Do recruitment agents/consultants get anything for registering new clients?

jungle_jane

I think you are correct MissA - they do only use your details to apply for that one job. But they also hold them in their database and if they are struggling to fill roles further down the track they search their database and CVs with the matching skills come up. In that case they send an email out to see if you want the job. As LALON said they do this automatically and unless you go back, find the agent and then write to them to ask them to remove your details then you find many agencies simply keep them.

When you apply online I think that by doing so you are opting in. I agree with LALON, it's extremely annoying.

I am not sure if accounting is different but in my world, agencies don't always meet candidates before placing them in freelance jobs. What they do have to do once you have been offered a contract is make sure of your identity and right to work. This means a copy of your passport. Depending on where they are based I might meet them face to face or otherwise if they are too far away the employer will handle the passport thing. My contracts are emailed to me and i sign them and return them by post.

As I said, my area is a niche one - it is not unusual for me to have a first interview with a client on the phone. Being very technical, it is usually apparent from that call whether we are suitable for each other or not. After that I might have a face to face meeting with the client or sometimes not...they will speak to my references and offer me the role immediately and I will then go in to do the paperwork with the agent or the client. I also often work miles away from the client and the recruiter - currently my past 6 months has been spent in a contract 400 miles from my home. I go up there once a week to have meetings and work from home the rest of it. I never met the client before I started (was all phone) and i have never met the agent in person.

The other difference though is that I work as a limited company - I don't go onto the agency or client payroll - my company invoices them and my contracts are with my company. Perhaps this is why it's different for me.

magenta22

I am sure that they have to have a certain amount of people on their books to get some sort of bonus.

I recently had to re-register with an agency (seems to be a common thing lately, you need to come in to re-register even though nothing has changed) and honestly the recruitment consultant spent the whole time trying to fish information from me about the companies I have worked for because she would love to get them as a client of theirs. Rather than asking me about what I am looking for and what experience I have it was just so who is the recruitment manager for that company? Of course I couldn't remember who for any company but it just seemed to me that she was more interested in what information I could get for her rather than what she could do for me.

I've had where they keep your CV on file, don't get those agencies contact you about jobs but have had other agencies with roles which are not relevant to me.

GlynD

Stop thinking that agents get a fee for registration. It doesn't happen unless you are paying "up front fees" which you'd be reluctant to do anyway. An employment agency (which is what they're officially called) earns its money by charging a fee for placement. End of.

My advice is not to pay up front fees.