If your business operations involve managing a contingent workforce, you’ll be aware of how many moving parts this entails.

Whether it’s managing contractors and temporary employees, or consultants deployed under Statement of Work (SoW) agreements, there’s a lot to consider and it can create a lot of pain points for busy hiring managers.

You might find yourself buried in administrative tasks, dealing with clunky hiring processes that need a refresh, budget concerns if you’re not sure where all the costs are coming from, or even up come up against a brick wall when you need to bring in the right people to achieve your goals but don’t know where to turn.

This is where a Managed Service Programme (or MSP) comes in.

In this blog we’ll get stuck into the three most common pain points that might arise when managing your contingent workforce and how working with an MSP partner can help to take them away.

Let’s get started…

Attraction, Selection and Screening Candidates

So, you’re looking to hire contingent workers for a new project, but which route should you take (contractor / temp / consultant) and how do you find the time to attract and select the best talent when you have so many other demands on your time? With an MSP in place, your MSP partner will take the reins so you can sit back and focus on the day to day of running your business.

They will optimise processes to make it easy to gain approval for new hires and have access to the latest market intelligence to help your resource planning and budgeting. The MSP partner can either source directly or tap into a wide range of suppliers to create a pre-screened talent pool for you and take away the admin for scheduling interviews and managing offers, which saves you time and helps you engage with the best talent in the most cost-effective manner. An MSP also means consistent points of contact for both hiring managers, candidates and suppliers, ensuring consistent engagement whilst enabling you to concentrate on other priorities – a win win!

‘A common piece of feedback I receive from Programme Leaders is that they often opt for more expensive consultancy resource because the approval and selection process is so much easier. MSP solutions optimise processes to enable hiring managers to realise cost savings by hiring contractors and reduce the time to deploy and admin overheads’, Tom Moss, Head of Client Solutions.

Onboarding Contingent Employees

Once the interviews are completed and your candidates are selected, it’s time to onboard your people and, the need to ensure robust compliance can create a lot of bottle necks.

You ultimately want to mitigate risk in as smooth a process as possible and an MSP can provide that for both you as an employer, and your candidates. Your MSP partner will support your hiring managers with compliance documentation and process standardisation which will reduce your back and forth with suppliers – and they can even be on site to assist on the day.

And say goodbye to arranging laptops and IT set ups in time for a candidates start date, the MSP does all of this for you so you can get back to business.

“You took personal attention in lots of aspects of onboarding to help achieve great outcomes without compromising any of the important rigour, and the result is that our resource is in the building in time for a critical start date. I’m massively thankful for your help.” Feedback from hiring manager at Insurance client.

Offboarding your Contingent Workforce

Now the project is complete, and your temporary contracts are coming to an end, it’s time for offboarding. A time-consuming process with lots of boxes to tick and admin to complete, this can become a dreaded task for overworked hiring managers, particularly if the decision whether to extend or offboard comes at the last minute.

An MSP can take all this stress away for you. Your MSP partner will manage the full contract process, whether that’s an extension or a termination. The enhanced visibility and reporting provided by an MSP means this process can start 6-8 weeks before the end date, with regular check-ins to support your decision making. They’ll even sort the nitty gritty like the returning of tech and the closing down of IT accounts.

Looking to take your own contingent hiring pain points away?

If you’re looking to deliver real business value from your contingent workforce and are ready to ditch the admin and hit the ground running, getting started with an MSP could be the way to go. Why not download our Ultimate Guide on how you can get started today?

Answering all your questions from what types of MSP are available to you, a full brief of the benefits through to how exactly you can get started, this Guide will set you up for success – and all you need to do is fill in the short form below.

Have any more questions? Please do reach out to Tom Moss for a chat about how you can take away the pain points when managing your contingent workforce today on [email protected]

If you’re in the market for a more standardised, compliant and cost-efficient approach to the sourcing, onboarding and managing of your contractor population, you might be thinking of engaging with a partner for an MSP (Managed Service Programme).

However, one size does not fit all and there are different approaches and models to consider, all of which we discussed in our recent Guide. Whilst all MSPs bring a dedicated account team to drive efficient processes across the different stages of managing contingent workforces, from attraction, selection, onboarding, pre-engagement screening, and then offboarding, the major difference is the approach to candidate sourcing.

In this blog, we run through the different models and how they might benefit your organisation so that you can decide which one is right for you.

