Some organisations across the UK use a Master Vendor approach for procuring temporary agency staff, which involves working with a sole recruitment agency who manages your recruitment, attempts to fill roles themselves before sharing the ones they can’t to a further supply chain. This isn’t necessarily the most effective and efficient means of engaging supply chains of recruitment companies and sourcing the best candidates.
In comparison, a Neutral Vendor model is designed specifically for buying in the modern economy that has a proven record of delivering more for less. By releasing roles neutrally on a level playing field to recruitment agencies, you create competition, allowing you to always source the best candidates. To make this process as efficient as possible, Matrix SCM use our intuitive and easy to use technology CR.Net, that manages your recruitment processes. Allowing clients to release roles in 2 to 4 minutes to a supply chain of international agencies and local SMEs that have pre-registered to supply chains at exclusive rates, with full visibility and 100% compliance throughout the process.
A Master Vendor is where a single recruitment agency assumes full responsibility for supplying staffing. They will attempt to fill the roles themselves and when they cannot fulfil roles, they will release them to a 2nd tier or even 3rd tier of competitor recruitment agencies.
A ‘true’ Neutral Vendor Managed Service is an unbiased provider of temporary staff, instead of filling roles directly themselves, they manage supply chains of international agencies and local SMEs giving them fair access to opportunities on a level playing field.
At Matrix SCM we have a supply chain of over 2,500 recruitment agencies that are tiered based on the quality of service, which creates a competitive hiring environment that drives fulfilment rates of 99.6% in a completely visible and 100% compliant environment.
Generally, a Master Vendor model works best when you have a low level of requirements for staff (< 10 per annum). Ideally in an environment where requirements would be non-specialised, as you are only speaking to the one agency, and you don’t need access to a system that can offer full visibility, control and automation of your processes.
The largest benefit from moving from Master Vendor to a Neutral Vendor model is that it introduces fair, open and transparent competition into the marketplace. The result is a supply chain that, in the knowledge they will have fair access to the buyer’s requirements, is keen to put forward the best possible candidates for mutual benefit. By competing with one another on an open and transparent field, prices will more accurately reflect the true value of each candidate’s skills and expertise.
Typically, organisations experience the following top 5 issues when sourcing staff through a Master Vendor arrangement:
It’s no secret that Master Vendor arrangements cannot deliver the same high fulfilment rates of a neutral approach – particularly when it comes to harder fill areas such as social care. No one single supplier in the world, no matter how large, has the number of candidates on its books to compete with the number a Neutral Vendor supply chain of 2,500+ agencies can provide.
Trickier staffing requirements – those at short notice or in more niche categories – stand a much better change of being filled with a broad and varied supply chain in place.
The Master Vendor model also overlooks the untapped potential of local and smaller recruitment consultancies outside of the lead agency’s supply chain; the perfect candidate could be missed, simply because they registered with a non-participating agency.
We fundamentally believe that engaging with the broadest possible supply chain and stimulating competition, is key to establishing a supply chain that delivers our customers a consistent stream of high-quality candidates. A Neutral vendor approach ensures that all recruitment agencies – no matter their size – have the opportunity to put forward their best candidates.
Under a Master Vendor model the lead agency, which has a vested interest in its own success, is likely to submit its own candidates in the first instance, even if those further along its supply chain are more suitable for the role.
Under a Master Vendor arrangement, how can a public sector organisation go about properly managing its spend when a single supplier recruitment agency is pulling all the strings? How can recruitment managers be sure they’re receiving the best candidates when the success of their organisation comes second to the lead agency’s?
Through our experience of taking on customers who have previously used a Master Vendor, there has often been a real lack of visibility over what is being spent, both on and off-contract.
With no ties or affiliations to any agency – true Neutral Vendors like Matrix SCM provide the unique benefit of full visibility to all agency margins through ‘open book’ costing. A Neutral Vendor solution brings transparency, control and efficiency to the process of managing a diverse supply chain.
We can run a free discovery conversation, where we can talk through your process, options and help review how a Neutral Vendor model can help you meet your organisational goals.