Contingent Workforce Providers: 10 Firms Compared

Arup, the engineering and advisory firm, had used multiple UK suppliers for contingent hiring without central visibility. AMS's case study, posted in April 2022, says it implemented an MSP for about 400 contractors, transitioned over 50 agencies and migrated over 200 workers. In the first year, it reports satisfaction of 94% among candidates and 93% among hiring managers and nearly £1 million in cost savings, rising to £3 million by the end of the second year.

A second case (opens in a new tab), on Delta Air Lines and posted in February 2023, reports 1,095 contingent workers directly sourced in 2021 for Delta's technical operations and ground support. AMS recruits up to the offer, then hands each worker to Delta's own managed service provider for pre-employment checks and onboarding. That case shows a direct sourcing team working alongside another firm's program.

AMS lists five ways to work with it: consulting, a managed service provider model, branded direct sourcing under the employer's brand, services procurement for work under statements of work, and an insourced vendor management office. It describes itself as "100% independent, with no staffing or supply chain involvement". Its page reports $111M in annual savings delivered to clients, $5.1B under management and 40,000 workers under management, without a period or method.

An unnamed state client is quoted on CAI's contingent workforce page: with CAI's help, "the state reduced its costs" and improved its hiring process, while increasing competition for IT services. The page names no client, and its success stories section showed no stories when read. Its staffing services page (opens in a new tab) reports 500+ clients served and over 20 years of implementing and managing contingent workforce programs.

CAI offers "full or hybrid program oversight", a vendor management system and workforce analytics, and says it "takes ownership of the entire lifecycle of temporary staffing engagements". It cites a network of over 2,000 providers under contract. Its staffing covers IT, legal, administration, human resources, light industrial, healthcare and supply chain roles. Public bodies can buy through its cooperative contracts; by CAI's account, more than 87,000 members use Sourcewell's contracts alone.

The North American arm of a multinational investment bank, in New York and St. Louis, is the subject of LevelUP's case study, posted in September 2023. Before the program, its business units each chose their own agencies, with little oversight of markups. LevelUP set up one consultant program, a standard vendor agreement across units and maximum markups. It reports a 95% acceptance rate, a 78% retention rate, a 19-day average time to select candidates and $10.8M in cost savings over the program's lifetime. A second case describes a financial services company that moved to a new vendor management system and engaged 30+ suppliers within 30 days.

LevelUP's program covers six parts: recruiting, onboarding, vendor management through a program office, compliance, payroll and reporting. According to its FAQ, it can manage the suppliers a company already uses, verifies worker classification during onboarding and sets role boundaries to reduce co-employment risk. Most programs launch within 8 to 12 weeks, depending on size, complexity and system setup, as the page put it in October 2026. LevelUP says it holds Certified MBE status, so spend through the program counts as Tier 1 diverse supplier spend.

On cost, LevelUP writes that "as much of the costs are passed to vendors", the program typically costs clients little or nothing. Ask what your suppliers will pay LevelUP and how that reaches your bill rates.

Reed has supplied temporary workers to a major UK mail service since 2011. Under a managed service program, it fills over 4m hours of shifts a year, up to 26,000 shifts a week at peak, and reports 99% fulfillment of forecast orders. Its talent pool for that client typically stands at 11,000 workers. A second case (opens in a new tab) covers a collaboration of 16 public-sector bodies, including local authorities, emergency services and transport organizations, where its Flexible Resource Marketplace cut the supply panel from 70 suppliers to 57 and delivered 30% savings on consultancy spend. Neither case names the client.

Reed's contingent services, delivered through Reed Talent Solutions, include managed service programs, the Flexible Resource Marketplace for all non-permanent workers, and workforce management and payroll, including IR35 compliance. Reed reports that it manages over 67K contingent workers and works with 350 partner suppliers, and cites 18% average cost savings without a baseline or period. IR35 is a UK tax rule, so a buyer outside the UK should ask where Reed can run a program.

A solar manufacturer with 100,000+ employees used Acara as its master vendor for production associate and material handler roles, according to a case study posted in September 2022. Acara reports 340 contingent hires since the first quarter of 2021, 150 contingent workers converted to direct-hire employees, 85% of hires from historically underrepresented groups and $12.2 million in total 2021 billing. Its team was one director, one onsite recruiter and 1.5 offsite recruiters. After Acara benchmarked pay, the client raised its rates to market levels.

