Knutsford, 30 June 2009 – de Poel, an independent cost reduction consultancy specialising in both temporary and permanent agency labour recruitment, has launched a new Early Settlement Initiative (ESI) designed to improve recruitment agency cash flow, helping to bring vital stability during uncertain economic times.

de Poel’s ESI has been designed to address the severity of the cash flow issues impacting recruitment agencies. ESI means faster payment of invoices for recruitment agencies. The initiative commits de Poel to settling agency payment within 72 hours of receipt of the client invoice.

With rising redundancies, declining vacancies and companies putting a freeze on recruitment budgets, recruitment agency revenues continue to be significantly reduced. According to data from Recruitment Industry Benchmarking (RIB), revenue has fallen by 53.2 percent and permanent revenue has dropped by £2.3 billion within the last 12 months. Combined with the latest Business in Britain survey from Lloyds TSB Commercial, 29 percent of firms are reporting difficulties regarding late payment affecting cash flow.

One agency that has been reaping the benefits of de Poel’s new Early Settlement Initiative is recruitment company Phoenix Staff Solutions Limited. Jodene Collis-Smith, Director of Phoenix Staff Solutions Limited explains, “de Poel’s early settlement scheme is a superb initiative; we save money on our finance costs and de Poel maintains its ability to work with a broader range of agencies which preserves its vendor neutral status. Everybody wins, proving that by working together we can all achieve more.”

As an independent consultancy, de Poel manages client-agency relationships, implementing standardised service level agreements and costs to benefit both agency and client.

Matthew Sanders, CEO at de Poel explains, “de Poel work with a third of the UK’s recruitment industry delivering solutions that help agencies virtually eliminate their own transactional costs, give assured income and deliver faster payment of invoices to improve their cash flow.”

“The Early Settlement Initiative is an assurance on income and is designed to help agencies deal with today’s cash flow crisis. The feedback has been excellent with many commenting on how it has helped sustain the business, leaving agencies with the financial resources needed to survive today’s unstable economic climate.”

For more information about de Poel’s Early Settlement Initiative visit www.depoelconsulting.com or please contact Matthew Sanders on 01565 682020.