13-March-2010

Temporary recruitment agencies unhelpful

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Like many people out of work at the moment I'm spending quite a bit of time contacting temporary recruitment agencies in an attempt to secure some temporary work to bring in a bit of cash to make it through the hard times. whilst the response isn't overwhelming and I don't expect a job straight away, I have found a disparate level of common courtesy and professionalism displayed by these agencies.

This isn't the first time I have required to find a bit of temp work to make ends meet, the last time was back in around 2002. We weren't in a recession then and the attitudes of employment agency staff was considerably different to what I have experienced in the last week. I know this doesn't apply to all recruitment agencies and the people who work there. Many of you may well be very helpful and perhaps it is just the area where I live where the employment situation is dire.

For example when I came out of one recruitment office I visited recently, I felt like a piece of dirt on the bottom of someones shoes. I walked in and politely enquired about temporary work only to be told by the young girl to "Just add my name to the bottom of the list." It wasn't what she said, it was the way she said it. A polite "sorry, we've nothing available, but we'll take your details" would have been welcome. Instead I felt like I was an intruder and just getting in the way as I added my name to that very long list. I was then instructed to fill in the the "Type of work" column with something other than "Anything". She was clearly fed up with people not specifying what they wanted to do. Was there that much choice of work at the moment? Somehow I doubted that. Besides, wouldn't it make more sense to have a column where the job seeker could just list their relevant experience? The sad fact is that a great number of experienced people are capable and willing to actually do anything for the minimum wage at the moment. I am one of these people.

Most of my experience is IT based and I once earned a very good wage. Things are a little different now, my skills aren't as current as they could be and there is a lot of competition from younger, more ambitious people. Why wouldn't an employer take on a young bright spark rather than yesterdays high mileage version? Silicon soup kitchen may yet become a reality, but I'm rather hoping that the job market may pick up again by the end of the year and it won't come to that.

In the meantime though, I still have my pride and prefer to work for a living rather than survive on handouts. Actually, I avoid mentioning anything to do with IT now because of the negative reaction it seems to get. There's always that look of 'What are you doing here then?', and you just know that you've been filed somewhere to the bottom of the list because they just can't believe you'd be prepared to take on a minimum wage job.

Another thing that bugs me about recruitment agencies is when they say they'll call you back and then they don't. If you say you're going to call someone back then you should do that. If you have no intention of calling back just ask them to ring you in the morning or later on in the week to see what the situation is. Don't say "I think we've got something, I'll just check and call you back shortly." You're just wasting my time and getting my hopes up unnecessarily!

I'm sure at the moment temporary recruitment agencies are quite a bit busier than they were say twelve months ago, but the people who work there should not forget that the ones on the other side of the desk seeking work are in fact real people with feelings. If you're working in recruitment right now (temporary or otherwise), perhaps you should consider yourself very lucky indeed. You have a job and an income.

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Agencies are just taking a slice of everybodys wage packet as well as an admin charge each week and also maybe £15 or £20 a week for filling in your pay slip, they say "come along we are experts in all fields, chemistry,geology,construction,IT, retail management, hire our services" then they sell your behind for £20 an hour and pay you £5.80 less tax, national insurance, insurance fees, wage handling fees.
Its easy for a suit in an office to just let the agency hump you while they sit and get tea and coffee brought to them by the 19 year old office girl, the company can also claim tax breaks in the order of 35 by doing a purchase order just the same as hiring a Digger or cement mixer for a week, they dont need to do any tax returns, they dont need to pay NI for you, they dont have to insure you and you have no employment rights whatsoever, so they can wipe the floor with you and you will bow and scrape just to keep a job while the agency people phone your mobile 3 times a day 7 days a week keeping track on your life...its easy just sit back and the agency will send you a bill and do all the rest..

its the way 14-Feb-2010 22:29

Employment agencies are the worst thing to happen to the British workers.
i was made redundant last December and have had no luck securing a permanent job. I have found some work, 16 hrs if im very lucky with an agency. The agency are paid around Â£15 an hour per person, I get paid Â£5.80/hour. Why cant companyÂ’s give me a real job, I will work for far less than they are paying the agency? I have to rely on the government to make my money up, to what is still not enough.

