Recruitment Agency Fee Disputes: Expectations vs. Reality

Recruitment Agency Fee Disputes: Expectations vs. Reality

We have all seen the court shows where people are standing around in a courthouse yelling they object, and by the end of the 30-minute-long program, the money is back in the hands of the rightful owner. Clearly, this is not how it works when there is past-due debt for a staffing or recruiting agency, but there are still a lot of misconceptions about this process. The idea of pursuing past-due debt can be overwhelming because people’s expectations are very different from the reality of collecting staffing or recruiting debt. You might just be pleasantly surprised at how your expectations do not line up with reality.

One of the biggest misconceptions is that you must go through the long process of small claims court to get paid on past due staffing or recruiting debt. This is not the case. Did you know that less than 5% of judgments from small claims court ever get collected? Going through a collection agency, you do not have to go through this hassle. Instead, collection agencies can work your case oftentimes without even having to go through the court system.
The expectation of pursuing past-due debt is that you will be forced to bite the bullet and pay a lot of money upfront. This just adds insult to injury because you already do not have the money you rightfully deserve, and that is why you are having to pursue the past-due debt in the first place. This is a massive misconception a lot of people have. A big reason people do not even want to “bother” with chasing down the money they have lost is that they don’t want to have to go through this process. This does not have to be the case. With Adams Evens & Ross, we only get paid when you do. You do not have to pay money upfront in the hopes that one day you might get paid.
On a more personal level, many people do not want to pursue a debt in fear that the debtor might get mad and will burn the bridge between them or even go and try to damage their reputation in their industry. First, people usually do not want to admit to everyone else they have not paid you, and you are now going after them for the money they have basically stolen from you. This does not look great on them, and they are more than likely not going to want the world to know what they have done to get themselves in this position. Next, people really do not want to harm the relationships they have with the company that did not pay their placement fee. What we have found in years of collecting for the staffing and recruiting industries is that a lot of times the right-hand does not know what the left hand is doing in companies. This means you might be working with someone who is wonderful and would never cheat you out of your money. There might be a great person in another department who comes across your candidate and hires them. You are still owed the money, but there will be no hard feelings because no one was trying to pull a fast one with the placement. In cases like this, it is not likely you will burn a bridge with that client.
In conclusion, collecting staffing and recruiting placement fees is not as easy as it seems on daytime TV. It will not be over and done in a simple 30-minute-long episode. That being said, many people tend to think it is a long scary process trying to collect the placement fees they have worked so hard to make. It is not always necessary to go through the whole process of small claims court. Many of these collections can be resolved through hiring a collection agency. People also tend not to want to tell the world how they have not paid you and have to explain how they are in the right. Not everyone didn’t pay you on purpose as well. Sometimes, people fall through the cracks and get hired without knowing who was the person to find the candidate. Do not let misconceptions stop you from collecting the money you have worked so hard to earn.