Morson Group is thrilled to announce that our groundbreaking app, Fit For Work, has been awarded Best Contractor Innovation at The Contracting Awards 2023. The prestigious event, held in London on the 22nd of June, honoured the top contractor suppliers in the UK. Fit For Work is a workforce safety and well-being app, that allows individuals to connect with their employers through their smartphone. This accolade recognises the positive impact Fit For Work has made in ensuring contractors’ physical and mental safety.
Enhancing Safety Through Digital Interfaces
Fit For Work prioritises the physical safety and mental well-being of contractor workers with innovative digital interfaces and AI technology. Meaning that contractors can report risks in real-time, and access vital information using their smartphones. By placing these crucial aspects at the heart of every interaction, Fit For Work aims to improve the working environment for all contractors, regardless of their location. While many enterprise solutions focus on streamlining business processes and efficiency, Fit For Work addresses risks to workers’ health and well-being. The app focuses on the user experience, empowering distributed workers through their smartphones.
The judging panel commended Fit For Work as an interesting and impactful contractor innovation that truly makes a difference.
“A very simple, but important service, which focuses on the physical safety and mental health and wellbeing of contractors.”
Fit For Work is more than digital personal protective equipment (PPE). It is a comprehensive workforce well-being tool that grants contractors access to the protection and resources they rightfully deserve.
Health check-ins and surveys
Training delivery
Lone worker safety
Anonymous whistleblowing
The app also allows employers to monitor their workforce via a dashboard. So they can be confident that they have the right people, in the right place, at the right time. By placing people and technology at the centre, we create better environments and ways of working for our customers, enabling everyone to thrive at work.
It starts with a simple check-in
Unlock the transformative potential of Fit For Work. Learn how this innovative app can support and enhance the safety and well-being of your contractor workforce.
As Pride Month continues, companies worldwide are showing support for the LGBTQ+ community with rainbow logos and statements of allyship. However, it’s important for businesses to understand that Pride goes beyond these temporary displays. True support requires action, commitment, and an understanding of LGBTQ+ Issues. The UK’s first gay dating show, I Kissed a Boy, provides valuable lessons for businesses to improve their ED&I efforts during Pride Month and beyond.
I Kissed a Boy showcases authentic representation through its diverse cast. It allows for education and awareness by giving airtime to key issues faced by the contestants. The beautiful Italian Masseria that the show is set in is a truly safe space where the contestants can be themselves. And host Danni Minogue is a true advocate for the community.
This year let’s celebrate Pride Month with authentic allyship, ensuring that equality, diversity, and inclusion are guiding principles.
Raconteur believe that outsourcing is set to boom after large layoffs at companies like Google and Meta. Downsizing is an attractive prospect during times of economic uncertainty, but it also leaves companies with resource gaps. Outsourcing companies will be eager to fill the gaps and will likely present attractive SLAs (service level agreements) and KPIs (key performance indicators) when they vie for new contracts. We believe businesses need to look beyond these promises to the culture and values of the partners they choose to work with.
After all, a company’s values and culture will be reflected in the team they put together and the candidates they source. The resulting conflicting cultures not only spark dissatisfaction on a personal level but may lead to business-critical miscommunications, project delays and cost inflation.
Richard Skellett, founder of the Globalution Group of consultancies:
“A poor culture fit can lead to misunderstanding and conflict which delay project delivery and have a negative impact on the quality of work. So it’s important that everyone is on the same page”
At Morson we take a collaborative approach, getting to know your business needs, culture and values. We provide solutions that are tailored to our clients. Our MSP and RPO solutions integrate with your internal talent strategies. By listening and understanding we can implement solutions which enable you to achieve your ambitions. We use this two-way dialogue as the foundation of all new outsourced solutions to set our team as well as yours up for success.
“A successful relationship starts by setting up an equal partnership from the off. Describing what success looks like to your business and the challenges preventing your existing team from being able to achieve them requires an honest, inward look at your organisation.
The more data and real examples you can give the provider, the better equipped they will be to share how their approach will transform your business for the better.”
Rowena Cooper, Head of Talent and Resourcing at St. Modwen
Managed Service Provision
Our MSP builds agile contingent workforces by managing the entire talent cycle. Implementing responsive models which scale to your business ambitions. More than that, together we’ll have a bird’s eye view of your talent, allowing us to manage spending, track trends, build diverse teams, and forecast for the future. It’s a collaboration that fuses your ambitions, objectives and intelligence with our talent expertise and market knowledge.
Over a three-year contract with UK Power Networks we have provided a strategic MSP that has delivered:
bespoke training for hiring managers
diversity capture surveys
candidate research
dual-branded candidate attraction campaigns and more.
“Through our robust procurement process we were able select a partner that understands our values and will drive initiatives that would create a thriving future.”
RP01, Morson’s recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) offer, gets to know your business and your people. We integrate with your internal talent strategies, to manage and support your recruitment processes and care for your brand. Our talent and optimisation teams seamlessly impart our expertise into organisations. They help recruit niche skills, create diverse, engaged candidate pipelines, control supply chain quality and reduce costs. We become one with your organisation, curating talent solutions that understand the nuances of your business, flex with your requirements and truly succeed for you.
