Questions to Ask Staffing Agency
Twenty questions for anyone about to register with a staffing agency, or weighing up whether the one they are already on the books with is worth staying with. They cover how the agency earns its money, what the contract commits you to, how pay and the gaps between assignments work, and what happens to your data.
The questions
Open any question for the note
How does your agency get paid, and by whom?
Why ask it
Agencies are paid by the employer, either as a percentage of a first-year salary or as a margin on every hour you work, and which one applies shapes how you will be treated. A recruiter on a placement fee wants any offer accepted; one on an hourly margin wants a long assignment at a rate that protects the margin.
Do I ever pay you anything?
Why ask it
Charging a work-seeker for finding work is restricted or unlawful in many places, and established agencies do not do it. Any registration fee, compulsory paid training, or required equipment purchase is a reason to stop there.
What do you specialise in, and what did you place last month in my field?
Why ask it
Ask about last month rather than in general. A recent, named placement is checkable, whereas a list of sectors is usually copied from the website and covers work the office has not touched in years.
What's your mix of temporary, contract, and permanent work?
Why ask it
The mix predicts what will arrive in your inbox. An office whose business is mainly short-notice cover will send you short-notice cover regardless of what you said you were looking for.
Do you hold the contract with these clients directly, or through another supplier?
Why ask it
Work is often passed down through layers of agencies, and each layer takes part of the same budget. Whether they are the direct supplier explains a great deal about the rate you end up being offered.
Would I be someone you actively put forward, or an entry in your database?
Why ask it
There is a real difference between being represented and being stored. Ask what they would do on your behalf this week, and whether anyone besides your recruiter ever looks at your file.
How often will I hear from you, and from which person?
Why ask it
Contact is where most frustration with agencies begins. Naming a rhythm and a person gives you something to hold them to, and a recruiter who will not commit to either is telling you where you sit on their list.
Do you expect exclusivity, or can I register with other agencies as well?
Why ask it
Exclusivity narrows your search to protect their commission. Registering with several is standard practice, provided you keep track of who has submitted you where.
Will you always ask me before submitting me to a company?
Why ask it
Unannounced submissions can put duplicate applications into one employer's system and remove you from consideration entirely. Get the commitment explicitly, and ask what they do when a client sets a same-day deadline.
Do you edit resumes, and would I see the version you send out?
Why ask it
Reformatting is routine, but some agencies rewrite content and occasionally overstate experience, which you will then have to defend in an interview. Asking to approve the final version is a fair condition of registering.
What do people with my experience actually earn through you?
Why ask it
Ask what people get, not what roles are advertised at, because the real range is narrower. A recruiter working these clients weekly knows the number and will usually give it if you ask about placements rather than adverts.
What's your margin on an hourly placement?
Why ask it
Not every agency will disclose it, but the response is informative in itself: some explain the structure plainly, some deflect, some take offence. Over a long contract the difference between margins adds up to a substantial sum.
What happens to my pay between assignments?
Why ask it
Hourly and daily workers are usually unpaid in the gaps, and the gaps rather than the rate determine annual income. Ask how long the typical gap runs for someone at your level instead of whether gaps happen at all.
What holiday, sick pay, and other entitlements come with your contracts?
Why ask it
Entitlements for agency workers depend on the country, the contract type, and length of service, and waiting periods are common. Ask for this in writing rather than as a summary in a friendly meeting.
How do timesheets and pay dates work, and what happens if a payment is late?
Why ask it
Payroll is the most common practical complaint in agency work: one unapproved timesheet can delay pay by a fortnight. Ask who fixes it, how quickly, and whether they have ever covered a payment when the mistake was theirs.
If a client wants to take me on permanently, what are the terms?
Why ask it
Conversion is usually governed by a clause between agency and client, involving either a fee or a minimum number of hours worked. It affects when an employer is able to make you an offer, which is worth knowing before you want one.
Are there restrictive clauses in your contract, and what do they stop me doing?
Why ask it
Some agreements prevent you working for a client directly, or through a different agency, for a period after an assignment ends. Read those terms before signing, because they bite hardest in the part of the market where you are most employable.
What happens to my data, and how long do you keep it?
Why ask it
You are handing over a resume, references, identification, and often bank details. Ask who it is shared with, how long it is retained, and what the process is if you want it deleted later.
What's the most common reason people stop working with you?
Why ask it
This gets you an honest look at the agency's weak spot: unreliable hours, slow pay, roles that never matched. A recruiter with no answer has probably never thought about why their books turn over.
If I turn down an assignment, does that change what you send me next?
Why ask it
Some agencies quietly deprioritise anyone who declines once, and others treat it as ordinary. The answer tells you whether you can refuse unsuitable work without dropping to the back of the queue.
Working with agencies sensibly
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
How the business actually works
An agency makes money in one of two ways: a one-off fee when a permanent hire starts, usually a percentage of the salary, or a margin added to every hour a temporary worker is paid. Neither is improper, but both explain what you will experience. Permanent recruiters push for a fast acceptance. Contract recruiters push for a long assignment and resist rate rises that would reduce their margin. In larger organisations there may also be an intermediary managing every supplier, which adds a layer between you and the employer and takes a share of the same budget. None of this is a reason to avoid agencies, which control access to a great deal of work. It is a reason to treat a recruiter as a well-informed intermediary rather than as your advocate.
Before you register
- Look up the office you are dealing with rather than the brand. Competence and honesty vary enormously between branches trading under the same name.
- Read the whole agreement, especially notice periods, restrictive clauses, and what happens if a client cancels an assignment at short notice.
- Decide your minimum rate and your maximum commute before anybody asks. Both become much harder to hold once a specific role is on the table.
- Have the paperwork ready: identification, right-to-work documents, employment dates with no gaps, and references you have warned in advance.
- Register with two or three agencies rather than one, and tell each of them that you have.
Keeping your own records
- 1Note every submission: agency, company, role, date, and the rate discussed.
- 2Keep the written assignment details for each placement, including hours, location, and who approves your time.
- 3Export or photograph approved timesheets. They are the only evidence you hold if pay goes wrong.
- 4Write down what you were told verbally about rate and duration, with the date. Recruiters move on and their successors work only from the file.
- 5Diary the date any conversion clause expires, if one applies to you.
Reasons to leave an agency
Repeated submissions without asking
Once may be a misunderstanding. Twice is how the office operates, and eventually it will cost you a role you wanted.
Roles that do not exist
Being interviewed for a vacancy that turns out to be pipeline-building wastes a day and tells you the office is short of live work.
Persistent payroll problems
Late pay with a different explanation every month is structural rather than unlucky. It rarely improves, and you carry the cost of it.
Pressure to take unsuitable work
A recruiter who treats a refusal as disloyalty is managing their vacancy list rather than your working life.
Getting more out of the relationship
- Give them one clear sentence describing what you do and what you want next. Recruiters sell what they can repeat easily to a client.
- Reply quickly. Speed counts for more in agency recruiting than in almost any other kind of hiring, and slow answers lose assignments outright.
- Tell them when your availability changes rather than waiting to be asked, and tell them as soon as you accept something elsewhere.
- Give concrete feedback after interviews. A recruiter who learns what the client asked will brief the next candidate, and you, more accurately.
- Stay in touch with a recruiter you rated when they move firms. In this industry the individual matters more than the letterhead.