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Management Software for Agency Workers Regulations

Agency Workers Regulations Part 1: Tracking your Workers

We have extensive experience developing and supplying online management systems for both agencies and recruiters. To comply with the AWR we have revised and upgraded our online recruitment management system. The upgrade covers all the areas of the AWR regulations that are relevant to agencies, making them a breeze to manage.

This series of blog posts details how our systems can benefit you and make management of these regulations much easier.

 

How does the AWR affect Agencies?

The new Agency Workers Regulations (AWR) come into effect on the 1st Jan 2012, and many agencies will need to record extra data and information on temporary workers. The AWR is a big change and will have a significant impact on how agencies operate.

In essence, the AWR is designed to ensure that temporary workers receive the same benefits and allowances as employees after working for a period of twelve weeks (in the UK). So, if any temporary worker has worked at the same company, in the same position for twelve weeks, they become entitled to the same benefits as regular employees.

It is a little more complicated than this, but a full explanation of the AWR is outside the scope of this article.

 

Recruitment Agencies now need to record more accurate information on their workers

What effects will the AWR have on agencies, their operations and their IT systems? The onus will be on the agency to monitor and record relevant information, this may require significant changes to systems and working practices. For example:

• You must track how long each worker has worked with each employer
• Your system must now indicate when a worker qualifies for benefits
• You have to alert your client when a worker qualifies
• You have to keep a record of your clients benefits so you know what your worker can expect when they qualify

An agency must now monitor a lot more information and the means to record and retrieve this data may not be available in legacy systems. Accurate data recording is essential to ensure you comply with the law.

 

Tracking Temporary Workers

Probably the most complex part of the AWR is determining when a worker qualifies for benefits. As any agency will tell you, the AWR qualification rules are complicated. But, your worker will qualify if:

• The worker has worked in the same role in the same company for twelve weeks within any 18 month period
• A break between employments at one employer is no greater than six weeks
• The twelve week qualifying period is paused for sick leave / holiday

This can lead to some complex situations that will be very difficult to track manually to find out when works qualify. Many recruitment systems will not record the correct information required to do so, making this even harder to determine.

Our management system has been re-designed around the AWR, ensuring that any combination of qualifying criteria is recorded and easy to monitor. See below:

The above is a snapshot of the AWR management screen for our system. At a glance, you can clearly see worker status and benefit eligibility, what companies they may be approaching qualification for and one’s where they’re not close. The system automates this tracking making it extremely easy for you to manage.

 

Coming up in Part 2

This is only the first part of what’s required by the AWR for agencies. In the next post, we’ll detail how our system can alert your clients that workers now qualify. This is a legal requirement of the Agency Workers Regulations, so it’s important you have a reliable and complete alert system in place.

 

Contact Us Today

Are you a recruitment agency bound by the AWR? Contact us on 0800 081 1688 today to discuss how our system can benefit your business and streamline your admin.

 

 

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Management Software for Agency Workers Regulations

Agency Workers Regulations Part 2: Alerting Your Clients

In Management Software for Agency Workers Regulations, Tracking Your Workers, we discussed the ramifications of the new regulations and how they might affect your agency management systems. Part 1 focused on tracking your workers using our updated management system.

 

Alerting Clients when a Worker Qualifies for AWR benefits

The AWR stipulates that it is the agency or recruiters’ responsibility to keep track of a workers qualification status. It is also your responsibility to alert clients when a worker qualifies and to have available a summary of the benefit entitlements that will be available to them.

Furthermore in the event of a dispute, it is down to the agency to show that they have taken reasonable steps to ensure the client was notified.

It’s clear that AWR management systems need to do more than keep simple records. A helpful system must keep track of entitlements and benefits, it should notify you when action is required and help you to take it, here’s one example.

 

Alerting Your Clients when a Worker Qualifies

Helpful enough to include triggers prompting automatic emails to be sent upon qualification but flexible enough to accommodate variations and individual needs.

A typical agency will take many repeat or regular bookings, these are often filled by the same staff.

Staff placed in these bookings will quickly qualify for AWR benefits so you will want to alert your client, but you will not want to send alerts out every week thereafter. Our system has this flexibility built in.

It will record every notification email you send out in a secure database, providing a full correspondence history should you need it.

 

See Our System in Action

This is a booking confirmation screen. It shows that this worker qualifies for the AWR benefits in this role, and accordingly the option to send out confirmation emails.

As you can see with this system managing entitlement qualifications for your staff under the Agency Workers Regulations is simple and straightforward, it’s done for you.

It’s easy to see who qualifies and it’s easy to notify the clients. Everything is kept on record. At your finger tips, you’ll have a complete client work history, for every member of staff, whenever you need it.

 

Coming Up in Part 3

The conclusion to our series on the AWR: keeping track of offered benefits. As an agency, you need to keep a record of the benefits your workers qualify for. Find out how our system handles this and how it can save your agency time and money.

 

Contact Us Today

Are you a recruitment agency bound by the AWR? Contact us on 0800 081 1688 today to discuss how our system can benefit your business and streamline your admin.

 

 

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Management Software for Agency Workers Regulations Part 3

Agency Workers Regulations Part 3: Recording Client Benefits

In Part 2: Management Software for Agency Workers Regulations: Alerting Your Clients, we discussed how you not only need to record when a worker qualifies for the AWR, but also how you must alert your clients when they do. It’s an important step that our Omiga system makes easy, ensuring your agency adheres strictly to the AWR.

In the final part of our series on the Agency Worker’s Regulations, we will discuss the last part that agencies are responsible for: recording the benefits that your worker will become eligible for.

 

Recording client benefits for your workers

The AWR stipulates that it is the responsibility of the agency to know which benefits that their worker will qualify for. The agency therefore needs to contact the client and request this information to keep on record. This is a big undertaking, so you need a system that handles this effectively.

Traditionally, this would be handled by sending out paper forms for your clients to complete. This is a long, slow and arduous process that is managed far more efficiently with Omiga.

Using Omiga, you can send out a simple email with a link to your form for your clients to complete online. This will allow you to contact as many clients as you want at any one time and encourage them to complete this form quickly online – ensuring you get your form completed quicker whilst making it easier for clients.

 

Easily manage your benefits tracking

By recording your client benefits online using Omiga, you will also see a number of other benefits, including:

• Able to send requests to any number of clients at any time


• Schedule annual notifications to your clients to check and update if required


• Track which clients have completed the form and chase up those who haven’t


• Full access to the form at any time


• E-signed to confirm that submitted details are correct and accurate

Your system simply must record this in an effective and efficient manner. This is a time intensive process and by using the Omiga system you can reap the rewards of improved efficiency.

 

Easily manage your AWR obligations

This series of posts has demonstrated how we’ve updated our Omiga system to fully comply with the Agency Workers Regulations. We’ve worked closely with our biggest agency clients to ensure that our system meets all the requirements and exceeds in delivering usability and efficiency.

If you’re an agency looking to easily manage your AWR obligations, contact us today. The close relationship we have formed by continuously working and updating Omiga puts us ahead of other developers and gives us a unique understanding of your requirements.

For more information, please see our Staffing Recruitment Software or AWR Legislation Software pages.

 

 

 

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