What it is
Temp-to-perm conversion is what happens when a client decides to take a temporary worker or contractor, placed and paid through the agency, onto its own permanent headcount. Because the agency sourced, vetted and has been billing for that worker throughout the assignment, the move does not happen for free: the terms of business set out a conversion fee the client owes on top of whatever margin the agency has already collected.
The fee is distinct from a standard permanent placement fee, which is calculated once, at the point of hire, against the candidate's starting salary. Conversion fees instead usually sit on a scale that reduces the longer the temp has already worked the assignment, since every week already billed has already returned some margin to the agency. The exact scale, and where it lands to zero, varies by agency and by jurisdiction. It is set out in the terms of business alongside the standard permanent fee, not invented after the fact.
A conversion fee is not a penalty for a good placement. It is what is left of the fee once the margin already collected has been counted.
Why it matters
A temp or contract desk earns its margin gradually, in the spread between what the client pays and what the worker is paid, for as long as the assignment runs. Without a conversion clause, a client could effectively trial a worker on the agency's book, decide they like them, and hire them directly the moment the assignment allows, taking the agency's investment with them for nothing. The conversion fee is what protects that margin when the relationship ends in a hire rather than in an ongoing booking.
For the consultant, it also reframes a moment that can otherwise look like churn. A client asking to convert a temp is, commercially, a strong signal: they rate the worker enough to want them permanently, and often enough to pay to do it properly rather than risk a dispute. Treated as a pipeline event rather than a loose end, a conversion is a fee owed and, frequently, the opening for a wider permanent conversation with that account.
How boilr handles it
boilr does not set or negotiate the conversion fee scale, that stays part of the terms of business the consultant agreed with the client, but it tracks every temp and contract placement from its start date, so the assignment length that scale is calculated against is never a guess. That record sits in the Company Brain alongside the rest of the account's commercial terms, visible to the whole desk, not just the consultant who made the placement.
When a client's hiring intent shows up first, a permanent req posted for a role a temp already fills, a manager mentioning headcount plans, or a signal that points at the same team, your AI sales employee surfaces it as a buying signal so the consultant can raise the conversion conversation before the client does. Once a conversion happens, it is tracked through the BD pipeline like any other placement, with the new permanent terms recorded from day one.
