We consider it our obligation to help safeguard our customers’ reputational, financial and contractual wellbeing. As such we consider it essential to have a thorough understanding of the conditions and pressures our clients operate under by keeping abreast of legislation, practices and developments within their sector, and to evolve our processes and activities to reflect the changing needs of our customers.

CSP is unique in that we guarantee compliance and protect our clients against the two main legislative threats to agency users – claims in relation to the Agency Workers’ Regulations and prosecution in relation to eligibility to work in the UK. Where a client offers us exclusive supply of temporary workers, we will provide total indemnity against any liabilities or fines resulting from ineligible workers or AWR transgressions, subject to Terms & Conditions.

To prevent our clients incurring vicarious liabilities and negative PR, our recruitment, selection and management of workers is key. All aspects of our process are auditable and our CIPD, CITB and REC qualified personnel review our interview questions to ensure they are fair, objective and measurable.

The process includes the following practices:

Document Process & Compliance Checks

• Proof of ID and NI number – verified by UComply™
• Eligibility to work in the UK with Home Office List A and List B
• An active player in the Stronger Together Anti-Modern Slavery programme. We check passport possession, cross-reference bank accounts and multiple occupancy residency. Our consultants are fully trained in identifying illegal gang master activity
• Work history checks
• Declaration of unspent criminal convictions
• Voluntary 48-hour WTR waiver if desired
• Forklift licence checks prior to placement and periodically throughout assignment
• All checks and data security are fully compliant with GDPR regulations

Management and Administration

• Terms of Engagement are regularly updated to comply with current legislation and case law
• Holiday pay, SSP/SMP/SPP in accordance with AWR and employment legislation
• Pension auto-enrolment
• No charges to workers such as PPE affecting NMW or NLW thresholds
• Biometric timekeeping to avoid fraud
• Workers directly engaged on Annualised Hours contracts where viable
• Regular worker surgeries providing assistance with rental agreements, tax issues, benefits claims, etc.
• External employment contracts audited in the case of TUPE transfer from incumbent agency
• Client contracts with outgoing agencies audited to avoid consequential liabilities for the client
• An active member of the ‘Stronger Together’ Modern Slavery and Ethical Trading (ETI) initiatives, we ensure sufficient knowledge of our clients’ Customer Codes of Practice, Equality & Diversity and Bullying & Harassment policies
• Workers carefully screened for suitability, reliability and adaptability, undergoing appropriate testing as specified by our clients, such as skills & aptitude testing, substance testing, etc.
• Written job details for each worker prior to deployment
• AWR monitoring and compliance, establish comparators, etc.

Health & Safety

We co-operate and integrate with our clients within their programmes and initiatives in:

• HACCP & TACCP knowledge & implementation
• COSHH
• Food Safety & Hygiene education and testing (Sedex-approved)
• Skills Testing: assessment of appropriate skills and aptitude. Standard competency-based interviewing and testing includes (where appropriate to the customer and the role):
  • Language skills and Basic numeracy
  • Dexterity
  • Colour-blindness
• For skilled and semi-skilled roles, we provide tailored competency-based interviews and bespoke skills testing in consultation with our customer

Induction

Full briefing provided to ensure the candidate understands their duties and responsibilities. All recruiting Consultants spend time onsite, job shadowing, so they are able to brief accurately and answer candidate questions. Induction is industry-sector specific and developed in co-operation with each of our customers, delivered in two key stages (sample content below):

Offsite Induction

• Terms & conditions (including pay, Holiday pay, pension, benefits, timesheet process, parental leave, sickness/absence reporting, timekeeping, queries, etc.)
• Client site rules and procedures (e.g. Hierarchy, Health & Safety, Equality & Diversity, Conduct, Alcohol/Recreational Drugs, Smoking, etc.)
• Targets and performance management
• Appearance and hygiene
• Guide to Assignment
• Onsite induction
• Site tour and orientation
• Health & Safety, Hygiene, PPE
• Manual handling
• Industry and/or Customer-specific modules
• Work Trial
• Biometric attendance recording preparation

Performance Management

• Feedback/mentoring/escalation in compliance with customer-defined expectations, including disciplinary process to avoid wrongful dismissal claims.