Case Study: Contingent IT Staff Supplier Evolving to Total Workforce Management for a Financial Services Client

About The Client

Our client provides a range of financial services to businesses and customers.

The Challenge

As a leading financial services group, our client needed a partner who could efficiently streamline their IT recruitment across the UK. Later, they required an MSP provider who could scale to evolving organisational and recruitment needs, including the largest contingent recruitment contract in Adecco’s history.

The client first approached Adecco over a decade ago, seeking a contingent recruitment partner to supply IT staff across its core UK office locations.

At the time, their recruitment process involved large numbers of preexisting suppliers, time-consuming manual processes, and a lack of governance and data-driven oversights. The client needed an MSP partner who could streamline the process and implement continuous tech and people-enabled improvements to ensure cost savings and results.

Over time, we have worked with the client to extend our MSP offering. Challenges have included:

• Building bespoke technology-led solutions and upgrading previous talent management software packages.
• Streamlining suppliers under the MSP agreement.
• Extending the MSP to non-IT staff recruitment, including administrative, clerical and professional roles.
• Installing new accounts team and client liaison structure.
• Employing a dedicated stakeholder engagement lead to drive customer satisfaction.
• Implementing other service enhancements, including an interactive PowerBI dashboard, NPS surveys, DE&I strategies, a worker SharePoint portal, and in-depth internal insights to drive organisational change.
• Incorporating an Emerging Talent service alongside the MSP, promoting enhanced onboarding and aftercare for internships and graduate programme placements.

In 2023, the client endorsed our partnership even further by awarding Adecco its largest-ever contingent recruitment contract to date, challenging us to supply additional volume hiring and workforce management in addition to forward-thinking tech solutions.

Our Solution

By leveraging the power of the centralised Adecco Career Centre and a dynamic supplier base, we ensure an agile approach to recruitment. Our wider infrastructure also supports additional business needs.

Adecco employ a Client Services Director and Strategic Solutions Director to manage the MSP relationship with the client. In recent years, we have expanded our offering to include a team of Recruitment Business Partners (RBPs) who work closely with the client’s management team to fulfil hiring needs.

Our account team regularly leverages the Adecco Career Centre (ACC) to manage volume contingent staffing, and the client has recognised our ability to quickly scale our service and supply chain up and down as required. The ACC is pivotal in supporting a centralised, omnichannel approach, allowing tasks such as sourcing, onboarding, and background checks to be carried out by an in-house team. This allows our account management team to focus on the client partnership and strategy.

Following a recent site visit to the ACC in 2024, the client chose to move a previously outsourced background screening component of the recruitment process to our teams, recognising our ability to reduce risk and ensure an efficient and streamlined service.

Our wider infrastructure and technology expertise have been integral to supporting the client’s long-term strategic goals. Initiatives have included:

• Implementing PeopleFluent VMS system.
• Expanding the MSP service to include additional non-IT roles.
• Amalgamating supply chains, fully managed and streamlined through our systems.
• Regularly facilitating and onboarding staff from new brands acquired by the client, ensuring supply chain and administrative compliance.
• Executing a VMS agreement, supported by a new Beeline IT package to improve processes such as candidate tracking, headcounts and resource tracking.
• Recently installing a new account team structure to enhance service levels and communication. We also employ a dedicated stakeholder engagement lead whose role is to improve customer satisfaction based on feedback.
• Introducing additional service enhancements such as an interactive PowerBI dashboard, transactional NPS surveys, tailored internal market insights, and a new SharePoint portal for contingent worker document access.
• Promoting ED&I compliance and strategy, including inclusive job descriptions, selection process improvements and the publication of internal workplace stories from diverse candidates.
• Installing an Emerging Talent team to work with the client on their onboarding and aftercare of interns, graduates, and industry placements. Our service includes a well-being manager, induction sessions, drop-in surgeries, and full development and review touchpoints for IPS candidates – learn more about our Emerging Talent service here.

Recently, we were appointed as the sole MSP provider for additional high-skilled workers, which will expand to include administrative, clerical and professional roles moving forward. As part of the new service, we have implemented a new tech solution for candidate management (Tribepad ATS) and extended the existing system to cover the new service lines. The upgraded system improves our ability to conduct video interviewing and situational judgement tests (SJTs), representing a substantial, future-proofed step towards total workforce management for the client.

Key Results

Adecco and the client’s commitment to an evolving strategic vision has resulted in consistent recruitment success and tech-enabled business improvements.

• Inherited over 100 suppliers in and reduced numbers to increase cost savings and foster streamlined workstreams.
• Supplied over 1,400 workers in 2011/12, peaking at over 2,500 in 2013/14.
• Conducted multiple IT system upgrades, including PeopleFluent to Beeline.
• Onboarded over 3,500 workers since 2019.
• Achieved recent NPS scores of +100 for candidates and stakeholders.
• Rated 4.3/5 by interns and graduates for Emerging Talent onboarding and aftercare.
• On course to supply 2,000 workers after the current contract (the largest in Adecco’s history) goes live in 2024.

Flexibility and Scalability with Adecco’s MSP Solution

At Adecco, we’re ready to meet any contingent worker challenge, ensuring compliance, quality, cost savings, and access to the best talent. Our fully flexible, scalable, and agile solution can also adapt to broader organisational demands.

We are ready for any challenge, with the proven ability to scale up and down and change course as needed.

Talk to us today about your business needs.