How JobsAware supports recruiters

The purpose of JobsAware is to allow the communication of best practice, share common experiences and trends and work with the investigative and enforcement agencies to prevent and disrupt criminal activity. You can partner with JobsAware and join the free campaign here.

How is a crime committed and what information do fraudsters use?

Recruiters or Employers can fall victim to a wide range of criminal activities itself and could be a vehicle through which both clients and workers could be targeted. False identities, spurious services and false accounting are common frauds seen.

What can recruiters or employers do to protect themselves and their customers?

All reputable recruiters/employers should ensure they deploy stringent security precautions to protect workers and their customer base. This includes having consistent processes in place, including workplace checks to validate the legitimacy of workers documentation such as right to work in the UK and any required qualifications or professional registrations. In addition, all website and payroll systems should be secure, and regular information security checks should be undertaken to test the robustness of your data security systems. 

Responsibilities as a recruiter

All workers, including temporary, permanent and Personal Service Companies (PSC’s) should be issued with a Key Information Document (KID) – this became a requirement by law on 6 April 2020.

​The Key Information Document should clearly outline how you will engage with a worker, including who is employing the individual, who will pay them, and an example pay statement based on a standard working week, including any deductions.

​For more information on the Key Information Document, please see this UK Government resource. 

All workers, including temporary, permanent and Personal Service Companies (PSC’s) should also be issued with a contract or terms of engagement, which clearly outlines how the contractual relationship will work. 

​You are responsible for paying the worker for all hours worked. If there is a dispute over hours worked, or missing timesheets; it is your responsibility to look into the matter and resolve this. 

​You should also ensure you are fully aware what your legal responsibilities are as a recruiter/employer in terms of Pensions, Holiday Pay, Sick Pay and Agency Workers Regulations (AWR), where applicable, and other Statutory Deductions. 

Timesheet Fraud

As a recruiter, have you been approached by an employer you may or may not know?

​Have you then been asked to payroll one of their employees, as they can’t have them on the company books for some reason or other?

If yes, you should approach this with extreme caution, as this may be an attempt to defraud the recruiter.

​Recruiters who supply temporary workers are required to pay an employee/worker whether or not they have received payment from their client.

​In this instance, timesheets will be submitted by the employee/worker weekly, however it may be some weeks before the lack of payment from the client is picked up on. At this point both the client and worker have become uncontactable, leaving the agency out of pocket.

What can you do to prevent timesheet fraud?

A consistent process should be in place, to complete the relevant checks on the client, including credit and risk checks.

As part of this check, payment terms should also be reviewed and managed. You should also onboard the employee/worker as you would any other temporary worker and not agree any reduction in legislative or your company policy requirements at the clients’ request. This will further enforce your due diligence prior to hire and supply. If it still is too good to be true, then do not supply.

Partnering with JobsAware

Information for recruitment agencies on how to and why partner with JobsAware.