Microlink PC (UK) Ltd

Microlink Accessible Recruitment Service

Expertly designed service providing recruitment professionals with the understanding, skills and tools required to develop an inclusive and accessible recruitment practice. End to end audit frameworks, tailored disability awareness training and road maps to talent remove the barriers which prevent your organisation attracting candidates with disabilities or long-term health condition.

Features

• End to end recruitment audits
• Recruitment Policy audits
• Interview Process audits
• Score Card and Documentation audits
• Test and assessments audits
• Onboarding Process audits
• Job descriptions audits
• Workplace Adjustment and Assistive Technology guidance
• Recruitment-tailored Disability Awareness Training for recruiters and line managers
• Route Maps to help access talent in Disability Communities

Benefits

• Identify barriers for candidates with disabilities or long-term health conditions
• Intersectional approach ensures truly inclusive recruitment practice
• Creates diverse workforces proven to enhance productivity and creativity
• Expert knowledge of digital and physical accessibility
• Comprehensive, bespoke assessments
• Avoidance of unconscious bias and discriminatory practice
• Connection to parent support groups and DWP, JCP and SWAP
• One-stop-shop solution for technology and physical equipment recommendations
• Sustainable solutions
• Guard against potential legal challenges

£500 to £2,107 a unit

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at sam@microlinkpc.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

112106174426821

Contact

Hazel Knights
02380240300
sam@microlinkpc.com

Service scope

• Software add-on or extension: No
• Cloud deployment model: Public cloud
• Service constraints: No service constraints - the platform configures extensively and has multiple integration options
• System requirements: Late-release internet browser

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: 9-5 Monday to Friday - 2 hours
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: Yes
• Online ticketing support accessibility: None or don’t know
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
• Web chat support: No
• Onsite support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support levels: N/A
• Support available to third parties: No

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: Implementation is project-driven, starting with requirements gathering via web session or in-person, and then managed via project team between Microlink and the organisation. ; ; Onsite and online training is packaged as part of the project and tailored to specific requirements.
• Service documentation: No
• End-of-contract data extraction: On request by email at any time or at end of contract. Microlink will ask the organisation to specify any format extract required and usually supplies data outputs in .csv format.
• End-of-contract process: Upon end/termination of contracts, and platform extensions and API's, plus user accounts, are automatically de-activated and the user is notified via email or other means as selected by the user. Any user-specific application data within the platform (note this excludes personal/sensitive data) will be only be retained in accordance with our data retention policy to facilitate any specific requirements for extraction of data.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: No
• Application to install: No
• Designed for use on mobile devices: Yes
• Differences between the mobile and desktop service: The service is fully responsive on Mobile devices and the functionality is similar.
• Service interface: Yes
• User support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Description of service interface: Various options depending on the user existing systems and requirements
• Accessibility standards: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Accessibility testing: None
• API: No
• Customisation available: No

Scaling

• Independence of resources: The platform is hosted in the Microsoft Azure cloud and benefits from their latest platform and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) offerings. This allows us to monitor service demand in real time, and to effect additional system or user resources accordingly. The platform itself has been designed around a modular architecture, facilitating platform performance management at modular level, which in turn allows dynamic scaling up (or down) of user-specifics within the platform.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: No

Resellers

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Other security clearance
• Government security clearance: Up to Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS)

Asset protection

• Knowledge of data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Data storage and processing locations: United Kingdom
• User control over data storage and processing locations: No
• Datacentre security standards: Complies with a recognised standard (for example CSA CCM version 3.0)
• Penetration testing frequency: At least every 6 months
• Penetration testing approach: In-house
• Protecting data at rest:
  • Physical access control, complying with CSA CCM v3.0
  • Physical access control, complying with SSAE-16 / ISAE 3402
  • Physical access control, complying with another standard
  • Encryption of all physical media
  • Scale, obfuscating techniques, or data storage sharding
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type: Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
• Equipment disposal approach: In-house destruction process

Data importing and exporting

• Data export approach: By email request to us under a pre-approved procedure for this. We will arrange a secure File Transfer of the data.
• Data export formats: CSV
• Data import formats: CSV

Data-in-transit protection

• Data protection between buyer and supplier networks: TLS (version 1.2 or above)
• Data protection within supplier network:
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: Our hosting provider ids Microsoft (Azure Platform). Full details of their SLA's are available at www.microsoft.com/azure.
• Approach to resilience: Resilience is underwritten by our service provider, Microsoft Azure.
• Outage reporting: Any outage is reported by dynamic email alerting. Outage alerts are sent to pre-registered user(s) at the client by the support desk

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication:
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Access to the management interfaces is restricted by MS Azure using their IP address controls and additional user authentication as specified by them.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least every 6 months
• Management access authentication:
  • 2-factor authentication
  • Public key authentication (including by TLS client certificate)
  • Identity federation with existing provider (for example Google Apps)
  • Other
• Description of management access authentication: Microlink utilise an Identity Federation with an existing provider. More specifically Microsoft Entra ID which is a cloud-based identity and access management service that your employees can use to access external resources.

