Contractors can now view live online ratings of contractor umbrella companies and agencies on new contractor website umbrelladetective.com. Uniquely, the site also not only allows agencies to ‘lock in’ their preferred supplier lists (PSLs), but also provides contractors with key information to help them select the umbrella companies best suited to their individual needs.
According to umbrelladetective.com founder and managing director Mark Ridgeon, the website’s unique functionality is the product of 18 months of development. And, in this exclusive interview with ContractorCalculator, he says this is just the start of his vision for a holistic umbrella company contractor portal.
“Now that there are well over 100 umbrella companies operating in the UK, we wanted to bring some clarity to this space,” explains Ridgeon. “And we have done so by creating a place on the web where contractors can get free, objective and independent reviews and ratings of service providers.”
Umbrella company ratings
Ridgeon is proud of umbrelladetective.com’s early successes: “We are the first contractor website to publish live, contractor-generated ratings and reviews of over 100 umbrella companies, and we are adding new service providers all the time.”
The site already has a section where contractors are asked to submit ratings of their umbrella company based on six key criteria:
- Value for money
- Customer service
- Take-home pay
- Would contractors recommend them?
- Ease of claiming expenses
- Communication.
Ratings by agencies
“Agencies can also rate umbrella companies, whilst umbrelladetective.com provides its own more detailed review, building up to a comprehensive and accurate ratings system that contractors can trust,” explains Ridgeon.
When the results of all these ratings are totted up, each umbrella company receives a one-to-ten star rating, with exceptional all-round performance being rated with a maximum ten stars.
Ridgeon acknowledges that in the early days of this new service there might be some statistical blips in the data. But he says that, over time, the volume of ratings will smooth these out to provide an accurate picture of umbrella company performance.
He is also wary about attempts to tamper with the rating system. Has anyone tried, yet? “You bet!” says Ridgeon. “I’ve already turned down substantial sums offered by some service providers to fix the top spot. We record the office IP location for every umbrella company on the list, and if someone attempts a review from that location, it is blocked, logged and an alert goes to the supplier.”
Apparently, more than one firm has received a warning…
Agency services benefit contractors too
Another unique feature of the site is that agencies can ‘lock in’ their preferred supplier list (PSL) of umbrella companies on umbrelladetective.com. This means that contractors from each agency can see their agency’s PSL as well as each service provider’s ratings, making choosing an umbrella easier and more transparent than it has been up to now.
I've already turned down substantial sums offered by some service providers to fix the top spot. We record the office IP location for every umbrella company on the list, and if someone attempts a review from that location, it is blocked, logged and an alert goes to the supplier
Mark Ridgeon, umbrelladetective.com
“A contractor under contract with a given recruitment agency, and registered with umbrelladetective.com, can only register with an umbrella company on their agency’s list,” explains Ridgeon. “This cuts out a huge amount of unnecessary admin’ and still allows the contractor some choice.”
The service is currently free for agencies, as is the umbrelladetective.com job board which has now gone live, integrating the latest online recruitment technology from Broadbean and allowing agencies to post contractor positions online, and to capture and download contractors’ CVs.
Forthcoming services include an ‘application tracker’
And there is more to come, promises Ridgeon: “One of the biggest bugbears contractors have about agencies is that they submit an application online but never hear anything, made worse when the agent ignores contractor’s follow-up calls and emails.
“This is not an ideal situation for the agent or the contractor,” he says. “So we are planning to introduce an application tracker, which will allow the agent to keep contractors up to speed online without typing loads of individual emails or making lots of calls to unsuccessful candidates, yet keeping good prospects up to speed.”
A contractor shop is planned, selling everything from electronics to safety gear. And Ridgeon intends to introduce loyalty cards that give contractor members discounts at restaurants, health clubs and with a range of additional consumer and business brands.
“In just over two months, including the Christmas period, we’ve gone from zero to over 600 unique visitors per day and this is steadily increasing,” says Ridgeon. “Now we have the job board live and are constantly adding other unique services, we anticipate visitor numbers, and our other new contractor services, to increase substantially.”