What buyers ask AI before choosing a staffing company

Clients ask what a contract worker really costs once statutory contributions are added, who carries the liability when something goes wrong, and how long a person can remain on contract. Candidate quality is asked about last, and sometimes not at all.

The questions, in the words buyers use

Cost

• "What markup do staffing agencies charge"
• "Cost to company of a contract worker versus a permanent one"
• "Is GST charged on the whole invoice or only on the service fee"
• "Do we have to pay the state minimum wage even for a contract role"
• "Who pays for bonus and gratuity"

Liability

• "Who is the legal employer of a contract worker"
• "What happens to us if the agency does not deposit PF"
• "Who is responsible if a worker is injured at our premises"
• "Can a contract worker claim to be made permanent"

Rules

• "How long can an employee stay on a contract"
• "When does a contractor need a contract labour licence"
• "Is contract labour permitted in core activities"
• "What changes under the new labour codes"
• "Fixed term employment, how is it different from contract staffing"

Operations

• "How fast can a replacement be provided"
• "Is background verification included"
• "What date are wages paid and who issues the payslip"
• "Can we convert a contract worker to our own payroll"

What a good answer looks like

On cost, publish a worked breakdown showing every component of a contract worker's cost by name: wage, employer contributions, bonus and gratuity provisioning, your fee, and the tax treatment. You can show the structure without publishing a rate you have not measured, and the structure is what the buyer needs.

On liability, answer honestly. Certain obligations stay with the principal employer whatever the contract says, and what you provide is compliance work plus evidence, not immunity. A page that says this plainly is trusted; one that implies you absorb all risk is not believed by anybody who has asked a lawyer.

On duration and permissibility, give the legal position rather than the comfortable one, and cite the statute and the state rule. If the answer is that a practice is risky, say so. Clients get into trouble on exactly this point and remember who warned them.

Where you are probably missing

• Licence and registration details not published, so nothing about you can be verified.
• No cost breakdown, which leaves the most important question to a legal blog.
• No page per state, although wages, licensing thresholds and rules all differ by state.
• No page per sector. Warehouse, retail, field sales, security, healthcare and IT contract staffing are different products with different buyers.
• Nothing about the labour codes, which every HR head is currently asking about.
• No compliance pack description, so your actual deliverable is invisible.

What to publish first

• A cost structure page showing every component by name.
• Licences, registrations and states covered, in text.
• An honest page on principal employer liability.
• A page per state you operate in, with the local rules.
• A page per sector you staff, describing the roles and the shift patterns.

Write the liability page first even though it is the least comfortable. It is the question the buyer is most afraid of, and it is the one nobody in the trade has answered in public.

A worked example of the cost answer

Clients ask what a contract worker costs and are usually given one number, which is why the invoice surprises them. Here is the complete structure, which you can publish without inventing a single figure.

Start from the wage: the basic wage and any allowance that makes up the notified minimum wage for that role in that state. Then add the employer's share of the provident fund contribution, the employer's share of the state insurance contribution, and the labour welfare fund where it applies. Then add the provisions: bonus under the Payment of Bonus Act where the worker is eligible, gratuity accrual, and paid leave. Then add anything the role needs: uniform, shoes, identity card, transport or canteen if the client provides it, and insurance cover. That total is the cost of employing the person.

Your fee sits on top of that, and this is where quotes are misread, so state it: whether the markup is a percentage of the wage or of the full cost, and what it covers, being payroll processing, statutory filing, registers, audits, replacement sourcing and supervision. Then say how goods and services tax applies to the invoice, and on which part.

A client who reads that page can build the number themselves for any role and any state. They will also stop comparing your quote against a competitor's quote that quietly excluded three of those lines.

What these questions do not include

They do not include candidate quality in any depth. That matters enormously in permanent recruitment, and in contract staffing the client usually assumes it and asks about risk instead. If candidate quality is your real differentiator, you may be in the recruitment business rather than the staffing business.

They also do not include legal advice. You can state the position, name the statute and describe what you do. Whether a particular role in a particular factory may be filled by contract labour is a question for a lawyer, and saying so protects both sides.

Common questions

Which question in this list is most often answered badly?

The duration one. Clients want to hear that a person can stay on contract indefinitely, and the honest answer depends on the nature of the work and the state's rules. A page that gives the real position, with the statute named, is worth more than a comfortable one.

Should we answer the regularisation question at all?

Yes, because it is what the client's finance head is worried about. Describe the factors that matter: whether the work is a core activity, whether the client controls the worker day to day, how long the arrangement has run, and what documentation exists. Then say where legal advice is needed.

Do we need a page for every state?

For every state you are licensed in, yes. Name the licence, the notified minimum wage source, the professional tax position and the labour welfare fund. These pages are short, factual and almost nobody has written them.

How do we compete with legal blogs that answer these questions already?

By writing the operator's version. A legal blog explains the rule. You can explain what actually happens: how a licence application is filed and how long it takes, what an inspector asks for, which register is most often found incomplete, and what a client should keep in its file. That is not available anywhere.

Is it worth publishing replacement and response times?

Yes, if you can keep them. Say how quickly a replacement is provided for a routine role and for a skilled one, and say what slows it down. Stated service levels are quotable and they are how a buyer distinguishes two vendors who both claim to be reliable.

What to do first

Publish the cost structure page and one page for your main state of operation. Both are made from information your compliance team already handles every month, and together they answer the two questions on which these decisions turn.