While acting as RPO partner to Manchester United, we’ve recruited physios, software programmers, coaches, partnership leads, social media specialists, goalkeeping scouts, football analysts, fundraising executives and even groundsmen.
We’ve been focused as a team to build relationships and centralise the talent function within the club, all whilst demonstrating our expertise and credentials by delivering a consistently excellent service that helped engage those within the club who didn’t necessarily understand the role of our partnership at the outset. RPO1 live and breathe the club’s brand and are our colleagues.
Sarah McGuire, head of talent development and resourcing at Manchester United
HR Outsource
An outsourced HR solution can streamline operations, reduce costs, ensure compliance and provide real business value. We operate an Ulrich model, meaning that our CIPD accredited HR professionals are subject matter experts. So, we have a precise understanding of employee relations, talent management, wellbeing, and change management. Together, our diverse team combines this expertise to offer a one stop shop for businesses seeking expert HR support.
St Modwen is a long-term client of Morson who had previously experienced poorly managed outsourced HR. Our commitment to fully understanding their needs reassured them that Morson was the right partner for them.
“Don’t underestimate the importance of the relationship. Morson is an extension of our team, and it’s felt like that since the very first interaction.”
Becky Cund, head of HR operations & sustainable people projects at St. Modwen
With truly embedded expert teams, solutions, and experiences, we listen, collaborate, engage, shape and solve, enabling you to hire, transform and captivate. Our approach is consultative and insight-driven. We are here to help you to make the right decisions, deliver strategic impact and care for your brand.
Morson Sales Director, Sam Menelaou believes:
“It’s not rocket science, it’s simple behavioural psychology; people respond to people. From our years of experience in the talent industry, we understand that authenticity, recommendation, and rapport is the biggest driver of consumer behaviour. And in the current market, it is more important than ever that outsourced partners mirror their client’s behaviours and culture to ensure they secure the best talent, by elevating, living, and promoting their brand and values.
Gone are the days of cryptic agency job adverts, smoke-and-mirrors relationships and static KPIs. For example, in the MSP world, our clients are increasingly keen for us to act as an extension of their organisation, becoming one with their brand, and moving more towards an RPO-style relationship.
We’re so successful because this way of working has always been intrinsic to the Morson DNA.”
If you would like to find out which of our outsource solutions is right for you, or have any questions about the Morson approach to recruitment, get in touch with Sam at Sam.Menelaou@morson.com
IR35 compliance (Off-Payroll Working Legislation) remains an issue for many businesses. It can be a long, drawn-out process and some organisations have been in discussion with HMRC for several years. While the rules have not changed, we’ve noticed that HMRC has refreshed its approach to evaluating compliance in some key cases.
HMRC’s fresh approach to IR35 compliance.
HMRC are now asking for more details from IR35 clients and have committed to 2,500 more compliance staff in 2022-2023 which will almost certainly include off-payroll compliance resource, so HMRC is refocusing its efforts across the board. The next level questions focus on how robust IR35 compliance processes are and they have started taking sample Status Determination Statements (SDSs) for scrutiny.
The tax office has also incorporated IR35 compliance into its Business Risk Review+ (BRR+) process. Organisations subject to a BRR+ need to complete HMRC’s ‘Off-payroll Working and Employment Status & Intermediaries Questions’ document. The questionnaire aims to discover the scale of the contingent population, the use of Personal Service Companies (PSCs) and the IR35 compliance processes in place. These businesses also need to identify supply chain partners such as recruitment or consultancy firms.
The track record of some of the key public sector cases showcases HMRC’s harsh stance on non-compliance.
Contracted Out Services – a specific focus
HMRC is also asking hiring organisations to provide the number and names of Consultancies, Main Contractors and other contracted-out services they are using. A fully contracted-out service will often involve the provision of goods and materials, as well as labour and will usually have an opportunity for profit, beyond taking a percentage of the worker’s fee’
Ultimately, it is the hiring organisations who are responsible for accurately assessing the service provision between them and their suppliers. If no assessment is made or an incorrect assessment made due to a lack of reasonable care, the result would be non-compliance with the legislation and the business could be fined. Businesses must be familiar with the legislation to ensure appropriate processes are in place when engaging suppliers.
Compliance activities should include a robust assessment and communication that both parties agree to the outcome of the assessment. Businesses that can’t prove that their processes are robust risk being fined by HMRC.
The cost of non-compliance in the public sector
£9.2M – HS2
£87.9M – Department of Work and Pensions
£29.5M – Home Office
£12.5M – Ministry of Justice
Most of these fines result from a lack of knowledge and a lack of demonstrable compliance. However, IR35 compliance can be achieved and is being achieved by many organisations that have taken a robust approach to managing IR35 risks.
The cost of compliance will certainly be less than that of non-compliance.
Whether your contractor workforce is vast or tiny, we want to help clients avoid the potential mistakes that might be incurred by business’ individual practices, and offer them total confidence that despite IR35, there won’t be any hurdles in accessing and utilising contingent labour.
