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Industry Definitions
We get it. There's a lot of industry jargon out there. So we've put together this handy guide of industry terms and acronyms. Need additional clarification? Feel free to contact us at info@tapfin.com.
- Co-employment:
- Legally referred to as a "Joint Employer" relationship. Co-employment describes the relationship among two or more organizations that exert some level of control over the same worker or group of workers, and that often share some degree of liability for joint employees. An often-cited benefit to deploying an MSP solution is that it provides some level of protection against co-employment risks.
- Contingent Workers:
- Individuals that accept assignments on a contingent or contractual basis. Contingent workers most often include temporary employees provided by an outside vendor and independent contractors/consultants. Typically engaged under a purchase order.
- Contingent Workforce Management:
- Management of the requisition, sourcing, evaluation, engagement, management, and payment processes for a contingent workforce. Duties may also include quality and performance management of workforce suppliers.
- Contingent Workforce Services:
- The engagement of resources on a contingent or contractual basis by a client. Contingent workers may also be defined as temporary workers, contractors, or consultants.
- Direct Employees:
- Talent hired by a company on a full-time or permanent basis. Typically engaged under an employment agreement and as part of company’s payroll.
- Human Capital Management (HCM):
- The strategic approach to the management of an organization's most valued assets - the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business. Also referred to as Human Resource Management (HRM).
- Industry Best Practices:
- The most efficient and effective way of accomplishing a task and yielding the best results in a particular profession or industry, based on repeatable procedures that have proven themselves over time for large numbers of people. The idea is that with proper processes, checks and testing, a desired outcome can be delivered with fewer problems and unforeseen complications.
- Managed Service Provider (MSP):
- Sometimes referred to as a Managed Solutions Provider or Managed Systems Provider. An MSP provides managed contingent workforce services according to guidelines established by the client. Typical responsibilities include overall program management, reporting and tracking, vendor selection and management, order distribution, and often consolidated billing. Most also provide clients with a vendor management system and may have a physical presence on the client’s site.
- Master Vendor:
- A staffing vendor that takes overall responsibility for providing clients with contingent worker and contract staffing services. In a master vendor relationship, all orders will usually go first to the Master Vendor to either be filled or distributed to secondary vendors. Often the Master Vendor has a defined time period, say 48 hours, to fill the order before releasing the order to secondary vendors. This solution maximizes responsibility on the Master Vendor. The Master Vendor expects to fulfill a large percentage of the vacancies by working with the lead time. Sometimes the Master Vendor will not only provide a significant portion of the contingent workers working at the employer’s site but also manage an organization’s contingent workforce program.
- Outsourced Services:
- The full outsourcing of a business process or function; talent supporting outsourced efforts may be employed by a supplier, but are dedicated to a client activity; these services are engaged under a service level contract.
- Payrolling:
- Provision of contingent workers by MSP to a client when the workers have been identified/recruited (and possibly interviewed, tested, and approved) by the client. The MSP becomes employer of record, responsible for administering payroll and payroll related costs, as well as for all employer mandated taxes and insurances.
- Project Sourced Services:
- Talent utilized under an agreement with suppliers for services defined by discrete deliverables. Typically engaged under a statement of work.
- Recruitment Lifecycle:
- The entire recruiting and hiring process, from job profiling through on-boarding of the new hire. The entire recruitment and hiring process includes requisition management, sourcing, screening, interviewing, testing, hiring, performance metrics and process improvement.
- Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO):
- Partial or end-to-end outsourcing of the internal recruitment function for the hiring of direct employees, including process design, sourcing, screening, hiring, and on-boarding. An RPO provider should be sophisticated enough to offer services across the recruitment lifecycle but agile enough to fulfill all or part of these services on an as-needed basis.
- Request for Proposal (RFP):
- An invitation for suppliers, often through a bidding process, to submit a proposal on a specific commodity or service. A bidding process is one of the best methods for leveraging a company's negotiating ability and purchasing power with suppliers, and brings structure to the procurement decision, indentifying risks and benefits upfront. . RFP may include basic corporate information and history, financial information, technical capability, product information and estimated completion period, and client references. Also referred to as RFx, along with Request for Information.
- Service Level Agreement (SLA):
- A term or condition typically set up in a contract as a means of setting and then measuring expectations and goals for service delivery. SLAs may have penalties or awards attached to them. Example: "MSP shall ensure 99.9% accuracy on invoices submitted."
- Services Procurement Management (SPM):
- Provides the support infrastructure, process, performance management, and oversight for selecting vendors to provide project or services on a contract basis where the work is defined by set scope, deliverables, milestones, and fees and is completed under the vendor's direction. Full lifecycle includes RFx through check.
- Statement of Work:
- Statement accompanying an RFx that specifies work activities and deliverables at a high level to be supplied under a contract or as part of a project timeline, usually to include scope of work, location of work, period of performance, deliverables schedule, applicable industry standards and any special requirements.
- Third Party Administrator:
- A scaled back MSP providing administrative support. A third party administrator is typically not held to the same standard as a full-fledged MSP because of its limited scope.
- Tool Agnostic:
- A service approach where the service provider is not aligned with a particular software or "tool" but, rather, understands a wide array of available tools and selects the best one based on fit, process and client needs.
- Vendor Neutral:
- An absence of bias toward participating vendors on the part of the MSP. Vendor neutrality includes the operation and management of a program in a manner that allows verification of non-preferential treatment through auditing.
- Vendor:
- An organization that supplies contingent labor. A vendor can be an independent consultant, consulting company, or staffing company.
- Vendor Management System (VMS):
- An Internet-enabled, often Web-based, automated system for the requisition, evaluation, engagement, management, and payment of contingent workers. Industry use of the acronym also includes "Vendor Management Services" and "Vendor Management Solution."
- Vendor on Premise (VOP):
- The primary or master service provider of contingent workforce staffing, typically located in a program office at the client's place of business. Sometimes the Master Vendor will also manage an organization’s contingent workforce program.
- Vendor Sunset:
- TAPFIN's sunset services help you immediately attain vendor consolidation and migration to a preferred list of suppliers, without losing the individual contractors that provide services through your non-preferred vendors.
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