The State of Contract Talent Management and the Role of HR

21 January, 2009

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The most persuasive reason that many organizations prefer using an MSP is that by managing the entire spectrum of the contingent workforce lifecycle, the organization is free to focus on strategic talent issues—and/or, as one expert puts it, “obtain access to the top talent in a tight labor market.” One such example is IBM’s managed service, whose mission it is to provide IBM’s project managers and executives with highly qualified contract talent. As one Atlanta-based staffing solutions provider says, “We are seeing a move toward MSPs, particularly at large companies that take a more strategic approach to contingent labor.”

A Vendor Management System (VMS) is an Internet-enabled, often Web-based application that acts as a mechanism for business to manage and procure staffing services—temporary, and, in some cases, permanent placement services—as well as outside contract or contingent labor.

As an HR Executive from a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company said in our survey, “We refer to this as contingent workforce management and it is specifically addressed in our annual workforce planning. We use a vendor management system and approximately 150 staffing firms at various levels to support our needs. Our business units work with HR and procurement to source, hire and manage contractors and temps. The VMS tracks suppliers by tiers and things like billings and expenses; it also produces reports on the financials and warns when a contractor is going past their original period of hire. Our system works well as far as I’m concerned.”

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