Audit information for users

• Access to user activity audit information: No audit information available
• Access to supplier activity audit information: No audit information available
• How long system logs are stored for: At least 12 months

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: Yes
• Who accredited the ISO/IEC 27001: NQA
• ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation date: 18/08/2022
• What the ISO/IEC 27001 doesn’t cover: Covers all Microlink work in relation to disability in work or education.
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Cyber essentials plus: Yes
• Other security certifications: No

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Security governance certified: Yes
• Security governance standards: ISO/IEC 27001
• Information security policies and processes: Microlink is ISO 27001:2013 certified and maintains information security policies accordingly. ; ; This includes the Business Management System Manual, which details the scope, the objectives, the responsibilities and the risk rating and management, as well as the mobile device policy, clear desk, access, teleworking and encryption management policy. ; ; Several other policies are also in force, including Change and Release procedure, document retention policy, incident management procedure, information classification and handling policy and the physical security policy. ; ; Finally, Microlink maintains a detailed Risk register for logging of events and triggering any preventative/remedial measures. There is a documented escalation path from operator level right through to our board with dynamic stakeholder alerting at each level.

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
• Configuration and change management approach: All changes to the production platform go through a change request process, overseen by our services delivery manager. This process ensures appropriate approvals are in place before changes are made. ; ; Configuration information is stored in a revision control system to track all changes made through the lifetime of the system
• Vulnerability management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Vulnerability management approach: Through Microsoft Azure we have a number of systems in place including automated container vulnerability scanning, monthly patching of servers, and annual penetration testing of the service. ; ; We subscribe to relevant vendor security announcement lists in addition to monitoring the IT media for new vulnerabilities and threats.
• Protective monitoring type: Supplier-defined controls
• Protective monitoring approach: Our protective monitoring approach includes a monitoring system that provides real-time status information and alerting to our operations team. Logging is aggregated centrally to enable effective search and correlation of events to take place, and logs are mirrored to a remote location to prevent tampering.; In addition, we monitor and log all data access, log on activity and other metrics to highlight a potential compromise.
• Incident management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Incident management approach: We have an Incident Management Process that defined the process for reporting and handling incidents. Any incidents are logged on an internal issue tracking system.; ; This alerts appropriate members of staff to the incident so that they can prioritise and resolve the incident effectively as well as providing a log of such incidents. ; ; The procedure includes steps for initial investigation, containment, recovery and client notification as well as later analysis and remediation of the cause.

Secure development

• Approach to secure software development best practice: Supplier-defined process

Public sector networks

• Connection to public sector networks: No

Social Value

• Social Value:

  Social Value

  • Fighting climate change
  • Covid-19 recovery
  • Tackling economic inequality
  • Equal opportunity
  • Wellbeing

  Fighting climate change

  Microlink has a published Carbon Reduction Plan, available on our website, and updated annually. We are committed to achieving Net Zero by 2050 and our SBTi verified Near-Term target of a 42% reduction by 2030. Approximately 80% of our employees work remote which reduces our emissions from commuting. It has also allowed us to “shut down” the upper floor of Microlink House, greatly reducing our Scope 1 and 2 Emissions from gas and electric usage. We are working with our supply chain to reduce downstream emissions through providing information and tools to help our supply chain calculate and reduce emissions. As most of our suppliers are SMEs, they are just beginning their carbon reduction journey, but Microlink are making a concerted effort to help them on their “path to green”. We encourage our supply chain to make their products and packaging as sustainable as possible, through recycling or reusing of products. To monitor downstream emissions, we audit our suppliers and sub-contractors annually on a variety of environmental and emissions-related factors. The Microlink warehouse have a cardboard shredder allowing them to recycle cardboard waste into recyclable packaging for our products. Through our Clear Desk Policy, we have drastically reduced our paper waste across the company. As of 2023, none of the waste produced by Microlink was sent to landfill; waste that was not recycled was turned into energy through the Veolia “Waste to Energy” Scheme. We have partnered with the DPD EV delivery fleet which has helped us reduce our downstream transportation and distribution emissions and reduce the amount of air pollution created. As of 2023, all DPD deliveries for Microlink were completed through their EV fleet. We are researching the installation of gas pumps and a solar panel array and battery to further reduce our Scope 1 and 2 emissions.

