Are you considering outsourcing your back office processes?

Safe Outsourcing offer payroll, invoicing, credit control, all via an online portal. In these times of economic uncertainty and legislative changes, it can be tricky to always ensure compliance with in-house practices. Outsourcing seems to be falsely feared as a solution within the recruitment marketplace Safe Outsourcing is one of the few that is Safe in name and nature for your career. You retain full control of your payroll processes via our secure web portals. All correspondence is white labelled, so appears to come directly from your in-house resources. By outsourcing to us, you save the physical time calculating, printing, mailing your payroll, allowing you more time to focus on developing your business. By utilising the Safe Outsourcing model, you can rest assured that your payroll will be powered by award winning software made by Safe Computing, the company behind Safe Outsourcing.  

Should your business also be considering funding to bridge the gap between worker payments and client receivables you can even benefit from our preferential rates with our funding partner, Leumi.

Use the links below to register to attend one of our seminars, where you can see our web portals in action and meet our funding partners:

London 27 May

Intellect, Russell Square House, 10-12 Russell Sq, London, WC1B 5EE

http://conta.cc/SafeOutsourcingLondonMay    

Birmingham 17 June

Novotel Birmingham Centre, 70 Broad Street, Birmingham, B1 2HT

http://conta.cc/SafeOutsourcingJune 

London 8 July - extra London date due to popular demand for this location!

Intellect, Russell Square House, 10-12 Russell Sq, London, WC1B 5EE

http://conta.cc/SafeOutsourcingSeminarJuly  

Manchester 14 July

The Swan, Bucklow Hill, Knutsford WA16 6RD

http://conta.cc/SafeOutsourcingManchester   

 Agenda

9.30      Coffees and registration

10.00    Manage your pay and bill processes from the golf course - Our web portals allow you full automation and control from anywhere! 

11.00    Coffees

11.15     Funding and how it can help your business - Leumi ABL

12.15    Close and lunch

Or to find out more now, go to www.safeoutsourcing.co.uk.

Each new tax year brings about a host of changes, and 2011 is no exception.  The 1 April 2011 will see some of the biggest reforms to the UK payroll system in the last 10 years. This will include changes to PAYE, new paternity laws and various tax reforms to name but a few.

Tax

National Insurance and PAYE Service

Pensions

Employer Rights

PAYE Review

Legislation and Change

For many companies, the level of changes will mean obtaining specialist advice to ensure compliance is achieved. Consultations can be costly and time consuming, as can the consequential training that will be required to bring an internal team up to speed with all the new legislation.

Outsourcing offers a comprehensive solution to this problem.

Safe Outsourcing combines market leading technology with market leading expertise, so you can guarantee each year, despite legislative updates, your payroll will run seamlessly and compliantly.

As part of our ongoing commitment to help and advise our clients, Safe Outsourcing in conjunction with ISIS Support Services Ltd has produced a simple document incorporating all the updates that are taking place the 1 April 2011. To view this document please click the following link:

http://www.safeoutsourcing.co.uk/sitefiles/upload_docs/Payroll%20Notes%20publication%20outsourcing%20blog.pdf

Holly Hare-Scott

As most of us in the payroll and human resources (HR) business are aware, the traditional ‘sick note’, otherwise known as a Doctors Medical Certificate, was replace in April this year by the ‘Statement of Fitness for Work’ (Med 3), also known as the ‘fit note’.

This new certificate gives the doctor the opportunity to advise the employee that they are either:

o   unfit for work

o   may be fit for work

The new option of ‘may be fit for work’ means that fewer employees will be ‘signed off’, when they could possibly do some, or all, of their entire job, with support from their employer.

This will mean the employer discussing with the employee:

o   a phased return to work

o   reduced hours

o   amended duties

o   workplace adaption’s

o   a combination of the above

However, the GP’s advice on the fit note is not binding. If the employee or employer does not agree with the fit note’s reasonable adjustments, the employee can remain off sick until the expiry of the fit note.

Good practice is to discuss the issue of pay, particularly where there is no contractual sick pay. However, the employer’s responsibility for Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) will not change. SSP will be still payable under the current rules for a sickness absence of four days or more where the employee meets the qualifying conditions.

If doctor has advised that an employee may be fit for work, it does not automatically mean they can return to work. The employee could remain off sick because the employer is unable to provide the necessary support. The employer should consider the advice on the statement in such a case as, ‘not fit for work’.

The employer and employee will need to consider the financial impact where the employee is supported back to work by reducing their hours, and if an enhanced SSP supplement is paid. Any issue related to this should be discussed with HMRC on 08457 143143.

The introduction of the fit note has not been universally welcomed, as there is concern that GP’s are not occupational health specialists. GPs therefore do not have the knowledge of an individual business, to make recommendations about adaptations to the workplace. From an employer’s perspective, there is also an implication under the DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) of not implementing GP’s advice.

