St. Clair & Associates has a long history specialising in recruitment matters. Since 2003, we have been a trusted industry leader for recruitment agencies looking to recover their unpaid fees, both for permanent placements and contractor labour.
We understand the nature of recruitment processes and the different scenarios recruiters face.
Recruitment Fee Recovery
When you are faced with a client who won’t pay your fees, have gone silent or seem to have ‘stolen’ one of your candidates, it can be difficult to know where you stand.
At St. Clair & Associates we can undertake the recovery of recruitment fees, whether it be for permanent or contractor roles. We also have experience in recovering mistaken overpayments to your casual or contractor staff who have refused to return your money.
Common fee recovery scenarios recruiters face include:
- A candidate leaves during your guarantee period, and the client refuses to pay your placement fee at all.
- Clients wanting to treat candidates engaged in unrelated positions as replacements for candidates who have previously left during your guarantee period.
- Allegation by clients that the employed candidate was first introduced by another agency, and that the candidate employment had nothing to do with your introduction.
- Client claims that you are not entitled to a placement fee because the relevant candidate was hopeless and you should not have introduced the candidate in the first place. Clients frequently allege breaches of the Australian Consumer Law, overlooking their own responsibility in assessing candidates (such as during interview) throughout the recruitment process.
- Clients refusing to pay invoices because there are no signed terms of business, the challenge being to whether you have a contract with the client entitling you to a fee.
We are able to provide you expert advice on these (and other) scenarios and, where your claim is good, act on your behalf in recovering your fee entitlement.
Recruitment Terms of Business for Permanent and Contractor Placements
The most important document for protecting your fee entitlements is your standard terms and conditions of business.
Are you sure you have the right amount of protection? Your terms and conditions is your contractual foundation to your relationship with a client. It outlines your rates, terms of business and, most importantly, it protects your entitlement for a fee if things go badly with a client.
Our long and intensive history in acting in recruitment fee disputes has given us the ability to anticipate multiple possible dispute scenarios. Bringing this experience to bear, we are able to draft your terms of business, or make edits to your existing terms, to provide you with the greatest protections possible, giving you added peace of mind.
As a business owner, it is also important that your staff, who are generally responsible for passing on your terms and conditions to your clients, have a high level of familiarity with their content, so that they do not say anything inconsistent with them to your clients, which could cast doubt on the full operation of the terms.
We are able to provide your consultants with in-house training on the proper use of, and dealing with, your terms of business and commonly faced scenarios.
How to tell if your Terms of Business have the right amount of protection for your business?
Ask yourself the following questions as you are reading your terms of business:
- Is it clear how your terms of business can be accepted? Does this match how your business operates in practice?
- Is your entitlement to your fees subject to too many conditions or circumstances outside of your control? Or dependent on too many circumstances outside of your knowledge?
- Do you have a tough enough incentive for people to pay their accounts and invoices on-time?
- Who is responsible for the costs associated your efforts to enforce the payment of your fees?
- Have you thought about proper risk allocation? Does the document spell out the client’s own responsibility in assessing and deciding to employ a candidate?
- Is there a limitation on any liability you might have to your clients?
Terms of Business and Legal Conduct Training
There is often a tension between the objectives of recruitment consultants and working in a way that reduces the chance of legal disputes.
Often, the training provided to recruitment consultants on the legal aspects of practice and terms of business has been provided in-house by other recruitment consultants or learned in-house from a former employer. This creates a significant risk that what a consultant thinks is a legally appropriate way of operating is, in fact, a legal dispute waiting to happen.
What our training covers:
Having worked extensively in recruitment disputes litigation since 2007, our principal is able to host a training program for you and your consultants covering:
- the requirements of the Australian Consumer Law;
- how terms of business can be used to reduce legal risk under the Australian Consumer Law;
- the sorts of communications with clients that create unnecessary legal risk;
- how to create a contract between your agency and your clients and what to do when there is a push-back on the form of your proposed terms of business, including how to navigate amendments;
- how your terms of business regulate various scenarios.
This training will be accompanied by a training manual that can be a source of ongoing reference for your consultants.
While we are happy to provide training on the basis of your existing terms of business, we recommend that if you are interested in a training session, that you first take the opportunity to have your terms of business reviewed by or re-drafted by us, as this will provide you with the broader opportunity of considering and minimising your legal risk in client dealings.
I have worked with St Clair & Associates for over 5 years and I commend their approach and most importantly their results. I find Andrew to be a consummate professional and exceptionally resourceful in his approach to resolving our matters which primarily focus around fee recovery. Our business was also extremely appreciative when he refined and improved our terms of business and strengthened our approach to our markets. His support team are also excellent and there is a seamless approach in dealing with either Andrew directly or (more often) his support team. I unreservedly recommend St Clair & Associates for any company that is in need for fee recovery of similar services. John Fox - Director, Salexo Consulting www.salexo.com.au