Paying your people when you work with a staffing agency can be complicated, but Randstad makes it easy. To get you started, we've broken down our billing process to give you a quick look into how it works. This won’t give you an exact number, but it will give you a good idea of what to expect when payday rolls around.

understanding bill rates, pay rates and markups

Our billing model is best understood through these three terms:

  • pay rate
  • markup
  • bill rate

Pay rate is the total compensation owed to an employee for all hours worked. Markup is what we add on top of that to account for our own costs. The bill rate is simply the total of both the pay rate and markup — and that's the final sum sent to you.

what makes up markup?

The hiring process can vary wildly from candidate to candidate, and each case will require a different set of resources depending on your hiring needs.

Common costs associated with markup include expenses tied to candidate sourcing, interviewing and vetting. And the amount of time these processes can take will differ. Niche roles that require specialized skill sets, for example, will take more time and resources to find since the pool of available candidates will be naturally smaller, narrowing down your options.

Additionally, insurance and benefits-related costs must also be taken into account when determining markup, and these costs are not the same across the board. For instance, insurance rates may change depending on the job. A forklift driver in a bustling warehouse will encounter a different set of risks than say, a customer service rep fielding calls from a desk. Another cost to keep in mind is that benefits like healthcare become more expensive the longer an engagement goes on, with monthly payments accumulating over time.

the benefits behind markup

It’s true that if you found and hired talent on your own, you wouldn't have to pay markup, but investing in Randstad to help you find talent can pay big dividends down the line.

By delivering the talent you need from day one, you won't have to worry so much about high turnover cost, which, by some estimates, can be as high as 21 percent of an employee's first-year salary. Our process is designed to account for this, with a focus on finding the best talent for your business right off the bat — that means going beyond the resume to weigh personality and working style just as heavily as skills and qualifications to make sure that candidates are a good match for your workplace.

By providing talent with jobs they love in settings where they can thrive, they'll be much more engaged at work. Happiness is contagious, and you can expect to see higher levels of employee engagement — and profitability — as a result. In fact, businesses with high employee engagement had less turnover and were found to be 21 percent more profitable and 17 percent more productive than organizations where engagement was low.

Add all that to the time you save by letting us handle hiring for you so you have time back in your day to focus on more pressing business priorities, and the savings can start to add up far faster than the costs.

takeaways

Billing can be annoying, so Randstad tries to make it as painless as possible. Every pay period, we'll calculate the cost of all hours worked by an employee, include a markup to account for our own costs and then send it to you in the form of the final bill rate. While working with us comes with some cost up front, our recruiters can get you better talent in the end, effectively helping you reduce the costs that come from high turnover, low engagement and decreased retention.