What Important Steps Must a Staffing Agency Take Before Hiring a Managed Service Provider?

Posted On: February 22, 2023

Don’t be surprised that staffing agencies occasionally need help finding professional talent; it remains a common occurrence. For this scenario, they leverage the help of a managed service provider focused on keeping a full talent pipeline. This approach ensures the agency is always ready to meet the hiring needs of a client.

Managed service provider staffing sometimes focuses on facilitating the recruiting of temporary workers. This is especially important when the client largely relies on a contingent workforce to maintain their operational efficiency. Adopting this staffing strategy lets client businesses optimize their workforce spend while maintaining high productivity levels.

However, before engaging with a managed service provider, agencies need to perform some self-analysis. You need to understand the myriad benefits they provide your organization, as well as vetting each provider’s reputation. So check out this overview of how to select the right MSP staffing company for your agency.

What Key Functions Do Managed Service Providers Offer to Staffing Agencies?

Here is a high-level view of what key functions a managed staffing services provider offers to other staffing agencies. Understanding their role in this talent equation makes it easier to choose the right one for your own business. Again, this approach especially makes sense if the clients of your staffing agency largely rely on a contingent workforce.

MSP staffing companies typically act as a bridge between a staffing agency and their client. As such, they manage the talent pipeline for your agency, ensuring your clients enjoy fast access to experienced professionals. The top managed service providers also boast high scalability, ensuring they meet the hiring needs of their agency partners.

The top managed staffing providers boast efficient processes for vetting and onboarding candidates. It lessens the need for your own agency to spend time checking the viability of each individual candidate. Remember that an optimized onboarding process also improves the retention rate for the clients of your own staffing agency.

Finally, the managed service providers also enjoy optimized processes for billing and payments. They understand the unique laws and legal classifications around contingent workers in each location in which they operate. Their focus on governance and compliance provides peace of mind to your agency and its clients.

Staffing Agencies Should Ask the Following Four Questions before Hiring a Managed Service Provider

Any process for vetting managed staffing services providers requires a discerning approach. You need to ask each provider a standard set of questions and leverage a rating system for comparing them. This approach becomes especially important if more than one person is involved with rating each MSP staffing agency/

In the end, making the right decision on a managed services provider remains critical. So use an organized process that results in an unbiased rating of each organization. Let’s take a closer look at a few questions worth asking when interviewing MSP candidates.

What Benefits Will Managed Staffing Services Provide for My Business?

As highlighted earlier, managed staffing service providers offer your agency improved access to talented professionals. This remains one of the most critical benefits of partnering with one. Their massive talent pipelines make it easier for you to find a specific candidate for your clients.

Again, dealing with each state’s unique laws and regulations around contingent workers hampers the efficiency of many staffing agencies. The best MSP staffing providers manage this compliance task for its partners. This lets your team focus on finding the right talent for its clients.

The staffing world increasingly relies on technology to optimize operations. Applicant tracking systems powered by AI provide only one example of the current digital transformation in staffing. So be sure to vet each potential MSP partner on how they leverage technology. It plays a key role in their long-term success and must be an important factor in your final choice.

As your staffing agency grows, you need to be supported by an MSP partner with high operational scalability. This ensures your agency operations scales in tandem with your staffing provider. Expect to enjoy the benefits of economies of scale to reduce costs and improve profitability in the future.

Finally, a partnership with the MSP staffing provider offers agencies a measure of cost certainty in uncertain times. Those economies of scale definitely help cut spending. Additionally, providing a higher quality of hire to your clients also drives the growth of your business. So spend significant time verifying each MSP’s answers on these benefits.

How Will a Managed Service Provider Achieve ROI?

Businesses in multiple industry sectors leverage managed service providers to enjoy significant cost savings. Of course, the staffing industry offers little to no exception to this rule. A partnership with a managed staffing provider helps optimize your agency’s internal processes, saving you money as a result.

However, since any staffing agency expects to spend on partnering with a staffing MSP, achieving ROI becomes critical. So you need to ask each potential MSP partner on how they help your agency achieve ROI. Look for answers stressing the importance of building a long-term partnership as opposed to focusing only on the short-term.

As highlighted above, forging a partnership with a staffing MSP over the long haul provides a framework for success. Over time, your provider grows to understand what differentiates your business from other staffing agencies. This helps them provide candidates that truly fit within the different office cultures of your clients.

Again, focus on each potential provider’s answers to this critical ROI question. Try to choose one with a history of long-term clients. You want to partner with a staffing MSP that’s in it for the long haul – just like your agency.

Will a Managed Service Provider Help Source the Right Talent?

Of course, any staffing agency depends on providing clients with high-quality candidates to build long-term success. So any potential managed staffing provider needs to be closely vetted on the quality of their talent pipeline. After all, it’s your reputation as a staffing agency at risk if you present a poor candidate to a client.

Explore how each staffing MSP finds candidates. Do they truly take the time to understand the client base of each staffing agency with whom they partner? How do they leverage technology for this purpose? Once again, an affinity for the use of AI and machine learning remains a promising sign.

Ultimately, look for staffing MSPs with relationships with a large array of talent suppliers. This ensures they boast the ability to find candidates with the unique skill sets your clients might want. A larger number of suppliers means more flexibility for your agency and its client base.

How Does an MSP Retain Vendor Relationships and Support New Solutions?

As highlighted above, you want to partner with a managed staffing provider with strong relationships with suppliers of talent. After all, building a long-term relationship with a staffing MSP becomes easier when they already boast a history of forging similar partnerships. So be sure to analyze the current vendor list of each potential provider to check how they maintain relationships with these companies.

Additionally, your chosen managed service provider staffing organization needs to be on the forefront of technology, leveraging modern solutions for sourcing and recruiting talent. This ensures your partner boasts an optimized staffing process, which also reflects on your own agency’s ability to quickly find professionals for your clients. It remains a critical piece of any contingent workforce management solution.

Next Steps: Hire Anserteam’s Managed Staffing Company to Provide Support for your Contingent Workforce Solutions

Any search for an experienced MSP staffing company needs to strongly consider the group at Anserteam. A partnership with us ensures you have access to a dedicated Anserteam Workforce Alliance team to help you manage your contingent labor needs. We provide staffing support providing your clients with the talent they need on either an onsite or offsite basis.

Note that our dedicated team handles the entire contingent staffing process for you, from sourcing until the job is done. We boast state of the art technology leveraging automation to manage your agency’s contingent workforce solution. Our team helps reduce your administrative burden while also adding a measure of cost certainty.

We provide a top-shelf reporting engine that lets you see your current labor spend at a glance. This information provides crucial insights helping you optimize your staffing operations and maximize your ROI. It’s a strategic-driven process providing a talent pipeline that lets you support your agency’s talent need faster than ever before. Expect happy clients as a result and more business for your agency in the future.

When Searching For a Staffing MSP Look No Further Than Anserteam

When your staffing agency needs a contingent workforce solution partner, connect with the experienced team at Anserteam. As one of the top managed staffing service providers in Texas, we support your business with the professional talent it needs. Our state of the art processes help you attract top-shelf contingent professionals.

Schedule some time with us at your earliest convenience to discuss your agency’s current and future talent needs. We offer helpful insights and a robust supply of contingent professionals to optimize your staffing agency operations.