More information can be accessed by logging onto the DWP website http://www.dwp.gov.uk/fitnote/

Your software provider will be best able to offer advice on maintaining any Occupational Sickness Pay schemes you may be operating along with sickness monitoring, which may include workflows, triggers and the Bradford Factor. If you think your current software may not be able to cope with these changes, contact Safe Computing info@safecomputing.co.uk, or visit www.safe-ems.co.uk and www.safe-tempestsuite.co.uk to find out more about our products and services.

By Tamara Pattman and Bonnie Holland

Eddie Young writes ...’A wise man pointed out to me many years ago that for every pound of unnecessary expenditure, it takes two extra pounds of revenue to return it to profit.

Competition has never been greater than in the staffing world. The fight for margin is a tough one, especially where clients hold the upper hand on billing rates. This situation tends to focus the mind of staffing companies on the ‘coalface’ of sales negotiation. With the hope that volume negotiated there, will offset low unit margin. It is the service industry equivalent of ‘pile them high, and sell them cheap’.

Basic bookkeeping teaches that revenue generation is just one half of the equation. Controlling costs is equally important. Many employment businesses find their processes have grown around ‘necessity’, without regard to cost. Volume business, discounted or not, might improve the gross margin but can severely impact the bottom line. Support systems responsible for the processing of the payroll for workers, and the raising of invoices to clients, and cash collection, can struggle to keep up. The solution is all too often an increase in headcount, or squeezing even more commitment out of staff in the middle or back office.

It is time to take a step backwards and regroup.

Firstly, there should be no ‘sacred cows’. Laissez-faire should  absolutely the last option.

Secondly, how much of the additional strain is there on systems which process data the business collects? Could these strains be eased by thinking a little bit smarter? How much of your data is collected and keyed into computer systems multiple times? The days of duplication should be put firmly behind us. Such duplication is not only inefficient, it breeds error.

Thirdly, can the increased efficiency of such a systematic review only benefit your staffing business? Can efficiency also improve the level of service to stakeholders, such as the clients, workers, and suppliers you interact with?

Fourthly, business systems are already available to address the challenges of the modern staffing world. It is not unchartered territory.

Finally, you can bet your bottom dollar that even if you eschew any consideration of change, your competitors probably won’t. Change can be for the better of your business, and can sometimes even put you ahead of the competition.

Go on. Make the change. Feel the benefits!

Hi I’m Eddie Young, and this is the second in a series of blog entries I hope to bring you, exploring some of the burning issues faced by our industry today. In this instalment, I’ll be talking about ways you can cut costs and increase efficiency, both important for survival in our difficult current economic climate.

Clients are savvy these days, you can’t get the most money just by charging the clients more! You have to create efficiencies by reducing procedural costs, while increasing business efficiency. We have developed products to try and assist with these aims. These include timesheets which can be sent to a fax server. Or, we can even help with electronic collection of timesheet data via scanning, web portals, and client timesheet data via spreadsheets. The days of one size fits all are over! You don’t have to have one stakeholder doing all the work. Someone could be doing the inputting remotely, and sending it to you electronically, saving you precious time and resources.

Removing a paper trail is vital. Not only is this vital for saving our planets resources in these increasingly greener days, but also to save time, and reduce margin for error. Electronic timesheets eliminate the time lag between a timesheets completion, authorisation, and processing. Debtor days are reduced, as invoicing can be completed days earlier than the paper based equivalent.

I’m not describing the world of science fiction, this is happening today. Even where some of our clients don’t feel ready for electronic authorisation of timesheets, there is a gentle introduction. The ability to deliver to a worker their timesheet for the week, and print it ‘in the old fashioned way’ once completed, can be achieved electronically. This method is regarded by some of our software users as an introduction to the principle.

I’ll be writing a further few blog entries soon, but would be interesting in hearing your thoughts on these matters or anything else relevant to our industry on info@safecomputing.co.uk!

Hi I’m Eddie Young, and thank you for reading my blog. I want this space to be about the burning issues that face our industry, and this is the first of what I hope to be a series of blog posts.

Employment businesses are increasingly reviewing their relations with clients and workers, in the light of further legislation, coming soon. They are considering the impacts of this legislation in this changing market.

Back in 1998, there was a lot of talk about holiday pay, and a lot was around how to minimise its impact on margins! This view was a reflection of an anticipation, that the agencies were worried they might have to make temps move off their books early! One client was worried they might have to finish a temporary worker, on a Friday, only to restart them on a Monday, to avoid any pitfalls and complications around continuous service!

Thankfully temporary workers are a little more savvy these days, and know they are entitled to the same rights as those in comparable roles, but what are comparable roles? There are no official guidelines from the government on this. Agencies have to agree these with clients, and clients need to agree what they will accept after 12 weeks service, as rates may increase.  People seem to currently have their ‘heads in the sand’ over this issue, and we need to find a way forwards.

Ireland have taken advantage of the ambiguity, and can’t give any firm dates yet on the agency workers directive (AWD) current issue. Rather than just revise that aspect, they are looking at their whole legislation in relation to agency workers.

I’ll explore some of these issues more in a further few blog entries, but would be interesting in hearing your thoughts on info@safecomputing.co.uk!