What is a Managed Service Provider?

Recruitment can be a difficult ride for both recruiters and candidates. The stop signs and bumps along the way, namely lack of communication or recruiter experience, unmanageable costs and unavoidable loss of time. And then when you finally get the right person to fill the role, you realise that you have to offer them benefits that are near impossible to give. Contingency hiring is a way around it.

And the good news: You don’t need to do it all by yourself. A managed service provider can do all the work on your behalf, take less time, cost a lot less, and get it done efficiently too. At the end of the day, everyone’s happy. Today non-employees make up nearly 40% of the workforce, and so contingent hiring is very important.

What is a Managed Service Provider?

A managed service provider is a recruitment agency that offers complete management of the recruitment process for temporary, contract, and other non-permanent workers for a company. A managed service program is the solution provided to the employer by the hiring party.

What are MSPs used for?

MSPs are hiring parties whose services help hire people for remote, contract-based, temporary jobs. They help in hiring people, managing the process of hiring, supplier management, ability to scale up and scale down the hiring on demand etc.

How do MSPs work?

MSPs can be planned, managed, customized and implemented to suit the needs of the organization. The remove the pressure that is existing on your talent acquisition and HR teams. Managing candidate, contractor and supplier information at the same time can be very laborious.

What are the Types of MSPs?

The different types of MSPs are:

Master Vendor

A master vendor under the managing service provider takes full charge of your staffing solution and provides solutions to hire a contingent workforce. Only second tier requirements are sourced by that vendor to other vendors.

Vendor Neutral

An MSP who follows a vendor neutral model does not directly fill the contingent vacancies but instead manage the suppliers who do and then the best vendor with the best candidate is selected to proceed further.

Hybrid MSP

In a Hybrid MSP, the roles that are required in high-volume are managed by a single vendor, whereas those that are one-off are managed by secondary vendors. The coordination with the hiring team, vendor management and worker compliance are all the responsibilities of the managed service provider.

What are the Benefits of Managed Service Providers?

Managed service providers can bridge the gap effectively between contingent workers and huge corporations. They can increase visibility for the employer, increase efficiency of the hiring process and be beneficial in so many other ways. Some of these benefits are detailed below:

Visibility

Having a managed service provider for recruitment allows you to have visibility into the contingent workforce in your organization, which includes temporary staff, on-contract workers and seasonal workers all provided in the managed service programme.

Efficiency

Improves the efficiency of the hiring process by allowing hiring managers to focus on strategizing for hiring regular employees and devote more time to specifying the roles that need contingent workers.

Flexibility

MSPs allow you to meet challenges when you must, such as when you are short-staffed during the summer or winter season. You do not need to hire afresh or overwork your existing employees.

Cost optimization

MSPs allow you to optimize costs and prevent costs of recruitment from going up. This involves all costs such as hiring resources internally, both in the HR team and to support them, cost of an HR strategist to help with hiring, and vendor costs.

Risk mitigation

MSPs reduce the risks in the process of hiring. They are in touch with some of the brightest minds in the world and would help to find talent that will be just suitable for your company. There is no risk of attrition. You do not have to be worried about the lack of fit either, if you communicate to the hiring party well what being in your company could mean.

Is an MSP Right for Your Business?

This is a question that you would have to answer taking into viewpoint how your business works. These are some of the questions you need to try and answer:

1. What are your current needs?
2. Do you have a real need for a contingent workforce or are you better off hiring full-time direct roles?
3. Do you think hiring an MSP will help your hiring team manage its process of hiring better?
4. How friendly is the MSP and how easy is it to communicate with them?
5. How much does it cost to hire an MSP?
6. Can you find an MSP at a lower cost than others that does the job reliably?
7. Do your employees need training on how MSPs work and to work with them?

How to find an MSP?

When you begin your search for a managed services provider, it ranges from huge HR consulting companies like Randstad, Manpower Inc. and Alp Consulting Ltd. to smaller and lesser-known names. The advantages of working with a reputed managed service provider with good experience and a network of millions of job seekers is that you can be sure to find just the right contingent talent.

When you look for an MSP also ascertain whether they work in the geography you are most comfortable in and if they speak your language. Another thing to make note of when you shortlist an MSP is whether they are willing to put in the extra effort so that you can meet your goals and if they will provide a good cultural fit.

What are the Challenges in Finding an MSP?

The path to a great managed service provider is a rocky road. Here are some reasons why:

1. The market is saturated with HR solution providers who claim more than they can provide
2. Sometimes, there is no quick way to verify the credentials of lesser-known HR companies.
3. Some big names charge more than their peers, and though quality matters, so does the total cost.
4. Hire well and it will help you along, hire wrong and it will leave you stranded. There’s always a risk.

Closing Words

Contingent Hiring opens doors to greater efficiency and flexibility at much lower costs. Looking for a managed service provider. Your search should begin with Alp Consulting, an HR consulting company of great reputation, a company that scales with you, thanks to a strong talent pipeline that will help hire just the right talent for your organization. Looking to hire for a direct permanent role? We provide recruitment process outsourcing too. Talk to Alp today!

FAQs

1. What is MSP in Recruitment?

Managed service provider in recruitment plans your contingent hiring, does contingent workforce planning, and even manages all the suppliers who are involved in the process of hiring. It is different from recruitment process outsourcing as the hiring is for temporary work.

2. What is the Full Form of MSP?

The full form of MSP is managed service provider. It could also mean managed service programme. Managed service programme is a solution provided by a managed service provider to the employer.

3. What is the Role of an MSP?

The role of a managed service provider encompasses all matters related to the hiring of a contingent workforce, planning the workforce, and even managing vendors and worker compliance on behalf of the employer. An MSP strengthens the employer brand and makes it more appealing to the candidates, while also onboarding candidates at much lower costs and in much less time.