UK companies hiring onsite contractors have historically been forced to pay hefty recruitment fees but many are now set to save hundreds of thousands pounds (and larger companies millions of pounds) on their annual recruitment budget, following the launch of a new recruitment platform called Elevate Direct.
In the past, to hire a contractor has meant having to involve a recruitment agent, with the cost for hiring far exceeding other similar broker-agency industries. Typically, the cost of contractor recruitment in the UK has been between 15% and 30% of total contract. But now Elevate (www.elevatedirect.com) is promising to reduce this to just 4% of contract value.
With the total value of contracts handed out by UK industry standing at an estimated £100 billion (according to recent research by the PCG – the professional association for contractors), companies are now in a position to slash their recruitment bills[1].
Elevate, the London based tech-start up, was founded by three experienced recruitment and technology professionals, Dan Collier, James Murphy and Michael Delaney. They worked out a way to cut the intermediary in the recruitment process by taking it online into a secure brokerage environment where contractors are directly matched to companies looking for them.
Since the online exchange went live in the summer of 2012, global companies such as Tata Consultancy Services which recruits hundreds of contractors each year, have signed up. TATA is expecting to save an average of £500-£1000 per month per person hired. In addition SMEs such as NMQA have started using Elevate as well as Start-ups including eWowBooks, which publishes online books, and Kusiri - a data platform which has changed how developers use data.
How it works/ the benefits
- Contractors create detailed profiles on Elevate, including their real-time availability and cost, CV history, education, skills and qualifications. Companies with live requirements can then search for contractors and contact them with details of relevant contract opportunities through the platform. Because of the systemic and consistent format, companies are able to make clear comparisons when seeking the right contractor for the job.
- Elevate stores and manages all the engagement aspects of the process, arranging interviews, offers and time-sheeting post hire.
- The platform can also offer payment services through a partnership with a leading payroll firm and built in time–sheeting and management functionality.
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There is no temporary work agency involved in the process and the contractor is not an agency worker, so companies can mitigate against the risk of the Agency Workers Regulations
[1] An average day rate for a professional white collar worker, such as an IT professional, Surveyor, Oil/Gas Engineer, Accountant, Management Consultant -£400 ( this is a conservative rate; a lot higher in some instances) – average current agency margin of 15% = a fee of £60, or x 220 work days per year = £13,200 in agency fees. Sourcing the same person through Elevate = an annual cost of £3520 or a saving of £9680. That’s for one head per year. So a small business who hires an average of 10 interim/contractors per year could be looking at saving almost £100,000. A much larger company will often hire hundreds of contractors each year, so can expect to save millions of pounds on their recruitment budget by using Elevate.
