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The recruitment industry has faced some serious challenges over the last few years – first there was Brexit, then the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, and after that came the Great Resignation, all leading to a fiercely competitive recruitment market, with recruiters having to work smarter as well as harder. Here we look at how, by outsourcing one crucial aspect of your recruitment business, payroll, you can not only help your contractors but also improve your own business’s prospects of success.

Difficulties

According to a report from the British Chambers of Commerce one-in-eight businesses said that they were experiencing difficulties recruiting the right talent – with the hospitality, manufacturing and construction sectors particularly badly hit. This not only impacts the UK economy, but exacerbates other issues that businesses are facing at the moment – the rising cost of energy, high interest rates, and lower-than-expected sales. 

These factors naturally have a knock-on effect on the recruitment industry which, despite its best efforts, is finding itself under pressure from all sides. What, then, if there was a way of alleviating the most onerous, costly and time-consuming of an agency’s tasks, payroll, so that under-pressure recruitment agents can concentrate on their core activities – filling vacancies with people who need and want to work?

Why outsource payroll?

In response to the challenges that they face, many recruitment agencies are looking to save money – either by downsizing or by making more effective use of the resources that they already have available. 

Outsourcing payroll functions can help recruitment agencies that don’t have the in-house capacity to process payroll themselves, or those who are expanding and wish to focus on their recruitment activities, rather than back-office functions. It can reduce the time spent on ensuring that contractors get paid and it can help an agency remain compliant with tax and employment law. Furthermore it reduces the investment on expensive and complex payroll software and eliminates necessary but routine time-sensitive tasks.

The benefits of outsourced payroll

Outsourcing a recruitment agency’s payroll has many benefits including:

• Reducing costs – start-ups and SMEs need to have a tight grip on their budget, and a fully-fitted payroll department may be the one thing they can function without in terms of cost benefits when they’re looking to concentrate on recruitment activities. Even larger recruitment agencies may be looking to make efficiencies in these cash-strapped times. Outsourcing payroll means that you can eliminate the cost of a payroll department, and the highly-qualified, and expensive, personnel needed to run it. Money can also be saved on investment into costly equipment and software. 

• Saving time – not only can outsourced payroll get your contractors paid speedily and efficiently, but your back office staff will also save time that can usefully be spent concentrating on growing your business and ensuring that you give contractors and end-client your full attention.

• Staying compliant – a crucial aspect of any recruiter’s business, compliance can be difficult to navigate in the light of constantly-changing legislation. An outsourced payroll provider takes care of every aspect of compliance on your behalf, so you don’t have to worry about PAYE in the form of Tax and National Insurance contributions. And when there’s a change to the law, that will be dealt with on your behalf too, allowing you complete peace of mind and helping you avoid costly penalties if you get it wrong.

In these days of belt-tightening and maximising the resources that you already have, an outsourced payroll solution may provide your recruitment agency with the most cost-effective and efficient means of ensuring that your contractors get paid on time, every time, and guaranteeing that you stay compliant.

If you’d like more information about the payroll services that we offer call us on 0333 200 0845, email us at [email protected], or fill in the contact form here.