Any of a variety of unbundled sourcing research services provided to corporate recruiters or third-party executive search firms, usually by sole practitioners, involving identification of potential candidates at competitive firms, pre-screening, reference-checking, and other search-related research.

The process of recruiting a candidate for a specific position with an employer, usually a senior managerial position. A search may be contracted on a retained or contingency basis. (See also: Contingency Recruiting, Retained Search.)

An individual who operates a business or profession as a sole proprietor, independent contractor or consultant. See Independent Contractor.

Similar to Reverse Billing, an arrangement between a supplier and a customer in which the customer prepares the supplier’s invoice and forwards a copy to the supplier with the payment.

Services procurement (Workforce Services Procurement) is the advanced application of procurement methodologies and disciplines to the acquisition of enterprise services; such as travel, catering and other forms of service based spend. In terms of contingent labor, it is most often used in reference to the provision of more complicated services categories, which are usually executed under a discrete contract per engagement such as Statement of Work (SOW), Management/Project Consulting and Outsourced Services (e.g., Call Centers, IT Support etc.)  

The advanced application of procurement methodologies and disciplines to the acquisition of enterprise services; such as travel, catering and other forms of service based spend. In terms of contingent labor, it is most often used in reference to the provision of more complicated services categories, which are usually executed under a discrete contract per engagement such as Statement of Work (SOW), Management/Project Consulting and Outsourced Services (e.g., Call Centers, IT Support etc.).

Internal bundling and streamlining of similar services previously spread over many departments, usually in a large organization. Services referred to are normally non-production related, such as ICT, Indirect Purchasing, Sales, Logistics and HR (including Contingent Workers). The benefits and purpose of an SSC are efficiency, cost reduction (scale) and expertise. Internal acceptance can be a challenge to an SSC, if the complexity of the inevitable change-process is underestimated. SSC is an internal concept. Similar services bundled externally are referred to as Outsourced Services or a Joint Venture, in case more companies decide to launch an external center for similar services.

See Gig Economy

Refers to a work assignment of limited duration. The duration implied here is open to some debate. Most would agree that “short-term” means employment of a year or less. (See also: Long-term Assignment.)

The provision of employees and equipment by a single leasing source, as in the case of a driver leasing company that supplies trucks and drivers to its customers.

The provision of all staffing services employees through a single supplier source. Also referred to as “Sole Supplier.”

Social recruiting is a concept at the intersection of recruitment and the embryonic field of social media. The most common definition used for social recruiting is that it is the process of sourcing or recruiting candidates through the use of social platforms as promotional and/or advertising channels by employers and recruiters. Social recruiting falls into two different categories. The first is internet sourcing using social media profiles, blogs, and online communities to find and search for passive candidate data and information. The second is social distribution. This involves using social media platforms and networks as a means to distribute jobs either through HR vendors or through crowdsourcing where job seekers and other influencers share job openings within their online social networks.

The traditional two-party, employer-employee work relationship in which a worker has a single employer, as compared to a co-employment relationship or joint employer status.

A sourcing method in which only one supplier is selected to provide all services for a customer, maybe within a service line, geography or for an entire program. (See also: Sourcing Model, Master Supplier.)

Most often used when describing the provision of IT services as a total “solution” or package customized to an organization’s specific needs. Solutions work is typically sold on a fixed-fee basis rather than a time basis. Used to distinguish from “staffing,” which is the simple provision of a person or persons to fulfill a specific work assignment. (See also: Outsourcing.)

A typically early stage of a talent acquisition process which is dominated by candidate search and identification of potentially attractive candidates, but which typically excludes actual engagement of candidates (recruiting) except to obtain clarifying information. Candidate sourcing activity typically ends once the name, job title, job function and contact information for the potential candidate is determined by the candidate sourcer. To further develop a list of names that were sourced some companies have a second person then reach out to the names on the list to initiate a dialogue with them with the intention of pre-screening the candidate against the job requirements and gauging the interest level in hearing about new job opportunities. This activity is called “candidate profiling” or “candidate prescreening.” The actual act of sourcing for candidates is performed by either a recruiter (be it an internal corporate recruiter or agency recruiter) or a dedicated recruiter just focused on the sourcing function (called a sourcer). A third-party recruitment agency or corporate recruiting department may be made up of individuals dedicated to just the sourcing of candidates while recruiters can either focus on more account management responsibilities or leverage sourcing experts to supplement an additional volume of potential candidates. An increasing number of agencies and corporate recruiting departments outsource this work to a Recruitment Process Outsourcing vendor. In some situations a person that “sources” candidates can and will perform both ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ sourcing techniques to identify candidates as well as the candidate profiling to further pre-screen candidates, but there is a growing professional specialization of the roles “telephone sourcing”, “internet sourcing/researching” and candidate profiling.

The method by which a company identifies, selects, receives, and pays for contingent workers and related services. Companies may employ more than one sourcing model within a contingent workforce program. Sourcing Models can be identified by a company’s position along three independent axes: competitiveness, rate elasticity, and vendor integration. Competitiveness is the degree to which staffing agencies are invited to bid against each other with respect to submission time, candidate quality, and price. Typical options include sole-source, primaries, structured tiers, and open bidding. Rate elasticity is the degree to which CW demand affects rates, with options including fixed rate cards, pay range plus markup, max bill rates, and open bill rates. Vendor integration is the degree to which a company uses external resources, with options including complete program outsourcing, on-site administrative support, off-site transaction support, and no use at all.

See Statement of Work (SOW) Consultant.

