Hire temporary staff in the North West — post a shift today, pick your own person

Cover for the shifts you can’t fill

You post the shift — the role, the date, the hours, the wage you’re offering — and it goes out to verified workers in your area. They apply to you. You look at who they are, and you choose. Nobody gets allocated to your business without your say-so.

There’s no charge to advertise, no contract to sign and no minimum booking. If nobody suitable applies, you’ve lost ten minutes and nothing else.

• You pick the personRead their profile and their history before you confirm. Not a name texted to you an hour beforehand.
• You set the wageFrom £12.71 an hour. Pay more for a tough shift and you’ll fill it faster.
• They’re checked before they reach youIdentity verified through OneID and right to work confirmed during onboarding.
• You know they’ve arrivedYou get a four digit code. They enter it on site, so you know the right person is in the building.
• You see the cost firstEvery line itemised before you confirm. No charge rate with the workings hidden inside it.

Hire temporary staff across Greater Manchester, Liverpool and Cheshire

Post a shift anywhere in the region and it goes out to workers near you. What you’re up against varies a lot depending on where you are.

More on regional hiring in building a flexible workforce in the North West and the best hospitality venues in North West England.

What you pay, line by line

Four things make up your bill, and you’ll see all four before you confirm anyone. Here’s what each one is for.

The wage you’re offering

You set this, from £12.71 an hour. It’s the number your applicants see, and it’s the single biggest factor in whether your shift gets filled. If a Sunday split shift in February isn’t attracting anyone, this is the dial to turn — and an extra pound an hour costs you far less than an empty station.

Employment and payroll — 18.65% of the wage

A temporary worker has to be legally employed by someone, with payroll run and the obligations that go with it carried properly. For shifts here in the North West that someone is Danbro, our employment and payroll partner — not you. No PAYE setup at your end, no contracts of employment to issue, nobody new on your books. Because it’s a percentage of the wage, it moves when you move the wage.

Hiring on the Isle of Man? Workers there are employed directly by FlexyStaff Limited rather than through Danbro. Everything else about posting a shift and choosing your person works the same way.

The platform fee — £2.50 an hour

This covers advertising your shift, verifying everyone who applies, handling arrival on the day and running the booking through to payment. It’s a flat hourly rate, so a £13 shift and an £18 shift cost you the same £2.50 an hour to run. No percentage that grows when you pay your staff properly.

Payroll admin — £15 per worker, per week

Charged once per person per Monday to Sunday week, however many hours they do for you. One shift or five, it’s still £15. That one is worth remembering when you’re planning a week, for the reason below.

Ask the same person back and your rate drops

Because that £15 is charged per person rather than per shift, the more work you give one individual in a week, the further it spreads. Everything else on your bill scales with the hours. This one doesn’t.

Longer shifts work the same way. At the same wage, a 12 hour booking costs about £2.50 an hour less than a 4 hour one. So the instinct to book short shifts to keep the bill down actually works against you.

The cheapest person you can book is the one who was behind your bar last Friday. They already know the till, the cellar and the regulars — and they cost you less than a stranger.

Five questions to ask any staffing supplier

Before you accept a charge rate from anyone, us included, ask these. Anyone confident in their pricing will answer all five in a sentence each.

• What does the worker actually receive per hour?Not the charge rate. The number that lands in their account.
• Which costs sit inside that figure, and which arrive later?Employment costs and processing fees move a quote by pounds, not pence.
• What’s the charge if the shift runs over by an hour?Overtime multipliers turn a reasonable rate into an unreasonable invoice.
• What happens if nobody turns up?Ask what you’re charged, how fast a replacement arrives, and who confirms arrival on the day.
• Is there a fee to advertise, a minimum booking, or a temp to perm charge?Ask before you need the answer, not after you want to keep someone permanently.

Before you post your first shift

1. Shifts run between 4 and 12 hours. Split anything longer across two days rather than stretching one booking.
2. One worker can do up to 40 hours a week for you. Counted Monday to Sunday. Line up a second person before you reach it.
3. Wages start at £12.71 an hour and must meet the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage that applies to that individual.
4. Write the shift like a job ad, not a rota line. What the work involves, what to wear, where to come in. Better detail gets better applicants.

The full journey is set out in how FlexyStaff works.

Questions employers ask