Compliance at Sellick Partnership is all about safeguarding our stakeholders - acting as a firewall to ensure candidates, clients and the company are protected. Our Compliance team ensures all our candidates are placed into roles successfully and accurately, and in line with an increasing and ever evolving set of requirements.
We reduce risk by putting reliable, robust systems and processes in place, ensuring compliance with all relevant legislation and regulations across frameworks and Managed Service Providers (MSPs). Our compliance function is centralised at Sellick Partnership, allowing our recruitment teams to focus on their day jobs and build vital relationships with candidates and clients. This approach also means we’ve been able to develop a standardised compliance process spanning all the specialisms and sectors we work in. Each team member is an expert in compliance, striving to mitigate risk for the business.
To give you a clearer picture of how our compliance processes work, we’ve compiled answers to some of the questions we’re most often asked by candidates and clients.
A: A dedicated Compliance Team brings several key benefits:
A: As a minimum, we always ensure our compliance processes meet all legislative requirements that safeguard the business, candidate and end client. Examples include:
We work with over 100 clients through c.30 MSPs or Frameworks, all with different compliance requirements. This means that certain cases require more in-depth processes than those listed above.
A: Our average offer-to-placed’ time is 10 days. This is the time between the candidate being offered the role to being confirmed fully compliant and ready to start.
We have achieved this by streamlining our processes and increasing digitalisation of the onboarding processes, as well as creating a ‘returning candidate process’. By reusing previously validated documentation where possible, the team reduced unnecessary duplication, enabling faster, more efficient onboarding without compromising compliance standards.
A: The Compliance Team at Sellick Partnership monitors all active assignments and updates time-sensitive documents one month before expiry, ensuring documentation is always up-to-date. These might include but are not limited to:
A: Our Compliance Team works quickly to get candidates ready to start. However, some checks rely on external providers - such as DBS applications and references - which can cause delays and are outside of our control.
To help speed things up, you can:
We begin all checks as soon as possible and keep the process moving, but flexibility around outstanding items can help reduce delays.
A: Yes. We follow government guidelines to verify every candidate’s identity and Right to Work (RTW) before they start. No candidate will begin an assignment until these checks, along with our internal compliance process, have been fully completed.
A: We need to keep all candidate records up to date to meet government compliance requirements.
When you’re re-placed, we review what we already have on file and will only ask for documents that are missing or out of date - nothing unnecessary.
A: Once your placement is confirmed, our Compliance Team will email you with everything you need to know - including your start date, location, pay details, and any required compliance documents.
Please refer to this email for a full list of what’s needed.
A: All timesheets need to be authorised on the relevant system by 10am each Tuesday. If you are working through your own limited company, you must also provide our Payroll Team with a matching invoice before 10am each Tuesday.
Where a change to this deadline is required, such as during bank holidays or the festive period, amendments will be communicated as soon as possible.
A: Our Payroll Team can process advancements in emergency situations. These need to be requested via email to payroll@sellickpartnership.co.uk. Some advancements are subject to a fee and depend on capacity within the Payroll Team. Provided your timesheet is authorised by 12:00 on Friday, an advancement will be processed by COB the same day.
A: MSP stands for Managed Service Provider. This is the provider the client has chosen to process their roles, compliance, and timesheets. As the recruitment agency, we will collate all the compliance and submit it to the MSP system to be validated. Your booking will then generate timesheets for submitting your weekly hours.
A: We’ll send these out the week your placement starts and, as you work a week in hand, you will not need to submit your timesheet until the end of your first week to receive payment during your second week.
A: You’ll be paid weekly, so timesheets must be submitted each week - we’re unable to process monthly payments.
Some Managed Service Providers (MSPs) may pause placements if timesheets aren’t submitted on time, so it’s important not to leave them to bulk submit.
A: You need to ask your manager to contact the MSP directly and have the extension approved. The MSP will then process the extension and you can submit timesheets. If the delay has resulted in you missing the deadline for timesheets, we will liaise with payroll to ensure payment is made once your timesheet is approved.
A: For any deduction queries, P60/P45 requests, holiday, sick, and other leave requests please contact your umbrella company directly, as they are your employer.
A: Don’t worry - you’ll be paid the rate confirmed in your new starter email from our Compliance Team.
If the rate on the MSP portal is different, we’ll work with them to correct it.
A: AWR stands for Agency Worker Regulations. After 12 weeks of continuous employment, you may be entitled to a marginal uplift to align either your pay or holiday pay with the permanent equivalent for your role. This is dealt with internally and any relevant uplifts will be processed by the accounts team and granted accordingly.
Please note: Once you have completed 12-weeks a pay uplift is not guaranteed. The payment threshold may have been met from day one.
A: Your referee details depend on the type of employment. If you were employed via an agency, please provide the agency contact details and your manager’s email. If you were directly employed by the company, please provide the HR details and your manager’s email.
A: For any gaps over 31 days, we require a written gap reference from a professional. You must provide a contact that:
Please note we can only accept references from business domain emails, not personal addresses.
For example, if you opted to take an extended period of leave, you could ask a friend to provide a reference so long as they contacted us from their business/professional email account.
A: We’d need the company name so we can confirm the status on Companies House. We’d also need proof of employment, i.e., payslip, P45, or P60. Additionally, it’s important you self-declare the employment in an email along with a character reference from a professional.
A: We recommend using one of our preferred suppliers for several reasons. Each has passed a thorough financial background check by our accounts team to ensure they meet all requirements.
Using a preferred supplier also means:
A: Please inform your Consultant and the Compliance Team, who will set your placement up on the Sellick Partnership payroll system under your chosen umbrella company.
Please note: It is your responsibility to contact your chosen umbrella company directly to complete the registration process with them. We cannot do this for you.
We hope you’ve found this guide helpful. If something’s not clear or you need extra support, don’t hesitate to contact us.
