Posts Tagged ‘case study’

On Tuesday 6 April the Equality Bill passed its final stage in Parliament meaning that it will become law in October 2010.   This latest Bill is likely to affect all businesses in some form or another so it’s probably worth making preparations soon.  The Bill will bring about a number of changes including:

1. Gender Pay Gap Audits: Meaning companies with 100 or more employees will have to report their gender pay gap from 2013.
   
2. Ban on pre-employment health questionnaires: Job applicants with existing health problems or mental-health issues will not be required to disclose this to potential employers unless it directly affects their ability to perform their duties.
3. Ban on discrimination by association: This will encompass the 2008 European Court of Justice’s ruling in Coleman v Attridge Law where legal secretary Sharon Coleman made a claim for harassment and discrimination after requesting time off to care for her disabled son.
4. Positive action in recruitment and promotion: This will enable employers to show favour to minority groups during recruitment or promotion process where they are up against candidates of the same calibre from groups that are already well-represented within the workforce.
5. Single equality duty (from April 2011): This will consolidate all equality law including that covering race, gender and disability, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity, and gender reassignment, into one single duty.
6. Guidance on protected beliefs: This plans to give the same level of protection to vegans, atheists and Scientologists as religious groups.
7. Diversity in procurement: Means that private sector firms bidding for government contracts will have to publish their diversity policies publicly.  Goverment organisations will not be able to force diversity policies on private sector firms but will be able to hold them to account over their published policies.
8. Bans on workers discussing pay to be lifted: This is intended to remove secrecy clauses over pay from employment contracts so women are able to more easily challenge differences in pay.
9. Enhanced tribunal powers: This will see a change from the current situation where tribunals can only make recommendations to allowing tribunals the power to force sweeping changes in policy and process in companies found guilty of discrimination.
10. Caste discrimination: This is intended to tackle issues with discrimination against caste or social standing within Hindu and Sikh communities if it is noted to be a problem.

The Sunday 30 November issue of the The Sunday Times contained a supplement on Recruitment Outsourcing and examined the case for and against recruitment outsourcing for SME companies.  As well as looking at the providers in the SME Recruitment Outsourcing space, it covered a case study of how Centrix Software, one of Igloo’s clients, has found success with Igloo RPO’s service.

Below are the key highlights of the article:

Igloo RPO is a small consultancy that specialises in SMEs. Louise Whitehead, managing director, says: “We work for organisations with head counts up to 250 and have worked for one with only five staff. We provide people on site as and when required.” The company handles the hiring of everybody from financial directors to receptionists. “We often do the foundation work for the position, from writing the job description to advising on the salary and conditions.” Igloo’s charges average about 12.5% of the base salary per hire.

Whitehead advises SMEs to concentrate on ascertaining whether an RO firm understands their particular markets. “Don’t be afraid to ask about the experience of the team and get client references. Understand how they will work for you. Will the account manager look after you or will it be someone else?” Also, with an SME, the RO staff will need to be comfortable working with senior management, whereas with big organisations they may liaise only with lower-level executives.

Lightening the load

“We’re saving about 8%* of the recruitment costs per hire,” reports Jon Fuller, co-founder of Centrix, a management consultancy and software company with about 100 staff. It decided to outsource recruitment to Igloo RPO about 18 months ago.

“We had used agencies and our own staff before we decided we needed something quite different,” says Fuller. “We need a range of people from sales managers to software experts. Recruiting is a long process.”

Igloo visits the Centrix offices in Newbury, Berkshire, about once a fortnight, more if needed, and is involved in all stages of the process, sourcing candidates and managing any recruitment agencies that may be hired.

Fuller says: “Igloo has a web management process that we can use to keep track of the jobs. It uses agencies for only about 5% of hires, negotiates their fees and charges 1% on top of their finder’s fee for managing them.”
Outsourcing has worked well for Centrix, he says. “We have one full-time and one part-time HR person. Now they can concentrate fully on training and career management.”

To read the full Sunday Times Article please click here.

*The 8% refers to a reduction in the average placement fee from 20% to 12.5% of base salary