Agency Workers Regulations and business services

The Business Services industry paints a less gloomy picture than most sectors, with reported gains within the industry.

The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) stated:  “Business Services and IT & Computing registered the steepest gains in activity.”

This clearly outlines an improvement within the sector, yet there are still reasons to remain cautious as the CIPS commented further: “Business Services and IT & Computing are looking pretty upbeat but it remains to be seen whether nerves about difficult economic conditions in the US and Eurozone will start to have a greater impact on demand.”

The industry news is surprising but it may be too early to expect a full recovery or business confidence to be completely revived, especially with the Agency Workers Regulations soon to be implemented.

Using data from our clients we can see that temporary agency workers within business services have the joint highest average number of weeks worked, at more than twice the Agency Workers Regulations qualifying period. So, not only do those in the sector need to find the most cost effective solution - whether that is speeding up their attrition rate, or investing in their temporary agency staff by giving them parity - they will also need a system which tracks when a worker is reaching the end of their qualifying period.

What makes this system even more imperative is that in some cases temporary agency  workers work  at various different locations, this will not reset the qualifying period so tracking them will ensure there is no risk of litigation.

If you want any help or advice about the Agency Workers Regulations contact us or take a look at our downloads page.