IR35: what is the Capita plan?

* Note between 0% and 100% of this blog may become irrelevant given the election results, though I think with #Brexit the #IR35 train will keep on rolling....

When it comes to dealing with any challenge, actions definitely speak louder than words. It’s all very good and well to understand what a problem is and how it might affect you – but it’s no good sitting around talking forever without making a plan and following through on it. I understand, though, that if you’re faced with a large contingent workforce, it can be hard to know where to start. That’s where Capita comes in.

Our IR35 Consultancy is in an ideal position to guide any private business, or charity, through the legislative change. We became experts the last time round, when the reforms took effect on the public sector; since then, we’ve maintained continual and positive communications with HMRC, meaning we’re front of the line when it comes to getting the newest information. As a member of the Recruitment Employment Confederation (REC) policy committee, we are leaders in best practice. We’ve also facilitated a number of events and workshops to share knowledge, and have created specialist tools to help us lead our customers onward.

Our approach to ensuring compliance to IR35 across your entire workforce, is driven by past experience and insightful forecasting about the longer-term impact. We also know that what you need when you embark on your IR35 journey is clarity, transparency and communication. That’s why our approach to IR35 is broken down into three phases – Discovery, Risk Insulation, and Ongoing Compliance – so that while partnering with Capita, you will always understand your position.

Phase 1 – Discovery

The first, key step is to gain the fullest possible understanding of which roles and workers are in-scope, auditing across the workforce to gain the maximum data. We look at your recruiting and hiring processes across every business unit, then move on to prioritise where to act first. With decades of expertise in the recruitment field, we’re well aware that there’s a degree of non-compliance in most businesses. Despite this, all personal service company engagements need to be assessed, and we will be able to offer you the help you need to identify those hidden engagements and resources.

It’s here also that we want to understand how your hiring practices really work, so we can build a plan that will have the minimal impact on your business. Combined data and analysis of rates, practices and interactions mean we can measure the most significant potential impacts, with predictive analytics tools to understand long-term effects. Only once we’ve got all the necessary data collected can we move forward to the next step.

Phase 2 – Risk Insulation

No two clients will face the exact same issues when it comes to addressing IR35 impact – so the next phase begins with co-creating a custom-built roadmap to success. We will use our expertise and your business knowledge to create a plan that is right for your business while ensuring legislative challenges are addressed. Recommendations are divided into immediate, medium and long-term critical success factors. Actions are then attributed to each: these may be Capita actions or yours, actions, but delivery against these is of vital importance. Our methodology supports educating hiring managers on the re-engineered processes, to ensure compliance and on developing new policies in partnership.

This is truly the most transformative step: with all previous data collected, Capita creates the approach you need to move forward. Completely tailor-made, it means that IR35 reform will have the most minimal impact to your business operations and workforce flexibility on a long-term basis. It will simply slide into place as one component of how you engage and manage your workforce.

Phase 3 – Ongoing Compliance

Once the initial hard work is done, we won’t just leave you to get on with it – we continue to be an invested partner, offering you a high-touch consultancy into the future. This includes a biannual process health check, with maintained communications, robust systems and continuously mapped skillsets and roles. We keep reviewing how engaged your hiring community is with IR35 compliance, broadly reducing risk and continuing to offer expertise on best practice guidance relating to contingent workers.

For more information on Capita’s IR35 Consulting Service, please get in touch.

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