By Ed Garnsey, Director The Background Hydrogen is an award-winning global recruitment company. We have agencies in Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. I moved from the United Kingdom to work with Hydrogen ten years ago. At that time we were predominantly recruiting contractors for the oil and gas industry. These days our business is more focused on recruiting software engineers. We were using The Ayers Group for contractor management when I arrived as a recruitment consultant. I’m now the Director in charge of the Australian agency and, they add so much value, I’ve had no reason to even look at another supplier. The Ayers Group manages all the administrative obligations associated with our contractors, from onboarding through to managing timesheets, expenses, payroll and even offboarding when the time comes. It’s a seamless process that relieves us of a whole lot of responsibility. The Relationship Our relationship with The Ayers Group benefits all parties – our contractors our clients, our business and theirs. Essentially, we identify candidates for client projects, approach them determine their suitability, make an offer and manage the negotiation. Once they’ve agreed to the proposition, we hand the details over to The Ayers Group. Typically The Ayers Group will make contact with the candidate within a couple of hours, and inside of 24 hours they’ll have completed their onboarding. This fast turn-around is really important for our business success, especially in the current candidate-favoured market – if you hang around too long, or if the onboarding process is messy, you lose them to another contract. It’s as simple as that. The Difference There are very few commercial relationships that last for 10 years, but our relationship with The Ayers Group has, and it is enormously valuable. Not only do they handle our tasks with speed and accuracy, their contractor management solution means we don’t need to invest in our own online timesheet or expense portals. And they’re across all the legislation relating to contractors, which means we don’t have to be. They’re always available to advise us on issues that arise, which saves us huge amounts of time and money that would otherwise be spent seeking external expertise. As an example, when the Federal Government introduced complex labour hire licences for agencies in Victoria and Queensland in 2018, we reached out to The Ayers Group. We wanted to know whether we needed the licence, and if so, how to get it. We also wanted to understand the risks if we chose not to get a licence. The Ayers Group provided a clear response, which made it so much easier to make a decision. But it’s not only our business they look after – they provide our contractors with helpful advice about their tax, as well as financial benefits available to them, like the living away from home allowance. As an extension of the service we provide, this makes for a better experience for the contractor, which encourages extended tenure and of course, all of that reflects positively on us. There’s nothing like a good partnership to help your business grow and thrive and that’s what we have with The Ayers Group. They make a significant difference to our business.