Agents

[expat]

Talking to my OH last night, she works for an electrical contractor. She mentioned an electrician working for them (sub-contracting to them), who had previously worked for them through an agent. So they took him on directly, to save agent's fees.

"Does the agent let you away with that?" I asked.
"We only took the electrician on after the end of his contract with them," she replied, "so what's the problem?"
"But isn't there a clause in the contract that you can't take him on direct for 6 months or a year or something?" I asked.
"Don't know. That wouldn't stop us anyway," she said.
"But wouldn't the agency come after you? Sue you?" I asked.
"Why would they waste their time doing that?" she retorted, "They'd swear at us, then go and get on with another contract, not waste time and money on arguing with us".

So, I asked myself, what's different in IT? In the construction industry (recession, what recession?) there are so many other jobs to fill and guys to place, relative to the number of agents, that an agent is much better to move on and get working elsewhere, rather than argue over one contract. In IT there are far too many agents for the industry, so every agent will hold on to every resource like grim death, and argue about one contract rather than just going and getting others.

[thunderlizard]

Also IT charge rates are probably 2-3 times higher, margins 2-3 times bigger and contracts 2-3 times longer, so an IT contract could be worth 10 times as much to an agent as a 'leccy one.

[expat]

Also IT charge rates are probably 2-3 times higher, margins 2-3 times bigger and contracts 2-3 times longer, so an IT contract could be worth 10 times as much to an agent as a 'leccy one.

Well to be fair, another difference is that the electrician was taken on direct by the owners of the company themselves, because the money they save on him is their money since it's their company; whereas your or my PM has little incentive to do that because he's managing his project not subcontracting it, and he has some incentive not to do it because he'll get into trouble with HR and Legal.

[Recruitment Agent]

Also IT charge rates are probably 2-3 times higher, margins 2-3 times bigger and contracts 2-3 times longer, so an IT contract could be worth 10 times as much to an agent as a 'leccy one.

Its all down to the consultants commision. A consultant is slapped around to work at from 8.30 until 7pm with the promise it is easy to make placements and they will make loads of money from it, then in reality it actually takes 1000 calls for a rookie to pick up the business in the first place. then the contract runs its duration for the client to say we are taking them through us now.The mentality of the low paid recruitmenty consultant will want to stick to their guns by say in long phrases like "its not fair" then the manager puts an arm on their shoulder and say dont worry just tell them "its a contractual agreement for the contractor no the engage the client with in 26 weeks of completing the prior contract" and you will earn more commision..

[Ivor Bigun]

Talking to my OH last night, she works for an electrical contractor.
"But isn't there a clause in the contract that you can't take him on direct for 6 months or a year or something?" I asked.
"Don't know. That wouldn't stop us anyway," she said.
"But wouldn't the agency come after you? Sue you?" I asked.

Electricians arn't normally limited companies.
As someone else said, employment vs contract law.

[expat]

Electricians arn't normally limited companies.
As someone else said, employment vs contract law.

Quite a lot of them are. I think it's less that agents can't chase them, than that it's not a good use of their time compared to getting on with agenting.

[pzz76077]

The difference between IT contractors V Sparkys

One other crucial difference is that most Sparkys I know would not hesitate to deck any agent that looked like he would loose him a few quid for anything as trivial as contractual obligations etc .

Not sure that this practice has filtered into the IT contracting market place....yet!!

PZZ

[minestrone]

Companies who take on IT contractors usually employ daft wee girls in HR who would start crying if they got a nasty phone call from an agent.

I'm sure the construction industry is a bit more robust and nobody would be that bothered giving a "GTF" down the phone.