How to leverage your spend through a neutral vendor recruitment provider

The UK's recruitment industry has fluctuated over the past 12 months adjusting to the economic turmoil that hit all industries and organisations large and small. The industry has grown significantly since the 1990's, so too has the varying recruitment solutions that emerged to adapt with the changing needs of organisations and their HR functions. Although it supports a large number of companies, the recruitment industry remains a highly fragmented marketplace, with high staff turnover.

The industry is comprised of thousands of small firms, serving a fairly narrow client base, which make up the lifeblood of the industry. The largest ten firms are unlikely to control more than 15% of the market between them, with no one firm commanding a 5% market share.  A neutral vendor recruitment provider is not a recruitment agency but sits in between a client and a preferred panel of recruitment agencies.  The neutral vendor recruitment solution has appeared an attractive recruitment solution to organisations with large temporary agency spend, working with multiple agencies.

The benefits of using temporary labour via a neutral vendor recruitment provider
UK businesses use and rely so heavily on temporary labour for a number of reasons, the most beneficial of which being its flexibility and responsiveness. By outsourcing their seasonal recruitment requirements, companies can rely on neutral vendor solutions to balance staff across different non-synchronous peaks and troughs in different supply chains. 

Similarly if companies are unable to predict their staff usage and requirements beyond a certain date, using temporary workers makes better commercial sense. Often companies have an urgent need for staff for a limited, specific timescale, for example when experiencing periods of rapid change.  The network of recruitment agencies available to a neutral vendor recruitment provider ensures high fulfilment rates.

In addition to this, many firms simply struggle to find the right staff and approach employment agencies to help them source suitable candidates. Often, organisations prefer to use the services of a neutral vendor solution rather than employing internal resource.

The difficulties of using temporary labour
As the recruitment industry is so fragmented and largely unregulated, organisations that regularly use recruitment agencies are faced with a number of difficulties, if they don't engage with a neutral vendor recruitment provider. 

With numerous suppliers on board and no neutral vendor in operation, companies are often subject to a wide range of fees and terms and conditions, making it an expensive and often challenging area of the business to administer.

Additionally, very few companies have any sort of centralised control or visibility over their use of temporary staff throughout the business without a neutral vendor in place, making it difficult to accurately assess the associated costs and budget for the future. Temporary staff are normally booked by line managers operating independently from individual sites with little or no control centrally.

Within the industry there is also an increasing number of rogue recruitment agencies who do not have the correct procedures, controls and legislations in place. Such agencies can be difficult to identify and manage leaving an organisation legally exposed.  Neutral vendor recruitment providers are normally experts within the industry, their neutrality dictates continual auditing of recruitment agencies to ensure legislative compliance.

For organisations that regularly use a contingent workforce it is important to remain up to date with current employment legislation, a neutral vendor recruitment provider has be aware of current and forthcoming legislation.  

As an industry that relies heavily on the paper-based processing of timesheets and invoices, there is an increased risk of error and inaccuracy. The more recruitment agencies used by a company, without operating with a neutral vendor recruitment provider, the more temporary workers there are and, as a result, the more invoices and timesheets processed.

Neutral vendor recruitment solutions provide a range of benefits, when searching for a neutral vendor recruitment provider ensure they are truly vendor neutral and not aligned to any recruitment agencies.