MSPs, Managed Service Providers, are in the spotlight. Increasingly large hire contracts are being outsourced to them. The question is, however, whether the needs of organisations to organise the hiring of external staff effectively and efficiently, and to reduce the fiscal and legal risks, are necessarily met by using MSPs in the right way. I try to provide the answer in this column.

After all, selecting an MSP itself, for example, already costs the necessary capacity and often takes up a lot of time. Implementing and activating the programme together with the selected MSP also takes time. Subsequently, the selected MSP also tenders to contract Tier 1 and 2 suppliers, with the books flying back and forth. Involved parties lose a lot of time and energy because of this. From 'the market' you sometimes hear that "before you are up and running together, the parties have almost grown tired of each other."

"You never know when you might need them again"

And then you still have to start with the actual recruitment and onboarding and neatly escort the external staff out again. And this at a time when organisations want to build a bond with their (former) temporary colleagues. You never know when you might need them again, do you? An extra MSP middle layer, often experienced as impersonal, does not generally help. The MSP also uses a supplier in almost 100% of the cases, which means that (almost) always a fee of 20% on average has to be paid for each hire, plus MSP costs.

Then why, you may ask, should an MSP occupy a (legal) place 'in the chain' and therefore necessarily put an extra organisation between the needs of hiring managers and the candidates?

There is no need to do so. After all, there are independent sourcing & matching tools that, at the request of hiring managers, can immediately take care of the reactive and proactive, 'talent pooling', recruitment of interim managers and professionals. Without intermediate layers, almost without implementation and often without having to pay a fee. A concrete saving on the spend on hiring of 10 to 15% on average is then easily achieved, quite apart from all the time and energy it does NOT cost to NOT set up the MSP programme. If a specialised partner subsequently attunes the right contracts to legislation and the needs of the parties, everything is well and efficiently arranged.

"Shooting with a cannon at a mosquito"

From my own experience it appears that, for example, to find one or more interim Controllers, HR Managers or Marketers alternately, in practice MSPs are often shooting with a cannon at a mosquito. When structurally large numbers of similar profiles need to be hired, then an MSP can definitely add significant value and time can be taken to set up a well-oiled MSP machine.

In case of a strongly fluctuating need for hiring in the higher educated segment, this is often unnecessary and one or two good sourcing and matching tools will be sufficient, with which you can easily attract professionals yourself in 60% of the cases. Supplement this with a few specialised intermediary agencies for the other 40%, and possibly use a broker or advisor who arranges the right contracts. You will then save 60% x an average of 20% on your hiring. That is an immediate 12% cost saving, plus more direct contact with your target groups, less noise on the line due to less time wasted on bureaucracy and less communication with extra layers. Please, see below the infographic with my vision on an optimal organisation of the hiring of professionals in case of a concrete assignment.