Save 11-23% on Every Shift
One transparent rate covers everything. No hidden fees. No surprises. Workers earn competitive rates.
cost savings
hidden fees
transparent rate
What's Included in Your Rate
One all-inclusive rate covers everything. No hidden fees.
Worker Pay
competitive rates
£12.71/hr
Employer Rate
All-in, no surprises
£20.83/hr
Holiday Pay
Statutory, auto-accrued
12.07%
Compliance
RTW, training, contracts
Included
Payroll & Tax
PAYE, NI, pension
Automated
Pricing You Can Trust
See exactly where every pound goes. No hidden fees. No surprises.
£20.83/hr All-In Bill Rate Breakdown
When you pay £20.83/hour to Opus for a worker at UK minimum wage:
UK National Minimum Wage (21+ rate, April 2026)
UK statutory holiday entitlement (5.6 weeks per year)
Government NI contributions (above £5,000/year threshold)
Workplace pension auto-enrolment (3% minimum)
127.1% of base wage
29.0% of loaded cost (22.5% of bill rate)
Transparent, all-inclusive
Legal Notes: All employment costs included (no hidden fees). Opus is PAYE employer (workers on our payroll). Right-to-Work verified by certified identity partners. Residual compliance risk remains with Opus as employer of record.
Cost Comparison
vs traditional agencies charging £22/hr:
Traditional
£264,000/year
Opus
£249,960/year
Traditional
£528,000/year
Opus
£499,920/year
£72,000/year savings at 1,000 hours/mo. Based on hourly rate difference.
Additional Benefits:
- Reduced admin time (automated GPS timesheets)
- 24/7 platform assistance (162 tools, rapid response)
- Automated compliance checks (workers auto-blocked if documents expire)
- GPS-verified attendance (fewer timesheet disputes)
How Opus Stacks Up
See exactly how much you save with Opus compared to traditional agencies.
| Feature | Traditional Agency | Opus |
|---|---|---|
| Employer Cost/hr | £22-26 | £20.83 |
| Setup Fees | Often required | None |
| Monthly Minimums | Common | None |
| Compliance Automation | - | |
| GPS Timesheets | - | |
| Smart Assistance 24/7 | - | |
| Real-time Dashboard | - |
Estimated savings
5-20%
The real cost of hiring directly
One worker. More than you think.
The wage is just the starting point. Employers who hire directly absorb statutory costs, admin overhead, compliance risk, and failed-hire losses — costs that rarely appear as a single line on the P&L.
True annual cost — 1 worker at NMW, full-time
£12.71/hr · 40 hrs/wk · 52 weeks
Annual wage
£12.71 × 40 hrs × 52 wks — UK National Living Wage from 6 April 2026
£26,437
Holiday pay — 12.07%
5.6 weeks statutory entitlement — Working Time Regulations 1998
£3,191
Employer National Insurance — 15%
On earnings above £5,000/yr Secondary Threshold — HMRC from April 2025
£3,216
Auto-enrolment pension — 3%
Statutory minimum employer contribution — Pensions Act 2008
£793
Recruitment cost
CIPD average per hire 2024/25 — ads, internal HR time, screening, interviews
£6,125
DBS background check
£21.50 government fee + ~£10 umbrella body admin — DBS.gov.uk fee schedule
£32
Onboarding & induction
CIPD / BW Business Advisers average — IT setup, docs, first-90-day manager time
£3,600
Timesheet & attendance admin
2 hrs/wk × 52 wks × £35/hr loaded manager rate — CIPD salary benchmarks
£3,640
Total direct hire cost
Wage + statutory + operational overhead
£47,034
Opus all-in cost (same worker)
£20.83/hr — all statutory + payroll ops included
£43,327
Sources: CIPD Resourcing & Talent Planning 2024/25 · HMRC NI rates · Working Time Regulations 1998 · DBS.gov.uk fee schedule · BW Business Advisers · Oxford Economics/Unum · REC. Employment Allowance (up to £10,500) may reduce NI liability for eligible employers. Failed-hire risk (Oxford Economics avg £30,614 per replacement) excluded from total.
Where employers lose time and money
Roles take 5–7 weeks to fill
The UK average time to hire is 4.9 weeks from application to offer (StandOut CV / CIPD). Managers carry recruitment alongside their day job. Opus puts pre-vetted workers in front of you in minutes.
Compliance is entirely your risk
Right-to-work checks, DBS tracking, training records, contract signing — all land on your HR team. Non-compliance carries civil penalties up to £60,000 per illegal worker (Home Office, 2025). Opus automates every step with a full audit trail.
