Managed staffing is not just an answer to unfilled jobs in times of labor scarcity. It is also perfect for filling short term positions which are terribly popular in tough economic times. The State of Maine has needs for contingent or temporary or contract workers, and just signed a deal with Knowledge Services to be Maine’s official contingent managed service provider.
“The Knowledge Services MSP program, commissioned as MEMSP, will be used for all IT contingent workforce categories. Knowledge Services' MSP programs emphasize strong supplier partnerships to ensure resource quality and service continuity,” the company said. Knowledge Services will also offer a manager on-site, screening of candidates and helping manage the supplier network.
“Our government solutions team will ensure the client administrative burden is dramatically reduced, information flow is enhanced, and critical decision support reporting is both timely and of maximum value,” said Julie Bielawski, CEO of Knowledge Services.
Managed Staffing Market
A report from Everest Group studied the staffing side of the MSP equation. The managed staffing space has traditionally focused on contingent blue collar-style work. This is all moving upscale to providing and managing IT pros, engineers and other skilled people. MSPs doing staffing are also getting heavier into offshoring based on client demand and doing staffing deals that span multiple countries. Everest, however, sees a lack of vendor skill in meeting these needs, leading to a confused and disrupted market.
The report, ‘Managed Service Provider (MSP) – Mastering the Winds of Changes,’ clearly “identifies that adoption of MSP is moving beyond traditional drivers of cost, compliance and visibility to include access to critical and scarce talent and integrated workforce planning. This is leading to changes in the composition of job families in MSP. Engineers and IT professionals now constitute the largest job family managed by MSPs.” Meanwhile this market grew 13-16 percent last year, and hit over $60 billion.
Research from Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA) also sees growth in staffing. This group that studies the staffing market surveyed 100 MSP and vendor management systems (VMS) vendors and found that “roughly one-third of global temporary staffing labor is managed either by an MSP or run through a VMS.”
The use of contingent labor is growing. “Contingent labor allows corporation’s flexibility in workforce planning as the global economy remains turbulent. Corporations also use contingent labor to “try before they buy” employees. In addition to temporary agency labor, corporations are increasingly incorporating Statement of Work (SOW) arrangements into their contingent workforce programs,” SIA said. “To manage these varied types of resources, corporations use VMS and Managed Service Providers (MSP). Staffing Industry Analysts estimates that spend under management through a VMS, an MSP, or both, is greater than $100 billion globally and growing. This compares to the total market estimate for global temporary agency staffing labor of $327 billion,” the research found.
Edited by
Cassandra Tucker
