What does MSP stand for in staffing? Managed service provider (MSP). What is an MSP in staffing, then? A company that runs a client's contingent workforce program on the client's behalf. It manages the staffing suppliers and routes job requests to them, reports to the client on fill and rates, and often operates the vendor management system (VMS) the program runs on. It is a different business from an IT managed service provider, which shares the acronym and nothing else.
Managed service provider staffing, usually shortened to MSP staffing, is that model in practice: the client keeps the budget and the final decisions, and one provider runs the supplier base day to day.
An MSP is a service. A VMS is software. A master vendor is a single staffing supplier that takes the first look at every request and subcontracts the rest. Programs often mix all three, and a buyer who treats them as one thing ends up comparing proposals that answer different questions.
My position: a good MSP program runs on rules everyone can read. Which suppliers see a requisition first, and for how long. How a supplier moves up or down a tier. What the MSP's fee pays for, and who funds it. Who owns the supplier relationships and the data when the contract ends. When those rules are written down and reported against, the client gets leverage and the suppliers get a fair game. When they live in someone's head, nobody can tell neutrality from habit.
The posts in this topic are written for both sides of that table: the buyer deciding whether they need an MSP and how to choose one, and the MSP team running a program day to day. They cover the split of responsibilities between client, MSP, VMS and supplier; how to test whether an MSP is vendor-neutral; fee models with the arithmetic shown; supplier scorecards that are hard to game; the reports a program manager should run every week; and how to move to a new MSP without losing a month of invoices.
They name criteria, not vendors. If a post ever needs to compare named providers, it says so and sources every claim.