How We Work
The Sign-Up Process
Wouldn’t it be awkward if your future client-side team behaved like ‘typical’ suppliers, at the signup stage?
That is why the ethos behind our customer-engagement process is to always be on YOUR side even at the commercially-sensitive stage of negotiating a contract with you.
How we do it?
Simple! By living our values of alignment, trust, balance and authenticity right from the word go.
When you negotiate with us, you will find:
- No resistance from us on limitation of liability. If we are insured for it, you can have it. We are confident you won’t ever need to use it.
- You won’t be asked to pay anything more than what we charge other Government clients. For us, the Government is ONE customer.
- You grossly OVER-estimated the time you allocated for contract negotiations with us. We reserve our energy for delivering services to you.
The Service You Will Receive
Our Approach to IR35
We believe that IR35 defensibility does not rise to the level of your contract. It falls to the level of your working practices.
Safe-Engage is our range of light-weight measures and processes that we help put in place with you, the client and our associates, to ensure that your working practices match your IR35-safe contract.
With Our Safe-Engage process, you will benefit from:
1) Developing a strong evidence base that substitution was not just talked about in contracts, but also intended and planned for.
2) The option of contracting our associates on a fixed price - and yet achieving value for money will be commensurate with actual effort.
Although we prefer to recruit for outside-IR35 roles, we do work inside-IR35 as well. If you have internal compliance constraints, please get in contact as we can get good quality inside-IR35 people too.
Want To Work Work With Us But Need A Chat?
More Info On Our Working Practices
Are you serious about briefs taking only 10 minutes?
Yes! Unlike recruiters who know little about technology, we are digital transformation practitioners who are experts at recruiting. With an extensive experience of working on transformation programmes, we can predict job descriptions based on the skills you need and the stage your programme is at. Our working practices ensure that briefing conversations are kept short and simple.
For instance, if you were looking for a data migration consultant a couple of months pre Go-Live, we can predict a few things: You possibly need a resource with great cutover skills and you are less concerned about extraction - but more on transform and load. Therefore, someone with knowledge of challenges in reconciliation and time-saving ideas around assuring accuracy is what you are really after.
We source candidates based on that advanced knowledge of what our clients need. Reading between the lines, we don’t necessarily require our clients to spell it out for us. That’s one reason why over 90% of our clients choose a consultant from the first 3 that we propose.
What do you mean by a 24/7 talent funnel?
Here’s what we know about outstanding contract talent. They are almost NEVER in the job market looking for a job. Week-long recruitment campaigns are therefore largely ineffective.
Our approach is to create awareness in external talent pools 24/7 – through your programme’s own website and (if it helps) it's own social media handle. By always remaining open, we are building up a pool of people not just with the right skills, but also with a genuine interest in your organisation.
Because we have pre-vetted a number of people before you actually need a resource, we are almost always able to turn around a formidable shortlist within only 3 days of your brief.
How do you ensure “right first-time hires”?
Interim recruitment can be very fast-paced. Many of our interims get hired over our 30-minute coffee chats. Whilst we take it as a compliment that clients trust our shortlisting so much, we think it provides limited assurance that our candidates will get along with all your programme stakeholders. We pride ourselves on the percentage of consultants who stay the course with our clients and are also extended often repeatedly. However, we continually strive to improve our working practices and that percentage even further.
We encourage our clients to complement their interviewing with pre-assessments: a combination of behavioural, cognitive, and task-based tests. We are also now able to use relationship predictor tools that allow you to see in advance how a prospective candidate might get along with some of their key stakeholders – even if they haven’t met each other during the interview process. It is a tool that we have used within our organisation and it is unbelievably accurate.
We think most agencies offer poor value for money. Are you any different?
We strive to offer a full service - from configuring and assembling to optimising your client-side team. Several aspects of our service run beyond the initial search. This includes management of your 24/7 talent funnel, mediating in any disputes and performance concerns, and ensuring that you suffer no loss of service in the unlikely event that you would like a resource replaced. Our monthly reporting is also tailored to your needs, to minimise administration at your end.
Is this Contingent Labour in disguise?
No. Whilst we predominantly rely on contract talent, our nature of engagement is purely for a service; not for bodies. We have several strategies to ensure that the relationship stays on the right side of IR35. Our approaches have been covered in CIPD, Personnel Today and Accountancy Age. You are in safe hands when it comes to IR35 compliance. Please see our Press page for more details. Do not hesitate to contact us for a pre-engagement to understand this better.
Do you have a sustainability policy?
Yes. Each year, we set ambitious environmental and social responsibility targets, and we are pleased to say that in 2020 we drove ourselves even further to create a more sustainable world. Please see our 2020 Sustainability Report and UN SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) Integration in Business for more details.
Our Pricing
If you have dealt with interim agencies before, you are probably used to paying margins upwards of 12%. In return, you probably get nothing more than search campaigns & contractor introductions. We don’t think this is a fair exchange for you.
With us, you won’t pay a penny more than ‘typical’ agency margins. In return, you get a much more involved service – that is geared to build not an assortment of contractors, but truly a Dream Team you will be proud of.
Because we see all of Government as ONE customer, you will also not pay anything more than what we charge other Government customers.
Contact Us for a pre-market engagement survey to know more.