The Customer

The customer specialises in the delivery of essential public services, with over 500,000 of its people working across 7 operating divisions. The customer had awarded a Managed Service Provider (MSP) contract for the supply of agency staff in 2013, but its implementation had resulted in limited take up across the business, with only a fraction of total spend brought under management. As such a new provider was sought who had the experience, capability and know-how to implement a smarter way of engaging agency staff.
 
Following an extensive tender process, in September 2017, Comensura was awarded the contract. The contract has been rolled out in a number of phases to cover all of the customers’ operating divisions, with over 70,000 hours worked per week across 2500 active worker bookings.

The Challenge

Comensura was tasked with bringing centralised visibility and control over the customer’s use of temporary agency workers, delivering savings and removing operating risk. Ordinarily this would

be a relatively straightforward exercise, but in the customer’s case we had to adopt a flexible, adaptive approach to the implementation of our service in order to accommodate the sheer complexity of requirements across all of its operating divisions.

The Customer provides business services to in excess of 150 organisations, of which c70 require the use of temporary labour. Each end organisation’s contract sits within the customer’s operating divisions. The range of requirements vary per division, so for one area, we manage the supply of c500 Sweepers, Loaders and Drivers for contracts held with councils, and in another approximately 1200 Customer Service Advisors for Central Government contracts. In its Health division c500 catering and cleaning staff are used within Hospitals. Staff are supplied to Prisons, Immigration Centres and so on.

In total there are 117 locations spanning the length and breadth of the UK. 335 hiring managers use our service, and we work with around 50 recruitment agencies. Some contracts experience significant spikes in agency worker usage. We have had to therefore work closely with the customer and agencies to help plan for and manage these spikes to ensure that resourcing levels meets required delivery levels for the end customer.

The Solution

A consultative approach to success. We provide the customer with a consultative approach, taking the time to listen to what they require, so that we one hundred percent understand the particular challenges they face. Prior to our introduction, there was no ‘burning platform’ as far as hiring managers were concerned, so we’ve made sure that our service works around their requirements and is extremely responsive to their needs.

It was clear from the outset that a traditional ‘classic’ systemised managed service model would not work for the customer. We have therefore focussed heavily on ensuring that individual hiring manager requirements are met, both through our initial implementation and subsequent account management of the contract post go live.

Adopting the ‘Direct Model’, one that recognises and accommodates the customer’s strong and successful relationship with their  suppliers, we’ve standardised the way that margins and pay rates are established, and delivered savings on what they were procuring at previously.

Working collaboratively, we’ve established a UK-wide supply chain, but kept it as small and as focused as possible giving us more control and the suppliers a larger slice of the pie. For one area of the business, we initially retained a single supplier to manage all customer service requirements, ensuring continuity of service and recognising an already successful track record developed  with the customer. To mitigate against the risk of single supplier failure and to increase capacity and competition, we have identified a second key supplier, who has been carefully integrated into the contract.

We’ve also provided the customer with market intelligence to help their bids for new business, which has helped them to win new contracts.

The Benefits

The customer enjoys a true partnership with Comensura, one that’s really paying off:

• In excess of £1 million in cash savings delivered since go live.
• There is now an agreed and adhered to route to engaging temporary workers.
• One weekly consolidated invoice brings their entire spend together.
• Complete visibility of the temporary workforce within a couple of clicks - by division, hiring manager, location, job category and so on.
• A workforce and agency supply chain that is 100% compliant.
• A relatively small, but focused, supply chain, including optimised, single supplier arrangements for some job categories.
• Dedicated account management support, providing a regular on-site presence across business locations.
• On-going support and market intelligence for new projects.
• Proactive supply chain development to combat challenging recruitment requirements.

The results speak for themselves. We agreed to save the customer £1 million in year one and we actually saved them £1.1 million.

Due to the successes we’ve had so far in the UK, we’ve also signed a contract to deliver exactly the same for the customer in Australia.

We’ve also been there to help them manage COVID-19 crisis.