Over recent years, the construction industry has had to become increasingly agile. At the same time, however, it’s had to become even more aware of costs. Neither of these realities looks set to change in the near future. Fortunately, the smart use of temporary construction workers can help firms get the labour they need at a cost they can afford. Here is a quick guide to how you can unlock significant savings with temporary construction workers.
Optimising Your Use Of Resources
Before you start a project, you can work with construction recruitment services to determine the different types of temporary construction workers you’ll need for your project. You can also form a provisional schedule of when you’ll need them and for how long.
The reason that the schedule is likely to be provisional is that construction is an industry where situations can change rapidly. A classic example of this is unexpected bad weather hitting a project. This often means the project has to be suspended or pared back. Then, when the weather improves, you need to catch up as quickly as you can.
Working with a specialist construction recruitment agency helps to make these situations a lot easier to manage. They can quickly adjust the type and/or number of temporary construction workers you have to reflect the changing situation. This means that you only pay for the workers you need when you need them.
Making The Recruitment Process More Efficient
Recruiting for construction workers is a relatively complex process. In addition to all the standard components of recruitment, candidates need to be rigorously vetted. This is particularly important for temporary construction workers. These are people who are required to turn up on-site and make a positive impact almost immediately.
At a minimum, temporary construction workers need to have their immigration status checked, along with their knowledge of English, and their work qualifications. Ideally, they should be matched with projects that match their work preferences as well as their objective skills. Getting this right is often key to reducing employee turnover (and its associated costs and disruption).
Outsourcing Labour-Related Administration
Employing construction workers directly creates a lot of administration. Firstly, there are right-to-work checks. Secondly, workers must be set up on payroll for tax and national insurance. They may also have to be auto-enrolled (unless they opt out). Even if they don’t, they may choose to be enrolled and this choice must be respected. Thirdly, employers then have to manage statutory and optional benefits (e.g., sickness).
For permanent workers, this administration tends to be a minor inconvenience that businesses just need to manage. For temporary construction workers, by contrast, it can quickly become a major (and expensive) headache. This headache can, however, be avoided by partnering with a specialist construction recruitment agency.
Your service provider will ensure that all your labour-related administration is completed as it should be. They’ll also be familiar with the answers to frequently asked questions such as “Are temp workers entitled to holiday pay?”.
Reducing Your Potential Liability
When you hire through construction recruitment services, you are the service provider’s client. The service provider is the temporary construction workers’ employer. This means that it has ownership of all employment-related obligations.
On a practical level, this means the agency will cover regular payroll costs such as NI, holiday pay, and pension contributions. Normally, they will also cover the cost of the employer’s liability insurance.
On a broader level, they will also take ownership of resolving any issues you may have with the temporary construction workers they send you. It’s unlikely that you’ll have issues often but it’s also reassuring to know that the service provider will manage them if they crop up.
Find Out More
To find out more about the savings you could gain by using King Contract Services, get in touch with our team.
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