Bad hires cost £30,000–£132,000
Oxford Economics / Unum put average employee replacement cost at £30,614. REC puts a mid-level bad hire at £132,000. Interview performance rarely predicts real-world reliability. Opus lets you see attendance and attitude on real shifts before committing.
Admin never stops after hire
Chasing timesheets, correcting hours, approving payroll, managing disputes. CIPD finds managers spend 15–20% of their time on direct-report admin. Opus automates GPS-verified timesheets and one-click approvals — no chasing required.
Statutory obligations keep growing
Employer NI rose to 15% in April 2025, the Secondary Threshold dropped to £5,000, and the Employment Rights Bill 2025 expands right-to-work obligations to zero-hours and casual workers. Opus enforces compliance automatically as rules change.
Disconnected tools multiply cost
Job boards, spreadsheets, payroll software, email — none talk to each other. UK recruiters lose an average of two days per hire to admin tasks alone, costing £17,000/yr in lost productivity (CIPD). Opus combines sourcing, vetting, attendance, timesheets, billing, and payroll in one flow.
Opus vs hiring directly
Everything your HR team no longer has to do
When you hire directly, compliance, payroll, attendance, and admin become your team's problem. With Opus, they aren't.
| Feature | Hiring directly | Opus |
|---|---|---|
| Sourcing & Matching | ||
| Time to fill | 5–7 weeks average | 2–10 minutes |
| Pre-vetted talent pool | ||
| Test shifts before committing | ||
| Compliance & Vetting | ||
| Right-to-work verification | Manual — your risk | Automated — certified IDSP |
| DBS check management | You arrange & track | Initiated & tracked in platform |
| Training & certification tracking | ||
| AWR 12-week compliance | Manual tracking | Automatic alerts & pay uplift |
| Contract e-signature | You source & manage | Built-in, automated |
| Attendance & Timesheets | ||
| Clock-in method | Paper / phone / trust | GPS geofence verified |
| Timesheet generation | Manual entry | Automatic on clock-out |
| Dispute evidence | None | GPS audit trail per shift |
| Weekly manager admin | 2+ hours chasing | One-click batch approval |
| Payroll & Payments | ||
| PAYE employer responsibilities | Yours to manage | Opus is the PAYE employer |
| Holiday pay accrual | You calculate & pay | Auto-accrued, auto-paid |
| Pension auto-enrolment | You run the scheme | Managed & notified automatically |
| Payroll integration | Manual export | Direct Xero sync |
| Cost & Risk | ||
| All-in annual cost (NMW full-time) | £47,000+ true cost | £43,327 all inclusive |
| Failed-hire risk | £30,614 avg to replace (Oxford Economics) | Test shifts before committing |
| Employment tribunal exposure | Directly liable | Opus absorbs as employer |
| Setup or exit fees | Severance may apply | None |
Start with a pilot — pay only for hours worked.
See quality, speed, and compliance in a real working environment before any long-term commitment.
Calculate Your Savings
See how much you could save by switching to Opus.
General labour, hospitality, cleaning
Two Ways to Work With Us
Choose the contract type that fits your business needs. Switch anytime.
B2B Daily Contracts
Perfect for on-demand shifts and flexible staffing needs. Book workers day-by-day with no long-term commitment.
- Book shifts day-by-day
- Maximum flexibility
- Instant worker matching
- WhatsApp booking
- Pay-as-you-go pricing
Best for: Seasonal businesses, events, variable demand
Start with FlexibleFor platforms & agencies
Recruitment AI API
Embed Opus's hiring intelligence into your product.
Recruitment AI API
From £499/month + £0.02 per API call
Recruiter assistant
Natural-language access to the same hiring intelligence Opus recruiters use.
Candidate search
Anonymised candidate matching with deterministic, RAI-aligned scoring.
Mandate management
Programmatic CRUD for headhunting mandates and pipeline stages.
Dedicated tenant isolation
Per-tenant API tokens, data scoping, and corpus separation.
Per-call cost transparency
Live token and USD usage dashboard, plus monthly invoice line items.
Responsible AI compliance pack
Microsoft RAI v2 aligned principles, AIA template, and DPA.
Pricing FAQ
Everything. Worker pay (competitive rates), holiday pay (12.07%), employer NI, pension contributions, payroll processing, compliance management, GPS timesheets, 24/7 smart assistance, and our full platform. No hidden fees.
No Hidden Fees. Ever.
Ready to Cut Costs by 11-23%?
Join UK businesses saving thousands per month on staffing costs. No setup fees. No commitments. Just lower costs.