At the point of first engagement in 2022, the client had a full-time, in-house HR Advisor who completed the day-to-day administrative tasks and was able to handle some of the basic employee relations activity. However, they lacked the knowledge and experience to provide high-level support or work on the HR strategy for the business. This related to a total direct employment cost of £35,000 a year for their HR Advisor plus additional costs in HR consulting and outsourcing support to handle their more complex case work.
The client employed around 100 people across their manufacturing and administrative functions and wanted to reduce their HR overhead to maximise their spend and have access to more senior HR support when needed.
The company engaged with Vero HR who suggested an enhanced Vero Partner model, making HR Advisor and HR Director support available to them through the flexible Vero Time Bank model. By moving to a flexible outsourcing model with Vero HR, the client was able to reduce their fixed HR costs by over £18,000 per annum.
With the headache of this part of their HR inefficiencies removed, the client was impressed with the flexibility and cost-efficiency of the Vero outsourcing model and explored options to streamline other people-related areas of their business.
Their monthly payroll of over 100 employees was completed by an in-house payroll controller, but when they retired, the client reallocated the workload to an employee within their Finance function. However, they underestimated the payroll preparation time commitment and the professional accountant found themselves being tied up with transactional payroll tasks which were distracting them from the more value-adding finance activities they had been employed to provide.
With the outbreak of COVID-19, the team had proven the point that the payroll preparation activity could be completed remotely, and with so much time spent on preparing the payroll ahead of processing, Vero HR stepped in to develop a bespoke payroll preparation and processing service.
This eliminated the need for their finance contact to get caught up in this time-consuming work and allowed them to dedicate their time to value-adding finance activity. This would be the first client to utilise the skills of the team for payroll preparation (as distinct from processing payroll) and Vero worked closely to design a solution to match their requirements.
Fast forward six months and the client has explored the options to find further efficiencies by engaging with the new Vero Health & Safety service. Working in a relatively high-risk manufacturing environment, the client had a full-time H&S individual who implemented a sustainable way of managing their H&S activities by empowering the management team to take on the day-to-day responsibilities and keep the business compliant.
The restructuring of these responsibilities meant the nominated H&S manager role was redundant as there was no need for a full-time employee, but the organisation still required a nominated competent person for legal and insurance compliance.
Engaging with Vero H&S in the early stages meant the client could define exactly what their requirements were and scope the service they needed with an existing trusted partner. The result: a bespoke service that further reduced their direct employment costs and helped lower their annual insurance premiums.
One of the priorities for the client when outsourcing their activities was not only to reduce costs, but in doing so, to ensure they did not lose the personal relationships held between their employees and their HR provider. The Vero HR approach to providing dedicated contacts across all of their services allowed the client to continue to work in a way they needed, at a price that suited them.
“Vero provides good, efficient support and has an interest in helping us improve as well. Lorraine wants to know people and get personally engaged in our business. It’s like she is one of our employees, which is perfect.”
– Managing Director
