Recruiters have responded favourably to changes in neutral vendor company Comensura’s services, announced at its annual conference in London.

Among the changes due to be introduced over the next five or six months are:

• a fixed delay before candidates can be submitted. This will ensure that scorecard ratings are not just based on the agency fastest to put forward a candidate
• an online forum in which recruiters can contact end clients direct. Recruiters could use this to get more details about candidate skill requirements from hiring managers. The questions and answers would be available for other agencies to see
• Comensura’s clients would be able to control up to 10% of the balanced scorecard. This would be based on criteria important to them
• rcruiters would receive a flat fee when a candidate was placed, rather than make money from the margin they charge.

Andrew Thorne, chairman of ASWEB (Association of Social Work Employment Businesses), told Recruiter that he welcomed the changes. He said that providing a two or three hour delay before candidates were submitted would put an end to the so-called ‘fast finger first syndrome’. And, when combined with allowing recruiters to ask hiring managers questions, “would enhance the safer recruitment of social workers”.

Thorne added: “I am really pleased with the direction Comensura is taking.” Dean Kelly, chief executive of Synarbor, gave a qualified welcome to the idea of Comensura paying agencies a flat fee for each placing. “I think a set fee for the agency is fine, but only as long it reflects the skill of the candidate and the work done by the agency,” said Kelly.

Gary Dowding, head of strategic procurement in the Chamberlain’s department at the City of London, welcomed the idea. Dowding told Recruiter: “This will avoid the suspicion, especially in good times, that recruitment agencies boost their margins by pushing up charge rates on the basis they need to pay agency staff more.”