A business takes somebody on temporarily for what was meant to be six weeks. She is excellent. By week fourteen they want to offer her a permanent job, and the agency sends a transfer fee that nobody had thought about.
The fee is entirely legitimate and it is in the terms. It still feels like an ambush, and it damages a relationship that was working perfectly.
A worked example
One temporary worker, one permanent offer, priced the way both sides need to see it.
Line 1: the transfer fee basis
A percentage of salary, a fixed figure or something else. Stated in the terms and, better, stated again when a placement starts.
Line 2: the reduction with assignment length
Where the fee reduces the longer somebody has been on assignment, reflecting what the agency has already earned. It is common, fair and rarely explained.
Line 3: the qualifying period
After which no fee applies, if one exists. It is the single most useful thing an employer can know and the thing agencies most often leave in small print.
Line 4: the alternative to a fee
An extended temporary period instead, where an employer keeps somebody on assignment for an agreed further time. It is a genuine option and it suits agencies too.
Line 5: what the fee actually covers
The introduction, the sourcing, the vetting and the risk the agency carried. Explained rather than asserted, employers accept it.
Line 6: the honest comparison
The transfer fee against what a direct permanent placement would have cost. It is frequently favourable and nobody presents it that way.
Explain it at the start of every assignment
Not only in the terms. A line in the placement confirmation saying what happens if they want to keep somebody prevents every one of these disputes.
Explain the notification requirement
That an employer must tell the agency before making an offer, and what happens if they do not. It should be a courtesy rather than a trap.
Explain what happens with a worker who applies directly
Because it happens, because the worker frequently does not realise and because it needs a position rather than an argument.
Explain the second placement position
Where a worker returns to the same employer later, and whether a fee applies. It is the ambiguity that produces bad feeling.
Publish the terms openly
Fee structure, qualifying periods and the extension option, so an employer can plan rather than discover, which is the transparency in recruitment fee questions from hiring managers.
Frame it as a good outcome
Because a temp becoming permanent means the agency found the right person. Treating it as a success rather than a leak is what keeps the client.
Capture the brief properly at the outset
Because a temporary requirement that was always likely to become permanent should have been placed differently, which is the qualification in capturing job briefs from employers properly.
Answer terms questions at any hour
Because employers review this in the evening before making an offer, the same fee clarity people want in fees and limits questions fintech users ask, and difficult conversations need care as in how to handle sensitive questions in your chatbot.
Getting started
Publish your transfer fee structure, qualifying periods and the extension alternative, and restate it at every placement, then answer at any hour. SpideyChat for recruitment agencies answers from your published pages, plans are on the pricing page, and the chatbot ROI calculator works through the numbers.