Featured Projects –
Companies House
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Featured Projects –
Companies House – Contractor Rate Benchmarking
Companies House is the executive agency of the British Government that maintains the register of companies, employs the company registrars and is responsible for incorporating all forms of companies in the United Kingdom.
The Challenge
Companies House are going through a period of significant change as the organisation moves to being intelligence & enforcement focussed. During this transformation there will be a notable increase in headcount, many of which will be contractors.
With this growth in headcount, there is also an associated increase in spend, consequently, there is a need to make sure that pay levels are both competitive and appropriate. As such, there was a need for independent, external benchmarking of contract roles, within the Procurement, Digital and Project Management functions to ensure that contractor rates are set appropriately to attract talent without over-paying.
Our Solution
Cogito were engaged by Companies House to carry out a remuneration benchmarking exercise for 36 contractor roles in England and Wales. Benchmarking was conducted using a range of desk-based research and telephone interviews with individuals who met the criteria provided by Companies House.
24% of people identified (3,600) responded to our approaches, which subsequently led to 518 telephone interviews to collect first hand benchmarking data. All approaches were ‘blind’ and Companies House was not mentioned. Calls were conducted throughout October and November 2024.
Through this process, we were able to ask people about their current working situation and interest in a new opportunity – this process allowed us to understand what it is that candidates would expect if they were to pursue a new role in terms of day rate, contract length and commuting. In total 1,461 unique data points were collated to create the day rate benchmarks.
The output of this project was:
- Contractor rates for each role specified by Companies House presented in quartiles.
- Hiring Demand analysis of all roles.
- Analysis of geographical variation in contractor rates and density of talent.
- Analysis of the impact of contract length on rates paid.
- A comparison of current Companies House contractor rates and benchmarks.
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"Ensuring that we operate in a financially responsible manner whilst attracting the contractors we need to deliver upon business projects, means that reliable market data is essential. Having historically relied upon a single source for contractor pay rates, we engaged Cogito to conduct primary research focusing upon the skills we needed and to provide us with analytical insights so we could undertake better informed rate setting. The way in which they took time to understand our challenges and objective, kept us updated throughout the research phase and the clarity of their insights was exactly what we needed. Their ability to present their findings in a clear and concise way has provided us with information and confidence we required to make effective commercial decisions moving forward. We now consider Cogito as a key partner."
Rhys Mitchell
Head of Commercial Contract Management, Companies House
Contact our specialist team directly
If you’re ready to take the guesswork out of pay and reward benchmarking, we’re here to help. Get in touch to learn how our benchmarking insights can support smarter, faster decisions and deliver real value to your organisation.
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