If you are concerned about your IR35 systems or processes we’re on hand to help. Get in touch with James Millward, head of integrated services for more information james.millward@morson.com
In our 2022 vs 2023 recruitment trends report we considered what the hiring landscape may look like in the coming year. Morson Market Analyst, Dr Gareth Owen examines recruitment trends spanning January – April 23 across four key industries; construction, technology, rail, and aerospace, to provide an accurate picture of what’s happening in the industry right now.
Foreword
by Dr Gareth Owen, Morson Market Analyst Across most sectors, there is an uncertain economic outlook due to geopolitical tensions, Brexit obstacles and the ongoing shadow of the pandemic that has led to rising interest rates, rising costs for businesses & consumers, talent shortages and supply chain challenges.
While a bleak economic outlook, cost of living crisis, and political turmoil have been grabbing the headlines around the world, fundamental changes have continued to take place, shaping the world of work in new ways, bringing new challenges and, critically, new solutions.
The trends I’ve identified in these reports, drawn from a rich database of Morson candidate data, expert conversations and insight from global sources, highlight key micro and macro socio-economic factors affecting the current state of the workplace and what it means for the labour market of tomorrow.
Many of these trends will persist beyond the near-term fluctuations in the business cycle, the goal of these reports is to support employers as they navigate a turbulent talent landscape.
> Momentum builds in construction
The UK construction industry is building momentum, as the S&P Global/CIPS UK Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index rose for 2 months in a row. The best-performing area was commercial construction whilst residential building work has fallen for the third consecutive month.
The number of UK construction sector job adverts has hit a 14-month high according to the REC Labour Market Tracker. However, there are some obstacles to taking advantage of the growth in demand. The CITB/Build UK report indicates that the construction industry needs an additional 45,000 workers a year to meet growing demand.
There are calls for the government to bring in overseas workers to replace those lost due to the Brexit exodus of foreign workers by adding 5 construction roles to the UK Government Shortage Occupation List.
> A frenzy of talent shortages, skills gaps & lay-offs in tech
Over the last 6 months, many tech companies have announced large-scale redundancies. Caused by over-optimistic and rapid hiring during the pandemic and a later drop in earnings.
A flow of candidates from the major tech layoffs may help to alleviate the tech talent shortage stemming from economic and workforce inactivity.
The government has ended their contract with Tech Nation after a decade of transforming UK tech. Some of their activity will be transferred to Barclays, but the Global Talent Visa programme has not found a new home. This political shortsightedness is casting doubt on the future of those applying in the digital technology field.
The rail industry is getting back on track, as post-pandemic passenger demand has improved, leading to an increase in orders. However, political challenges are impacting a return to growth, evidenced by delays in the HS2 project to reduce costs. Experts are noting that project delays increase costs in the long term.
The Transport Secretary set out plans in Feb 2023 to reform the railways in the UK. Describing them as ‘not fit for purpose’ and ‘financially unsustainable’. The plans include increasing the role played by the private sector to help restore financial sustainability post Covid.
There is also increased pressure from ongoing industrial disputes in the rail sector. The need to find 120,000 additional people by 2030, is reported by City & Guilds and NSAR.
> A renewed sense of optimism in aerospace & defence
There is a renewed sense of optimism about the aerospace and defence industry after a challenging 3 years caused by Covid 19, Brexit and the war in Ukraine.
Global aircraft orders in 2022 were the highest in 7 years. Deliveries are approaching pre-pandemic levels fed by an upsurge in travel demand.
The chancellor announced an additional £11bn in the Spring Budget for the UK defence budget. This will bring UK military spending to 2.25% of GDP by 2025.
The turning point in industry fortunes is reflected in a positive outlook from major industry players. Airbus reported solid financials and a ramp-up in production, while the Ukraine war fuelled record orders at BAE Systems.
While there is cause for concern, businesses across all sectors should be hopeful about the future.
The UK economy narrowly avoided a recession in 2022 but this will be of little comfort to people suffering from a continuing cost of living crisis and the country remains at risk of a recession in 2023 according to the OBR and The Treasury, despite a slight improvement noted by the chancellor in his spring budget.
There has been a succession of disappointing news on diversity, most notably a rise in the average gender pay gap over the last 5 years. The UK Government has not offered a beacon of support on gender equality either, rejecting five of the recommendations from the Women and Equalities Committee report on menopause. Progress has also stalled on the representation of people from Black Caribbean backgrounds and women in STEM, according to MP’s, through the Parker Review announced new targets for the ethnic diversity of the management team at FTSE 350 companies.
The UK Labour Market is on shaky ground as employers continue to struggle with filling open vacancies, particularly for permanent roles but there is optimism about growing employee numbers. Candidate attraction issues and the cost of living crisis are feeding through into strong growth in rates of starting pay for both permanent and temporary roles.
Whatever future recruitment trends may hold Morson is here to support you to attract, retain and develop the best talent.
Our solutions are for organisations seeking to enhance their capability, who need flexible, adaptable solutions to help scale, brand-led strategies to inspire, screening solutions to comply, ED&I insight to transform, training to develop or technology to streamline and accelerate.
