Repository of Practices
Recruitment Cost Calculator (RCC)
Secondary GCM Objectives
Dates
Geographic scope
Geographic Scope:
Summary
Designed to bridge the gap between commitment and implementation of the Employer Pays Principle (EPP), Verité’s Recruitment Cost Calculator (RCC) is a web-based tool intended to help estimate the amount an employer should expect to pay when hiring migrant workers. The Calculator provides accurate, up-to-date, sector- and country-specific data on Recruitment Fees and Related Costs, helping employers gain visibility of their labor supply chain and factor the cost of ethical recruitment into their business model. The RCC is a purpose-built tool that can aid businesses build mechanisms to cover a more accurate cost of recruiting workers into contracts with buyers, clients, suppliers, and labor providers. After the user inputs basic demographic information about the workers an employer is seeking to hire, the Calculator provides itemized lists that detail fees and costs with associated legitimate market values. The items and estimated ranges can then be used dynamically by employers to verify they are covering all costs and fees for which the employer is responsible and confirm they are paying reasonable market rates for each. By confirming they are covering all costs and fees associated with recruitment as well as confirming the adequacy of the amounts being paid, employers ensure no employment costs are passed on to the workers themselves. This way, the Calculator becomes a key best practices-aligned ethical recruitment tool supporting labor supply chain due diligence practice and increasing the capacities, at the employer level, of implementing principles and standards that guarantee decent work. When used by labor and recruitment agents, the Calculator is useful to show clients (employers) realistic market rates and legitimate professional agent service fees. It helps the agent provide visibility into costs in the country of origin (“first mile” expenses) incurred by agents or other labor intermediaries at the point of pooling and selecting applicants which is commonly overlooked by clients of recruitment service providers. The RCC is also thought for buyers and other downstream stakeholders as a tool to implement the Employer Pays Principle and other ethical recruitment practices to meet industry and international standards as well as to exercise Human Rights Due Diligence and cascade worker protections and commercial obligations to lower tiers of the supply chain.
Organizations
Main Implementing Organization(s)
Benefit and Impact
Key Lessons
Recommendations(if the practice is to be replicated)
Innovation
Greater transparency and accuracy of recruitment cost data for specific corridors and specific industries enables employers to operationalize the Employer Pays Model. Having this information publicly available creates pressure for companies to pay the full cost of recruiting their workers. In addition, employers must legally cover vary according to each country’s legislation, which can create confusion and hinder EPM implementation. The RCC provides detailed information about which types of recruitment fees and related costs are legally required to be paid by employers under national laws as well as mandatory human rights due diligence legislation.
More and more employers are responding to international pressure to eliminate worker-paid recruitment costs with programs to reimburse recruitment costs to workers. Reimbursement serves as a practical remedy to Worker-Pays recruitment models, and can be a crucial step towards operationalizing an Employer Pays Model. The accuracy of amounts reimbursed to workers in such cases can be compared against the RCC calculations. With this tool, companies can better evaluate whether current labor providers are engaged in good practices or, if they are directly overseeing recruitment, if adequate resources are being allocated to cover recruitment costs. This way they ensure workers are not covering the cost of their own recruitment. Employers can use the RCC data to compare against the amount paid for EPM recruitment; with greater access to accurate recruitment cost information, employers and recruiters in a labor supply chain are held to greater accountability. Publicly available recruitment cost information can capture how costs are inflated by labor intermediaries and can stimulate recruitment cost charges based on actual market-rates.
The RCC is leading to the standardization of Recruitment Fees and Related Costs in specific migration corridors by mapping the recruitment industry and providing visibility into the myriad costs incurred in the recruitment of Foreign Contract Workers.
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Disclaimer: The content of this practice reflects the views of the implementers and does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations, the United Nations Network on Migration, and its members.
More Related Practices:
- Plan d’action sur les données désagrégées (PADD) – Statistique Canada
- Strengthening the capacities and frameworks to collect data and evidence on migration, the environment and climate change (MECC) in Mexico
- Disaggregated Data Action Plan (DDAP) - Statistics Canada
- Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada’s Use of Gender Based Analysis Plus (GBA Plus)
- Tablero Interactivo Estadísticas sobre Movilidad y Migración Internacional en México
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*References to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).
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