Crystal Umbrella

No one is under any illusion that UK unemployment is bulging again, but those who think that firms are refusing to appoint may be mistaken; new research from the human resource specialists Curve Group suggest that three quarters of the country’s employers want to hire but simply can’t find the talent they need.

75% of UK firms are unable to find the skilled permanent staff they need – news that may well encourage the country’s highly skilled PAYE umbrella contactors. Although these companies are prepared to pay the standard salaries for these sought-after staff, under the steely economic clouds rolling over the country right now, they’re unwilling to offer any additional financial inducements (all save 10% of them, that is).

A major cause of worker absenteeism amongst those polled appears to be stress-related illness, with 62% of firms citing this as the chief cause of sick leave. Curve Group co-owner Lyndsey Simpson believes this is entirely understandable, as many employees struggle to manage the inevitable anxieties generated by headcount freezes and recurring redundancy threats.

Even though the UK economy did slightly better than many had expected during the last quarter, with GDP growing by a soggy and underwhelming 0.5%, many UK companies are in parlous states, with as many as 22% drawing on overdraft facilities to the maximum, according to insolvency trade body R3.

Given the unavailability of permanent staff, umbrella companies could well provide our firms with economical and suitably skilled solutions. For businesses to survive, projects do, after all, have to be completed.

It has been revealed in a new study that financial leaders across the world are struggling to find skilled members of staff. With star performers also leaving companies in favour of better career choices, the news is positive for freelancers with finance and accounting skill sets. With firms finding it hard to fill top positions, they may be forced to turn to increased contractor payroll to make sure that their employees have the appropriate expertise for the job in hand.

Robert Half, the international recruiters, revealed that two thirds of global financial leaders said that they were having difficulties in filling positions within their companies. The annual Robert Half Global Financial Employment Monitor showed that 67% of professionals said that filling finance and accounting jobs with skilled employees was increasingly difficult. In addition, figures for those concerned over staff retention climbed from 45% in 2010 to 56%.

Managing director of Robert Half’s UK based operations, Phil Sheridan, said “It’s clear that the accounting and finance employment market is in a state of transition, with reported difficulties finding skilled staff and a growing concern among senior executives of how best to hold on to their star performers. Finding and retaining skilled professionals has become increasingly challenging, and candidate shortages are emerging in some specialist finance areas.” For freelancers with skills in these specific areas, the news is good. With companies having no other option than to look at increasing contractor payroll, accountants and financial professionals could see an increased demand for their services.

PAYE umbrella contractors may be encouraged by a new report from the Chartered Institute for Personnel and development (CIPD) which forecasts robust job creation in the private sector. The CIPD’s latest quarterly Labour Market Outlook study also suggests, however, that redundancies are also set to rise substantially, with employers planning to let more staff go than at any time since 2004. A sizeable proportion of these job losses, unsurprisingly, will be sustained by the public sector – a hefty two thirds of public sector organisations intend to shrink their workforces in the first quarter of this year. These staffing cutbacks are reflected in the CIPD’s Net Employment Index, which compares the number of employers planning to raise and lower staffing levels. The index plummeted from last quarter’s rating of +11 to this quarter’s -3.

Contractors from umbrella companies seeking placements in the private sector get better news from the study, however. The Net Employment Index for both the services sector and the manufacturing sector registered a healthy +20. The CIPD’s Public Policy Adviser, Gerwyn Davies, described the first three months of 2011 as “a quarter of reckoning for the jobs market.” He anticipates that the modest recovery seen toward the end of last year will be “reversed by a modest relapse this year.” However, job creation in the private sector remains encouragingly strong, even though the jobs boom everyone is hoping for is “still some way off.”

There was additional encouraging news about the private sector’s state of health, however, from another source. The leading recruitment agency Badenoch & Clark has revealed trends suggesting that a “war for talent” has broken out amongst private sector firms, who are now competing intensely for skilled new staff by offering higher pay packages and salaries.

Crystal the UK’s No 1 Umbrella PAYE Company for contractors, has unveiled its latest resource, with the launch of a new online jobs board.

A ready supply of contracting jobs and opportunities are the life blood to any successful contractor, that’s why Crystal Umbrella is proud to launch its very own jobs board. Our brand spanking new job board found at jobs.crystalumbrella.com is now live and ready to provide all you contractors out there with an additional first line support when you are searching for that next peachy contract.

The Crystal Umbrella Job Board will enable contractors and freelancers alike to search job opportunities quickly and efficiently from some of the UK’s top recruiters. It is quick and easy to take advantage of this new service. All you have to do is register on the site, saving your preferred job searches, and then Crystal’s job board will do the hard work for you – notifying you every time an opportunity is posted that match your preferred industry or search criteria. This jobs board works for you to save you valuable time and effort.

The new Crystal Jobs board also puts you, the contractor in charge. Not only will you have the ability to upload your CV directly to the site but your online profile will also be viewable by all prospective clients and agencies. This means that your suitability for a position can be assessed straight away. You’ll be offered jobs before you even know they are available!

