Don’t backdate an employee’s start date to include the time that
he was temping for you. During the temp arrangement, the agency
was the employer of record; you were only part of a coemployment
relationship. Therefore, you shouldn’t bridge service credit for periods
when you weren’t the employer of record. The date the person
switches payrolls and becomes your employee exclusively is day
one of employment as far as you’re concerned.

Clerical agencies distinguish between the pay rate and the bill
rate. The ‘‘pay rate’’ is what they pay the applicant on an hourly
basis; the ‘‘bill rate’’ is what they charge you. The difference is called
a ‘‘mark-up.’’ In many cases, clerical agencies charge mark-ups of
55 to 60 percent, depending on geography and the scarcity of a candidate’s skills.

Executive temporary agencies may charge hourly mark-ups of
70 to 80 percent for degreed professionals, such as MBAs, CPAs,
and JDs. When the candidate converts to your payroll, executive
temporary agencies often charge liquidation, or conversion, fees
equivalent to a contingency search assignment, often 25 or 30 percent of the candidate’s base salary in the first year. (In contrast, clerical agencies rarely charge liquidation fees as long as their temps
work for a minimum number of hours, usually around 480 hours, or sixty business days.)

With the U.S. economy in flux, ‘‘dot-coms’’ and other industries in transition have freed up in-demand professionals for interim assignments. Candidates in industries like wireless technology and
software engineering will continue to command pay rates in the
$60-to-$100-an-hour zone, and companies like yours will need to
pay mark-ups on those rates to attract qualified candidates.

Remember that most executive temporary professionals want career stability and full-time work. Short-term assignments with interesting
work and good pay have a temporary allure, but many of those candidates will end such relationships in order to find a ‘‘real
job.’’ Therefore, keep this ‘‘fluctuation limitation’’ in mind when
dealing with executive temps—unless you have full-time opportunities
to offer, you may lose them before they’ve solved your interim
staffing problem.

For more information on executive temporary placement firms,
see The Directory of Temporary Placement Firms for Executives, Managers, and Professionals (9th edition, 1999, $39.95. 504 pages) by Kennedy Information. The book profiles more than 1,900 firms that focus on placing high-level talent, indexed by industries, job functions, and key principals. As such, it’s a central source of information and contacts for both corporate recruiters and job-seeking executives. For more information, call Kennedy at (800) 531-0007 or contact the firm on the Web at www.kennedyinfo.com.

Taken From : The Hiring and Firing Quention and Answer Book