Brokering.

Brokering (also "contract & pay") is the model in which an intermediary — the broker — sits between a client and an interim professional for the contractual and financial side of an engagement, without doing the recruiting. Client and professional have already found each other; the broker makes the collaboration formally possible.

What a broker does

• Contracting: the broker signs with the client and with the professional (or their company), absorbing administrative burden and part of the legal risk.
• Paying: the professional invoices the broker; the broker invoices the client. Terms such as pay-when-paid live in this link of the chain.
• Compliance: the broker verifies worker classification (in the Netherlands a DBA check; in the United States the W-2/1099 distinction), identity and registrations, and keeps the file audit-ready.
• Reporting: hours, rates and durations come together in one administration.

Fees are a fixed amount or a small percentage per contract — considerably lower than recruitment fees, because no sourcing is involved.

Brokering at Hero

At Hero, brokering corresponds to the Silver tier: €79 per contract per month, including contract & pay, classification checks and pay-when-paid. It suits clients who find professionals themselves — for instance on the open marketplace Hero Direct, where matching is free — but want the obligations professionally managed. Clients who also want indemnification and benefits move up to Gold (2.5–4% of spend); full programme management is the domain of the MSP tier, Platinum.

Legal context

Brokering touches the rules on labour intermediation of the country of engagement — in the Netherlands the Waadi and DBA frameworks, in the United States classification law, in Singapore the employment agency licence regime. A broker contracting independent professionals is not their employer, but must be able to show that the setup does not disguise employment. Transparency about roles and margins is considered best practice across the industry; at Hero it follows directly from the house rule "everything we say is 100% true".

For professionals, the key question about any broker is practical: when do I get paid, and what happens if the end client does not pay? That answer belongs on the table up front, including the option of a credit-insured variant.