A proud and excited Scott Illingworth, Crystal’s Director of Service Delivery, exclaimed: “A ready supply of contracting opportunities are the life blood of any contracting career, therefore I’m extremely excited Crystal Umbrella will now be in a position to extend recruitment support to our contractor workforce, proving once again our commitment in maintaining our UK’s No 1 award to providing only the very best contractor support”

Scott concluded: “We are seeing an astonishing increase in the number of job opportunities available for our contractors, which is great news and we welcome any agency who would like to promote their jobs for free on our job board.”

For more information contact Crystal Umbrella:
Call:    0800 848 8888
Click:    www.crystalumbrella.com
Chat:    Chat online now

The Agency Workers Regulations are due to be implemented in the UK in October 2011. The regulations aim to provide protection to vulnerable agency workers but many other contractors, including those working through umbrella companies; will be caught by the legislation. The coalition government has announced plans to review the regulations as they stand at present, this sentiment was echoed by the minister of State for Business & Enterprise Mark Prisk MP during his recent personal visit to the operational head quarters of Crystal Umbrella. However, all member states of the European Union have a duty to implement the Agency Workers Directive by 5th December 2011.

There are concerns that any revisions considered and subsequently implemented by business secretary Vince Cable could harm the deal made by CBI and the TUC which agreed that temporary workers would obtain the same terms and conditions as permanent staff at the same company when they had been working there for 12 weeks. Originally the unions were looking for equitable rights from day one which was an unsatisfactory position for a lot of freelance workers, particularly those who are high earners and were concerned that businesses would opt not to use temporary staff as it would cost them too much. This, in turn, would have an impact on the flexible nature of freelancing which is of benefit to the business community. The fear is that if revisions are drawn up which the union disagree with, it may prompt them once again to seek equality from day one.

While the review by the coalition government has been met with some criticism, others have seen it as a ray of light. However, irrespective of any changes this directive must become law by the end of next year and must meet the requirements otherwise there could be subsequent legal challenges in the years to come.

So as with everything we do at Crystal Umbrella, we will continue to monitor the situation closely and update our contractor workforce and network of agency partners as soon as a concrete decision as to the future of the AWD has been made.

Crystal Umbrella
Service Delivery Department

Supplying prudent, profitable and practical payment solutions to the UK contractor market

“We were delighted to welcome The Minister of State for Business & Enterprise Mark Prisk MP to Crystal Umbrella’s Business Centre at  Bluecoats House, Hertford.

Mark has long been a person that has been very supportive and understanding of the problems that face small/medium sized enterprises attempting to provide employment and cutting edge solutions. Business can sometimes be overly bureaucratic, burdened form filling and we too often find ourselves wasting time effort and money which could be better used promoting our business, providing employment and helping people that are prepared to “get out there” to enjoy the benefit of their hard work and initiative.

Our staff were very appreciative of Marks interest and support and more importantly his understanding of the difficulties that face our varied companies in a very challenging economic climate. Mark was full of praise for our energy, ideas and skills and believes there is a great future in working together, bouncing ideas off each other and helping to foster a climate that actively encourages business.

We all agreed that small energetic hard working and focused small/ medium sized businesses will be the engine room that drives our economy forward in the years to come. We also agreed that we will see much of each other in the years to come and hope that we can always help Mark to be fully aware of the everyday problems that face us and many other companies.”

Colin Howell Group Director

It is with great pleasure that we are able to announce the launch of the new Crystal Umbrella website, which will go live on the 27^th May 2010.

For some time now we have wanted to overhaul both the design and content of the current website and refocus on the requirements of our ever changing audience. This complete re-design has allowed us to meet some important objectives:

Design

• Keep it sleek and simple
• 100% compatible with hand held devices
• Faster load time
• User-Friendly: (HCI) Human Computer Interaction techniques used

Navigation

• Simplify the navigation, with a horizontal main menu
• Find every page within just two clicks
• ‘Contact Us’ methods available on every page
• New web search function
• Live news ticker with the latest headlines

Content

• Expand the Crystal Newspepper, via more bespoke contracting news articles
• Refresh the written content to meet our commitment to Crystal Clear communication
• Launch a new Contractor Q&A forum
• Create a downloads section of useful documents and factsheets

Please feel free to have a browse on or after the 27^th May, let us know what you think about the new features.

The leaner, greener way to communicate your pay!

Improving processes is at the heart of everything we do here at Crystal and we are delighted to inform you that we have introduced e-payslips, to replace postal ‘hard copy’ payslips.

The benefits of migrating to e-payslips are numerous;

1. You’ll receive your payslip on the day of processing (rather than two days later).
2. It’s more secure than posting (as postal payslips could be opened).
3. No more payslips lost in post.
4. No more payslips damaged in the post.
5. Payslips won’t be affected by postal strikes or delays.
6. It will avoid any issues with postal address, such as;
   1. Change of address
   2. Living abroad or away from home

In addition to the multiple benefits to you, this move will also allow Crystal Umbrella to attain our strict environmental impacts policy and minimise our carbon footprint by reducing the amount of paper and printer toner that we use when issuing payslips.

We hope you enjoy this new service addition; phase 2 of this project will be communicated later this year, so watch this space.