Key Findings & Highlights:

NelsonHall’s market analysis of the CWS & MSP services market consists of 151 pages. The report focuses on developments over 2022 and strategies for 2023 and beyond.

The global CWS & MSP market will be ~$6.5bn in 2022, with a predicted CAAGR of 15.8% through 2026. Global CWS & MSP SUM will be $208.1bn in 2022, with an anticipated CAAGR of 19.2%.

Hiring contingent talent is more complex and challenging than ever, and the situation will likely worsen. Organizations must contend with shrinking working-age populations, skills shortages, and changing workforce aspirations around how and why they work and what they want from work. Then, organizations need to compete to attract, acquire, develop, and retain that talent.

To succeed in finding talent, organizations must embrace a multi-channel sourcing approach (by borrowing, buying, or building), as their preferred route to sourcing may not result in the talent required at a given time. Irrespective of the channel leveraged, the same effort level needs to be deployed by organizations across all talent. For vendors, approximately double the effort is required to secure talent compared to the pre-pandemic era.

Consequently, the range of programs and services offered by CWS & MSP vendors is at its broadest. This range is to meet the demands of all organizations, whatever their hiring challenges. A continuum of basic through to advanced programs, with accompanying services and tech, evolving in value-add and complexity, is the order of the day. Buy-side organizations can plug into the level that suits them best and choose to progress on the continuum at their own pace. 

Vendors’ proprietary platform enhancements have focused on Services Procurement/SOW, analytics, and sourcing. Technology continues to advance in RPA, AI, and ML, so vendors continually scan the market and review their ecosystems, ensuring they remain fit for purpose. Optimization and standardization of clients’ tech stacks are the most sought-after requirement and will likely take up most of the vendors’ time; as the market is perceived as flat, it appears to lack any new ground-breaking tech.