Let’s get stuck in…

Master Vendor MSP

Master Vendor is an MSP solution in which one MSP partner takes responsibility for the management of the end-to-end process and the sourcing of candidates themselves. They build a second-tier supply chain but only utilise it if they require additional help.

A Master Vendor MSP partner acts as the primary resourcing provider for your organisation. The partner will take direct responsibility for candidate sourcing, pre-screening and management, as well as building talent pipelines for future vacancies. They will only engage with other agencies if they cannot fulfil the role and need a bit of extra help. Basically, they’ll completely take the resourcing challenges and time-consuming admin tasks off your hands.

Advantages

This model offers a more streamlined process as one partner takes responsibility for all activity. Not only does this bring more accountability for hiring difficult to fill roles but will often result in quicker placements and a creation of talent pipelines for future roles, driving down your future time to hire.

Master Vendor MSP enables you to leverage economies of scale to realise significant cost savings through a simple pricing structure. A Master Vendor MSP also creates consistency of experience. The candidate experience will be more consistent as they are only dealing with one point of contact, and it will also help to improve the amplification of your employer brand messaging.

Challenges

When looking to engage with a master vendor MSP provider, selecting the right partner is key.

If you operate in a particularly niche market or are needing to flesh out your team for a very technical project, then be aware that some suppliers might not have the direct sourcing capability to provide access to the niche talent or specialised skills you require. It pays to do your research. A specialist master vend partner will be able to demonstrate the ability to source at least 90% of all roles directly.

This is particularly relevant if you’re needing to recruit over multiple locations, or even regions, it should also be noted that with a master vendor approach, it may be difficult to deploy workers consistently across a multi-region solution.

Neutral Vendor MSP

Next up, you’ve got your neutral vendor MSP model. When you’re working with an MSP partner in a neutral vendor capacity, this mean they will be acting as an intermediary between your company and the roles you need filling, and multiple other recruitment agencies. Think of them as being able to play the field for you.

They’ll review candidates from all these different sources and present the best options to you, regardless of source.

Advantages

The neutral vendor approach will spread out your risk and diversify your talent supply chains, which can then provide you with wider and more diverse access to talent.

You could also maximise some cost savings thanks to the transparency of this approach and being able to review the pricing structures of multiple different suppliers. A diverse supply chain builds scalability and flexibility into a solution.

Challenges

However, a neutral vendor approach may not achieve the same cost savings as a direct sourcing model as there will be two organisations to pay for each hire made, the agency supplier as well as the MSP partner.

Also, you should pay special attention to how each agency is presenting your employer brand to avoid a misalignment in how you’re being represented.

Hybrid Model MSP

Then you’ve got your hybrid model MSP partner. This combines some elements of both the vendor-neutral and the master vendor approaches.

With a hybrid model, the MSP partner may deliver to you via direct sourcing, while also appointing other primary suppliers and opening some of your roles up to a wider pool in the supply chain.

Advantages

A huge advantage you get with the hybrid model is flexibility as you’ll be able to choose the best model per job category. This could mean that your technology hiring is conducted via a neutral vendor approach, while your HR function is handled through a master vendor. This will optimise costs and efficiency while maintaining access to diverse suppliers.

This approach also means you’re not going to be limited by jurisdictions. You can easily hire across various geographical locations and get the best talent on the ground thanks to the expertise of different suppliers based where you need them – say goodbye to compromising on worker quality.

Challenges

However, a hybrid model approach does come with its own set of potential challenges. When you’re working with different MSP models operating for different job categories it can become a hugely complex process to manage. The hybrid model can work very effectively for large, multi-region contracts, mitigating risk and ensuring compliance with local regulations. For mid-size solutions (100 – 750 contractors under management) it may prove overly complex and not deliver the same benefits as the other models.

Which model is right for you?

So, which model do you think is right for you?

Well, it depends. The most appropriate model will depend on factors like your organisation’s size, industry sector, geographic scope, the mix between generalist and niche skills that you’re hiring for, not to mention your strategic goals.

Looking for more information?

We’re on hand to help guide you on which MSP model might be right for you and your business, and how you can get started.

You can find out more in our comprehensive Guide to MSP. Answering all of your questions from what the benefits are through to how to get started, this Guide will set you up for success.

If you have any further questions or would like to chat to us more, please don’t hesitate to reach out to:

Chesney Windsor – [email protected]

Or

Lisa Goodman – [email protected]

An MSP explained

An MSP (Managed Service Programme) is an outsourcing solution in which a partner takes responsibility for managing the contingent workforce for an organisation.