  Covid-19 recovery

  Microlink’s products and services have enabled a quarter of a million people to alleviate their health conditions and disabilities, across both the education and employment sectors. This has never been more relevant than now in the post-COVID environment. Covid showed how it was possible with modern technology to provide disability support services remotely either in the office or at home. This has enabled Microlink to grow its business in the UK and expand its services abroad with benefit to the UK economy. In addition our work in education and accessible recruitment is enabling more disabled students to transition into work successfully.

  Tackling economic inequality

  Microlink are an equal opportunities employer with a strict policy applied to employees; our processes are conducted on merit and suitability. Recruitment procedures and employment conditions are aligned to the Good Work Plan and our Equality and Diversity policy and regularly reviewed to ensure they remain non-discriminatory. Over 45% of Microlink’s current workforce are self-declared as being disabled. These staff members are at the forefront of our management team, our client-facing activities and our market leading research and development team. Microlink is a Disability Confident employer and look to assist other businesses to become Disability Confident. We have won a range of awards related to this, including the National Diversity Award 2015 and have been recognised as a Disability Champion by the Business Disability Forum. As a business we value education greatly –three members of our Senior Management Team act as school governors in their local area. We strongly believe that the delivery of quality services is reliant on providing workplace opportunities to graduates to train into the levels of experience that our UK business requires. Therefore, it is important to us to give back and help younger people gain valuable experience. within a technical and consultative environment such as ours. We are always open to accommodating graduates and provide work experience to local students. We work with Schools and Colleges to train teachers and employers with the skills necessary to encourage young people with disabilities to achieve their full potential at work and in life. We routinely maintain an innovation and research programme targeted at ensuring that the company’s knowledge and expertise is completely up to date and researching technology-based methods for enhancing our service. This entire programme encompasses evaluation, testing, trial and marketing of new innovative assistive technologies as they become market-ready.

  Equal opportunity

  Our vision is to create an inclusive society which embraces diversity and releases the potential to advance humanity. We are an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from all groups of society. We regularly review remuneration surveys to ensure that pay is fair and relevant to location. We adhere to policies such as Employment Standards, Ethics, Equality & Diversity, Recruitment & Retention, Reasonable Adjustment and the Equality Act 2010. Candidate CV’s received for any role are anonymised. The recruiter will review the qualifications and experience required to fulfil a role to remove unconscious bias. When inviting a candidate for interview, we are clear about its format, time, length, how many people will be on the panel and their roles. We typically do not publish the interview questions in advance but will forward to candidates if requested. We use language that can be understood by all. We ask if we can make an adjustment for the interview itself and to share information about a disability, health condition or communication difference e.g additional time to respond to questions, BSL support or closed captioning (subtitles) if there is a hearing challenge for example. DSE for all new employees and Access to Work applications are made within the first six weeks of employment. We supply the right tools to enable the individual to carry out their duties. Career progression is available via on the job learning or gaining further qualifications. Mentoring and coaching is available. We accept students for work experience and have and will use apprenticeship initiatives. We give our employees every opportunity to succeed as they are the future of the company. We value every contribution that our employees make. Employees succeed due to their individual performance efforts. Individuals undergo a monthly 1-1 to discuss their performance and identify any skill gaps.

  Wellbeing

  The pandemic taught us everyone that loneliness and social isolation has a devastating impact on our health and wellbeing. Microlink is The employer is an extension of an employee’s family, not just an employer. We listen and help in whatever way we you can. We strive for contentment and have a transparent relationship with employees. We are signed up to Mindful Employer and implement the 6 standards in the Mental Health at Work commitment including promoting an open culture around mental health, a systematic programme of activity and providing mental health tools. We use scientifically designed impact studies to build employee engagement and foster wellbeing in Microlink. We encourage open discussions about what the problems may be via 1-1’s with line managers, HR and Mental Health Champions. We embrace wellbeing initiatives and we regularly train our line managers in how to begin conversations. For employees who need specialist 1-1 counselling, we signpost them to the Company Counsellor for confidential help and guidance. We have a clear communication practice in place to advise staff . we do this weekly and our messages are recorded akin to daily news bulletins on the TV which are then subsequently circulated in an accessible video. We take part in group activities. Bake off days and other events, for example. We volunteer to help local communities such as local colleges and schools by giving our time to undertake mock interviews or opening up our workplace for specific work experience. We are open to volunteering ventures to make the lives better for our local communities and have, in the past painted and gardened. We have raised money and donated to local charities. We practice what we preach and provide mental health support and guidance to clients through our services

Pricing

• Price: £500 to £2,107 a unit
• Discount for educational organisations: No
• Free trial available: No

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Skills Framework for the Information Age rate card

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at sam@microlinkpc.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.