The agency recruitment glossary

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Billings is the fee income a recruiter, desk or agency generates in a period, measured against target. For perm it means placement fees. For contract, agencies differ on whether it means everything invoiced to clients or only the margin, so the number needs defining.

Boolean search is a way of searching candidate databases, job boards and the wider web by combining keywords with AND, OR and NOT, quoted phrases and brackets. Recruiters use it to build precise searches such as ("payroll manager" OR "payroll lead") AND CIPP NOT trainee.

Business development in recruitment is the work of winning new clients and roles: finding companies that are hiring, reaching the people who decide, and turning a conversation into a signed brief on agreed terms. On most desks it competes for time with filling existing roles.

Candidate ownership is an agency's right to a fee if a client hires a candidate it introduced within a set period after the introduction, often 6 to 12 months in UK terms. It covers a hire into a different role, a later hire, or one made through another agency.

Candidate rediscovery is finding people already in an agency's own database who fit a new role, before sourcing externally: the runner-up on a past role, the candidate whose career has moved on since the last call, and people who were never quite right until now.

A candidate shortlist is the small set of screened candidates an agency presents to a client for a role, usually three to five, each chosen against the brief and backed by the consultant's notes. It is the agency's main piece of work product, and the thing a client judges it on.

A client brief, or job spec, is the agency's record of what a client needs from a hire: the must-haves and nice-to-haves, salary and package, location, interview process and why the role exists. Taken on a briefing call, it is usually more useful than the client's job description.

The Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003 govern how UK recruiters deal with candidates and clients: terms before work, checks before introductions, limits on transfer fees, no withholding of pay. They cover limited company contractors unless opted out.

Under regulation 32(9), a limited company contractor can opt out of the Conduct Regulations. The company and the individual must both agree and notify the agency before introduction or supply to the client, and the agency must tell the client. Unavailable for work with vulnerable persons.

Contingency recruitment is the no-placement, no-fee model: the agency is paid only if a candidate it introduced is hired. It is the default for most UK permanent recruitment below senior level, and it is usually non-exclusive, so several agencies may be working the same role at once.

A contract extension continues a contractor's assignment with the same client past its original end date, usually through a new or amended assignment schedule. It is the cheapest gross profit a contract desk earns and the easiest to lose by letting the end date pass unnoticed.

Contract margin is the difference between what the client is billed and what the contractor is paid for the same day or hour. It is the agency's gross profit on a contract placement, usually quoted in pounds per day and as a percentage of the bill rate.

A counter-offer is what a candidate's current employer puts on the table after the candidate resigns to take a new job: usually more money, sometimes a promotion or a change of role. It is one of the most common reasons a placement falls through between acceptance and start date.

A credit note reduces or cancels an invoice already issued, after a disputed timesheet, an agreed discount or a perm rebate. It carries its own number and references the original, so the original stays on record and the VAT is corrected properly.

A CV send-out, or submission, is the moment an agency formally presents a candidate to a client for a specific role, with the candidate's agreement. It creates the introduction that the agency's fee depends on, so what was sent, when, to whom and on what terms should always be on record.

A day rate is the fixed amount a contractor is paid, or a client is charged, for one day's work. A UK contract agency normally holds two: a pay rate to the contractor's limited company and a higher bill rate to the client, both quoted excluding VAT.

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Exclusivity is an agreement that one agency alone works a role for a set period, usually two to four weeks, before the client briefs anyone else. A multi-agency brief is the opposite: several agencies work the role at once and the first to introduce the person who is hired earns the fee.

Under the off-payroll working rules, the fee-payer is the party in the supply chain that pays the contractor's limited company. When a client decides an engagement is inside IR35, the fee-payer, usually the agency, must deduct tax and National Insurance and pay employer's contributions.

Gross profit in recruitment is fee income after the direct cost of delivering it. On a perm placement the whole fee is gross profit; on a contract it is the bill to the client minus the contractor's pay. Many UK agencies call it net fee income (NFI).

An interview scorecard is a structured form an interviewer completes after meeting a candidate: a rating against each of the role's criteria, evidence for each rating and an overall recommendation. It turns 'seemed good' into feedback that can be compared.

IR35 is the UK tax legislation that decides whether a contractor working through their own limited company should be taxed like an employee of the client. Public sector and medium or large private sector clients make that decision; for small clients the contractor's company still does.

A limited company contractor sells their services through a company they own and direct, usually a personal service company, rather than as an employee. The agency contracts with and pays the company, and the contractor is paid through it.

Mark-up is profit as a percentage of cost, the contractor's pay rate. Margin is the same profit as a percentage of price, the client's bill rate. A £110 spread on a £550 pay rate is a 20 per cent mark-up but a 16.7 per cent margin.

Pay and bill is the back-office process that turns approved contractor time into two payments: what the agency pays the contractor and what it invoices the client. Both come from the same timesheet at different rates, and the difference is the agency's margin.

A placement fee is what a client pays an agency when a candidate it introduced accepts a permanent job. In the UK it is usually a percentage of first-year base salary, typically 15 to 25 per cent, invoiced on the start date and protected by a rebate or replacement clause.

A preferred supplier list is the short list of agencies a client has approved to work its roles, usually after a tender. Being on a PSL means access to roles, typically on the client's terms: a negotiated fee, a longer rebate period and rules on how candidates are introduced.

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A purchase order number is the reference a client's procurement system issues to authorise spending with a supplier. Many mid-sized and large clients will not pay an invoice that does not quote a valid PO, whatever the contract says, so it has to be captured before the first invoice.

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Recruiter commission is the variable pay a consultant earns on the fees and contract margin they bill, usually a percentage of gross profit above a threshold. Perm fees are typically commissioned once invoiced or paid, contract margin as each week is invoiced.

A recruitment desk is a consultant's patch: the market, clients and candidates they are responsible for. A 360 recruiter runs the whole cycle, winning clients and filling roles. A 180 recruiter does one half: client-side business development or candidate-side delivery.

A replacement guarantee is a promise that if a placed candidate leaves within a set period, typically three months, the agency will find a replacement at no further fee. It is the alternative to a cash rebate, and many terms of business offer one or the other.

Retained search is an engagement where the client pays part of the fee before any candidate is presented, in return for a committed search to a deadline. The fee is usually paid in instalments, often thirds: on signing, on delivery of a shortlist and on the candidate starting.

A right to work check is the Home Office-prescribed check that someone is allowed to work in the UK, done before they start. Done correctly by the employer it gives a statutory excuse against a civil penalty of up to £60,000 per illegal worker.

Answered in full on its own page

Answered in full on its own page

A status determination statement is the document in which a client covered by the off-payroll working rules tells the contractor, and the party it contracts with, whether an engagement is inside or outside IR35 and why. Without reasons it is not a valid SDS.

Terms of business are the contract between an agency and its client. They set the fee and what it is calculated on, what counts as an introduction, payment terms, the rebate or replacement clause and how long a fee is owed. Without signed terms, a fee claim is much weaker.

Time to fill is the number of days from a role being opened to a candidate being placed in it. For an agency it measures how fast the desk delivers against a brief, and it is often reported alongside time to hire, which starts the clock later, at the first candidate submission.

Timesheet approval is the client confirming that a contractor worked the hours or days claimed for a period, usually a week. It triggers both the client invoice and the contractor's payment, so a late approval delays cash on both sides of the contract.