Recruitment Agency Margin - what is acceptable? (Feature)

[UKFF Mod]

As a freelance contractor, whenever you start a new gig through a recruitment agency there's always that little internal voice that wonders exactly how much margin the agency is creaming off your daily or hourly rate.

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If you have any comments to make about this article feel free to start the debate below!

[Malvolio]

One of my many hobby horses and a common misconception that causes many problems for no good reason. They are not creaming money off your rate, you are getting a percentage of theirs. They found the work, they put in the sales effort and they carry the costs of the 90% failure rate on sales conversion. As long as the rate you get is the one you agreed to at the outset, that's all you really need to worry about. The time to argue margins is at renewal, when the agency has far less work to do.

[The SMG]

I think the average agency margin is lower than 15-30% now. You're probably talking somewhere in the region of 10-15%

[Howzat]

Originally Posted by Malvolio

One of my many hobby horses and a common misconception that causes many problems for no good reason. They are not creaming money off your rate, you are getting a percentage of theirs. They found the work, they put in the sales effort and they carry the costs of the 90% failure rate on sales conversion. As long as the rate you get is the one you agreed to at the outset, that's all you really need to worry about. The time to argue margins is at renewal, when the agency has far less work to do.

agreed - the number of times I hear the usual crap "my agent is on a 40% margin, it's a total disgrace". No it's not! Get real kids, there's a load of recruiters out there all competing for the same business - when they 'do a deal' they absolutely need to factor in all those times when the lost out after having spend hours if not days putting something together.

[freelancerclive]

What about on contract renewal Howzat? Should they still be taking 40% then for doing **** all???