Ensuring Brand & Legal Compliance with your Recruitment Agencies

For large employers, it is common to use numerous recruitment agencies to manage their temporary and/or permanent workforce. It's important to note that these agencies are representing their brand, and therefore should be in regular communication and synonymous with their business and brand culture when advertising vacancies on their behalf.

If managed incorrectly, the end client may be at risk of significantly diluting and damaging their brand, and may start to slowly lose control of the way that their brand is portrayed. So, once there is a clearly defined employee and candidate attraction structure in place, this also has to be communicated regularly to all suppliers as it is updated. 

But, how can companies ensure that their agencies are compliant with their brand guidelines?

1: Manage this process internally – this would involve direct and regular communications including auditing your agencies. Dependant on the number of agencies involved, this could mean a dedicated person or team to educate, train and audit.

2: Outsource the audit process – arrange an external audit with an RPO agency management specialist who will visit each supplier, audit them, and report back any non-conformances.

An RPO supplier will also be able to report back on the following areas:

a:) Pre-employment checks and candidate registration forms

Checking candidate registration documents against which include areas such as 48-hour working and unspent convictions including checks on the date that the forms were completed.

b:) Employment terms and conditions

Ensuring all workers have signed employment terms and conditions that are appropriate to the way in which they have been engaged, via an employment business.

 c:) Payslip checks

Checking payslips for each worker to ensure that workers are being paid the National Minimum/Living Wage or in line with the market rate for their role. Viewing the payslip also enables confirmation of the type of scheme a worker is being paid through and whether or not this is compliant and appropriate for the type of work being undertaken.

d:) Right to Work documentation

It is a legal requirement to make appropriate Right to Work checks in line with UK Visa and Immigration guidelines. All Right to Work documents (such as passports and birth certificates) should be held on file and have easy access.

3: Appoint an RPO outsourcing specialist – If you are a high-volume employer that uses multiple agencies from across the country, then a recruitment process outsourcing specialist (RPO) will be able to standardise the engagement experience to ensure agency workers view your business in a positive light, and have the best possible experience consistent with your own brand values.

An RPO agency will also be able to deliver many more benefits which include:

• Online management of the entire recruitment process, from order to invoice, that deliver real-time management information and reporting across your entire business

• Measurement of agencies through tailored Service Level Agreements, quarterly reviews and feedback, and benchmark their performance against the supply chain

• Systems to manage Rights to Work in the UK and tenure, in line with Agency Workers Regulations. This also includes audit agencies and agency worker records every six months

• Direct cost savings of between 6% and 12% for temporary labour and up to 35% for permanent, by standardising pay rates and margins and stopping overcharging on Employers National Insurance and Holiday Pay

• Agencies based on your existing suppliers, taking into account process, financial stability, geographic capability and legal compliance. If there is a lack of suppliers, we suggest new ones we trust

• Standardise engagement experience to ensure agency workers view your business in a positive light, and have the best possible experience, consistent with your own brand values

Need an immediate audit on your agencies? 

Download our Audit Service pack or contact us and arrange a free consultation meeting

About Datum RPO

Datum RPO are experts in recruitment process outsourcing and handle the entire recruitment process for some of the UK’s biggest companies.

As experts in procuring and managing temporary and contract agency labour, we provide a complete RPO service that helps our customers become more efficient, whilst delivering savings of up to 12% on existing spend.

Find out more about the Datum RPO difference at www.datumrpo.com