Contingent Workforce Management Audit & Recommendations
Identified potential procurement liabilities in excess of £0.5M
Detailed Gap Analysis report with recommendations
Identified liabilities around the application of the intermediaries legislation
Both hard and soft cost savings through process improvements
Challenge
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust recruit their administrative and clerical staff through a managed service provider, however subject to increases in demand, the Trust’s service directorates also directly hire personal service company (PSC) workers. On account of engaging these workers directly, and the application of the intermediaries legislation (IR35) to Public Sector organisations, the Trust was exposed to a number of potential risks, such as; inefficient compliance, ineffective cost management, inconsistent governance and co-employment liabilities (i.e. tax, insurances, IP ownership etc.). PwC, currently delivering the Trusts Financial Improvement Programme, recommended Albany Beck to support the Trusts needs in identifying and understanding the perceived issues of hiring PSC workers directly. By way of introduction from PwC, Albany Beck met with the Trusts Senior Management Team and discussed their concerns in further detail. Albany Becks’ offer to conduct a discovery audit of the Trusts directly engaged workforce was well received, and one week later work on the audit commenced.
“Through a recommendation from PwC, Imperial College invited Albany Beck to conduct an independent Audit on our direct contractor workforce, with specific focus on our current process and application of the intermediaries legislation. After a quick turnaround period, Albany Beck delivered a detailed audit report, including a gap analysis and recommendations, which proved very useful for the Trust in identifying current and potential future risks.”
Solution
After agreeing on the scope of the audit, Albany Beck worked closely with Finance and Human Resources to identify any gaps in their hiring processes and spend allocation for PSC workers. Albany Beck liaised with each service directorate to collate a list of live workers and identify the risk in relation to each worker's contractual engagement. Equally important, Albany Beck was also tasked with reviewing the hiring managers’ process for deeming the application of the intermediaries’ legislation (IR35 status) for each worker. By conducting a thorough analysis of the information gathered, Albany Beck was able to identify potential tax liabilities for the Trust and also highlight vital gaps and non-compliance in the hiring and onboarding process of PSC workers. InterQuest transformed the available data into usable information which gave Imperial the ability and the confidence to make some crucial decisions based on the audit's findings and recommendations.
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