Viewing Umbrella Company Mistakes from 4 Basics of an Umbrella Company - Umbrella Company - The Basics Written by Contractor Supermarket

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Umbrella Company Mistakes

The average contractor umbrella company will make around 2 mistakes a year that will directly affect you as a contractor. Depending on how well your umbrella company manage those mistakes will determine whether you stay on as a customer with that particular umbrella company.

It would be better to have one mistake a month which was satisfactorily resolved (cash back opportunity?) by your umbrella company, rather than one mistake a year which left you out of pocket, broke and fed up.

Marcus Glover, Managing Director of Springboard Umbrella Company, is quite clear on the matter: "An umbrella company has a duty to provide a their clients with a good service -  the best umbrella companies work hard to deliver a great service, all of the time, no matter what.

"Every contractor should be confident that:

If their umbrella company makes a mistake, it's sorted - quickly, painlessly and without any inconvenience to the contractor.

If a mistake is spotted, the umbrella company are prompt, polite and makes sure it doesn't happen again."

 

Common Mistakes made by Umbrella Companies

Timesheet goes astray. You know you've sent it to them, but the umbrella company swear it never arrived.

Invoice to your recruitment agency is late. If you miss your agency deadline you'll have to wait for the next one before they'll pay your umbrella company.

Invoice wrong. Your recruitment agency will reject an invoice from your umbrella company if it doesn't match the details on your contract and authorised timesheet.

Monies not identified. Your recruitment agency may pay your umbrella company, but your umbrella company haven't yet worked out which amount is yours.

Expenses not taken into account by your umbrella company. This means you'll be paying more tax than you expected.

Cash not received in your bank. Your umbrella company sent you a payslip but your money hasn't arrived yet into your bank account.

 

Glover's Top 10 Lessons for Umbrella Companies

1. Customer intelligence is based on three questions: Who are the chosen customers of the umbrella company? What are the needs and expectations of umbrella company contractors? How is the umbrella company doing in meeting the needs of contractors?

2. Understand how an umbrella company contractor thinks. Few umbrella companies have begun to consider how they can test for the emotional elements of the contractor customer experience.

3. Trust in umbrella company people. It is people that deliver great service, not umbrella companies. The award winning umbrella companies all give their staff as much freedom, choice and opportunity as possible.

4. Work for and with umbrella companies who believe in service excellence. If the people at the top of an umbrella company don't believe in service excellence, it won't happen.

5. Master the art of umbrella company organisation design. Service excellence is a function of how the umbrella company is designed. Umbrella company's key elements are what the leaders do and how effective management processes are in facilitating the desired outcome.

6. Make the link to the bottom line. Masters of service excellence understand contractors who have a great experience are more likely to continue to buy from that umbrella company and more likely to recommend them to others.

7. Make everything a little better every day. Leaders in umbrella company service excellence train their people to drive continuous improvement.

8. Understand that the future will be different. Technology is changing the way the umbrella company service is delivered all the time. Failing to grasp the opportunities and threats presented will mean failure.

9. Learn from your mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes but winning umbrella companies learn from them, giving their frontline people as much freedom as possible to fix problems. When individuals or teams make mistakes, use them as opportunities to learn.

10. Make things easier for umbrella company customers. Too many firms still make buying unnecessarily difficult for contractors - with unclear pricing, insufficient information and poor support & service. Contractor patience is limited.

 

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written on2010-08-21 23:18:54

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