Flexibility when it's needed most...

BMW / Mini announced it would need to scrap its weekend production shift - making 850 workers redundant at its plant in Cowley.  In fact this was not redundancies in the end, but the termination of temporary (agency) worker contracts.  For any individual to lose a job is upsetting and regrettable; Unions suggested it was an "opportunistic" ploy to get rid of cheap labour at no cost to the business.  However, it really does underline the operational benefits of using a flexible workforce within your budget.  Had these individuals been permanent workers they would still have had to reduce numbers, but it would have been a much more protracted, costly and PR-damaging exercise of redundancies.

A few points to bear in mind in this sort of situation:-

• Employers rely on agency workers for increased flexibility and cost control to cover periods of heavy demand - when the firm is most busy producing orders or dealing with customers - and then has the right to let go of them when that work is no longer needed. 
• Giving agency workers the rights to redundancy pay and notice would add extra cost and burden to employing them in the first place - hence they would be unlikely to get hired in the first place.
• In a recession agency workers are vital to keeping the economy up - the fact they are flexible labour means they get hired at all - if they had permanent employee rights employers may not be able to offer anybody any jobs.
• When the upturn comes, agency workers will be vital to meet that upturn in demand. Without the flexibility that comes with hiring them quickly - sometimes within days - we could lose the chance to provide a service to our customers when needed.
• Agency workers already have increased rights - a European law (the Agency Workers Directive) coming into force over the next couple of years will allow them the same rights to holiday pay, pay, overtime and breaks as permanent staff after just 12 weeks. Currently this is a year.
• The BMW owned car maker said sales had slumped by 35% in January and there was simply no need for the workers to produce cars nobody was buying.  They have been able to quickly respond to market pressures and still avoid redundancy.

I have a number of clients who have benefited recently from the ability to flex the workforce with demand:-

• Two clients have both built up excess stock levels with forecasts of reduced orders for the next month or so.  Rather than let anyone go we have been able to help them in reducing work hours for temporary workers for the next month and use holiday entitlement that has been accrued to build hours up over this period.
• Another client has seen work levels increase dramatically over the last week, and to meet this demand we have been able to put in low-cost overtime for all existing workers as well as topping up numbers by around 25%.

Both of these measures can be quickly reversed as soon as necessary giving our clients immediate control of labour costs.

If you would like to discuss implementing flexible labour into your own workforce, or you would like to look at ways of flexing your agency workers (up or down) I will be happy to meet with you at your convenience.

Kind regards
Jon Derbyshire

Head Office

Kimada House 442 Flixton Road•Flixton•Manchester•M41 6EY
• www.heads-uk.com
• e: jon.derbyshire@heads-uk.com
• t: 0161-746-8811
• f: 0161-747-0011

If you do not wish to receive further emailings from Heads Recruitment, please email
UnsubscribeA@heads-uk.comand include 'remove' in the subject line.

MANCHESTER Tel: 0161 746 8811 Fax: 0161 747 7940

HALIFAX Tel: 01422 373 998 Fax: 01422 375 970

LEEDS Tel: 0113 383 5324 Fax: 0113 383 5325

WAKEFIELD Tel: 01924-364-111 Fax: 01924-366-444

SHEFFIELD TEL: 0114 251 6767 Fax: 0114 251 6700