Written by Chris Bloor, Director of Compliance at Parasol
Welcome to my take on FCSA accreditation – specifically, why Parasol, as a business, bother to have it.
I will be the first to admit that FCSA accreditation is not a very exciting topic. However, it is an important one. With the date of Parasol’s next accreditation review on the horizon, I thought I would take this opportunity to explain why FCSA Accreditation is so crucial for businesses that work with freelancers and contractors.
To paint a framework of context, Parasol are founding members of the FCSA. Our founder, Rob Crossland, who himself started Parasol to support freelancers with the frustrating hassle and paperwork that often comes with freelancing, was instrumental in setting up the FCSA. The contractor payroll industry was suffering from a lack of regulation, and the aim of the FCSA was to have a defined set of standards that needed to be adhered to in order to achieve member status. Rob Crossland sadly passed away in late February after a brave battle with cancer, and our thoughts continue to be with his family.
We are now in 2024, and the umbrella industry still has no government-mandated regulations. This is an issue for clients and customers, because regulations are needed to ensure that an industry is operating above-board and keeping the needs of the people they serve at the forefront. In lieu of these regulations, the FCSA has become a primary standard for compliance within the contractor payroll industry. As founding members, Parasol played a key role in creating this standard, and to this day we are one of approximately 70 companies (out of over 400) that choose to adhere to the FCSA’s codes of conduct. This provides our clients (including umbrella employees, agencies, and end users) with peace of mind.
Adhering to these codes of conduct is no easy task, either. We regularly put the business through a tough process; one that includes inviting experts from EY, Brabner’s, and other professional service providers, to forensically check our processes, paperwork and overall understanding. This is what needs to be done to keep that FCSA accreditation status we value so highly.
So, again: why do we bother?
By leading the way as a founding member, we have been able to educate agencies and clients about the importance of ensuring that they secure their supply chain. This has led to agencies and clients now insisting on their umbrella employment provider having FCSA accreditation.
One important thing to acknowledge is that there has been a lot of negativity around FCSA and its members over the last couple of years. Despite this, I still believe that agencies think FCSA accreditations are an effective way of reassuring clients and candidates that they are in safe hands. Having worked in the industry for over 20 years, I have been fortunate enough to work with hundreds of agencies, and while I have witnessed a general overall increase in compliance in the recruitment sector, businesses always want to further mitigate risk by working with professional organisations that have processes in place to ensure reliable and compliant services are being delivered. An FCSA accreditation is a quick way of showing businesses that we, as an umbrella company, have those reliability and compliance-checking processes done on a regular basis.
Having said all of this, and despite my being the Director of Compliance at Parasol, even I can admit that compliance isn’t everything. It’s also important to acknowledge that, whilst umbrella companies and contractor accountancy companies have been around for much longer than the FCSA, the FCSA has subsequently developed codes and protocols that have then gone on to shape processes that improve efficiency, thereby allowing us to deliver better service to our customers.
Without us being consciously aware of it, FCSA accreditation has slowly become the backbone of our operations. It ensures we’re playing by the rules, keeping things above board, and, ultimately, protecting our clients, employees and reputation. It is clear to us that FCSA accreditation is a must-have to be able to keep doing what we do best.
If you have any questions about FCSA and the assessment process, feel free to get in touch with us.