How to choose your HR service partner?

The Hungarian economy has been facing labour and skills shortages for many years, constantly bringing new challenges to employers. Long-standing vacancies and prolonged recruitment processes place a significant strain on companies' budgets and hinder efficient operations. This is one of the reasons for the increasing demand from employers to fulfil their recruitment needs, whether temporary or permanent, through an HR service partner in atypical employment.

Atypical forms of employment, – other than the standard 40-hour per week permanent employment contract, – can provide a cost-effective and quick solution to companies' labour and recruitment challenges. Examples include various forms of temporary agency work, remote or part-time jobs, casual and seasonal work within the framework of simplified employment, and types of cooperative employment such as student jobs or jobs for retired workers.

 

Atypical employment: an effective solution to satisfy changing staffing needs

The rise of atypical forms of employment is now a dominant trend in the labour market, which has been fuelled by a number of factors, including labour shortages, ageing, the rapid development of digitalisation and the pandemic rise of flexible forms of work. Based on the experience of the Human Centrum, the biggest advantage for our partners is the ability to quickly meet their hectically changing staffing needs – whether it's a staffing freeze or seasonal work.

 

 

The employment of cooperative members or temporary workers does not increase the company's own statistical headcount or wage costs, but provides an immediate solution to capacity shortages.

In addition, the employer is relieved of the burden of

• recruitment selection,
• managing fluctuation,
• onboarding and offboarding
• and any additional regulatory and labour administration,
• payroll and payroll transfer.

Choosing the right HR service provider is not a simple decision, so before you sign a contract with a potential partner company, you should consider certain aspects to ensure that you can significantly minimise the risks of normal business operations while maximising the benefits of cooperation. Here are some of them!

 

1. How does it contribute to the efficiency of the recruitment process? 

The basis of professional temporary staffing and placement is effective recruitment selection, which can vary from industry to industry. As an experienced HR service provider, we can often take care of these tasks much more efficiently and quickly than companies themselves would. Plus, with our database of thousands of employees, we can supply valuable information on the wage needs, skills, motivations of the potential employees' and on the current industry trends.

This is complemented by our up-to-date knowledge of legislative changes: we keep track of the amendments in legal regulations that affect us and our partners and we adjust them quickly. This, together with our extensive professional knowledge and experience, ensures that we can reduce personnel spending and make it more transparent.

To ensure effective cooperation, it is advisable to choose a partner for temporary or permanent recruitment who has an office in your area of operation, as this implies knowledge of the local labor market. Another advantage can be to contract with a recruitment company with a national network, as their local offices are able to resolve potential capacity shortages and help in the commute of the employees with the required professional qualifications. 

 

 

2. What to keep in mind when making a quote?  

The calculation of the lease fee is either based on a mutually agreed gross wage or the total employment expenditure. There are a number of common calculation methods based on both multipliers and lump sum fees. When requesting proposals, you should clarify the structure of the quotations you expect to ensure easy comparability of fees. If you are not familiar with the current regulation of the taxes and contributions on wages, a number of calculators are available on the internet for this purpose.

You should be a bit cautious if the quoted fee is almost identical to the total employment expenditure as, in this case, the lease fee does not cover the other costs of the service (recruitment, selection, project management, payroll calculation, labor administration) and the consequences of applying “tricky” solutions like this affect both the employee and the client company.

 

3. What guarantees a safe and legal partnership?

Employee leasing companies typically register with the Labor Office when they perform their activities publicly. An equally important element of safe cooperation is the existence and value of the liability insurance policy of our employee leasing partners. Other information to look out for is whether the service provider is included on the list of companies with no public debt put out by the Hungarian Tax and Customs Authority. The above guarantees, combined with the application of a quality assurance system, should be enough for you to be sure that you will receive a legitimate and regulated employee selection, project management and administration service. 

 

4. Why is the financial stability a priority for an HR service provider? 

As one of the largest national temporary staffing and recruitment companies, with more than three decades of experience, Human Centrum has experienced countless economic situations and a wide range of regulations in the labour market. With flexible and efficient services in atypical employment with a broad portfolio, we are able to operate stably in even an uncertain economic environment. We believe that atypical employment is the future – a crisis-proof and secure solution for the market.

Expertise goes hand in hand with stability, which is also important to assess: various business information systems make it easy to check a prospective partner's business, financial situation and payment discipline, so you can get reliable information before you sign a contract. Financial and professional stability is also of key importance because the workers are on the staff of the temporary employment agency and receive their salaries from there. However, if the temporary employment agency fails to fulfil its legal obligations, the hirer may retroactively become the employer, with all the legal and financial consequences that entails.

 

What company information can you find out about?

Before signing a contract, it is advisable to check the basic details of the prospective partner company:

• Registration number
• Business activity, financial data
• The list of companies with no public debt put out by the Hungarian Tax and Customs Authority
• Office network
• Quality Assurance System
• References
• Lending fees

 

5. Why is it important to tender?

Even in the case of multiple-year cooperation, testing your current partner against other market players may be useful. Tendering has a number of advantages:

• you will get more information to make your decision which prompts healthy competition,
• you can expect a higher level of service and you are quoted competitive fees

– even if the evaluation of the offers received confirms your previous decision and you keep your current supplier. 

As the skills and attitude of your staff are essential to efficiency, it is vital that you choose a provider that can help you employ the right people for every position.