Optimising Payroll & HR Efficiency: The Learning Partnership’s Journey to a Better Solution

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A Learning Partnership faced a challenge in finding a comprehensive outsourcing solution for their payroll and HR functions.  The small department needed a system that could reduce manual input and hold key information in the cloud.  The Learning Partnership commissioned Value Match to provide strategic procurement and commercial support to help them find a suitable provider.  Through Value Match market engagement and competitive tender process, the Trust was able to appoint a provider that met all of their objectives, including a self-service portal for employees and a contract that supported the growing aspirations of the Trust.  As a result of this procurement, the Trust achieved significant cost savings and streamlined their payroll and HR processes.

Challenge

A Learning Partnership commissioned Value Match to provide strategic procurement and commercial support to the Trust as they were looking to implement a comprehensive outsourced payroll provider that could also support the HR function through an online hosted system to hold key information and reduce manual input to create efficiencies for the small department.

The trusts objectives were to

  • Appoint a provider that is able to support all 11 schools including a system that can be scaled to onboard new schools at any time.
  • Have a single provider that could offer an integrated Payroll and HR service
  • Obtain a single point of contact with suppliers, supported by proactive account management through contract management for the trust
  • The implementation of a self-service portal to reduce administrative workload for the department
  • Enter into a contract that can support the growing aspirations of the Trust
  • Achieve procurement compliance and obtain cashable savings where possible

The Trust were looking to receive bids that demonstrated value for money whilst being able to deliver the vital payroll services to a high degree of accuracy, reduce administrative burdens and increase visibility through self-service to all staff employees.

Solution

Value Match provided strategic support during this procurement which included:

  1. Value Match identified and reviewed the possible routes to market, providing an options appraisal detailing the most appropriate and cost-effective route to market for the Trust
  2. Conducted market engagement with suppliers to understand the current market conditions, appetite for bidding and to understand supplier capabilities to help develop the specification, as allowed the Trust to understand the ‘art of the possible’
  3. Utilising a Dynamic Purchasing System to run a competitive tender process to provide a quick and compliant route to market to meet the Trust’s deadlines.
  4. Provided advice and guidance on contractual documentation to ensure they reflected the Trust’s needs and did not impose any unnecessary risk
  5. Engaged with the Trust, and stakeholders across HR and payroll, to gain a detailed understanding of the services required and system capabilities to reduce the administrative burden on the departments.
  6. Developed a high quality, fit for purpose specification which clearly articulated the requirements to the market
  7. Compiling the appropriate documentation and managing the end-to-end process to ensure compliance with procurement legislation, equal treatment of bidders and transparency
  8. Providing evaluation training to the panel of school staff.
  9. Managing the technical, commercial and moderation evaluation process
  10. Providing project management and weekly briefings to the school to ensure they were continually updated on the process through to effective delivery
  11. Preparing evaluation reports and supplier debriefing letters/discussions
  12. Managing the contract award process including drafting contract documentation and publishing the award notices.
  13. Facilitated the contract mobilisation process
  14. Providing ongoing contract management to ensure service delivery is in line with the contract.

Outcome

As a result of this procurement, the Trust were able to

  1. Complete a compliant, cost-effective procurement process resulting in the most economically advantageous tender being awarded.
  2. The Trust were able to access an integrated Payroll and HR provider.
  3. Integration and introduction of a self-service portal allows employees to view and interact with their own information and any deployed payroll processes at any time without the need for support from the finance team
  4. The introduction of the e-signature integration of documents to reduce administrative burden on processing paperwork for employees.
  5. Achieved 65% saving over a 4-year contract period by utilising a competitive process through the combing HR and Payroll tender for a single supplier.

The project was completed simultaneously as part of a multiple projects undertaken across the school term within 17 weeks ensuring the school were able to fully mobilise in advance of the contract start date.

For further information, contact Lindsay Rosul

T: 07702 823 648
E: Lindsay.Rosul@value-match.co.uk