A FEW THOUGHTS

I have for the last ten years worked as an independent consultant and project manager. For some years I did this as sole proprietorship. For a couple of years ago I started a private company, still just myself though. For these years I have been lucky to get a lot of good assignments and projects with large and interesting companies as well as government departments. These have in many of the cases been through other consulting companies, temp-agencies and recruitment companies. I am not sure how the situation is in other countries but I will try to explain these markets in Norway.

For ten-fifteen years ago there was a very clear difference between what was categorized as a temp agency, a consultancy firm and a recruitment company.

• A temp agency handled short term and some long term assignments with a majority of their assignments within areas of basic office work, clerical work, accounting, canteen work or cleaning. Maybe also some very basic IT resources. 
• The consultancy firms handled projects and assignments within management, IT, audits, sales etc.
• A recruitment company handled recruitment to permanent positions.

I think maybe the real difference between the two first was that the consultancy firms delivered services with more of a quality assurance and control. The temp agency basically just delivered the manpower and it was more or less up to the customer to make sure the temp delivered as ordered. The agency of course did an interview with the person but no in-depth look at whether this person was the right person for the job, other than qualifications. The consulting companies delivered more as a service, often with their brand, methods and reputation as proof of quality. This kind of separation between the three different type of companies has in Norway really been washed out over the last ten years and there isn’t that much of a difference between them. They all do temp assignments, they all do recruiting, and they all try to sell it with their logo as a proof of quality.

If the latter was their only agenda I could certainly understand it and it would not be a problem. However I suspect that the issue is more or less that their business has gotten a lot tougher and more competitive and that this actually makes them explore “new territory” and lower the quality while doing it. These days they all fight over the same customers and the same consultants. The customers put out the assignment for all bidders and the agencies go through their databases to find candidates. To compete in this market of course I need to make sure I am registered in the database of every single agency even though that fact itself only drives the competition further. I have on a “good” day gotten calls from three different ”agencies” regarding the same assignment. If you then were so unfortunate that you accepted to be profiled with the first who called, the other two will definitely put you on their black list. I have even gotten phone calls from these agencies going “are you sure you don’t want to go with us on that contract instead of that other company?” How low is that? Don’t get me wrong; I’m all for capitalism and letting the market forces rule. The problem I think is that the tougher the competition, the tougher the “rules” of the game get. I wonder if this is also related to the fact that the job market for temp agencies and recruitment has so high turnover.

Earlier I could actually feel some kind of team feeling by being affiliated with an agency and to have an assignment for them. The recruiters would actually go out of their way to make you feel good during an assignment, buy you a lunch once a year and bring you a small chocolate with their logo on it for christmas. Now, I can usually afford my own lunch so that is really not the issue, but I like to think that a company that gathers $20-25 per hour I work (as their fee) should in fact be just a bit grateful that I stick with them and cherish that in a way. That way; by supplying me with assignments, a single lunch per year and a $2 chocolate they would in fact earn approx $38.000 (1900 hours x 20$) per year. Not bad really.

Now, with a tougher competition it seems like the focus has shifted from investing in that long term loyalty to just getting that next assignment, that next customer and finding a consultant for it. Again, don’t have a problem with the market forces, but if I am to earn a temp agency $38.000 per year I think that trying to gain my loyalty by building a team feeling, buying a lunch and a chocolate is the least they could do. Oh yes, I have been told for the last four or five assignments what a magnificent experience this will be, and it has lately just become a laughing matter. I just don’t buy it anymore. So that of course drives me to “sleep with every possible partner in this business” as well as promoting myself directly to potential customers. Because really, I don’t need that agency between me and a customer. I do have contract templates sufficient enough. I do not need their extra 15 days delay in payment. I don’t need them to take a $20 cut per hour. The only benefits I see with an agency is:

• They could have a network of potentially good customers
• They could provide some kind of social network I could benefit

So if I build up the first myself, and really don’t get the second anyway I don’t really see the reason to use them. So, as I know there are quite a few (at least in Norway) with me on this, here is my suggestion for the recruitment-, temp- and consultant agency: If you want to survive beyond the next 10 years you need to:

1. Make sure you operate with ethics, keeping your word, respecting your opponents, customer and consultants
2. Work for a long term relationship with both your customers and consultants
3. Give me as a contractor reason to use you. I do manage to get quite a few contacts myself in a short while you know
4. Give me as a potential customer a reason to use you in the future
5. Provide me something beyond just the assignment. You need to make me feel that THIS IS the place to be
6. Keep in mind: The more are not always the merrier. Think quality in addition to quantity

I do in fact think that some of them have to change their methods quite fast if they are to survive. This is both because dirty ways of doing business often looses in the long term, and because I think the new generation of workers, consultants and also customers are so used to handling both job offers and social communities that the demands will change. I think, and certainly hope, that good ethics and moral will be a more important issue when selecting business partners in the future.