Editor’s note: Jeff Allen has heard every employer excuse that you can imagine for not paying up — and dozens more that defy imagination. Over the last 18 months, he’s documented one a week. Because of the importance of collections, Fordyce will periodically reprise the most common situations he addressed. The complete collection is here.
The client claims: “We hired the candidate as a consultant.”
What you should do: Over the past decade, employers have been cashing in on the consulting boom. Unfortunately, contingency-fee recruiters have been the paymasters.
When you send a fee schedule that contains any of these 10 words, you’re aiming your recruiting revolver at your fee-free foot:
- Applicant
- Bonus
- Employee
- Employer
- Hire
- Job
- Payroll
- Position
- Salary
- Wages
These all lock you into payment only if a candidate is directly hired as a salaried employee. But they lock you out of payment if the employee is hired as an “independent contractor” — a “consultant.”
Now you can aim straight for the fee with words in your fee schedule like:
- Assignment
- Candidate
- Company
- Compensation
- Consultant
- Engage
- Independent
- Perform
- Project
- Services
Modify any PSA (placement service agreement) you get from a client this way too. If the search is worth doing, this is worth doing!