A survey has been carried out by a large respectible organisation over the last 6 months centralising on the end clients view to using employment agencies for UK contract staff. The results of which are now being verified, but the alarm bells will be ringing for all UK employment agencies that specialise in the IT contracting market place.

A startling 78% of all clients have stated that the agents they currently use provide little, if not no added value. It now seems that the end clients are looking to change their view to contract staff.

We spoke to one prominent end client in London who said, ''We currently utilise four employment agencies to provide our IT contract staff, these agencies have increased their mark-ups by reducing the contractor rates. This is nothing other than scandalous as we have recently lost key contractors due to the agencies basically ripping us the client and the individual contractors out of thousands of pounds. In some cases the agency mark-up is, and has been, between 35% to 50%. This is simply not acceptable''.

Another key IT company stated, '' We are now reviewing out contract staffing policy. The agents we currently use provide little added value. They seem to use 'keyword' searching methods which we all know eliminates ideal candidates. They are now suggesting that if we take on contractors direct we, the client, will be responsible for IR35 tax. This as we all know is absolute rubbish. We have now decided to advertise direct on job boards such as JobServe to find our own contractors. This we know will mean more work filtering individual C.V's but nonetheless will provide us with better candidates, and much lower costs. I know for a fact this will be welcomed by the contractor community in line with B2B contracts''.

The actual compiled data for this survey should be available within another four weeks. The general trend by end clients wishing to utilise contract IT staff is the direct approach. It seems that the days of agent supremacy is over. IR35 could at the very least removed the 'middle-man' from the contract staffing picture, which will mean more B2B contracts putting contractors well and truly outside of IR35, providing their business practises are in line with the contracts they undertake.

We for one think this is a huge step in the right direction. Who knows maybe the agents will be contacting the contractor community asking for work within the next 6 months, I certainly hope so.

JS
Business Survey Consultant