Recently, we sat down with the new Head of MSP, Kelly Boykin. Kelly brings over 25 years of staffing and MSP experience to Real and recently was an expert panelist at the World Staffing Summit last month for an MSP exclusive roundtable.
We wanted to take this opportunity to get to know Kelly better and learn more about MSP.
Question: In your words, what is MSP, and why is it essential to staffing?
Kelly: Managed Service Providers (MSPs) play a vital role in the staffing industry. They allow an enterprise customer to work with hundreds of staffing suppliers while governing the quality of the talent, the efficiency/speed with which orders are filled, streamline costs, and mitigate risk.
In addition, they're the liaison between the hiring managers and the customers. They essentially act as an extension to their organization. MSPs became more established about 20 years ago and today work with approximately 77% of the Fortune 1000 companies.
Question: How did you end up in MSP, and why have you stayed?
Kelly: I have never met anyone who sought out staffing as a career. People happen to find themselves in it! That was the case with me, and 25 years later, I am still doing it. I have worked with hundreds of customers, both direct and through MSP partners. As more and more of our customers engaged an MSP, we found ourselves needing to get good at it quickly.
At Real, we're in a similar situation, with more than 50 MSP programs in the US alone.
Question: Without giving away any secrets, what are your plans for MSP at Real, and what are you most excited about?
Kelly: Many exciting things are happening here! I have been so impressed with the quality of the internal team and the candidates we are submitting. An extremely high percentage of our contractors that are interviewed are selected, and the feedback from customers on our quality is very high. This is wonderful news, as it gives us a solid foundation to build upon, thanks to the success of the Retail model.
Our (top secret) plan is to expand our enterprise infrastructure to meet the needs of our largest customers. This means growing and evolving our delivery teams to meet the unique demands of MSP customers. It also means building out a world-class Account Management group to build relationships with our partners and drive growth.
Question: What are some significant trends you're noticing in the industry?
A few things are happening in the industry, and a lot of that is being touched on by MSP.
Direct Sourcing: This solution is gaining ground very quickly and is already impacting organizations in our industry. Direct sourcing is where customers leverage their own brand and internal and external networks to create their own talent pools without using staffing suppliers. This allows them to attract more candidates and reduce talent acquisition costs. It presents a risk for staffing firms and an opportunity for us to innovate and create our response to remain valid.
Technology: This will come as a shock to no one, but technology is a part of most conversations in our industry. Companies use Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to drive efficiencies, including response rate and cost. In addition, there are hundreds of technologies that can automate parts of the recruiting value chain, some that can impact all of it, called Total Talent Management. These will never replace recruiters, but will allow our most valuable resource – our people – to do the client and talent-facing work that humans do best!
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Enterprise companies have become good at this for many years, but recently, we saw demand in the contingent labor space for DEI. Companies know their population and can set goals for improvement for underrepresented populations. They now want to know this for their contingent workforce as well. This is both exciting and terrifying as we look to protect the rights and privacy of our contractors while at the same time making a meaningful impact on this critical endeavor.