Employment agencies RESPONSES

Employment agencies RESPONSES

Randy McFarland

7/24/2003

ORIGINAL POST:
I inquired with a national employment agency about procuring a front
office employee. They want a fee of 20% (of the annual salary paid)
within the first month. Anyone have pointers/experiences on working with
employment agencies? Good or bad experiences?
Thanks,
Randy McFarland, CPO
Sunny Hills Orthopedic Services



RESPONSES
Usually - like Manpower, you pay a higher fee if you want to hire them
that scales down as time goes on. If you wait long enough, then there
is no fee. I believe in Manpower that is after you have had the employee
3 months. That is how we found Brandi here. It worked out real nice.
While your renting the employee from Manpower, if it isn't working out
you just call Manpower and tell them. No strings. It's a great way to
try an employee out.
   If you want to hire them right away before their work out then they
want more money. But if you wait long enough before officially hiring
them then they don't get any money. That's how Manpower works. Sounds
like yours may be another firm.

We haven't used employment agencies, but rather Temp agencies to fill
vacant spots temporarily. We found one of our best employees from the
temp agency, BUT we went through a lot of people before we found that
one good employee.

I worked for an employment agency in the past and I would suggest that
you make sure that the firm you are retaining puts a clause in the
contract. The clause should state that you will be refunded your money
if you are not happy with the person that they find for your office. You
should have 90 days to decide if this is the right employee for you. If
you decide the you are not happy with the employee, they should find you
a suitable replacement or refund your money. This type of clause is
pretty standard in the industry and it will protect you incase you
decide that you are not happy with the employee. As I am sure you are
aware, some employees interview very well but it can be a different
story once they are working for you. Hope this helps, feel free to email
me if you have any additional questions.

I have used employment agencies on two office hires. The fee was
excessive
and the two did not work out. So.....I was out the money and still had
a
problem. I went to a temporary agency and told them I wanted to hire a
temp
with the intentions of bringing them on full time if they worked out.
The
only stipulation from the temp agency was that they had to remain as a
temp
for 9 weeks. That allows the agency to get something for helping you
find a
permanent employee and gives you time to evaluate the employee. I have
done
this on three office employees and it worked out all three times. Just
make
sure the agency doesn't keep calling for temp jobs after you bring them
on
as permanent.

My wife ran a staffing agency where they placed pharmacists and pharmacy
technicians in various settings as temporary help. These where long or
short-term positions, and some pharmacists were only ever temps--they
did not wish to be placed. Others, however, could be placed in (hired
for) a position if the hospital/pharmacy facility wished to purchase
that employee. These fees were generally $1500 for a technician and
8-12K for a pharmacist. This fee bought out that persons contract
with the staffing agency. I would imagine office personnel would be
around the $1500 range.
   Anyway, instead of going through an employment agency, try a
staffing agency. You may have a bit more difficulty finding a qualified
individual, but you are not buying the cow before you've tasted the
milk...sort of speak! Temps can be brought in, tried out for whatever
period you deem necessary to assess their skills, personality, etc. If
she/he doesn't work out, you just call and ask to try another person.
If the person fits your situation, you ask to have her/him placed
permanently. *I'd make sure to ask up front if you'd be able to have
the person placed permanently.

While employment agencies eliminate the bottom-feeders of the work pool,
I
could never justify paying them what they want for an employee again. I
hired
one front office person this way, she was gone in 4 months (as in
fired). I was
paying off her fee on a monthly basis, so it didn't hurt as bad as if I
had
paid the full 20% up front <like you are being requested to do>. I'm
sure the
employment agency has some recourse if the person you hire didn't work
out.
Right?
   I've used temp agencies before, hired 2 front office people that way.
This
is a back door approach to employment agencies. I found that quite a
few
people working at temp agencies use it as a vehicle to find a new job.
They are
checking us out as much as we are checking them out. Have you ever used
a temp
agency? Be careful, they have fees that they will also charge you if
you end
up wanting to hire one of their temps.
   Hiring good employees is a crapshoot. I spend just as much, if not
more,
time investigating their attitude.. skills can be learned, attitude
can't.

I have worked with employment agencies off an on for over 20 years. It
has been my experience that they can be a good choice, meaning that I
feel that they have earned their fee, when the job market is really
tight and you would otherwise have a difficult time finding good
candidates for your job. They are also a good choice when you have very
limited time to conduct interviews yourself. They basically pre-screen
candidates, so that at least technically you are only interviewing
people who are qualified for the position.
   In a job market with high unemployment rates, and when you have time
to go through the interviewing process, the agencies are usually not a
good choice. Keep in mind though, that if you do your own interviewing
you might have to interview 20 or 30 candidates to narrow your list down
to 5 good possibilities. With an agency, you would probably only have
to
interview 6 or 7 to narrow that list down to 5. The 20% fee that you
mention is in line with what is being charged around the country.
Strangely enough, as the salary gets higher the agencies want an even
larger percentage.

Bad experience. They do not actually screen people. ended up with an AR
clerk who was on the run for embezzlement charges. Be careful.

I used Temp Employment Agency for front office and end up hiring the
person. The amount we had to pay to Temp Serv was not bad considering
no payroll taxes (incl. workers comp), no insurance, no accrual of
vacation, fringe benefits, etc.
I would say we had a good experience. However, it was not a head hunter
agency.

Before you use an agency try your state unemployment system. I am in the
St. Louis area and have hired from online systems managed by the state
employment services in both Illinois and Missouri. The systems are
on-line and you can post a job and search resumes. I found an excellent
technician in the Illinois system just by posting the job description
and then resumes that matched my description were e-mailed to me. I am
sure your state has a similar system.

I have used a Temporary Service to hire front office help. When we find
a match, we have to pay the service weekly and they pay the temp
employee. Our latest was paid 8.50/hr and I paid the service 12.80/hr.
Really that is not bad since they pay all the taxes, work comp. and
medical. After the 6 months I just add her to our payroll.
   It is nice in that if you have any reason, any at all, you just let
the service know and they send another. This protects you from law
suits.