C Squared Workforce Solutions

Transaction-of-Spend Models Aren't Good for Anyone: By taking on extensive management responsibilities without guaranteed volume or stability, MSPs face an unsustainable economic structure. NPS scores reveal Buyers aren’t delighted with MSPs, yet, the ever-popular & rarely effective %-of-spend pricing helped create this situation. Conversely, SLA/KPIs are often so staffing-centric & misaligned with C-Suite value recognition that the programs can't grow with pace to deliver innovative expectation. MSP roles have expanded. Beyond staffing coordination, MSPs now oversee compliance, analytics, tech integrations, diversity sourcing, rate negotiations, risk management & more. Yet pricing hasn’t kept pace, leaving MSPs carrying financial burdens for expanded services under the same narrow spend-based fee. MSPs are expected to deliver data-driven insights & support complex technologies integrations for free. With tech investment for contingent programs growing 9-11% annually, MSPs face mounting costs to meet expectations without revenue increase from the traditional model. Innovation, predictive analytics, & seamless enterprise tech integration requires capital outlay that a “% of spend” structure doesn’t adequately fund. The %-based model places MSPs in a position where they rely on fluctuating volume, which can drop suddenly. In regions with low work volumes, servicing costs are prohibitive. During the RFP process, clients often overestimate post-launch volume, leading MSPs to over-invest in anticipation of higher spend that doesn’t materialize. MSPs absorb upfront costs, only to face revenue shortfalls. MSPs are called to deliver complex, multi-region programs. Supporting variations in hiring, compliance, & market needs requires specialized expertise, yet the low-margin %-based model doesn’t allow for required investment. Corners get cut, promises are broken, and no one is happy. MSPs are expected to innovate constantly while safeguarding clients through compliance & indemnification, often bearing the burden of policy enforcement & financial risk. Lets provide a more stable, equitable structure: Fixed Fee w/ Incentives: A baseline service fee covers costs, with added incentives for outcomes, rewarding high performance while ensuring predictable revenue. Outcome-Based: Linking payments to milestones like onboarding, expansion, or analytics rollout aligns MSP compensation with outcomes, offering a clear value-based proposition. Cost+ w/ ROI: This model compensates MSPs for actual service costs with a margin for sustainability, incentivizing MSPs to deliver measurable value over time. Core Service Subscription: A predictable subscription fee for services like compliance, tech integrations, & reporting improves stability & forecasting, enabling reinvestment in client-centered innovations. Realigning pricing with service expectations is vital so both MSPs & Buyers foster sustainable partnerships, ensuring ongoing success.

"Why we are still asking if Direct Sourcing is a fad" - Part 3. First, thanks to all the providers who reached out to educate me on direct sourcing (DS) and to the buyers who engaged to challenge and confirm my thinking. Here’s what I learned: 1) I see it, there is no denying it: Direct Sourcing offers significant value. It can: -Maximizes ROI on full-time job postings -Boosts productivity across CW Programs, Procurement, HR, and providers -Helps reduce bias in hiring (yes, it can be a stopgap and its own trend report) -Lowers costs (ONLY if clients take the right actions) -Aligns CW programs with long-term talent strategies, including internal mobility, skills matching, and succession planning -- with the right engagement, DS can pilot strategic workforce planning initiatives 2) The messaging & execution need refinement. There is sometimes (not all, everyone, everywhere) what I will call a lack of client-centricity in both. Example client feedback: -Focus on the value your service provides rather than critiquing competitors. One buyer said, when DS providers without MSP affiliations negatively reference MSPs, it comes across as “just another group vying for market share.” -Another client said something along the lines of, “The hyper-deconstruction of the process feels like an attempt to monetize every segment of recruiting.” My take? This perception emerges when one part of a process is over-engineered while another is attacked. Clients don’t want to referee partners. Pro tip: When any function or initiative is approached in isolation, it creates both op & tech debt. Failing to embed DS into a holistic framework is a miss. IMO, this is similar to why 'total talent' has faced so many stop/starts: you need altitude in design & grounding in execution & risk planning to make both buying & deployment feasible. Instead of forcing a concept into a narrow lane, successful execution requires savvy stakeholder management. With the altitude I mentioned, you can identify all the challenges a service or technology will address across the organization, rather than just pitching it to solve one function’s immediate priorities. To effectively do this, you need to understand the priorities across the business & get the right stakeholders in the room. Here is a test to determine if you have enough design altitude: Name the top 5 strategies of your company. Now identify how your program directly feeds the success of the top 5. Tell me how specifically - which strategy, which project plan. If DS is an enabler to a top 5 strategy, where is it on the OKR plan, who knows about it -- which stakeholders are delighted that you are bringing this in to help with internal mobility or preferred supply mgmt or cost savings. This is the depth required to ensure ROI of strategic initiatives. Tomorrow, I’ll focus on expanding bullet 1, the positive aspects of DS, and the tangible value enterprises can capture through a strategic direct sourcing plan.

