When sourcing and engaging agency workers to provide project based services, the resource provided may be engaged by any one the following forms of contractual engagement:

     Agency workers working through independent limited companies/umbrellas;
     Agency workers engaged by Resource Manage

Each of these contractual engagements carries potential risk, from co-employment to legal, regulatory and taxation non-compliance. To minimise HTE’s customer risk exposure, Resource Manage will make sure that every agency worker is 100% compliant by following good industry practice:

     Ensure the right contractual chain: to indemnify clients against the legal responsibility for AWR, and making
      income tax and national insurance contributions
     Non-engagement with managed service companies in order to mitigate the transfer of debt
     Make sure that agency workers either opt-in or opt-out of the employment regulations within their form of
      contract
     Use bespoke contracts for each agency worker to reflect the liability arising from AWR / Equal Treatment and
      IR35 Avoidance.

With the increased risks associated with the Agency Worker Regulations, many of our clients are engaging Resource Manage’s services to leverage the following risk mitigation best practice – achieved through proactive workforce management and care, core activities include:

     The creation of an Agency Worker Charter that outlines the companies approach to worker engagement,
      procedures, systems and work practices to comply with regulations
     Ensure a comparative assessment is undertaken for each role
     Always qualify a candidate’s company-related work history
     Ensure the agency worker handbook details how to access collective facilities and vacancies
     Communicate ‘Day 1’ entitlements as part of the company orientation
     Make sure the same working time entitlements are extended to agency workers
     Develop a cohesive approach to performance assessment across the entire agency worker community
     Train hiring managers: providing briefings on anti-avoidance measures and how to comply with the law

Resource Manage believe that the above work practices will dramatically reduce the risk of potential tribunal claims against clients, specifically where Resource Manage will manage all agency worker issues relating to equal treatment.

In addition to adopting good industry practices; our workforce compliance practices include:

     Furnishing the candidate with comparative benchmarking data with every job description that includes the
      relevant pay scale
     Keeping agency workers informed through transparent tri-party communication between the hirer,
      agency/intermediary and worker
     Monitoring and tracking each agency worker’s 12 (twelve) week qualifying period
     Tracking and inspecting all ‘11 week’ hiring activity
     Making sure hiring managers qualify all ‘job changes’
     Ensuring agency workers take the annual leave they are entitled to
     Ensuring annual pay increments are also applied to agency workers
     Collaboratively working with clients to undertake ‘as-if’ equal treatment audits.

Our recruitment and workforce management service extends to help clients undertake ongoing reviews of their staffing needs and to evaluate where agency labour can be engaged most effectively and economically. Once agency workers are hired, we work in consultation with clients to regularly audit worker terms and pay rates by skill set - aligning rates across the client’s supply chain, with specific focus on identifying pay and holiday entitlement differentials and reviewing and aligning information flows.

Resource Manage firmly believe that the provision of support whilst an agency worker is on assignment is as important as the initial workforce engagement at their point of hire. To ensure close workforce management is carried out over the length of their contract, each agency worker is assigned a single point of contact within the Agency Worker Compliance Team – whose responsibilities include monitoring and tracking each agency worker’s ‘equal treatment’.

A compliance management system is employed, that incorporates an ‘AWR Tracker’ to monitor and escalate any potential liability issues before they are encountered - A system that supports compliance management processes including document control, audit and corrective/preventive action. Real-time compliance alerts flag any potential risk exposure and reports regulatory breeches in the areas of:

     Non-provision of regular comparator information that covers company specific: basic pay, overtime payments,
      shift allowances, performance based bonuses, working time, annual leave entitlement, communal facilities and
      current vacancies
     Non-issue of AWR communications to workers: the agency worker charter, handbook, company orientation
      briefing (‘Day 1’ entitlements), and the agency worker’s role specific collaborative assessment data
     Highlights all breaks in the ‘12 week’ qualifying clock
     Identifies anti-avoidance measures; the rotation of agency workers by intentionally terminating contracts
      at week 11
     Identifies any unqualified job changes
     Tracks performance reviews, assessments and bonus payments
     Timely responses to agency worker information requests; ensuring responses are received within 28 days.

Working in collaboration with clients a rolling programme of ‘as-if’ equal treatment audits underpin the effectiveness of the AWR compliance management process to ensure that all recruitment practices stay compliant with the law.