The ADVANCE team joined leading contractors, industry innovators and key decision-makers at The Contracting Awards 2026 in September. This event has always been a great opportunity to celebrate excellence across the sector, and this year, we were absolutely thrilled to be recognised not once, but twice on the night!
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- Best Umbrella Company (over 3000 clients) – Winner
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- Best Umbrella Company Customer Service – Highly Commended
These awards highlight the organisations and individuals that deliver outstanding projects, drive innovation and set new benchmarks for performance and professionalism. Naturally, we’re proud to have been recognised within that. It’s a testament to the passion, dedication, and hard work the team shows every day. But that isn’t the real story…
Here, we look behind the curtain at ADVANCE to reveal what really goes into award-winning solutions and exceptional customer service at one of the best umbrella companies in the UK.
Compliance-first approach
ADVANCE was one of the first providers to achieve full FCSA accreditation across all three of our core solutions: umbrella employment, limited company accountancy and CIS. But for us, this is nothing more than an essential foundation for compliance. In a constantly shifting legislative landscape, we’re acutely aware that our agency partners need to manage risk and ensure compliance.
From Joint and Several Liability changes and Right to Work updates to IR35 reforms and employment rights changes – the goalposts are constantly changing with elevated levels of risk. To assure our partners, we respond ahead of every change with dedicated tools, explainers and video series via our Agency Hub to help demystify legislation. In addition, our industry-leading TRANSPARENCY Portal gives agencies real-time visibility of contractor payments and HMRC submissions down to individual PAYE references.
The TRANSPARENCY Portal has accelerated ADVANCE into a new dynamic era of workforce management, and we have secured positions on several high-profile Preferred Supplier Lists (PSLs) as a direct result.
Dynamic customer service at scale
ADVANCE supports thousands of contractors with major agency partners across the UK, maintaining our exceptional service levels as we’ve scaled. Our unwavering commitment to human-led customer service and our agile in-house team enable us to act quickly and directly to resolve issues. For our contractors and partners, minimal touchpoints and genuine expert-led support on demand provide a frictionless, supported experience.
In numbers, 99.22% of calls are answered within three rings, our payroll accuracy sits at 99.7%, and we have a 4.8 Trustpilot score from more than a thousand reviews. In our commitment to avoiding chatbots, we recently integrated WhatsApp into our communication channels, so everyone who contacts ADVANCE reaches a real person when they need support.
Long-term relationships over quick transactions
We prioritise partnerships built on trust, responsiveness, and a personal service. For our agency partners, we understand that consistent, reliable services are crucial for them to operate with peace of mind and freedom to do what they do best. ADVANCE fulfils this expectation as a minimum, and where we feel there is value, we always go the extra mile.
Take our Chair, for example, Shaun Critchley. As a qualified solicitor specialising in employment status and IR35, we’re uniquely positioned to stay way ahead of the curve on legislative change. In practice, Shaun and the team work closely with legal and professional advisers to tailor ADVANCE’s offering in line with the biggest compliance challenges, as well as provide expert-led advice and guidance along the way.
Partner with one of the UK’s best umbrella companies
Since our inception in 2010, we’ve always aimed to provide an outstanding experience for contractors and recruitment agencies, with workforce management solutions that provide a genuine sense of security, reliability and trust.
This is the beacon that guides every tool we build, every conversation we have, every onboarding we manage. And that’s what this award really recognises – absolute transparency, dynamic customer service and beneficial partnerships that help agencies and contractors thrive.
Find out more about our award-winning solutions here and don’t hesitate to get in touch.
"This award is recognition of the immense effort the team has put in to continually develop our services to meet the needs of not just our workers but also our significant and major partners. We operate in a market of giants, and this really shows our future partners that we are the choice when quality, risk management and service matter."
Partner with one of the UK’s best umbrella companies
Since our inception in 2010, we’ve always aimed to provide an outstanding experience for contractors and recruitment agencies, with workforce management solutions that provide a genuine sense of security, reliability and trust.
This is the beacon that guides every tool we build, every conversation we have, every onboarding we manage. And that’s what this award really recognises – absolute transparency, dynamic customer service and beneficial partnerships that help agencies and contractors thrive.
Find out more about our award-winning solutions here and don’t hesitate to get in touch.
