cheers Hugh, seems it is really quite a similar situation and thanks for the comments.

It does feel like being asked to skip through hoops is the order of my day tomorrow, I have questioned everything I either don't agree with or understand the validity of in an email to the agency and am really quite interested in their response.

Up till now, the response has been "the client requires it" and "we're only following orders"... if this is the only response I get tomorrow I will be speaking to the client's HR department to ascertain the reason behind this, if only to confirm that it is actually the client that is asking for it.

It's a shame I'd forgotten what dealing with agents and sorting contracts was like! I could have gotten some popcorn in.

[Hugh Jardon]

Rollicks to them!

I was offered a role in early November, working for a well known Bank. As soon as the offer was made I was asked for two reference (no problem there). Then a wonderful HR type email was sent via the agent that explained that I needed to produce further Id (Done this before, so I thought ok). This was followed by another email which was from a third party mob, via the company's HR department. This lot wanted so much info that I thought they were having a laugh. I had already sent a copy of my passport to the agent, but was now being asked for (Birth certificate, bank statements from 2006 to 2009, utility bills from 2006 to 2009, Clarification of all outstanding loans) and a few more bits, which I won't bore you with. I wanted an explanation as to why a Team Lead role for 3 months, which would only ever invole using test data, needed all this info.
I sent an email to both the agent (the HR department via the agent) and this third party mob, as the agent insisted that they were not allowed to get involved in this part of the process. There was no response from HR for 5 days, even though they were chased up, they eventually sent me another email and asked why I had not sent all the docs to the third party mob. I asked for a response to my original email, and was told this was standard for this type of role. I just don't trust all that personal data being viewed/held by some crappy third party who are making money out of other people's fears/stupidity.

My response (even though I've been out of contract since the 2nd week in September)

And since then I have had a great Christmas, and still have a healthy warchest............

I can understand the need to verify who I am, and if I can do the job. But the rest of this stuff is utter tripe. To me it looked like some slicko company was making a nice killing out of sticking their nose way to far into my life.

What will they ask for next, if these company's are allowed to get away with this?

[bennyhedgehog]

I've worked for a few of them (banks) in the past and appreciate (with what's gone on) that they may have tightened things up "a tad"... but there is (I think) a huge difference between this and "a tad".

They are effectively checking my entire job history, which I have no problem with anyone doing (it's all true)... they are also asking for 2 actual references (who I've known for longer than 5 years) on top of those in my cv, which are my actual references, if you like.

I do have a few of these references which I can not either remember or get hold of to verify the dates that they have (which I want to do first, frankly - as a job depends on it!).

I am a little exasperated by it, especially signing off my workstation suitability, when I havent even been in the building I'm supposed to be working in on Monday! Meh!

[NeverBeenNorthOfTheM25]

Hi all... have been offered a role (yay!) with a large banking client through a specifc agency, hopefully to start on Monday.

Being asked for quite an extreme amount of information prior to the start and interested in your thoughts on this... and also the client and agency, if anyone has any experience of them.

Thought of doing something cryptic, but sod it... Hays and JP Morgan.

The information they want is extreme, including for example signing off what appears to be things like the induction documents (workstation suitability etc), tax documents (when I'm going to be employed by neither of them) and frankly an extraordinary amount of references (every job for the last 5 years and then some on top of those!)

Any thoughts would be appreciated. One thing I have just thought of, is: the agent may just be collating company contacts as a little sideline???

Cheers for your time.

Honestly that would border line P me off ........ Youre hardly going for chief executive ..... 5 years worth of references? I bet few people here could do that.

Still, you dont have much choice, but I would ask the question to the agent, how much of this is really necessary ...... remind me not to work for an investment bank if this is the sort of hoops you have to jump through for a job.