Recruiters working with Capita Resourcing to supply staff to central government departments can expect a greater focus on more efficient use of their non-permanent staff, according to Capita’s sales and marketing director. Roger Clements told Recruiter: “If you are engaging non-permanent people, it’s about staff utilisation, about how long you are engaging them and how well you are monitoring [the situation]. It’s more about staff utilisation and tenure.”

As a managed service provider, Clements said that Capita Resourcing works with around 30 recruiters to supply interim and contract staff across 10 government departments and executive agencies. Its Cipher contract which spans these organisations is worth between £50m and £75m a year, said Clements.

He added that margin erosion for recruiters working with Capita on its Cipher contract had gone as far as it could. “I think that margin erosion has already occurred, and has largely been realised in most departments,” he said. “There will be a lot more focus on managing the commercial nature of engagement once the basics of margins and pay rates have been sorted out - that’s exactly what we do at Capita.”

Clements added that there were some central government departments outside the Cipher contract where further savings could be made through reductions in suppliers’ margins and rationalising the supply chain, though he declined to identify those departments.