Working With Job Agencies

They go by various names — recruiter, employment agency, recruitment agency, executive search firm. I’ll use ‘job agency’ throughout, because that’s what they are.

Whether you love them or loathe them, for most consultants they’re a necessary part of life. Finding contracts through direct client relationships is possible, but unless you work in a very specialist niche with an established reputation, it’s slow going. Most of the market flows through agencies.

What They Actually Do

An agency’s job is to match consultants to client vacancies. They work both sides: finding jobs and finding people to fill them. At their best, they’re a useful buffer between you and the client, handling paperwork, chasing payment, and smoothing over the inevitable friction. At their worst, they’re an additional layer of bureaucracy staffed by people who don’t fully understand what you do.

The honest assessment: good or bad, they provide a service that most contractors genuinely need.

The Benefits

The most useful thing an agency does is act as your financial buffer. Clients often pay on 30, 60, or 90-day terms. The agency effectively gives you a short-term loan — paying you weekly or monthly while they wait for the client to settle up. That cash-flow certainty has real value, especially early in your contracting career.

Beyond that: they handle the business development side so you don’t have to. Finding contracts takes time, and while you’re looking you’re not earning. Having an agency doing that legwork — at no cost to you; they’re paid by the client — frees you up to focus on actually working.

Some agencies also provide professional indemnity insurance as part of the arrangement, which is worth knowing about.

The Downsides

You don’t control your rate. What you earn is determined by what the client is willing to pay, minus whatever margin the agency is taking. You can negotiate, but you’re negotiating against a ceiling set by someone else’s conversation.

There’s also the simple fact that someone is profiting from your work without doing any of it. Most contractors learn to live with this — it’s the cost of outsourcing the sales function. But it’s worth being clear-eyed about it.

Timesheets

If you’re working via an agency, you’ll need to submit timesheets. The process is simple in theory:

• You submit your hours to the client’s authorised contact
• They approve the timesheet
• The agency pays you based on the approved hours

In practice, this is where things can get complicated.

Online Portals: A Frank Assessment

Most agencies now use online portals for timesheet submission. I don’t have positive things to say about most of them.

They’re usually poorly designed, often badly implemented, and seemingly built by people who have never actually worked a contract. I’ve encountered portals where the username was set to my full name and the password to something like ‘p455word’, which could not be changed. I’ve had portals where only one person at the client could approve timesheets — and that person went on holiday. I’ve had clients who couldn’t log in at all due to credential issues at the agency’s end.

The one notable exception I’ve come across is SAP Fieldglass, which is intuitive and reliable. Unfortunately, you use whatever portal the client or agency has already committed to.

My practical recommendations:

• Before signing, confirm that at least two people at the client are authorised to approve timesheets. One person going on holiday shouldn’t delay your payment.
• Ask if you can use a paper timesheet instead — a signed document scanned or photographed and emailed. It sounds old-fashioned, but it’s often faster and simpler than the portal.

Documents Required in the UK

UK job agencies are legally required to verify your identity and right to work before they place you. The government guidance specifies that original documents must be seen in person. In practice, most agencies will accept a clear scan of the main page of your passport.

Requirements do change, so it’s worth checking the current guidance on gov.uk if you’re starting a new relationship with an agency.

Background Checks

Some agencies run background checks on candidates, even for roles that don’t normally require them. They use external companies for this, which adds time. I’ve heard of candidates losing contract opportunities because the background check wasn’t completed quickly enough. If this comes up, chase it — don’t assume someone else is monitoring the timeline.

One Rule That Should Go Without Saying

If an agency ever asks you to pay them a fee for finding you work — don’t. Agencies are paid by the client. Always. If someone asks you to pay for the privilege of being placed, walk away and let us know about it.