Managed service programmes (MSPs) have revolutionised the sourcing of contingent labour. Like all services, the MSP has evolved over the past two decades to adapt to changing markets. Consolidating contingent talent sourcing into one scalable solution comes with a host of benefits:
Improved talent flow into organisations
A reliable source of staff
Reduced time-to-hire
Significant cost-per-hire reductions
Greater control and visibility over recruitment
Support with compliance and risk mitigation
Present models are highly effective at providing visibility for 80-90% of clients’ non-permanent labour requirements, but that still leaves a significant amount of talent acquisition activity occurring outside the MSP.
This is often the result of pre-determined decision-making. MSPs are associated with supplying contingent labour for positions requiring homogenous skill sets at scale.
When a client has a requirement which does not fit this scope, they will assume – often incorrectly – that their service provider will be unable to source this role and go outside the contract.
Sanctioned off-contract spend in areas such as contractors disguised as consultancy can also lead to disproportionate financial impact.
The next step for providers is to move beyond the one-size-fits-all nature of current programmes and create flexible solutions which source talent and provide visibility for 100% of non-permanent requirements.
The MSP has already gone through several iterations, whether through the creation of programmes combining master and neutral vendor models, or those evolving from sourcing one job category to deploying contingent labour across every part of an organisation.
The need for increased flexibility to address the challenges affecting MSPs will require a completely different mindset from both providers and customers who value the certainty and ‘inflexibility’ of current models.
As providers start to address the challenges of the modern recruitment landscape, those who adapt their solutions to offer a ‘one-stop-shop’ of contingent labour, while also providing bespoke solutions to address specific requirements, will have the greatest success.
Find out more about the evolution of managed services by downloading our free whitepaper ‘The evolution of managed services’ here.
