5 Reasons to Engage a Managed Service Provider to Mitigate Risk

The best cure for pain is to avoid the dynamics and environment at its root. Similarly, the best way to avoid suffering from the negative effects of risky behavior is to avoid such risks at the outset. This notion – taking proactive steps to identify and mitigate risky activities, processes and practices – is particularly salient when applied to workforce management. There are, after all, a wide array of risks inherent in maintaining a non-employee workforce. In order to ensure the risks don’t outweigh the rewards, many organizations are turning to risk mitigation services like those provided by nextSource and others to help avoid pain in the following areas.

1. Background Checks and Other Screenings

You cannot always depend upon a staffing supplier to ensure compliance to the contractual requirements of a background check or for an organization to know to include those in their staffing agreements, if they have them with their suppliers. A Managed Service Provider (MSP) will manage the contractual terms and the compliance to them by the staffing supplier providing talent. The consequences of failing to manage such screenings can be significant. Whether it deals with security (through criminal background checks), productivity (through drug screenings), intellectual property damage (through the return of business machines/materials at the end of engagements) or numerous other types of screenings, risk mitigation services add a layer of accountability to the processes of screenings/background checks within any workforce. 

2. SOW Creation/Contract Management

This is a big gap for many organizations. The rise in popularity of SOW project labor is driven by the amazing potential inherent in these types of relationships. However, the devil is always in the details and perhaps your workforce management personnel are not as sophisticated in the generation of SOW contracts as the SOW providers who do them every day. As such, a Managed Service Provider is very useful when engaging SOW/project workers. Let a risk MSPassist you and the service provider in clearly defining the project scope, develop detailed business process statements, assess transaction volumes, enunciate responsibilities by stakeholder and perform the numerous other tasks associated  including the oversight of invoices versus the attainment of those deliverables with strong SOW contract management.

3. VMS Selection and Implementation

Enterprise software like vendor management system tools hold enormous potential for capturing savings, driving visibility and improving efficient operation of the modern workforce. However, they hold an outsized risk for failure because there are so many ways a software implementation can go off the rails. Knowing what features and functionality are essential to an organization’s business requirements takes the perspective that only comes through experience. Your organization may have never engaged a VMS solution before. But, a risk mitigation service most certainly has. Let their experience be your guide.

4. IC/Worker Classification

Perhaps today’s most widely publicized workforce related risk, determining how to classify the growing array of non-employee labor types is a daunting challenge, even for the most experienced HR practitioner. Risk mitigation services keep close tabs on the cutting edge of legislation, governmental regulation, case law and best practices associated with proper worker classification. Don’t go it alone. Compliance Services from nextSource specialize in worker classification protocol design.

5. Benefits Administration/ACA Compliance

The recent and ongoing roll out of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is just one example of the impact of changing legislation regarding how benefits are administered to employees, contingents and contractors of all types. Worker’s Compensation, Unemployment Insurance, healthcare and numerous other benefits present a challenging task to workforce management departments. Even those working hard to ensure all the bases are covered could benefit from an objective assessment of how well they are complying with regulatory guidelines as well as internal business rules. Let acontingent workforce solutions organization, such as nextSource be that set of objective eyes to partner with you on these issues for your temporary or contingent workforce.

There are plenty of additional workforce management processes and practices rife with inherent risk. Whatever level of comfort your organization may have achieved with respect to risk management, it is never a bad idea to get a second opinion and a fresh perspective. Reach out to nextSource today for more information on the risk mitigation services they offer.