Client Agreements and Worker Paperwork for Staffing Agencies
Staffing agencies live on speed: the client needs someone Monday, and the first agency with a signed candidate usually wins the placement. That speed depends on paperwork on both sides, the client service agreement and the worker assignment and onboarding documents. Codec Document lets agencies send both from a phone and get them signed before the competition has finished printing.
Placements are won or lost on paperwork speed
A recruiter finds the right candidate at four in the afternoon. The client wants them on site at seven the next morning. Between those two moments, the candidate has to sign an assignment letter, a confidentiality agreement and several onboarding forms, and the client may need to sign a rate agreement for a new role. Every step that requires a printer, a fax or a trip to the office is a step where the placement can go to someone else.
How it helps staffing agencies
Client service agreements
Markup, bill rates, conversion fees and liability terms signed by the client before the first worker starts.
Assignment letters workers sign on their phone
Pay rate, schedule, location and supervisor for each assignment, signed by the worker the same evening.
Onboarding in bulk
Send the same onboarding packet to every new worker in a hiring wave and track who is ready to start.
Conversion fee protection
When a client hires your worker directly, the signed conversion clause is what makes the fee collectable.
Some states require written notice of assignment terms
Several states regulate how staffing agencies inform workers of assignment terms. The Illinois Day and Temporary Labor Services Act, 820 ILCS 175, for example, requires agencies to give day and temporary laborers written notice of key terms such as the pay rate and the nature of the work. Background checks used in placement are subject to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1681b. The ESIGN Act, 15 U.S.C. § 7001, allows these documents to be signed electronically, and § 7001(c) explains how to obtain consent to deliver required notices electronically.
The conversion fee
A light-industrial staffing agency in Illinois placed a forklift operator with a warehouse client. Four weeks later the client hired him directly. The client service agreement, signed electronically by the warehouse operations manager, included a conversion fee for direct hires within 90 days. The client initially disputed it; the agency sent the signed agreement with its audit trail and the fee was paid within the month.
What to put in writing on both sides of a placement
- With clients: bill rates, overtime, markup, payment terms and the conversion fee for direct hires.
- With clients: responsibility for site safety training and supervision of workers.
- With workers: the assignment, pay rate, schedule, location and supervisor.
- With workers: confidentiality and acceptable use of client property and systems.
- Background check disclosures and authorizations, when used.
- How timesheets are approved and what happens when a client disputes hours.
Questions people ask about this
Can workers sign without an email address?
Signing links can be shared by text message or WhatsApp, which is often how hourly workers prefer to receive them.
Can I send the same packet to fifty workers?
Yes. Bulk sending creates a separate signed copy for each worker and shows who has completed their paperwork.
Can clients sign rate agreements on mobile?
Yes. Clients sign from any browser, on a phone or a computer.
Is there an API for our applicant tracking system?
Yes. A REST API and webhooks are available for teams that want to send documents from their own systems.
How do we handle a client who disputes the hours on a timesheet?
Put the approval process in the client service agreement: who approves timesheets, by when, and that hours not disputed within a set number of days are considered approved. Then send each weekly timesheet for the supervisor signature. A signed approval, with its date, ends most billing disputes before they start and supports your invoice if one does not.
Documents staffing agencies send most
- Service agreement template
- Independent contractor agreement
- Employee confidentiality agreement
- Bulk signing for teams