The contingent workforce can be made up of temporary employees, contractors and consultants deployed under Statement of Work (SoW) agreements.

Typically, an MSP partner will manage the full contingent worker lifecycle from resource planning and approvals, through the end-to-end recruitment process, to onboarding, payroll, extension management and offboarding. In addition, an MSP partner provides market intelligence and guidance, access to great talent, consistency of process, compliance, cost management and reporting across the contingent workforce.

Who may benefit from an MSP?

When they first started, the main appeal of an MSP solution was focussed on the time savings and efficiencies associated with the management of the contingent worker process.

Enterprise organisations with large contingent worker populations (250+), would appoint a partner to ensure that roles had been approved, to co-ordinate the recruitment process and to centralise time keeping and invoices into one, consolidated format.

The introduction of VMS technology has automated much of this process, enabling MSP providers to expand the scope of the service across multiple geographic areas, or, to focus their attentions on cost saving, risk mitigation, and access to high quality contingent talent.

With more agile MSP partners entering the market, size and scale is no longer a barrier to entry for organisations.

What should I be asking before starting an MSP?

The key questions any potential MSP buyer should ask themselves before getting started are:

Are contingent workers a consistent part of your resourcing strategy?

Would you like to access the best contingent talent in the most cost-effective manner?

Is it important that your contingent workforce complies with local regulations and legislation?

Do you struggle to gain visibility of contingent workforce spend across your business?

Does recruiting, managing, and onboarding contingent workers take up more time than you would like?

Ready to find out more?

If you’re looking to deliver real business value from your contingent workforce and are ready to get started with an MSP, download our ultimate guide to getting started today.

Answering all of your questions from what types of MSP are available to you, what the benefits are through to how to get started, this Guide will set you up for success.

Have any more questions? Reach out to Steve Phillips today [email protected]

With over a decade of experience in the recruitment industry, Leah leads Sanderson’s Operations Delivery team, who specialise in Contact Centre hires for multiple large FCA regulated clients across the UK.  

The Operations Delivery team are experts in placing high quality candidates in a variety of positions that fall under both the Customer Service and Sales umbrellas, delivering both in volume and at pace, they thrive on absorbing each client’s culture and acting as an extension of their brand.  

Leah and her team understand that every customer is different and as such they will focus on designing and delivering a bespoke solution that successfully meets our client challenges and objectives. 

Here, Leah tells her story of working with a large client in the Financial Services sector who were experiencing an unprecedented demand in sales and customer service hiring, with 525 roles confirmed in Q1.  

What was the challenge?

The client needed a Project RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) partner who could mobilise quickly, adopt their process and technology, understand their culture and values, and deliver a package of 120 hires across some of their key locations. We were selected to do the work due to a combination of the existing relationship with the client and our knowledge of volume hiring capability. 

What did we achieve together?

• Rapid Mobilisation – The talent acquisition team and our team quickly organised a series of workshops to define requirements and agree solutions. Legal and Procurement teams worked swiftly and collaboratively to draft, agree, and sign an agreement within one week, maintaining the momentum of the project
• Orientation and Communication – The whole Sanderson team visited the client, spending time with the talent acquisition team, and meeting recent hires to quickly immerse themselves in the culture, values, and requirements. Both parties ran workshops with senior business stakeholders to explain the purpose of the project, the amended process and the quality control measures in place to ensure that hiring managers received the same quality of service that they enjoyed from the in-house team.
• Execution – We quickly adopted client processes, including brand, technology and diversity monitoring and worked as an extension of the talent acquisition team, providing daily progress reports, and attending team meetings to ensure the smooth running of the project. In addition to delivering the hiring project, we:
  • Invited the client into our offices to show them how we structure delivery and share our approach to talent pipelining and attracting passive candidates.
  • Provided advice, training, mentoring and guidance on the optimum model for talent acquisition at the client.
  • Provided ad hoc, support, guidance, and market intelligence to support our clients talent acquisition transformation programme.  

It is this transparency and partnership that has delivered the most long-lasting results.  

The client has adopted many of our recommendations as part of the restructure and has a renewed confidence that they have the structure, knowledge, and process to continue to deliver an outstanding service to the business in the post pandemic world.  

The immediate results have been exceptional

• Reduced stakeholder involvement (time) by 60%
• Cost per hire reduced by 28%
• Early indications of an increase in employee retention rates

What did the client say?

