Journey
Set up an employment agency
Learning path for new employment agencies and employment businesses — temporary staffing, permanent placement and HR provision. Work out which rules apply, put a safe operation and your employer duties in place, meet the sector-specific conduct rules, agency worker equal treatment duties and gangmasters licensing (if applicable), and verify everything with a compliance checklist.
What this journey is for
Setting up an employment agency or employment business means running offices, interviewing candidates, managing assignments and processing personal data at scale. All of this carries workplace health and safety and data protection duties. On top of that, the Employment Agencies Act 1973 and the Conduct Regulations 2003 set conduct standards for every agency. The Agency Workers Regulations 2010 give temporary workers equal treatment rights. If you supply workers to agriculture, horticulture, shellfish gathering or associated food processing, you need a gangmasters licence. This journey walks you through that path in the order you will live it, from working out which rules apply through to checking you have everything in place.
It does not give you the step-by-step instructions or the figures — those live in the guides it points to. This is the map: it tells you where you are, why each stage matters, and which guide to open next.
-
Work out which regulations apply to you
Start by getting the picture right. Every employment agency shares a workplace-safety foundation, and the conduct rules and agency worker regulations apply to every agency and employment business. But the gangmasters licensing requirement depends on which sectors you supply workers to. Only those supplying to agriculture, horticulture, shellfish gathering or associated food processing need one. Working this out first tells you which applications and registrations you need before you start operating. Use the router guide to find your route.
Which employment agency regulations apply to your business
Work out which rules apply. A reference guide that routes you from the shared workplace-safety foundation to the right path — the safe-operation spine and the sector-specific conduct and licensing duties.
-
Put your safe-operation and employment foundations in place
Whatever type of employment activity you run, these are the duties every employment agency shares. Risk-assess your office premises — display screen equipment, workstation ergonomics, lone working and slips and trips — and carry out your fire risk assessment. Hold employers' liability insurance, and meet your equality and data protection duties. Employment agencies handle candidate personal data at scale, so your data protection obligations are heightened. Build this in from the start rather than retrofitting it.
Set up and run a safe employment agency
The duties every employment agency shares — general health and safety, fire safety, employers' liability insurance, equality and data protection.
-
Meet your sector-specific regulatory duties
The Employment Agencies Act 1973 and the Conduct Regulations 2003 set conduct standards for every employment agency and employment business. These cover agreed and recorded terms, the ban on fees to work-seekers, and detailed rules on how you deal with candidates and hirers. If you supply temporary workers, the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 give them equal treatment rights after a 12-week qualifying period. And if you supply workers to agriculture, horticulture, shellfish gathering or associated food processing, you need a gangmasters licence from the Fair Work Agency. Settle these before you begin operating.
Meet your employment agency regulatory duties
The sector-specific duties — Employment Agencies Act conduct rules, Agency Workers Regulations equal treatment, and gangmasters licensing for suppliers to agriculture, horticulture, shellfish gathering and associated food processing.
-
Verify you have covered everything
Once the moving parts are in motion, take a step back and check the whole picture holds together. A compliance checklist lets you confirm, in one place, that each obligation — workplace, employment, conduct rules, agency worker equal treatment and licensing — is genuinely met rather than assumed. Use it as your readiness review. Come back to it when you add new service lines, open new offices or start supplying workers to different sectors.
Employment agency business: compliance checklist
Verify you have covered everything — the universal workplace and employment duties, and the sector-specific conduct, agency worker equal treatment and gangmasters licensing duties.
You will also need the general business set-up duties
Alongside the sector-specific path above, every business carries general obligations that are not unique to employment agencies but are just as compulsory. As you build the business you will also need to:
- protect the people who work for you — meet your workplace health and safety duties, including risk assessments for your office premises.
- hold employers' liability insurance once you take anyone on.
- handle personal data lawfully — most businesses must complete data protection registration with the ICO, which matters wherever you process personal data about candidates, work-seekers and clients.
- meet your fire safety duties for the premises you work from.
These general duties run in parallel with the sector path rather than after it, so set them up as you establish the business. The safe-employment-agency spine and the compliance checklist bring the core duties together so you can confirm they are covered.
Where this leaves you
You now have the shape of the whole task. Work out which rules apply, and put a safe operation and your employer duties in place. Then meet the sector-specific conduct rules and agency worker equal treatment duties (and gangmasters licensing if applicable), and verify the lot. Work the guides in order and you will have a clear, defensible position from your first placement onwards.