Blog
Guidance for people running recruitment agencies
Practical writing on the Conduct Regulations, right to work checks and AWR compliance, from the team building AgencyOptix.
Choosing compliance software when you're running more than one branch
A tool that works well for a single site can fall over quietly once a second or third branch is added — the failure mode is usually inconsistency, not an outright breakdown.
Read the article →National Minimum Wage compliance for temporary workers: where agencies actually go wrong
Most NMW breaches aren't a deliberate underpayment — they're a technical miscalculation involving deductions, unpaid time, or umbrella arrangements that quietly drag someone's effective pay below the legal floor.
GLAA licensing: when does a labour provider actually need one?
Supplying workers into agriculture, horticulture, shellfish gathering or related processing without a GLAA licence is a criminal offence — and the sectors it covers are narrower, and more specific, than many agencies assume.
Holiday pay for agency and temporary workers: how accrual actually works
Rolled-up holiday pay is back for irregular-hours and part-year workers, but only under specific conditions — get the 12.07% mechanics wrong and it shows up as a shortfall on someone's payslip.
Umbrella company due diligence: what agencies need to check before referring workers
New joint and several liability rules mean an agency's exposure for a non-compliant umbrella company in its supply chain is no longer just reputational — due diligence has to be more than a rate comparison.
Can a contractor opt out of the Conduct Regulations?
Regulation 32 lets certain limited company contractors opt out of most of the Conduct Regulations' protections — but only if it's done correctly, and some placements can't use it at all.
The Conduct of Employment Agencies Regulations, explained
Every UK recruitment agency operates under the Conduct Regulations 2003, whether or not they've read them recently. Here's what they actually require, in plain terms.
Right to work checks: what a recruitment agency actually has to verify
Getting this wrong doesn't just risk a compliance finding — it carries a civil penalty per illegal worker under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006.
What is a Key Information Document, and when do you need to issue one?
A KID has to be given to a work-seeker before terms are agreed, setting out pay, deductions and how they'll actually be engaged — and it's one of the most commonly incomplete pieces of onboarding paperwork.