I have a situation where I can't make up my mind what to do. Briefly:
1. I signed with an employment agency to hire a secretary;
2. They sent me a CV; I emailed that the candidate seemed well qualified but that she lived too far away, that I could not see her continuing with the commute on a permanent basis. Got no reply from agency.
3. Independently of this (and all within the same week) the same candidate had sent in a CV to my hiring manager (aka spouse) in response to an ad spouse had placed for me. Spouse called candidate for a chat; it transpired that candidate was planning to move to a town quite close to me. Spouse told me of this candidate.
4. I interviewed her and hired her (and she is great; really a good hire).
Agency sent me an invoice. I am in two minds about whether to pay it. My thoughts are:
A. After I told Agency that I thought candidate lived too far away, if they had no other candidates forthcoming, I might still have contacted the candidate, found out she was moving and hired her. In this situation, I would definitely have paid the Agency. I might well have felt that they had done little enough to earn their fee, but I would have paid.
B. The candidate made independent contact via my spouse; So I would have hired candidate regardless of whether the Agency had sent her CV to me - and they had their chance, albeit a window of only a day or two - in which to wrap it up by responding to my email (and candidate had told them she was moving - they just hadn't bothered to update their records)
I would like some opinions, preferably from people who regularly hire and who use employment agencies. Opinions along the lines that Employment Agencies are useless\moneygrabbers\chancers and never pay them if you can avoid it would not be particularly helpful. I also don't particularly want to bog down in a discussion about the niceties of strict contractual liability - I have read the Terms and Conditions and they are capable of being interpreted either way.
My inclination is to pay something, but not the full fee - maybe 30-50%; I have asked a few people for a second opinion and the consensus has been that I should not pay anything, so I just wonder am I being soft?
1. I signed with an employment agency to hire a secretary;
2. They sent me a CV; I emailed that the candidate seemed well qualified but that she lived too far away, that I could not see her continuing with the commute on a permanent basis. Got no reply from agency.
3. Independently of this (and all within the same week) the same candidate had sent in a CV to my hiring manager (aka spouse) in response to an ad spouse had placed for me. Spouse called candidate for a chat; it transpired that candidate was planning to move to a town quite close to me. Spouse told me of this candidate.
4. I interviewed her and hired her (and she is great; really a good hire).
Agency sent me an invoice. I am in two minds about whether to pay it. My thoughts are:
A. After I told Agency that I thought candidate lived too far away, if they had no other candidates forthcoming, I might still have contacted the candidate, found out she was moving and hired her. In this situation, I would definitely have paid the Agency. I might well have felt that they had done little enough to earn their fee, but I would have paid.
B. The candidate made independent contact via my spouse; So I would have hired candidate regardless of whether the Agency had sent her CV to me - and they had their chance, albeit a window of only a day or two - in which to wrap it up by responding to my email (and candidate had told them she was moving - they just hadn't bothered to update their records)
I would like some opinions, preferably from people who regularly hire and who use employment agencies. Opinions along the lines that Employment Agencies are useless\moneygrabbers\chancers and never pay them if you can avoid it would not be particularly helpful. I also don't particularly want to bog down in a discussion about the niceties of strict contractual liability - I have read the Terms and Conditions and they are capable of being interpreted either way.
My inclination is to pay something, but not the full fee - maybe 30-50%; I have asked a few people for a second opinion and the consensus has been that I should not pay anything, so I just wonder am I being soft?