“The project not only fulfilled an immediate need but gave us a platform to learn and develop. We wouldn’t be where we are today without the contribution of Sanderson.” – Recruitment Manager 

Leah followed on to highlight that:  

“Fostering a strong partnership with our client was vital to the impressive outcomes on this Project RPO, both my teams hard work and our client’s willingness to embrace us as an extension of their team, was key to achieving our shared goals and driving success together. The true testament is the ongoing relationship we still have following the success and the end of the project! If you have any resourcing issues that you would like to discuss, please do not hesitate to reach out to me for an initial conversation on how we could support with a bespoke solution to suit your needs”. 

How Sanderson’s RPO Service Can Help You

We offer agile, scalable and flexible RPO solutions to address any permanent hiring need you may have.  

Whether you’re looking for a fully outsourced solution or need support on a project-by-project basis, Sanderson has the experience to attract, select, onboard, and retain the best permanent talent for you, always ensuring this will evolve in line with the changing needs of your business.  

Interested to find out more about our solutions and the benefits an RPO can provide? Download our RPO service brochure here, or why not check out our website.  

Get in touch

We’re always open to a chat to discuss how we may be able to help you achieve similar results, so please do reach out.  

Are we too small to benefit from an MSP? This is one of the most frequent questions I am asked when meeting with HR and Procurement leaders. Initially MSP services were reserved for large, enterprise organisations with contractor populations of 150+ and an annual spend of more than £30m.

Over the past 12 months, we have seen a significant increase in organisations turning to MSP for the first time. Many of these companies have had smaller contingent worker populations, ranging from 25 to 125 and an annual spend in the region of £5m and £20m. This growing trend was confirmed by Staffing Industry Analysts in their 2024 MSP Global Landscape Survey, when, for the first time they added a question as to whether MSP providers had ‘off the shelf’ programs for small to mid-market clients.

There are several reasons why small to mid-market clients are turning to MSP partners to manage their contingent workforce:

Cost Savings

Limited growth and rising costs in the UK economy has placed a premium on cost control and cost savings. The increased visibility of spend, process efficiencies, economies of scale and cost management initiatives delivered by MSP partners can help companies achieve both immediate cost savings and sustainable efficiencies over the term of the contract.

Governance, Compliance and Risk Mitigation

Ensuring compliance with all regulatory and legal requirements for contingent workers, in particular IR35 and AWR in the UK is vital to organisations of all sizes. Many SME clients find the need to balance effective governance with flexibility and agility a challenge and, without dedicated headcount to manage the contingent workforce, turn to MSP partners to help them navigate the process effectively.

Innovation and future proofing

Whilst many SME clients have established talent acquisition teams, Applicant Tracking Systems and sourcing tools as part of their HR Tech stack, it is rare that this investment includes contingent worker hiring. MSP providers provide expertise in HR Technology and can provide advice, implement and support the optimum technology and tools to effectively manage your contingent workers. Furthermore, with an MSP partner you can expect continuous improvement, innovation and future proofing to play a consistent part of the governance process, meaning that your contingent workforce strategy can evolve, adapt and improve over time.

Consistent access to high quality Contingent Talent

A key concern for organisations who are considering MSP for the first time, particularly those with small to medium sized contingent populations is whether an MSP will compromise access to the high-quality contingent talent often associated with specialist recruitment agencies. The right MSP partner can help increase the quality of talent by combining outstanding candidate sourcing with effective resource planning, consistent screening and streamlined processes.

When meeting clients for the first time, we focus less on the number of contingent workers they have and their annual spend (without the visibility provided by an MSP this is often not known), and ask 5 simple questions:

• Are contingent workers a consistent part of your resourcing strategy?
• Would you like to access the best contingent talent in the most cost-effective manner?
• Do you struggle to gain visibility of contingent workforce spend across your business?
• Is it important that your contingent workforce complies with local regulations and legislation?
• Does recruiting, managing, and onboarding contingent workers take up more time than you would like?

If the answer to some of these questions is yes, then MSP could be the right solution.

How Sanderson can help

Sanderson has a long history of helping companies to understand the benefits and successfully transition to MSP solutions. More than two thirds of our MSP clients are ‘first generation’ and cover a wide variety of industry sectors.

Find out more about how we help our clients with our MSP service here, or feel free to get in touch with me if you’d like you like to have conversation about managing your contingent workforce. [email protected]

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