January « 2009 « Go To Recruitment Employment Blog

27/01/2009

Part 2/2: Changing from Private to Public Sector – is it like changing lanes in traffic?

Changing Sectors

I think this analogy could ring true to recruitment agencies changing sectors in these difficult times. Now if your company is big enough and you can be in both lanes then fair enough, see which one is moving faster, however smaller agencies that have not got the resources to do this are running the biggest risk. The worry is the amount of time and effort to build up clientele and resources could take so long that by the time you get yourself in a good position, change lanes, the same brick wall is met as so many agencies have done the same and now the private sector is moving forward quicker and as we hope the economy will be better in 2010, it starts building up momentum as well.

Government Spending

If the Government is borrowing huge amounts of money now and apparently we will owe as a nation £450 billion by 2012. Then surely at some point when the economy is recovering, 2 things will happen.

We will be taxed more
Government spending will be dramatically reduced

Think Carefully…

So if you as a recruitment agency are thinking about changing sectors I would only say think carefully about the short and long term implications of doing so. You never know, if you stay in your lane, you could be the one moving faster at the end of all this.

Filed under: recruitment agencies,recruitment agency — admin @ 16:23

23/01/2009

Part 1/2: Changing from Private to Public Sector – is it like changing lanes in traffic?

A question I’m hearing a lot at the moment is, is it better to change to Public Sector if you are currently dealing with the Private Sector. I must admit I don’t think it is as clear cut as people may first think

After the shock news that we are officially in a recession, apparently we are not classed as being in a recession until the Gross Domestic Product falls in 2 consecutive quarters which it now has done (slightly behind the times this indicator, if you ask me). Anyway you may be thinking as recruitment agencies, that Public Sector is where the money is, government’s policy of spend, spend, spend to ride out the storm and create a number of jobs seems perfect for recruitment agencies that deal with this area. However I can’t get this analogy of changing lanes in traffic out of my head…. I will explain.

Changing lanes

Everyone has done it, you are stuck in traffic and you look across at the other lane and it seems to be moving a lot faster. So you pause and think… that is the lane I want to be in!!! so you look for your opening, thinking this is a great move and your waiting for a gap and then you see it, you quickly go into your new lane…… then brake!! The lane you just got into is not moving, as everyone moved across and the lane you left starts moving faster!!

Filed under: recruitment agencies — admin @ 16:07

20/01/2009

Part 4/4: Removal of Staff Hire Concession, Healthcare Recruitment and My Solution?

How effective is our no VAT to employment Agencies acting as Principal solution?

I’m no VAT expert, but if all these professions are exempt from VAT when supplied by an employment business. Then 3 things will happen:

At present mostly all employment businesses charge VAT on the commission element of their invoices, by the 1st April 2009 that will be full VAT charged and so by having no VAT charged for these services, will in fact save the NHS money in crucial areas.
It will create fair competition amongst all healthcare employment businesses as at present there are some employment businesses charging VAT and others charging no VAT, as everyone interprets the guidelines differently.
NHS Professional a government run agency to supply staff to the NHS which does not have to charge VAT, by applying this solution will mean that NHS Professionals does not have an unfair advantage.

I know I cannot give definitive answers and would welcome the view of agencies concerning this subject as it seems to be one of great concern for many healthcare employment businesses and although the REC have yet to be able to convince the government to stop the removal of Staff Hire Concession, my view would be to allow the changes to occur on the 1st April 2009 with the exemption stipulations in place.

Filed under: employment business,healthcare recruitment — admin @ 14:20

16/01/2009

Part 3/4: Removal of Staff Hire Concession, Healthcare Recruitment and My Solution?

Is there a suitable solution to counter the Implications of removing Staff Hire Concessions?

One solution, but again it may not be everyone’s view. Is that if a healthcare professional is listed within the HMRC as VAT exempt when they provide a service that they were trained for. Then healthcare professionals that work through an employment business should also be VAT exempt when an employment business is acting as principal.

The 3 stipulations for not to charge VAT according to HMRC guidelines:

act as a principal (All employment businesses will act this way with temps, from the 1st April 2009)
makes supplies of care, as opposed to supplies of staff
duties undertaken must be those trained for

The 1st and 3rd are fine, if a doctor is contracted out, the doctor must provide duties they were trained for and not for example insurance matters.

It is the 2nd one that really causes the trouble as an employment business cannot get away from the fact that they supply staff, however are they not supplying care by doing so?? And if acting in principal is having the candidate and employment business as one, then more so isn’t this a case of supplying care as it is deemed as if you the employment business are conducting the duties yourself for VAT purposes.

In my view any professional who is included in the list of health professionals registered with an appropriate statutory register- these include:

medical practitioners
ophthalmic and dispensing opticians
Professionals registered under the Health Professions Order 2001. These professionals are: arts therapists, biomedical scientists, chiropodists/podiatrists, clinical scientists, dieticians, occupational therapists, operating department practitioners, orthoptists, paramedics, physiotherapists, prosthetists and orthotists, radiographers, and speech and language therapists, but will also include medical care professionals added to the Order at a future date
osteopaths
chiropractors
nurses, midwives and health visitors
hearing aid dispensers
dentists, dental hygienists, dental therapists, dental nurses, clinical dental technicians, dental technicians; orthodontic therapists and
Pharmacists.