The statement of work itself is a document that captures the work products and services, including, but not limited to: the work activities and deliverables to be supplied under a contract or as part of a project timeline. In contrast to a typical temporary or contingent work arrangement which is billed based on time worked, SOW agreements are sometimes billed based on a fixed price deliverable or for hitting specific milestones. Like typical contingent arrangements, they may also be billed based on time, including arrangements where there is a time-based billing that is capped at some “not to exceed” level for time and materials.

See Sarbanes-Oxley.

A term used as an alternative to “Professional Staffing,” i.e., a segment of temporary staffing that includes workers in IT/technical, engineering, accounting and finance, legal, sales and marketing, and managerial functions, among others. (See also: Professional Staffing.)

The amount of currency that was actually invoiced by suppliers (typically in an MSP/VMS relationship) for work performed during a given time frame. This excludes spending that has been identified, but not yet rolled into the program. Suppliers and program managers sometimes describe this spending by breaking it out by job family (professional and commercial) and by worker classification (contract labor, SOW, outsource service contract). While not ideal, spend under management is the most common indicator of supplier and market sizing.

Splits are formal or informal agreements between staffing firms to “split” a temporary or direct hire placement (and a fee) if one firm has the job order and another has an acceptable candidate. The Web has facilitated this in various ways, with both exchanges and job networks. Within individual staffing firms a split fee may refer to the internal assignment of commission where one office or consultant has the job order and another office or consultant provides the candidate.

In addition to staffing, many staffing firms in Latin American markets offer an outsourcing arrangement Staffing Industry Analysts defines as “Staff Outsourcing.” In this arrangement, the firm provides workers to complete a project for a client, for example, and the workers remain on the supplier’s payroll. The firm, however, is not typically managing the project on behalf of the client as in other forms of outsourcing. Because staff outsourcing is not legally considered a temporary arrangement, it is less regulated and has thus become a popular business model among staffing companies.

A company providing staffing services.

A concept that seeks to distinguish the HR outsourcing function from the staff leasing co-employment relationship. “Staffsourcing” refers to the provision of various payrolling and personnel administration services without the assumption of a general employer role.

The 2000 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system is used by US federal statistical agencies to classify workers into occupational categories for the purpose of collecting, calculating, or disseminating data. All workers are classified into one of more than 820 occupations according to their occupational definition. The United Nations administers the International Standard Industrial Classification of all Economic Activities (ISIC) and national classifications tend to relate to this global initiative. In the European Union, since 1990, members states have been obliged to conform to Standard Industrial Classification (SIC92).

A method established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) for telling an auditor how to assess and issue an official auditor’s report about a service provider’s internal controls. Standard 70 focuses on services that could impact a service user’s financial reporting, including payroll services, benefits claims processing, outsourced IT operations or data centers, and vendor management services or software. An SAS Type I audit presents a snapshot of the service provider’s controls at a moment in time, whereas a Type II audit presents those same controls in operation over a period of at least six months and is recognized by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as an acceptable way of obtaining an auditor’s opinion for Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Section 404. (See Also: SAS 70 Type II Audit). SAS 70 reports are issued on every continent and country leading to various audit and accounting standards being used. To address the inevitable overlap that arises from multiple similar standards, an initiative was started in 2007 by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB). The goal of the IAASB initiative is to issue two new international standards for reports on controls at service organizations. One of the two standards will be for user organizations and their auditors (ISA 402), while the second standard will be for service organizations and service auditors (ISEA 3402). Both ISA 402 and ISAE 3402 are assurance reports which aim to provide insight into the controls at a thirdparty service organization.

A pricing model whereby a payroll provider charges its clients the actual statutory costs legally required by any government body for acting as a worker’s employer plus the payroll provider overhead costs and profit for its services.

The pre-planned use of alternative or flexible staffing strategies by the customer. May include the use of temp-to-perm hiring, planned temporary staffing for work cycle peaks or projects, or payrolling, for example.

The process an organization undertakes to develop a holistic, long-term and proactive approach to strategically assessing and accessing all multiple forms of talent engagement. Specifically, Strategic Workforce Planning links corporate and strategic objectives and their associated workforce implications with multiple avenues of talent engagement and resourcing (Direct Hire, Contingent, SOW, Outsource, etc.).

Selection of multiple suppliers in a specific priority, usually based on pricing level, combined with size and capacity. (See also: Sourcing Model.)

The provision of temporary workers to a client company to supplement the current workforce for peak loads, special projects, or planned and unplanned worker absences. Also describes the regular practice of using contract healthcare staff in hospitals and other medical institution settings.

See Vendor Management.

MSP and/or VMS programs are funded through a small, negotiated margin percentage or fixed fee added to the billing of each assignment.

Supply Chain Management (SCM) is the management of the flow of goods and services. It includes the movement and storage of raw materials, work-in-process inventory, and finished goods from point of origin to point of consumption. Interconnected or interlinked networks, channels and node businesses are involved in the provision of products and services required by end customers in a supply chain. In a contingent progam supply chain management refers to the process of optimizing a company’s contingent talent pipeline from candidate sourcing to onboarding and beyond.

An opt-out clause successfully negotiated by the Swedish delegation when the Agency Workers Directive was debated among social partners in the European Union. This derogation means that the AWD rights to equal pay of a temporary agency worker do not exist when the temporary agency worker is directly employed on a permanent basis by the temporary work agency and receives pay in-between assignments. While the derogation was credited to the Swedes, it is also a crucial factor for the German and (to a lesser extent) Dutch staffing markets, where it is normal for temporary workers to be employed full time by their temporary work agency.