stu 14-Dec-2009 11:27

Employment agencies are the worst thing to happen to the British workers.
i was made redundant last December and have had no luck securing a permanent job. I have found some work, 16 hrs if im very lucky with an agency. The agency are paid around Â£15 an hour per person, I get paid Â£5.80/hour. Why cant companyÂ’s give me a real job, I will work for far less than they are paying the agency? I have to rely on the government to make my money up, to what is still not enough.

stu 14-Dec-2009 11:27

Employment agencies are the worst thing to happen to the British workers.
i was made redundant last December and have had no luck securing a permanent job. I have found some work, 16 hrs if im very lucky with an agency. The agency are paid around £15 an hour per person, I get paid £5.80/hour. Why cant company’s give me a real job, I will work for far less than they are paying the agency? I have to rely on the government to make my money up, to what is still not enough.

stu 14-Dec-2009 11:27

I have been holding my breathe from posting on here, but for the reason that I agree with every thread on here about recruitment.
I am a Business Development Manager for a small recruitment company, I have worked with the biggest agencies in the country, my new position, after being made redundant at the start of the year, is with a small firm that turns over more money per person than the large agencies.
Here is why – Small companies - there is no where to hide. Reputation is the key and professionalism gets you everywhere.
Take Hays, Manpower and Reed for instance. Large companies with “departments” due to the size they have a staff turn over of about 80, which means the chances of you speaking to same consultant in a year is 20. This is why there is no continuity of service.
Do your research into recruitment agencies there are some absolute shockers out there, and some really brilliant ones.

RECman 20-Nov-2009 08:19

Dear Employer,
Get off your @ss? Ah, the reassuring modernity of that statement (love the @ sign).. Most people, 'employer' have skills which are valuable and should be paid for. This is not unreasonable.
Employer, your posting is littered with spelling errors so perhaps you should ask yourself why anyone would employ YOU (oh let me guess, you're a self made man).
It's 'agency' not 'agencey'. 'Successful' has two 'C's'. The word you are looking for is 'companies' not 'companied' (better luck next time eh, employer?)
I'm completely siding with Cynic on this one. Employer, get off your @ss (oops, sorry!) and learn not only to spell but some humanity also.

Howsoonisnow? 19-Nov-2009 18:55

"Stop using agencies, get off your @ss and go apply for a job yourself."

Thank god, THANK GOD you are here to spread such pearls of wisdom before us, the feckless swine without the common sense to even think of such a revolutionary approach. Why, everyone will surely be employed within days if we follow your sage advice!

However I doubt that I would want to work for an employer that is clearly so deluded as to insult the candidates that will provide his business with income. I wouldn't work for any employer that was such a profound buffoon.

Cynic 19-Nov-2009 17:52

"Stop using agencies, get off your @ss and go apply for a job yourself."

Thank god, THANK GOD you are here to spread such pearls of wisdom before us, the feckless swine without the common sense to even think of such a revolutionary approach. Why, everyone will surely be employed within days if we follow your sage advice!

However I doubt that I would want to work for an employer that is clearly so deluded as to insult the candidates that will provide his business with income. I wouldn't work for any employer that was such a profound buffoon.

Cynic 19-Nov-2009 17:52

"Stop using agencies, get off your @ss and go apply for a job yourself."

Thank god, THANK GOD you are here to spread such pearls of wisdom before us, the feckless swine without the common sense to even think of such a revolutionary approach. Why, everyone will surely be employed within days if we follow your sage advice!

However I doubt that I would want to work for an employer that is clearly so deluded as to insult the candidates that will provide his business with income. I wouldn't work for any employer that was such a profound buffoon.

Cynic 19-Nov-2009 17:52

Stop using agencies, get off your @ss and go apply for a job yourself.

I wouldn't employ anyone that came from an agencey.. I would expect the sucessful candidate to have found and applied for the job themselves.

People who use these companied are lazy.

Employer 13-Nov-2009 09:59

Totally agree, I've no time for recruitment agencies.
All I can say, is they need to remember when I'm in a job I'm the one who can influence which agencies are used - needless to say, I won't be using the ones which treat me like dirt (they need to remember candidates may one day be their customers).

Me 13-Nov-2009 09:55

Oh I totally agree - they are absolutely cr*p, especially Manpower. I really don't know what they do all day - I think they just make themselves look busy as I suppose they have to justify themselves even being there.

hyggelig 06-Nov-2009 14:42

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