ever heard of a recruitment agent that gets paid by the job seeker?

ever heard of a recruitment agent that gets...

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Put my CV on a welk known online job site and a company now chases me to use their contacts to get me the position i want, it says in the blurb on their website they are not paid by the employer , so i guess it would be me! Ive written it off as a con, anyone had similar?

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By wot
13th Sep 2013 13:09

Wot

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By neiltonks
13th Sep 2013 13:28

Agency

If this is a recruitment agency, then they're not allowed to change candidates a fee for finding them a job. That has to come from the employer. However they can charge candidates for additional services such as CV rewriting or interview skills training.

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By Sarah Offord
13th Sep 2013 13:31

(No subject)

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By FD4CAST FD4CAST
13th Sep 2013 13:31

No win - no fee

Get them to agree a suitable fee payable once they've secured you a job via their contacts, then just pass on this 'recruitment' fee to your new employer in terms of a higher salary request.

Who are these people anyway? Can you post some details? 

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Replying to jamespeckham:
By Steve-EBL
13th Sep 2013 14:28

Www.p-c-s.uk.com

I dont alledge anything!

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By DMGbus
13th Sep 2013 13:45

No upfront fee

In view of the number of advance fee frauds live on the internet it makes sense to refuse to pay any upfront fee.

Whilst requiring a job seeker to pay a fee so that employment can be found for that jobseeker might be illegal, I wonder if it is a self-employed or Ltd Co situation (seeking work) in which case maybe a fee payable by the self-employed person or Ltd Co might be quite legal.

There have been reports of fees payable for finding clients being verging on fraud in the past.   Hence, I repeat, no upfront fee and agree to nothing to be incurred until after an absolute cast iron job offer is obtained.

 

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By johngroganjga
13th Sep 2013 13:48

They can charge whoever they want provided their terms are clear and transparent, and of course accepted and agreed by their clients..  If candidates don't like those terms they should just decline to accept them and take their CV's elsewhere.

 

 

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By DMGbus
13th Sep 2013 13:58

Yes, confirmed illegal to charge fees for finding a job
"  Fees and payments for services offered by the employment agency

Your employment agency can’t charge you a fee for finding or trying to find you work but they can charge you for additional non-work-finding services such as CV writing. However, they cannot make you use fee-paying services, for example CV writing, as a requirement for finding you work.  "

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By GW
13th Sep 2013 15:39

Seen these before

I've seen this type of business before, it looks as though they are not a recruitment agency, they just help with CV writing and how to find potential employers to contact. I don't know about other professional bodies but ICAEW offers similar help/guidance.

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By FD4CAST FD4CAST
13th Sep 2013 15:46

This was the email I got from those people....

Dear Mr xxxxxxx,

I am contacting you as you have registered with one of our online partners who felt you might be interested in our services. Our Senior Consultant in your regional office has reviewed your details and asked me to contact you.

If you are actively job searching, we are confident that we could assist you in exploring your career options with the aim of significantly enhancing your career prospects.

PCS have assisted thousands of individuals secure their next role, primarily by exploring the unadvertised job market.

To enable me to arrange a convenient time for a meeting with our consultant please reply to this email confirming your desired salary and availability over the next 7 days.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind Regards

Rebecca C Ripley

PA to Regional Director
PCS
www.p-c-s.uk.com

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By neiltonks
13th Sep 2013 16:58

Pro and con

Various views for and against them here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=3632089&page=1

 

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Replying to andy.partridge:
By Steve-EBL
13th Sep 2013 17:07

Most reviews negative, you can tell by the tone of their contact, refering to their director or senior consultant, they are trying to reel in guilable folk . They have a constant stream of people from the job websites to prey on!

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By User deleted
13th Sep 2013 22:38

As an employer ...

... I'm all for it. You pay a ridiculous %age of salary for a candidate with a professionally written fairy tale, sorry, CV, then, as with the nature of accountancy it takes a while to suss out you have been sold a lemon by which time it is too late to get a refund, at least in full

As a small business we don't have good HR skills and you rely on an agency, who, much in the way of estate agents just pass CV's straight on to you to sift. I wouldn't mind a £6k fee if they did their job and presented you with 3 good candidates, perfect for the job, so all you had to do was choose the personality that would best fit in with the firm.

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Replying to kl19:
By Steve-EBL
15th Sep 2013 22:49

mass insanity
The definition of madness someone said was doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result, why do we keep paying agents!?

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By plummy1
14th Sep 2013 02:43

My View

A friend of mine actually works for this company as a regional sales person and so I do have some knowledge of how they work. They are successful in getting people into more senior positions and provide training and mentoring on how to do this but there is a charge. 

However my friend is presented with a stream of people who are unaware of the fact there is a charge for the service and it is his job to convince them of the merits of the service. He is ethically minded but is fed up with being presented with people many of whom feel they have been conned into coming to see him. 

So whilst it is a proper service with some merit based on the results they achieve for most of their clients the way they approach people in the first instance leaves a lot to be desired.

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By tom123
14th Sep 2013 08:38

Thanks for the heads up

I too have just received an email, and phone call, from PCS. I haven't arranged to see them yet, as I didn't really want to take half a day holiday to meet an agency.

I can see there is a market for paid for employment advice - and have also been on the receiving end of bundles of unsuitable CVs, but I don't really have the money to throw at it at this time.

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By morrisuddin1
12th Aug 2015 02:19

recruitment agency charging me fees

I recently got a job as a temp for an admin position, although the agency did not charge me for finding work but when i looked at my payslip they are charging me 5% of my gross weekly pay for MANAGEMENT FEES! is this legal? when i enquired with them, they said this money was deducted as a Management fees for admin related duties such as processing my timesheet, payroll and paying the invoice finance company that advances them the money to pay my wages every week. As they have to wait for a month before they get paid, is this legal or could i take them to an industrial tribunal and sue them for breaking the law. But in all fairness in their agency terms and conditions it clearly specifies that a management fee of 5% will be deducted from my wages, but if this agency is breaking the law, i do want to take further action....PLEASE ADVISE!!!

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