‘We Hired the Candidate as a Temporary Employee’

Welcome to our ongoing series of blog posts in the Top Echelon Recruiter Training Blog: “Jeff Allen’s Collection Tip of the Week.” Each week, we’ll highlight one collection tip from Allen, JD/CPC, the world’s leading placement lawyer.

Since 1975, Allen has collected more placement fees, litigated more trade secret cases, and assisted more placement practitioners than anyone else.  He’s also the author of 24 books and a regular columnist for The Fordyce Letter, one of the leading publications for the recruiting industry.

Below is this week’s collection tip for recruiters, courtesy of Jeff Allen.

What the Client Says:

“We hired the candidate as a temporary employee.”

How the Client Pays:

Look at your fee schedule.  See how it says (or conveys) employment will be “permanent” or “regular.” Can a temp assignment avoid its terms?

One trap you’ll probably miss is the annualized compensation.  Somewhere clearly in your schedule, you must state something (consistent with the rest of the terms) like the following:

“While projected annual compensation is used to determine the fee, anticipated or actual duration of the candidate’s tenure is not a factor in computing the amount due.”

Then again, you might just have a rubber stamp made that reads: “Life is a temporary assignment.”

Fee schedules, employer-generated PSA’s (placement service agreements), e-mail boilerplate, invoices, and all other communication to clients should contain consistent language that decouples the fee from the tenure of the candidate.

That will eliminate the “temp defense.”

— — —

Know how to collect your well-earned fees?  Test yourself!  Visit Jeff Allen’s Placement Law website and click the “Placement Fee Collection Quiz” button.  Allen can be reached via telephone at 310.559.6000 or via email at Jeff@PlacementLaw.com.