How to procure temporary staff electronically

At EGS, all of our customers are implementing some type of corporate service for the provisioning of temporary staff. The use of electronic procurement tools is key no matter which flavour of managed service you select.

We estimate that UK business spends over £25bn per year on temporary labour. We know that the procedures associated with the provision of temporary specialist staff have to date been paper intensive, relying heavily on signatures and paper audit trails. The reconciliation of invoices remains a time-consuming, imprecise manual task leading to delays in payment with high risks of errors and fraud.

The more innovative of EGS’s customers are now achieving major savings by replacing the paper-based practices with an integrated, closed-loop process comprising of the three central electronic P2P procedures:

1. Order Placement, which provides the base document for financial authority against which timecards can be approved and invoices presented. The requirements for specialist workers are complex, but not impossible to capture in a structured purchase order format. Contrary to often cited concerns, when correctly implemented e-ordering speeds up the procurement process and can be used for even the most time critical of requirements, such as, sourcing emergency social care.
2. Receipting, or in this case, the authorisation of timecards. The compiling, routing and authorisation of timecards is particularly well served with internet accessible workflow. Why would you do it any other way?
3. Invoicing - no need for consolidated invoices (they never did reduce work, anyway). Invoices are kept simple and delivered electronically. If the purchase order is in place and the timecard authorised, the invoice can be automatically matched and sent on its way for timely payment. As the PO is approved and timecard is fully auditable, Buyers can safely “self-bill” if they choose.
   
   And, of course, management information is then available. We all need the flexibility of temporary resource to supplement our permanent staff through the peaks and troughs in workload and unanticipated absences. However, without the visibility and control that comes with e-procurement your temporary staff may well be costing you much more than you think.
   
   And you thought e-procurement was just for buying stationery!!