Celebrating 10 years of Linx 

This October our business reached an important milestone, as we marked 10 years since we first started delivering our services.  

A lot has changed over the years, and we’re delighted to reflect on the evolution of our service offering as we’ve continued to understand what our clients need from a workforce solutions partner. 

ESTABLISHING A NEED FOR LINX 

Our business grew from conversations within the wider NRL Group that we could better support clients, one in particular at the time, with a more structured and centralised managed service. This would fix the fragmentation companies often see in large multi-agency recruitment supply chains and establish more visibility and control of the end-to-end recruitment process. 

MSPs and RPOs already existed in the market, but at the time these usually felt like an off the shelf solution that businesses needed to fit their operations in to – paying for the whole package even if they didn’t need all of it. That’s where our approach differed, instead we’d create tailored solutions that could be custom built around what each client needed. Whether that was greater control over how their recruitment agencies were operating, a more centralised process for standardising worker engagement and agency terms, or overarching compliance governance – we’d take it all into account. 

We were certain on one thing: every Linx solution would probably look different – because we’d create them around the client instead of asking them to work to our rules.  

Welcoming on board our first managed service client 

That bespoke approach is exactly what happened with our first client, and it’s a company we’re proud to still be supporting today as we’ve grown and developed our managed service provision around their changing business needs – including extending our services into other countries in Europe. 

Our Client Services Director Richard Hanson reflects on Linx’s very first contract win: 

“As any business owner knows, the work that goes into setting up operations for your first client often incurs sleepless nights, a tremendous amount of planning and a leap of faith from stakeholders. I’d joined the business at a crucial time, the contract had been won, and the work was starting to implement the solution and engage the client’s supply chain. For someone with an appetite to get my teeth into a project, it was an extremely rewarding time that flew by as the solution quickly came to life. 

Everyone says these things are a team effort, and it’s most certainly true of those first few months of building the client solution. From scoping and developing a vendor management system, to drafting communications to suppliers and hiring managers, and engaging stakeholders through a change management programme. We covered a lot of ground in a very short space of time, and the fruits of that labour were evidenced in the coming months and years as we recorded impressive cost savings and efficiency gains.” 

Expanding our services 

Over the years we’ve recognised how we can better support our clients and what gaps there are in the market for our specialist services. This has seen our business evolve into a workforce consultancy partner that can help with people management, regulatory compliance and project delivery. 

Driving hiring visibility 

Whether our clients are looking for support managing their temporary or permanent workforce, we create centralised solutions that gain transparency across all areas of the hiring process. From agency terms and payment timescales to standardised rates of pay or visibility of labour spend – we help transform how businesses manage their recruitment. 

Formalising our compliance capability 

Compliance is a crucial element to recruitment, especially when companies engage recruitment agencies to manage temporary workers on their behalf. It’s an area we’d been supporting clients with for many years, resulting in us formalising this capability through our Compliance as a Service solutions. Some of our clients may not need support managing their recruitment, but they value an external, impartial, consultant who can identify potential risks and implement robust processes to ensure compliance. 

Moving into project support 

From Statement of Works to Employed Resource Models and contracted out services, IR35’s extension to the private sector changed how businesses secured specialist services for their projects. So did the solutions we provided to clients, as we advised them on the most compliant way to ensure they could attract the skills needed to meet key project deadlines. It’s an area of our business we continue to development, as we expand on our core services. 

looking ahead to the next 10 years 

Hitting the 10-year milestone has already got us thinking about the next decade. As a business, we’re always interested in identifying how we can better service our clients and what solutions we need to develop to meet future workforce demands. 

That’s what makes us a key supply chain partner and if that’s something that resonates with you, then we’d welcome a conversation about your current workforce challenges. In the meantime, we’ll be hard a work developing the next generation of our service offering.