Case Study | Group Temporary Workforce Audit
Service: Temporary Workforce Audit
Collective Headcount: 750
Location: Multiple sites across the UK
The Challenge
The largest Group of its kind in the UK, our client owns over 20 businesses within its collective portfolio. Regular utilisation of temporary workers is high across many of the businesses but without centralised, consistent processes for engaging and managing temporary workers, resulting in lack of visibility or control, the Group had no means of governing or categorising this population of workers.
As a result, the Group understandably had concerns about the potential for penalties related to non-compliance with applicable employment legislation, as well the true cost of temporary worker utilisation.
The Solution
We were engaged to undertake a sample Temporary Workforce Audit across five of their businesses. The purpose of the audit was to:
- Map the current, end to end process for managing temporary workers in each business
- Ascertain any risks to both individual businesses and the Group
- Identify opportunities to improve processes
- Provide recommendations on how to mitigate any identified risks, through improved governance and controls in order to keep the Group safe
The Findings
During the audit, our temporary workforce subject matter experts:
- Identified and categorised 500 temporary workers including Day Rate Contractors, Temps, Fixed Term Contractors, Zero Hour Workers
- Assessed compliance for each worker against regulations as per their categorisation including a review of all available documentation and data per worker
- Reviewed all working practices and processes used by each business from initial recruitment through to onboarding, screening, deployment, payroll and timesheet and exit management
- Evaluated all related policies and documentation (ie contracts)
- Audited external recruitment and temp agency agreements
The Results
Upon the completion of the audit, the client was provided with:
- A populated Temporary Workers Report which documented key information about each worker, providing visibility, classification and essential data points
- A gap analysis report, overlaid onto the above to provide the client with visibility of all missing information, documentation and data which should have been in place. In total, 350+ instances of missing documentation were identified – many of these were related to incorrect completion of DBS and Right To Work checks
- A comprehensive report documenting key findings including the actual number of temporary workers, the true cost to the business of these workers, variances across processes, risks to the Group, and the recommended remedial actions required, both on a business by business basis, plus rolled into a Group wide summary
- Recommended, practical ‘to-be’ processes for the engagement and management of temporary workers which would comply with relevant legislation
The Conclusion
As a result of the audit, our client received the information they needed to:
- Conduct remedial activities to ensure the engagement of their existing temporary workforce would be compliant in line with all applicable legislation
- Establish improved governance controls and processes to ensure future utilisation would be compliant, more efficient and visibility would be improved
- Immediately reduce spend through the introduction of more robust due diligence checks