If you are an IT Contractor, then this article is for you. It will help you ask the right questions choose which IT Agency / Consultancy to contract through.

Philip Fanthom, a respected Managing Director in the IT recruitment field, has kindly authored the article below highlighting how you can quickly and easily understand the agency, together with uncovering their working principles and core values.

• Tip 1 - Daily payroll; Does the IT agency operate a daily payroll service? - You personally may only want to get paid once a month ” but trust me; youll want the flexibility of being able to submit your timesheets on ANY DAY of the month. This is one of the first things to check with an IT agency, as you may find that their payment terms are not flexible enough for your needs.

• Tip 2 - Are they members of leading associations or have accreditations? - Look for an agency which advertises that they are members of leading industry groups and associations, that is has entered and hopefully won business awards (especially national business awards) or that it has a quality assurance system (especially one which is externally validated). This demonstrated that the company is proud of its internal service standards and has solid foundations from which it operates its business.

• Tip 3 - Internal staff turnover; Does the IT agency have a low staff turnover - There is nothing worse that calling an agency to speak to your point of contact and being told Im sorry, John has moved on and Jim in now your new account manager. I want to deal with familiar points of contact and people that know the client I am contracting at and the industry I am working within.

• Tip 4 - Testimonials; Does the IT agency promote a variety of good quality testimonials? - Another great read in between the lines tip. If a candidate or client is confident enough to give a testimonial for the IT agency, then that has to be an excellent indication that they are a good quality company. But beware; Im sure you are like me and have seen testimonials that dont carry much credibility . . . What a great service Bob J. ” IT contractor. When I see those, I think, hmmm, is this really a real guy? So, find agencies that offer case studies that are tangible and thorough and give you a real feel of authenticity.

• Tip 5 - Length of service; How long has the IT agency been in business? - Have they been in business just a couple of years or is it more like a couple of decades? This is well worth checking, as it will give you a real reflection of not what their service is like now, but how it has been over a sustained period of time.

Summary - These are simple tips, but it is difficult to sometimes see the wood from the tress when you are choosing what agency to contract through. I hope this gives you a good starting point when it comes to deciding upon your IT Agency and I wish you the best of luck with your next IT contract!

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Tags: Advice for IT contractors, how to choose an agecny to contract through, IT contractor advice, Top 5 Tips for IT contracting

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 at 8:33 am and is filed under Jenrick IT, Videos and Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.