Christmas prep causes a surge in temps as unemployment hits 17year high

Figures reveal retailers have already started preparations for the festive season with a 39% increase in the use of temporary agency workers in September, compared to the same month last year.

The news comes as unemployment figures from the ONS show a sharp rise to a total of 2.57million – the highest for 17 years.

Almost a million of those unemployed are young people as more jobs are being lost in the public sector than are being created in the private sector. Temporary agency work – especially in the retail sector – is a great step for young people to gain work experience and get a foot on the career ladder; so perhaps the government should have more initiatives to educate those out of work in the options they have.

The findings regarding temporary labour show that the business services (13.53%) and manufacturing (8.52%) sectors increased their reliance of temporary agency labour, whereas decreases emerged in care (-24.42%), facilities (-3.61%), logistics (-4.26%) and waste management (-3.03%) sectors.

The value of indirect cost savings

Whilst de Poel reduces direct costs by 6-12%, the service also contributes hugely to indirect recruitment cost savings.

de Poel slashes indirect cost savings by diminishing the administration and invoicing time of using agency workers. For example, in the case of our care client St Annes, we introduced the successful implementation of e-tips® and cut invoices down from 5,000 per year to 52, with vast savings of £175,000.

We also provide the clear visibility of temporary labour spend, so that your organisation is not wasting valuable resources searching through invoice errors or agency spend, a factor that’s instantly visible on e-tips®.

On top of this, with the Agency Workers Regulations now in operation, we have made it easier to Manage the Agency Workers Regulations through e-tips®. We take the hassle out of managing the regulations, so that you have immediate control over the problem.

In summary, de Poel’s neutral vendor solution provides excellent indirect cost savings, through the reduction of administering large quantities of invoices, providing your company with visibility and taking the agitation out of legislation, so your organisation’s resources can be used on other valuable projects.

Employers struggle to find graduates with the right skills

There have been concerns from employers that recent school leavers and graduates do not have the necessary skills they require, especially for small businesses.

This has been confirmed by recent data from the British Chambers of Commerce, who surveyed 2000 companies with less than 10 employees. 55% wanted to increase their staff levels, yet more than half struggled to find the right candidates for their vacancies.

47% of businesses surveyed stated they would be “fairly” or “very nervous” that a-level school leavers would not have the skills required, whilst only 22% said they would be “fairly” or “very confident” in these candidates. Only a third said they would be confident in graduates, which was not a particularly convincing figure.

Director of policy at BCC, Andy Marshall said: “There is a real mismatch between business needs and local skills supply, with many businesses unable to find school-leavers or even graduates with the right mix of skills,” he said.

With tuition fees vastly increasing, it’s debated whether educational institutions suitably prepare their students with the necessary skills for the workplace, or leave a huge jump from academic studies to work.

Demand for temporary labour continues

January and February saw a marked increase in the use of temporary agency labour, compared to the same period last year.

Over all the use of temps was up 17.8% year on year, indicating that businesses are starting to get back on track and boost productivity.

Some sectors have increased there usage by more than 50% – most notably the construction industry, which expanded temporary staff levels by 184% year on year. The facilities sector grew use by 65%, whilst businesses services were up 54.18%.

Two sectors have slowed down their use of temporary agency workers though: Manufacturing saw -1.35% difference and the care sector -7.34%.

The figures show that confidence is still not high enough for businesses to risk employing permanent staff, and with government cuts continuing it is likely this level of confidence will remain, proving good news for temporary workers.

Breakdown by sector:
–       Construction 184%
–       Facilities +65%
–       Business services +54.18%
–       Retail +21.08%
–       Waste +20.96%
–       Logistics +15.86%.
–       Manufacturing -1.35%
–       Care -7.34

All figures are taken from our electronic invoice and timesheet processing system e-tips®.

New e-tips® functions coming soon!

The Agency Workers Regulations (AWR) is the most substantial shift in the employment of temporary labour in recent years, with profound implications for temporary agency workers, employers and agencies. In response to this change, de Poel is introducing key new features to our e-tips® application.

Temporary agency workers accrue qualifying time after working the same role for the same client, but do not have to be supplied by the same agency. e-tips® will track time accrued by agency workers working via multiple agencies and client locations. Thus uniquely protecting clients from unknown breaches of the AWR. It will also be possible to obtain real-time information as to the amount of qualifying time accrued by a temporary agency worker. e-tips® is the starting point for a client when ascertaining qualifying time and breaks that affect accrual of qualifying time.

To assist agencies to conform to other legislation, such as Right to Work, we have added further functionality that simplifies the recording, ensuring that the correct compliance process has been carried out. This includes a ‘decision tree’ based process that takes the registering agency through the UK Borders Agency process for each candidate entered on e-tips®.

To help clients maintain compliance in relation to due diligence procedures we have introduced reporting functionality on driving licence and endorsement checks, as well as incident reporting to conform in line with internal HR processes.

Some features will be enabled on a client by client basis others will be across all clients.

Some other features launching soon include:

• Incident Reporting (Optional)
• Online Ordering (Optional)
• Compliance items (Optional)
• Mobile interface
• Time and Attendance
• Integrated CRM

Next week’s blogs will explore in more detail how each of these new features can benefit you.