If a contractor already works for you through an agency, you’re paying 15–30% on top of their rate for a middleman you no longer need. Move the engagement to JobReferral and manage it — placements, timesheets, approvals — for a flat 7.5% platform fee. Because you’re bringing them yourself, there’s no referral fee at all.
Type each contractor’s day rate and what you pay your agency for them — we’ll work out the margins and the total saving. On different rates or margins? Add a row per contractor.
Sometimes — but usually only if the switch is rushed. Agencies can charge a “transfer fee” in some circumstances, and part of what we do on every transfer is time the move so you don’t pay one. The rules that protect you:
Most client agreements have a “transfer” or “introduction” clause that tries to charge a fee if you engage the contractor another way. Dig it out before anything else — we’ll happily read it with you.
Under the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003 (reg 10), a transfer fee is only enforceable if the switch happens within the later of 8 weeks after the assignment ends or 14 weeks from when it started. Let the current contract run its course and that window usually closes on its own.
The same rules say a fee is generally unenforceable unless your contract gave you the option of an extended hire period — keeping the contractor through the agency a little longer, on terms no worse than before, and transferring free at the end. Electing that is often the cheapest route.
If your contractor’s limited company opted out of the Conduct Regulations (common on outside-IR35 engagements), those protections don’t apply and whatever your agency contract says governs. That’s a reading-the-contract job, not a dead end — fees are negotiable and time-limited clauses still expire.
General guidance, not legal advice — your agency contract is what counts, and we’ll work through it with you before anything moves.
You're bringing the contractor yourself, so the referrer commission simply doesn't apply.
One transparent fee on top of the contractor's rate. No hidden margin, itemised on every invoice.
Same person, same rate, same work — you just stop paying an agency to stand in the middle.
Hiring someone new instead? Register to hire