Following a placement after the start date
How the Recruiting pack follows a placement from the confirmed start date, through the fee invoice and check-ins, to the end of the guarantee period.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Recruitment businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Launching soon. The Industry CRM add-on described in this article is launching soon. This article describes it as it will work at launch.
For many consultants, a placement ends when the candidate accepts the offer. The fee is in sight, the next vacancy is waiting, and the candidate's first weeks in the new job happen without anyone from the agency in touch. Then a call comes from the client: the new hire is struggling, or has resigned, and the agency is the last to know.
The weeks after a start date are when placements are won or lost for good. A short call at the right moment can rescue a placement that is wobbling, and it shows both client and candidate that the agency cares about the outcome, not just the fee. Agencies tend to agree with this. Fewer have a process that makes it happen every time.
The Recruiting & staffing pack in Achekam's Industry CRM follows each placement from the confirmed start date to the end of its guarantee period. This article explains the steps.
Placements as their own record
The pack keeps Vacancies, Candidates with their interviews, and Placements, and a placement is followed through the guarantee period. Treating the placement as a record, rather than a note on a vacancy, gives the period after the start date its own stages and tasks, so it does not disappear from view the moment the offer is signed.
Step one: confirm the start date
The placement workflow begins by confirming the start date. Offers are accepted with a provisional date, but notice periods, relocation and paperwork move dates more often than anyone expects.
Confirm the date with both sides: the client, so you know when the guarantee period starts, and the candidate, so you know they are actually going. A candidate who goes quiet in the days before a start date is telling you something, and an early call is better than a no-show.
Check, too, that the client is ready: a desk, equipment, system access and someone to meet the new hire on the first morning. An early departure can begin with a first day on which nobody was expecting the newcomer. SHRM's guide to employee onboarding explains why structured onboarding matters for retention and productivity and who is responsible for what, which can help a client plan those first weeks.
Step two: invoice the placement fee
Next, the workflow invoices the placement fee. When the fee falls due depends on your terms of business, and it is worth reading when to issue the placement fee invoice for the timing.
The invoice lives in Achekam's receivables. It starts as a draft that can be changed or deleted, and issuing it takes the next number in your sequence and posts it to the ledger as debtors, sales and output VAT. Tying the invoice to the confirmed start date means the fee is billed on facts rather than on hope.
Step three: check in until the guarantee period ends
The workflow then checks in until the guarantee period ends. These check-ins are the heart of the follow-up.
A practical rhythm is a call to the candidate at the end of the first week, a call to the client a little later, and calls to both around the middle of the guarantee period and shortly before it ends. Adjust it to the length of your guarantee period and the seniority of the role. Useful questions:
- To the candidate: is the role what you expected, do you have what you need, and is anything worrying you?
- To the client: is the new hire settling in, and is there anything we should know or help with?
Record each check-in and anything it revealed. Workflows in the Industry CRM create their tasks stage by stage, so each check-in appears when it is due rather than cluttering the list from the start, and tasks can have subtasks up to three levels deep for the occasional placement that needs more attention.
When a placement fails
Sometimes the check-ins cannot save it. The candidate resigns, or the client ends the employment within the guarantee period. Your terms of business decide what happens next: a replacement candidate, a rebate, or the client's choice.
If a rebate is due, it is handled in receivables with a credit note issued from the original placement invoice, in full or for chosen lines, and posted to the ledger. The details, including what to do when the client has already paid, are in rebates when a placed candidate leaves early. Record on the placement why it failed. Over time, those reasons show which kinds of placement are at risk.
Closing the placement
When the guarantee period ends without a problem, close the placement. Closing is a good moment for two things that are easy to skip: a last call to the client to ask how the hire has gone, and a note to the candidate congratulating them. Both relationships are worth more than the single fee. Today's candidate may be tomorrow's hiring manager, and today's client will have the next vacancy.
A placement follow-up checklist
- Start date confirmed with client and candidate.
- Placement fee invoiced on the date your terms provide.
- Check-ins with candidate and client scheduled across the guarantee period.
- Each check-in recorded, with any concerns acted on.
- Placement closed when the guarantee period ends, or the failure and its reason recorded.
Good follow-up starts with good screening; see screening candidates with documents and consent and why each candidate is a customer of their own.
Pick the placements that started in the last few weeks, and call each candidate this week. You will learn more from those calls than from any report.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
