A new guide to Agency Workers Regulations
A new guide has just been published by the government to help employers and those in the recruitment sector to prepare for the introduction of the new EU regulations. The Agency Workers Regulations (AWR) coming into force this October give an opportunity for many organisations to re-evaluate their workforce planning. It will entitle temporary workers to pay, overtime and breaks equal to that of permanent staff after 12 weeks' employment. (for more details see our blog entry: ).According to the People Management magazine, Allied Milling and Baking - the maker of Kingsmill and Sunblest - is aiming "significantly" to reduce the number of agency staff as a result of the legislation and a recent review of its resourcing, according to the company's HR director, Nigel Toon. Mr Toon explained that the company had a culture of using agency workers beyond 12 weeks, with 10 per cent working for more than a year.Adhering to the new law would have cost Allied Milling and Baking around £2 million. The company considered various options available and decided to replace long-standing temps with permanent staff, build flexibility into permanent employment contracts, and developed tools for frontline managers to manage resources.What could you do to assess your readiness for the new regulations? In order to ensure compliance with the new EU law and the existing Working Time Regulations companies using temporary staff need to conduct a similar review of their workforce as that taken by Allied Millind and Baking.A time and attendance system could become one of the most important tools used for this purpose. Mitrefinch's time and attendance software will enable you to gain valuable, on demand data on all your workers including agency staff and would provide you with a far better understanding of your workforce costs. The system can generate reports on the cost of an individual, a team, or even how much it would cost you to introduce an additional shift. The software allows you to plan and roster your workforce making sure you get the most out of the resources available to you.In addition, the system is compatible with all payroll software available which makes it almost impossible for overpayment or underpayment anomalies to occur.