Discover how companies like yours have reduced their staffing procurement risk

A failure to manage risks leaves your organisation vulnerable to reputational damage and disputes, not to mention the threat posed to service performance and diminishing profit margins. When it comes to a large spend area like staffing this is particularly concerning.

Risk and mitigation with Hays Talent Solutions

As high profile corporate court cases and big fines hit the headlines regulations in financial services and staffing have grown more complex. Juggling increasingly burdensome compliance tasks, whilst supporting strategic organisational objectives, is more difficult than ever before for our banking businesses.

Having worked in partnership with an international investment bank to manage their non-permanent workforce since 2004 we have found whilst cost and time to hire are the hallmarks of success of any contingent workforce programme, the benefits of the peace of mind around compliance and risk are invaluable.

From papers to processes

When they came to us they were managing one of the largest contractor populations in London with little more than spreadsheets and email. Today they enjoy a multi-national managed service programme, and all the associated efficiencies and service improvements that drive high customer satisfaction and savings, this brings.

Most importantly, we have eradicated a substantial risk to the financial services firm by ensuring a common standard of screening and vetting. We don’t just ensure all necessary compliance checks are complete, but we confirm physical and logical access, which is key in such a tightly regulated market.

It’s in the detail

It may sound overly simple, but to reassure the right checks have been completed we don’t just rely on the powers of technology. Our dedicated client team complete what we like to call a ‘4 eyes’ review, where two independent team members confirm relevant background checks, such as education, criminal and credit checks, professional qualification and employment history can be evidenced.

Our processes, communications and training stipulate what is acceptable forms of evidence and the detail these must go into. From requiring two years of reference history and CVs that cover the last 10 years of employment history, with any gaps over 6 months explained, to stating if a candidate has lived outside of the UK for a period of three months or more, international criminal and credit checks must be completed.

Onboarding websites, careers packs and contacts guide workers through what they need to complete, what to expect and who to contact, to keep them engaged and informed as to why we need the level of detail we do.

Whilst our operations manuals formalise and outline agreed processes, best practice documentation, service level agreements and key performance indications for the day to day delivery, so hiring managers and candidates alike receive a consistent and through service.

More than just those you see in the office

Thanks to our international network of offices we not only offer global reach and local knowledge, but we can centralise certain processes that don’t need daily in person client interaction, to ensure best practice, tools, resource and knowledge is shared between our client teams.

For example, to remove the administration burden from the on-site team and to enhance the candidate experience at every stage of the engagement, we have established a Contractor Care team dedicated solely to the multi-national investment bank at our Leicester International Sourcing Centre. Who were located and supported by other similar subject matter experts working for other clients.

In addition, a contract monitoring workbook is verified and maintained by our central team, outlining risks and contractual obligations to provide an additional central line of governance. This is supported by six monthly audits to ensure the process is fit for purpose, resourced appropriately and being followed.

Staying ahead of the game

Reducing risk doesn’t stand still, and requires continuous improvement. So in addition we provide market intelligence and insight into trends and regulations impacting them, and our programme health checks include:

• Leadership interviews to ensure we understand the strategic vision to identify new areas we need to monitor;
• Best practice questionnaires to benchmark the end-to-end process against others in similar industries and locations
• Service user and supplier surveys to gain first-hand experience of what really happens, and;
• Data audits to collate a holistic review of all activities
   

Having weathered a global recession and numerous local regulatory changes to endure for more than a decade the service has had to constantly re-evaluate and, occasionally, reinvent itself to remain compliant and competitive, and no matter your programme maturity this contract has taught us you can never rest on your laurels when it comes to reducing risk.

SOW to save the day

Not a day goes by that data regulation isn’t big global news. Data might be big business, but it’s also a big risk. So when one of our clients, in one of the most highly regulated industries in the world, undertook an upgrade of the HR platform, where all the personal and employment data was held, which also happened to control the physical and logical access controls, it was not a project to be taken lightly.

As the project progressed a requirement for a global cleanse was identified. The catch? It would need to completed on the weekend prior to Monday go live, in just four weeks’ time. Plus there would be an additional query resolution service, required from go live for a four week period.

The size of the task was outside of the scope of the internal project headcount and would need to be outsourced.

As the onsite MSP the Hays team were contacted to “brainstorm” a potential solution before outsourcing to an IT outsource vendor. Through discussions it became clear the Hays onsite team could deliver this project as an extended scope of the service under a separate SOW contract, much more competitively and avoid any project delays.

The Hays solution was to provide a fully screened, tested, assessed and vetted team of Data Cleansers, paid on a project completion basis and managed via Hays supervisors, invoiced via consolidated invoicing.

The result

Outstanding productivity levels and Hays ability to support the project globally led to the project being replicated for the international investment bank around the world.