There’s a common misconception that you need to be a ‘big business’ to engage a Managed Service Programme (MSP) provider. However, you don’t need to be a large organisation to do so.

MSP arrangements are put in place to save companies time and money, and these arrangements have been growing in popularity for over a decade. This growth is largely due to MSP solutions improving in many areas, including:

• Becoming more easily accessible.
• Improvements in technology allowing MSPs to operate in a way that suits today’s fast paced business environment.
• Solutions becoming more scalable, allowing for success regardless of the size of an organisation.

Effective contingent workforce programmes deliver the same features and benefits to SMEs as they do to large organisations. MSPs offer the ability to ensure you are gaining maximum value and efficiency from contingent labour in your organisation.

Here’s what to look for when searching for your next strategic partner.

What is an MSP provider? A brief overview:

An MSP arrangement means an employer enters into a single contract with an outsourced service provider. This contract is to manage its temporary workers and contractors.

The MSP team sits between internal procurement or hiring managers and recruitment firms, supplying contractors and temporary staffing solutions. An efficient MSP should monitor key trends, including:

• Changing skill sets and mismatches.
• Rate fluctuations to enable employers to reap the benefits.
• Allowing employers to focus their time on what they do best.

It’s the responsibility of the MSP to consider all stakeholders, technology and systems. They must remain neutral at every stage and create a level playing field for competing suppliers. By ensuring fair competition, the client receives the best service at the most competitive price.

What to look for in an MSP recruitment provider:

Any MSP provider you consider should have a proven track record. Their staff should show high engagement levels. An effective MSP provider should also use the right technology and processes to ensure maximum value to your company.

The right provider has all these qualities plus:

• An effective network of downstream supplier relationships.
• An efficient supply management system.
• A user-friendly technology platform to oversee your entire contingent workforce.
• The ability to create and drive market intelligence and cost-saving initiatives.
• A well-defined authorisation process that captures all relevant costs, not just headcount.

What should your MSP add to your business? 

An MSP ensures you are getting the greatest value and day-to-day performance from your panel of suppliers. Additionally, an MSP also provides access to the best available contingent talent.

Some of the best people prefer contract arrangements over a permanent role. An MSP ensures you don’t miss out on seeding your existing talent network with experts who can add real value to your work.

However, there are two other major benefits of having an MSP. This includes reducing costs and ensuring your use of contingent talent aligns with your wider people strategy.

How an MSP can make your contingent workforce spend more cost effective:

Your MSP partners are experts in negotiating the best possible rates with suppliers. But they also take care of much more than that, they will also:

• Ensure the consistent application of statutory on costs.
• Perform pay rate benchmarking keeps rates competitive.
• Use data analytics to track and understand salary and payment trends over time.
• Leverage data trends to accurately interpret trends and changes.

Using an MSP also means the removal of contractor administration fees. The team can also reclassify Statement of Work (SOW) spend into lower cost channels.

Making contingent workers part of your people strategy:

An MSP should support a holistic people strategy.

Companies ‘going it alone’ rarely have the time or tools to include their contingent workforce in any strategic plans.

Ingraining an MSP as part of your operational function provides real time visibility of your contingent workforce. In turn, this integration unlocks access to quality business intelligence to inform the decisions you make.

The ability to monitor and optimise transaction processes using AI is becoming a critical skill. This growing importance of AI proficiency is especially true as these systems continue to evolve.

How your data should provide a blueprint for action

When partnering with clients to build an MSP solution, we put data analytics at the centre of our strategy. Our focus on client challenges and expertise in capturing and translating data into action provides a superior experience.

We configure the Vendor Management System (VMS) to provide a real-time picture of your contingent workforce and its costs.

We customise intelligent dashboards to provide a summary of your programme on a monthly and quarterly basis. By interpreting medium to long-term data, we can identify trends and opportunities for strategic decisions and improvements.

Next steps for your agile MSP recruitment strategy

Complexity demands agility. An MSP draws on robust data, deep understanding of the market and well-developed expertise to help you make the right decision, at pace.

Learn more from the experts here: 

• Our four key ingredients for effective Statement of Work management 
• Implementing a Managed Service Programme: Common MSP challenges and solutions
• Should you self-manage your contingent workforce or use a partner? 

Or speak to the team at Hays today and discover the value we add as your lifelong partner.