Acara, an Aleron company, offers contingent staffing, master vendor programs, hybrid managed service programs, contract-to-direct, direct placement and employer of record services. Its FAQ says that as employer of record it "assumes responsibility for liabilities with temporary employees" and absorbs tax, workers' compensation and benefits costs. Its pricing page (opens in a new tab) publishes no rate: contract pricing incorporates payroll obligations such as overtime and shift differentials, and employer of record services cost less when you have found the candidate. Its testimonials page names Broadleaf Results, an MSP provider, as Acara's sister company.

An unnamed global logistics company that had relied on more than ten staffing vendors is the subject of Net2Source's master vendor case. After moving to its master vendor program, the company cut time-to-fill for key roles by 35% and labor costs by 24% and reached 100% compliance with labor laws and standards, by Net2Source's account. The case gives no period or baseline.

Under the master vendor program, Net2Source manages a network of sub-vendors as the single point of contact. Its other services include contingent staffing, direct hire, statement-of-work delivery, direct sourcing, nearshore and offshore teams, and global payroll and compliance (opens in a new tab) covering employer of record and agent of record services. Its payroll FAQ gave a general estimate in October 2026 of a few weeks to a few months for implementation, depending on complexity and readiness.

Procom's contract staffing page carries named testimonials. Griffin Webster of the Alberta Energy Regulator says "Procom thoroughly vets its candidates for each role", and Jenn Furlano of PWC Companies writes of "confidence in the team and how our contractors are managed daily". Sarah Clayton of Red Hat describes Procom's point of contact as a go-to vendor for market questions. Procom reports 12.5K+ contractors currently on assignment and 20K+ jobs worked a year.

Procom staffs IT roles such as software engineering, DevOps and cloud, data, cybersecurity, business analysis and project management. Its contract staffing page said in October 2026 that for in-demand skills it typically shortlists priority roles within 72 hours, and that most assignments run 3 to 12 months. Contractors are engaged through Procom, not as your employees, and it offers a replacement guarantee if a contractor leaves or underperforms within a guarantee window whose length the page does not state. For workers you have already found, it offers employer of record (opens in a new tab) and agent of record services.

Alpha Apex Group's contingent workforce page reports 2,000+ candidate placements worldwide, a firm-wide figure not broken down by service line. No contingent case study, testimonial or fee appears on that page.

The firm provides contingent recruitment and staffing for project, seasonal and project-to-permanent roles. Its page describes talent pooling, recruitment tailored to each project, onboarding support and continued performance monitoring after placement. Technical staffing roles it names include engineers, software developers, architects, IT specialists and Salesforce specialists. It does not describe managed service, payroll or employer of record services.

"I have personally placed three people through IMCS Group in about one month's time," writes Caitlin Wojciki, an applications recruiter, in a testimonial on IMCS's contingent staffing page. The same testimonial says IMCS validates and runs candidates' references before sending them. The page names its testimonial authors and their roles, all at IT services firms, but not their companies. Its homepage reports 80+ successful projects with Fortune 500 companies, without saying which services they involved.

IMCS offers contingent, permanent, clinical, engineering and healthcare staffing, IT staff augmentation, RPO and payroll services. Its payroll service covers record keeping, tax withholding, unemployment insurance and other payroll functions, customizable to the client's terms of engagement. No fees appear on the pages read.

High5's case study covers a $45bn Fortune 500 consumer goods company that wanted to spend less on consulting services by using more independent talent. High5 added a route for consultants inside the company's existing MSP and vendor management system in one region, plus direct requests from hiring managers in all regions. The reported outcome is procurement visibility of contingent spend that had sat outside the program. The case names no client and gives no result figures.

High5 is a marketplace for independent business and consulting talent covering transformation, program delivery, technology and operations work. Its FAQ said in October 2026 that it aims to send the first suitable applicants within 24 hours, depending on the complexity of the request, and that consultants typically work on a daily rate. Rehiring a consultant directly is "subject to payment of our usual fees", which the FAQ does not state.