How does a staffing agency charge a job seeker for their services?
This one may be a trick question! Legitimate staffing agencies never charge job seekers for placement services. That's right--every placement fee paid to a staffing agency is from the hiring company.
In many countries, such as Canada, it is illegal for a recruitment or staffing agency to charge candidates for job placements. These regulations do not include fees for resume writing or career coaching, for instance. The bottom line is, a job seeker never pays money to be considered for an open position with a staffing agency or their clients.
"All placement fees are paid for by the client, rather than the candidate. In my current agency, we charge the client between 18-25% of the candidate's first-year salary. This fee structure means that if the candidate's agreed-upon salary is 100K, our fee would be 18-25K, never paid for by the candidate. I understand that different regions have various fee structures. However, I believe that a client should always pay the agency placement fee. No financial burden should fall on the job seeker."
