Glossary

What is right-to-represent?

A right-to-represent (RTR) is a consultant’s written permission for one specific vendor to submit them to one specific requirement, preventing duplicate submissions through competing chains.

Also written: RTR · Right to represent

Why does an RTR exist?

Because layering makes duplicate submission easy and expensive. One requirement can reach a consultant through several vendor chains at once. If two vendors submit the same person to the same end client, the client usually disqualifies the candidate outright rather than adjudicating which vendor was first.

The RTR is the paperwork that prevents it: the consultant confirms in writing, per role, which vendor is representing them.

What does an RTR actually contain?

At minimum: the consultant’s name and consent, the end client, the specific requirement or job title, the vendor being authorised, the rate agreed, and a date. Some also carry an expiry, after which the consultant is free to be represented elsewhere for that role.

How is it enforced operationally?

On a manual desk, by memory and a spreadsheet — which is why collisions happen. Enforced properly, it is a per-route lock: once a consultant has an RTR for a role through one vendor, no other route can carry them for that same role until the RTR lapses.

That is only possible if duplicate copies of the requirement are collapsed into one canonical job first. If twelve vendor blasts are twelve separate records, there is nothing for the lock to attach to.


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