These professionals should not be VAT charge able when employment businesses are acting as principal.

Filed under: employment business,healthcare recruitment — admin @ 14:06

13/01/2009

Part 2/4: Removal of Staff Hire Concession, Healthcare Recruitment and My Solution?

Implications of removing Staff Hire Concessions

By removing Staff Hire Concessions the government is trying to do 2 things. 1 it is attempting to create an equal playing field amongst employment businesses and 2 increase VAT contributions.

From the 1st April 2009, employment businesses will no longer be able to act as agents and so all employment businesses will have to act as principal when dealing with supplying temps. In essence this should cause little trouble as all private business will be able to offset their VAT. So if an agency charges more VAT, then the client can offset this VAT against a VAT they are charging and so zero implications, except maybe cash flow. However what about public organisation such as the NHS that cannot reclaim VAT. Wouldn’t the effects be more drastic, if there are 100,000’s of temps in the NHS from agencies then wouldn’t charging VAT on all of these cost millions of pounds more?

Effect on Healthcare

This is where I feel there is a major problem with removing the Staff Hire Concession. In a time of recession and increased job losses, it seems crazy to potentially increase these job losses by making it too expensive for the NHS to use agency staff. Not only will it mean more people out of work, but will also reduce the service capabilities of the NHS.

I appreciate that the Staff Hire Concession was only implemented as a temporary measure and that removing it tries to create an equal playing field amongst employment businesses, however I feel in doing so, it actually cripples the end user when it comes to public organisations.

Filed under: agency staff,employment business — admin @ 12:46

09/01/2009

Part 1/4: Removal of Staff Hire Concession, Healthcare Recruitment and My Solution?

Firstly I should say that this blog is only opinion based and so should not be taken as factual. If you have any VAT issues you should speak to HMRC for a proper ruling, however what this blog aims to do is to explain the imminent removal of Staff Hire Concessions, how this effects healthcare recruitment and my solution.

Staff Hire Concession was initially introduced as a temporary measure in 1997 to provide employment business with a similar VAT treatment to those acting as agents when paying workers directly.

Acting as Agent or Principal

To understand how this works you must first understand the difference between `acting as an agent` and `acting as principal`. I feel many guidelines confuse the reader in the interpretation, so to break it down:

Employment Business acting as an Agent: – there are 3 components here Employment Business, Candidate and Client. Acting as an agent you are simply introducing the Candidate and the Client together and so when you charge the client, you only need to charge VAT on your commission element (This is the Staff Hire Concession)

Employment Business acting as Principal: – In this instance the 3 components we had previously now become 2. When you act as principal it is deemed that the candidate and the employment business are one and the same for VAT purposes, therefore when you charge the client for the service, VAT has to be put on the whole amount. This is because the services provided are vat able.

Filed under: healthcare recruitment,staff hire concession,vat — admin @ 14:02

05/01/2009

Funny Job Titles

After all the grim news we have been having about the state of the economy, recession and job loses. I thought it would be nice to start the year on a lighter note. Job titles can often be quite comical in the way that companies try and explain the job role in a couple of words.

Why not be a:

Back Washer – operates machine for washing sliver (a continuous textile strand)
Bed Rubber – operates machine which smoothes stone blocks
Bobbin Loose-End Finder – finds and ties broken thread on winding machines
Chick Sexer – inserts illuminating tool into baby birds to determine gender
Fur Blower – runs machinery for fumigating and cleaning furs
Horse Identifier – verifies horses at racetracks
Last Putter-Away – sorts and stores shoe moulds
Lingo Cleaner – cleans metal heddles used in Jacquard loom harnesses
Mother Repairer – improves metal phonograph record matrices
Napper Tender – operates machinery which gives socks a fluffy appearance
Nut Steamer – immerses almonds, pecans etc in hot water to soften shells
Scarf Gluer – joins together plywood panels
Sea-Foam-Kiss Maker – makes candy kisses and puts them on wax paper to harden
Ski Topper – operates machine that fits plastic strips onto skis
Skull Grinder – cleans ear and nose passages of brained pig heads
Smoke Jumper – parachutes in to endangered areas to combat forest fires
Snailer – operates machine which polishes and inscribes clocks and watches
Soft Crab Shedder – helps crabs to shed hard shells so they can be sold as soft-shell crabs
Sulky Driver – takes charge of two-wheel, horse-drawn carriages in races
Top Waddy – organises groups of cowpunchers on a range (also known as Top Screw)
Trip Follower – posts positions of aircraft on a flight-following board
Wax-Ball Knock-Out Worker – removes wax forms from insides of new basketballs
Worm Picker – patrols grassy areas to find worms for fishing bait
Wrinkle Chaser – uses various tools to remove defects from new shoes
Yeast Pusher – transfers yeast from fermenting cellar to storage tanks

These weird and wonderful job titles were taken from the US government’s authorative manual.

Filed under: job role,job titles — admin @ 13:44