Managed Service Provider (MSP) for STEM Contingent Workforce Management

MSP (Managed Service Provider) focuses on providing contingent workforce solutions. It oversees vendor management, compliance, and optimisation of temporary staffing programs.

RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing), on the other hand, manages permanent hiring processes. It acts as an extension of your HR team to source, recruit, and onboard full-time employees.

Contingent workers are non-permanent employees such as freelancers, contractors, and temporary staff. They are hired for specific projects, seasonal demands, or specialised tasks and are not on the company’s payroll but often engaged through a staffing agency or MSP.

Although we’re seeing an evolution in MSP funding models, there are two prevalent models across the broad contingent workforce space:

• Supplier-funded: In this approach, a portion of the suppliers’ invoices is retained to fund the program. While this model eliminates upfront costs for the client, it may discourage supplier participation, particularly if the supplier pool has already been streamlined.
  
  
• Client-funded: In this model, the client pays a fee to the MSP to manage the program. The fee structure can be fixed, variable, or hybrid. Although this option involves an upfront cost, it often encourages suppliers to deliver top talent quickly, offering greater benefits over time.

Airswift Resourcing's MSP can save you an average of 6% annually, with up to 8%-10% in year one. These savings go beyond reducing internal headcount costs or reducing rates and focus on sustainable cost optimisation.

MSPs are renowned for driving cost savings in contingent workforce spend through staffing optimisation, supplier management, and lifecycle efficiencies.

Modern MSPs add intangible value by offering flexible talent acquisition models, higher-quality candidates, alignment between business goals and talent needs, and improved diversity efforts that foster innovation and product development.

If your organisation has 50 or more contingent workers or is spending a significant amount annually on temporary staffing, it’s time to consider an MSP. MSPs bring value when there is a need for better compliance, cost control, or streamlining of the contingent workforce program.

Your existing temporary workforce will remain on assignment. An MSP will evaluate the supplier and worker base and assess aspects such as compliance, rates and classification while creating an enhanced experience for workers, hiring managers and suppliers to effectively augment your total workforce.

A Vendor Management System (VMS) is a software platform that simplifies the management of your contingent workforce program.

It provides visibility into your external workforce, automates and tracks the sourcing process and provides data and reporting for reliable decision making.

A VMS allows for a technology-based user experience and benefits that tracking your workforce on a spreadsheet cannot provide.

If you don’t have a VMS and want to move away from manually tracking contingent workers, we will advise you on the best solution that can integrate with your systems and help optimise your processes.

We will help you tackle this step by working with your business stakeholders and understanding your current processes to gain the necessary insight into your workers, suppliers and spending.