In the first article of our contingent talent series, we asked, “Does your contingent talent approach fuel the strategic drivers of your business?”
In this second blog of the series, we take a step further into the details to explain how the next-generation MSP model is evolving to help manage ever-growing complexity in the new talent supply chain equation
The advances we’re seeing in how an MSP is designed and viewed within an organization have developed as a function of the ever-evolving talent landscape. Just one example is the rapid advance of HR and talent technology that now enables market and business analytics to be incorporated into the design and function of the overall talent management program. With this advancement, there is a new goal for your MSP to achieve – ”total talent visibility." Total talent visibility is a broad, strategic view of how your increasingly varied talent pool of variable and fixed labor contributes to short-term success, as well as the long-term strategic priorities of your organization.
Do you have full visibility?
Making sure you are optimizing how you manage your talent, in line with your business’ priorities, is first a matter of recognizing how the contingent labor category has changed. Today’s talent pool includes not only what we have thought of as traditional “temp” workers, but “gig workers,” Statement of Work (SOW) consultants, freelancers, outsourced consulting providers and independent contractors. These diverse segments require organizations to evolve to fully capitalize on the knowledge, experience and expertise this contingent talent population can contribute to your organization. MSP providers, procurement and talent acquisition professionals need to come together with a much higher level of sophistication to manage this new supply chain.
The solution to using this wide array of talent as a strategic resource to meet the goals of your business is to develop an MSP that has a procurement-centric viewpoint to deliver to traditional cost and process efficiencies gains, while elevating the thinking and strategy to incorporate a holistic approach to your entire talent spectrum and the supply models needed to support it. Your MSP provider needs to understand how the pieces fit together, then take a step back and view your business priorities through a wide lens, and develop an ongoing program that incorporates all of the data and resources available.
Your MSP design also needs to take traditional VMS technology and adapt it to the changing workflows and outcomes expected of this new, diverse supply chain. While taking into account increased compliance costs and technology demands, this next-generation MSP model needs to be viewed beyond single, hourly unit costs to total cost investment, particularly when it comes to managing deliverable-based SOW and consulting contracts.
Visibility is also something to be considered. With increasing government scrutiny on worker classification, you need to make sure you can achieve full transparency on how you pay a provider for a set deliverable, rather than paying individual workers at hourly rates. Finally, today’s MSP simply can’t operate without an effective, integrated analytics function so that you can continually analyze and build on your workforce history and other data to ensure that you are meeting your planning and performance KPIs. With the rapid pace of change we now live in, you need the full visibility to readily monitor progress, and to shift and adapt to changing talent and business demands in real time.
Talent needs: is your supply chain keeping pace?
Today’s sophisticated MSPs can be involved in every aspect of your contingent talent supply chain. MSPs can help with vetting suppliers and outsourcing consulting firms, sourcing, contract negotiation, compliance, payment tracking and auditing – all while delivering cost savings along the way. Through these efficiencies, businesses can achieve even better relationships with suppliers.
But beyond cost savings, today’s MSPs can provide even more value through their greater role in talent supply chain management. Employer branding, candidate sourcing, recruiting quality talent and regulatory and compliance factors can be part of the measurement, goal setting and process variables of your newly revamped MSP. This is yet another reason to consider an MSP upgrade, so your organization can take advantage of all of the opportunities provided by the diverse talent segments available to your organization today under a single, strategic management model.
For more information and analysis on outsourcing your contingent workforce using an MSP, click here. To learn from our experience, visit our website to see our case study library on the business impact of MSP.
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