The challenge:
Since 2007, we have worked in partnership with the London Borough of Lewisham Council as their managed service provider of contingent workers.
Throughout the years, which have seen ever-changing market challenges, our service has adapted to meet the needs of the council.
Originally, we started working with the public sector body to deploy digital technologies to remove manual processes and streamline their supply chain, to help with the financial crisis and challenges of the pandemic.
However, this has now evolved to our on-site team relocating to departments that most need our support, these include HR, procurement, and a range of care teams.
The solution:
We have provided a digital workforce solution that delivers measurable benefits for Lewisham and their constituents throughout the contract.
To achieve this, we champion a culture of continuous improvement and innovation, driven by our company purpose ‘improving lives through work’.
Throughout our long partnership, we have continued to deliver bespoke talent strategies, helping Lewisham to save time, money and above all, ensure they always hire the best talent for their organisation.
Our service has helped us to continually deliver quality, retained talent, through our extensive networks of proven workers and carefully selected support suppliers.
At the Tiara Talent Solution Awards 2021, we won the ‘Long-Term Partnership Award’ alongside Lewisham Council. Our work was praised by the judges for “transforming manual recruitment processes and historic supply chain to produce significant savings for their client and were a great example of an effective partnership, working together to solve a wide range of issues for over 14 years.”
The results:
Our close working partnership means we have strong relationships with stakeholders and after being on-site with them since 2007, we understand the day-to-day challenges they face.
This has enabled us to react quickly in situations such as payrolling 140 workers with two days’ notice, agency worker regulations (AWR), pension and auto-enrolment, apprenticeship levy, London Living Wage (LLW), IR35 and furlough payments.
Throughout we have delivered:
24/7 pre-employment vetting for 100% compliance
Average fulfilment rates of 98% across roles
Continued savings including £3.75m from the first contract and £3m in the second
Outplacement support for redeployment pool, employability workshops and one-to-one sessions
Technology providing transparency of costs, real-time management information (MI) reporting
Created policies, trained staff, introduced new technologies to improve efficiencies
Social value in the local community, providing CV writing, mock interviews, and career days
Tracey Hawks, HR Resourcing Manager at London Borough of Lewisham Council, said: “Our work with Reed Talent Solutions is a real partnership, they understand the evolving needs of the council and our local community, helping us ensure we always have the talent we need on-site.
“We are excited to hear our partnership has won an award and look forward to continuing our work, engaging more local talent to join the council.”
In 2021, our contract with the council was extended by two years, and in the first year of that extension we completed a project to successfully place 25 temporary qualified social workers into the authority within three months.
We also delivered £62,500 in savings at the end of year one and are on-track to deliver the same amount in year two.
Find out more about our managed service programmes, or get in touch with one of our experts to talk through your needs.
