Kate Wilding is a noted figure in the recruitment industry, having spent the last 13 years working with a wide array of corporate clients, outsourced providers and agencies. Kate is one of Centrica’s managers in the in-house recruitment team responsible for reducing recruitment costs, whilst improving the consistency of service and delivery to its internal stakeholders.
Temporary labour within the Centrica organisation is one of the key priorities for Kate’s team. As such the team is dedicated to continually improving the candidate experience and robustness of the company’s key compliance obligations.
Kate Wilding, Resourcing Operations Manager at Centrica comments: “We appreciate the importance of workforce planning, as it allows us to have an increasingly flexible workforce, which we can scale in line with business needs.”
“We have temporary workers varying in skill set, level and tenure working all across our business. They are incredibly valuable to us and we take great pride in ensuring they are engaged and treated fairly; lessons we are happy to share with tempo and the industry. I am thrilled to join tempo’s Steering Group, to share our learning and help shape the temporary recruitment industry moving forwards.”
Chairman of tempo Keith Faulkner commented: “We are delighted to have Kate representing clients on tempo’s Steering Group. Her experience is of huge value and will give our member agencies a better insight into how they can support hirers in making more effective use of flexible staffing solutions – by raising standards and championing best practice.”
Two more client representatives will be joining the Steering Group later this year.
Steering Group Meet To Set Governance For Tempo
Tempo, the alliance for recruitment agencies and hirers that is committed to raising standards in the temporary recruitment industry, held its first Steering Group meeting on 26th June following the appointment of the group’s members at tempo’s inaugural AGM.
This landmark meeting was led by Keith Faulkner, CBE and Chairman of tempo. The purpose of the meeting was for the appointed agency and client representatives to come together and outline how they could further develop tempo, ensuring the alliance was setting rigorous standards of governance for its members and actively addressing industry challenges.
The Steering Group shared information and views on a variety of topics, which included:
• Tempo auditing: Tempo membership is to be a mark of quality, so it was agreed that a successful audit must be a condition for membership. Agencies that do not fully match up to the required standard would be given guidance and practical support and then need to pass a re-audit before membership was granted.
• Procurement hub: The feedback on the procurement hub has been extremely positive. Results of a cost analysis for existing members demonstrated significant savings for tempo members across the services on offer.
• Policy issues: The group agreed that tempo should actively engage with the Labour Party following the publication of a Policy Paper on Protecting Workers. It was also agreed that tempo would accept an invitation to join a Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) roundtable on the paperwork obligations of the Agency Workers Regulations (AWR).
• Industry issues: Discussions took place on how members were faring with the shift to Real Time Information and Pension Auto-Enrolment. In terms of emerging trends there was some preliminary discussion on the way some clients are moving away from hourly based charges to paying for performance based on a variety of measures. This will favour quality providers with strong management and effective processes.
Chairman of tempo Keith Faulkner commented: “I am really pleased with the enthusiasm all members showed for creating a really special alliance that doesn’t just talk about issues but goes on to help drive real change in our industry. The agency representatives range from single branch operations through to national agencies, so that with the client perspective also informing our discussions, we are also getting a 360 view of issues affecting our membership.
“It was clear from the meeting that there are a number of key areas where we can help establish best practice. There are a number of challenges facing the temporary recruitment industry and through tempo, our members can be confident that they have a voice and can contribute to creating a market for their services which will recognise and reward superior standards of service.”
