Placement fees (when you take on a temp)
Employment Businesses (i.e. hired to you)
If you advertise a post and wish to appoint (or engage them as an independent contractor) someone who has been hired to your organisation by an Employment Business then you need to recruit carefully to avoid paying placement fees.
In short, if you give appropriate notice (the “extended hire period”) of your intention to appoint someone (or engage them as an independent contractor) who has been hired to your organisation to a permanent, a fixed-term post and you hire that temporary worker on the same terms and conditions for that period, then you will not be liable to pay any placement fee.
In addition, if you take someone who has been hired to your organisation by an Employment Business from another Employment Business or engage them through your local Staff Bank, then you must also give appropriate notice and hire the worker through the extended hire period, to be certain of avoiding a fee.
All this applies whether the worker in the role in which they were supplied to you by the Supplier as a Temporary Work-Seeker or otherwise.
There are two other important conditions by which you can avoid being due to pay a placement fee. If the worker is engaged by you:
- more than 14 weeks after the start of an assignment or
- more than 8 weeks after the end of an assignment, whichever is the later
It is not the purpose of this framework agreement to act as a vehicle for direct recruitment by the NHS (except in respect of fixed term employment through Employment Agencies). We expect any opportunities for Temporary Work-Seekers to arise through a fair and openly advertised recruitment process which is equally likely to attract candidates not associated with the Employment Business and which is not principally aimed at the solicitation of Temporary Work-Seekers.
Extended hire period
There will be three basic periods for ‘extended hire’:
Pay bands 0 to 4 4 weeks
Pay bands 5, 6 and 7 8 weeks
Pay bands 8, 9 and 10 13 weeks
The extended hire period will be increased where notice is given by the Customer within the first four weeks of a placement. It will increase by the amount that is left within those four weeks. This is to compensate an Employment Business that loses a Temporary Work-Seeker early in a hire period.
For example, if at the end of the first week a Customer gives notice of its intention to engage a Temporary Work-Seeker, then the extended hire period will be increased by (4 – 1), i.e. three weeks. For a Temporary Work-Seeker in pay band 2, this would mean a seven week extended hire period.
An additional five weeks will be added to the extended hire period where the Temporary Work-Seeker is in a patient-facing role. This is to recognise the extra expense incurred by the Employment Business in meeting occupational health and criminal record checks appropriate to patient-facing roles.
The periods will be applied as provided for in the Conditions of Contract Clause 7.
The amounts of the Placement Fees are in the pricing web pages.
Employment Agencies (i.e. introduced for Fixed-Term employment)
If you wish to employ the fixed-term Work-Seeker on a permanent basis, then the Employment Agency will charge a Permanent Fee equal to the difference due had the requirement been for twelve months in the first place. For example:
After 8 months of fixed term employment, the Customer wishes to take the Work-Seeker permanently. If the Agency Fee is bid as 15%, then the Employment Agency will charge a Permanent Fee equal to the difference due compared to 12 months:
15% - 10% = 5% of first year salary.
The Permanent Fee will be due if the Work-Seeker is appointed permanently up to six months after the end of the fixed term assignment.
If the Customer employs or introduces the Work-Seeker to other employers within twelve months of first viewing the Work-Seekers details and those employers engage the Work-Seeker on fixed term or permanent employment, then the Customer will pay the appropriate fixed term Agency or Permanent Fee to the Employment Agency. This condition will not apply if the Work-Seeker has responded to an open advertisement that was equally likely to attract applications from individuals not associated with the Employment Agency or the Customer.