Southern Water has awarded an AMP7 contract for recruitment services worth an estimated £86.9 million.

The contract was tendered in early 2022 with an initial estimated value of £60 million. Southern Water was looking to put a delivery partner in place who was able to offer an end to end recruitment service, in addition to training and best practice knowledge sharing to improve internal capability.

The delivery partner specifications included:

provision of contingent labour recruitment services covering all the utility’s locations across Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

• ability to recruit contingent workers at the volumes detailed at a competitive price.
• ability to directly fill most of the roles and show the cost efficiencies and value of being able to do this.
• engaging agencies to fill contingent worker roles that could not be directly filled on behalf of Southern Water and the ability to contract and manage this supply chain on the utility’s behalf
• ability to provide pre-employment and background checks as an ad-hoc service.

The contract award follows on from the in-sourcing of permanent staff by the water company.

The scope of the new contract covers:

• Contractors sourcing through the appointed supplier directly and through its chosen Tier 2 providers, and the payroll services for contractors;
• On request from Southern Water for specific roles, the sourcing of permanent staff through the suppliers chosen PSL providers;
• Requirements for advertising for the identified roles and any associated campaigns, etc.

London-based firm Adecco UK Ltd has been awarded the contract – one of six companies in the bidding for the work.

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