What you need to consider with temp compliance Viewpoint careers advice blog

What you need to consider with temp compliance Ensuring employment laws are adhered to is critical for any business, and compliance procedures should be well-embedded into a company’s HR function. But even in the most established HR organisations there can still be anxiety when it comes to employment compliance for temporary workers â€" especially in an international context. In this blog, I want to highlight some of the main issues that should be on your radar. Differences in employment law and regulations As mentioned, you need to be completely aware of local legislation and implications. You can’t take the situation in your home country and apply it across a whole business region. To give a few examples, in some markets a recruitment agency will set the salary of a temp but in others, the hiring company will do this. There can be big variances in notice period, and in some countries the maximum length of a temp assignment, before it is considered a perm hire, is 18 months. We also need to consider that in some markets it is illegal for a recruitment agency to hire a temp if they don’t have a legal entity in the country they are being employed. But in others, like my home market of Poland, this is completely OK. Varying equality measures In EU legislation the law is that temps have to be treated equally to their perm counterparts i.e. their pay and benefits should mirror that of a perm worker doing the same tasks as them. This also means that they should have the same access to traditional non-salary benefits that perm workers often receive, such as private medical care. In some countries, it is also obligatory in local legislation to invite temp workers to all internal training and give them access to internal recruitment portals so they can apply for perm positions in your company as and when they arise. The processes to put in place A key reason many companies choose to hire their temporary workers through recruitment agencies is that they will take care of the compliance side of things and will have their own processes in place. For instance, one of the first things we do at Hays when meeting a new candidate is to check their ID and run the legally permissible or required background checks, for instance, criminal records, clean driving license, candidate references etc. As an example, candidates in Financial Services in the UK need to get clearance to work in the sector and in Poland, there is a list of professions that allow employers to ask the candidate to provide a criminal check. Even if the candidate will just be on the job for a single day â€" all these compliance areas still need to be considered. As with any successful process, planning needs to be at the forefront. Map everything out and create a checklist of what documentation you need to see at each stage of the recruitment process and agree ahead of time who will pick up any costs incurred. Clearly, there is a lot to consider and when working across a number of geographies the compliance process can become complicated. Our Hays Talent Solutions business has a Managed Service Programme (MSP) offering that implements control processes to reduce the risks associated with compliance. If temp workers are becoming a growing part of your workforce, this is certainly something to prioritise. I hope you found this blog useful. If so,  you may also enjoy the below: Attracting the Temporary Worker How to hire the right team for right now How to Reduce Temp Time to Hire Never hired a temp or contractor before? Seven ways to get the most from freelancers