I find the direct sourcing discussion strange, and here's why: In my first MSP role, I was onsite at a large defense client in 2001, just after 9/11. The client had a new project, with scope that didn't exist pre-9/11, and recruitment was tough & expensive. Procurement, TA, and MSP partnered to solve it (shared governance). We discovered that engineers from the automotive sector & an in-house team had transferable skills (internal mobility + manual skill matching). At the same time, the client was reorganizing and linking cost savings to real estate (location strategy v1.0), with an OKR of maintaining 60% FTE (workforce composition planning v1.0). They needed people fast in new locations, without hefty fees. To solve this, we posted contingent jobs to funnel to FTEs (good ole' temp-to-perm) leveraging the client’s brand. TA asked if they could send FTE candidates to us at the MSP first due to our faster onboarding (integrated onboarding and provisioning), and IT added a link on FTE applications for those interested in contract work. VMS set up a vendor ID so the client could act as their own supplier, and MSP curated talent (direct sourcing). Since my MSP was owned by a VMS, we had influence and a united customer-first focus. (another post) Somewhere in here we also realized staffing suppliers could create a talent bench for certain roles (talent marketplace v1.0). It was manual and scrappy, but it worked—we got the right people fast and achieved location & cost management goals. Around 2010, tech arrived to automate direct sourcing, and I thought it was a great evolution. No brainer - why wouldn't every program?! And here I am in 2024 reading over and over again: "is direct sourcing is a fad?" It's not—it's proven and well-established. Here’s my current take: a lot of the issue is poor go-to-market strategies. Tech companies tend to present their solutions as though everything before them was outdated or irrelevant, which isn’t true. They often overlook the complexities of hiring and overstate cost savings. I see this play out on LinkedIn all the time. Instead of saying no one needs an MSP/VMS anymore or claiming automatic cost savings (which is repeatedly proven false - the client or MSP still has to do things to get the savings), focus on how tech integrates into the existing ecosystem—and be detailed. I’m out of characters, so this is part 1. I'd love to hear your thoughts and questions for part 2. Direct sourcing is crucial, but it's nothing new. How can we get the show on the road and help clients realize value? I'd love to hear buyer's perspectives as well.

CC's Question Friday! What is the 1 thing that can change a CW hiring manager's experience? I want your low effort, high reward, no-brainer, why isn't this happening all the time already, thoughts. #CCsQuestionFriday #userexperience #CW

To think, there are 500+ female leaders out there who represent hundreds of workforce programs and thousands of decisions that impact the global extended workforce every day! I'm honored to be a part of ClubVMSA's amazing effort to recognize and bring together women from the extended workforce industry via WoW: Women of Work conference and gala. I'd appreciate your vote, but more importantly, I'd appreciate your vote for all of the categories -- as many times as you can remember to do so, given that GraceMark Solutions donates to those in need for every vote -- & that is really worth celebrating!!!! #womenofwork #clubvmsa #bettertogether C Squared Workforce Solutions Vote here! https://lnkd.in/ehV3dqwf

All of Hiring Our Heroes fellowships typically have fellows working with their host companies Monday - Thursday and then bring them back to #hoh for professional development on Fridays. Our fellows graduate with comprehensive skills to include new technical skills but also vision and perspective for career success and progression. Recently our fellows were treated to an hour discussion on leadership with Ali Crea with Aditi Consulting. She also brought in subject matter experts to have a panel discussion to help answer questions from our fellows. Thank you Cristy Iacolucci and Christina C. for your time and expertise! If you're looking to hire incredible talent who is ready to contribute and make an impact on your organization, look to host and/or hire a #militaryspouse #hohfellow. https://lnkd.in/gujbGx4t Sarah Brant Sarah Frey, CWDP Corrine Fitzgerald Jill New Jessica Oxley, MBA, CWDP Yessenia Hagewood Lauren Monnelly Elizabeth Garcia