Two Important Tips When Using Recruitment Agencies to Find Permanent Staff
As a result of the current UK skills shortage, more and more businesses are turning to recruitment agencies to help them find good quality staff to fill their permanent vacancies.
If you are considering using a recruitment agency to find your permanent staff, there are two key commercial points you should be aware of before you start working with them. Understanding these points will help you to ensure that you are comfortable with the terms on which you are working with recruitment agents, and to discuss any concerns that you have with them.
Candidate Ownership
The agency's terms of business will give the agency a period of candidate 'ownership' (normally six months from the point of introduction). If you hire the candidate within this period, you will have to pay the agency a fee.
Disputes over introduction fees are common. Typically two agencies will introduce the same candidate for the same or very similar jobs - when the candidate gets hired, both agencies claim a fee and the hirer ends up having to make a double payment.
To mitigate the risks, you should carefully check the agency's terms of business to make sure the period of candidate ownership is acceptable to you. You should also have procedures in place to track agency introductions so that if an agency introduces a candidate you are already are of, you can notify them immediately and reject the introduction. Doing this should help you to avoid the cost and management time which a dispute would entail, and will help to preserve a trusted relationship with the agency.
Rebates/Refunds
The agency's terms of business should give you a rebate or refund period so that if the candidate is dismissed for poor performance or resigns within a set period (typically up to three months after the candidate's start date), your introduction fee (or a percentage of it) is refunded.
Rebate periods are standard and effectively give you a trial period to make sure the candidate who the agency has introduced is up to the job.
You should always check the agency's terms of business to make sure they give you a rebate period and that it is acceptable to you. Lots of businesses require the rebate period to be equal in length to the candidate's probation period.
It is important to ensure that you understand and are comfortable with the terms on which you do business with recruitment agents. They provide a valuable service for businesses, and it is worth taking the time to ensure that the terms on which they do so are right for you.
In the next edition of Decision Makers' Brief, we will look at a couple of important tips when using agencies to find temporary staff.