100% vacancy fulfilment at top University

The use of agency staffing services across the university was complex and fragmented. The lack of coordinated compliance governance and cost management created opportunities for a more effective way of managing recruitment activity.

With variable spend patterns on staffing arrangements and the high volume of agency staff payroll and invoices to manage, processes were time-consuming and prone to human error. There were risks of non-compliance to IR35 regulations and Right to Work checks owing to the different approaches each department used to procure and manage their staffing agency services.

The University decided to implement a Managed Service for its contingent workforce needs, and following a competitive tender process awarded the contract to Tate as the Managed Service Provider (MSP) to supply contingent staff, deliver cost savings across the University, and standardise pay.

Implementation started in early 2020, and the delivery team were asked to support the University earlier than the planned go-live date. This was due to high recruitment demands across various faculties due to external pressures, i.e. touchpoint cleaning, student catering, customer service support, and various remote administrative roles to assist day-to-day operations.

The implementation of the contract was complex including a new hiring process launched to 11 departments and 250+ staff with a new vacancy approval process to ensure cost and quality controls were in place from day one.

As part of the launch of the new Managed Service, the dedicated Tate Account Team met with the 11 faculties and Professional Service departments via webinars and meetings to launch the new hiring process. To monitor feedback Tate implemented satisfaction surveys for hiring managers and candidates to share and promote ideas for ongoing development.

One of our key success stories is our stringent compliance management with IR35 and Right to Work regulations. We take full responsibility and have robust systems in place to manage these processes effectively. We met with all suppliers interested in being on the preferred supplier list (PSL) to understand their historic and current relationships, areas of strength and niche specialisms. We then engaged the very best suppliers onto a partnership programme to support the University’s full breadth of job roles.

During the early stages of this partnership, invoicing was a critical part of the implementation of the Managed Service. We worked with the University’s Accounts Payable team to establish a workflow that accommodated their systems, while providing hiring managers with the visibility they needed over current and projected spend per department.