While there isn't much certainty in the world in which we live today, one thing's for sure — the pandemic has completely transformed the way we manage recruitment.

The job landscape in the first quarter of 2021 looks strikingly different compared to the same quarter last year. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 5.7 million more people were unemployed in February 2021 compared to February 2020. Out of these, 4.1 million people have been unemployed for more than 27 weeks, 3 million more than the same month last year.

The reason behind the high unemployment rate is simple — business owners can't afford to pay their permanent staff. With ever-fluctuating restrictions and infection rates, owners can't predict their income accurately. After months of digging into their savings to keep their businesses afloat, there's just no cash left over to pay their employees.

However, not all industries have been affected equally. While some sectors, such as travel and hospitality, have been devastated by the pandemic, other industries, such as IT services, have barely been affected at all.

Why are managed staffing providers thriving?

A managed staffing provider takes care of a business' recruitment needs. Acting as an internal recruitment team, the MSP has access to a pool of highly-talented and experienced professionals they employ on behalf of business owners.

Whether you require one senior graphic designer or a complete HR department, an MSP can provide you with the right individual or team for the job.

Low Financial Risk

Managed staffing providers gave business owners the specialist tools they needed to survive zero certainties in business operations. By providing skilled staff through a flexible model for a cost-effective price, owners could continue operating with minimal financial risk.

Scalable Workforce

Another way MSPs help business owners curb outgoings is by giving them the power to change their workforce size whenever necessary. When restrictions were regularly being reviewed and changed, having the ability to adapt the number of people employed to suit any situation was incredibly valuable.

Flexibility

Instead of hiring a permanent employee and organizing long-term contracts, payroll and benefits, business owners could turn to MSPs and have their ever-changing recruitment needs catered for as part of an affordable and fixed-price structure.

Remote Work

By employing staff through an MSP, business owners could choose whether they work onsite or remotely. When people were asked to work from home whenever possible, managed staffing providers created a way of making the entire recruitment and employment processes completely contact-free.

Cloud-Ready

One of the biggest problems businesses experienced with remote work was collaboration. MSPs are already highly competent with the type of cloud software needed to optimize telework. Hiring staff familiar with this type of technology vastly improved productivity and efficiency for many businesses.

Managed staffing providers help businesses survive

Essentially, the reason managed staffing providers are experiencing growth in the face of the pandemic is because they help other businesses stay afloat during one of the most difficult financial times of our generation.

They provide affordable access to a flexible contingent workforce made up of talented individuals who can be trusted to complete any delegated task to a high standard.

5 ways an MSP will serve your business for the future

The valuable benefits MSPs provide were truly brought to life due to the COVID-19 outbreak, but their reach extends far beyond the aftereffects of the virus. Here are five ways managed staffing providers will help your business thrive, not only in the present but for years to come when COVID-19 is a mere memory.

MSPs are more affordable than traditional staffing models. 

When hiring staff this way, you don't need to dedicate any budget or resources to onboarding, training, benefits, offboarding, etc. The provider takes care of all this in exchange for a reasonable pricing structure.

They provide instant access to experts.

Recruiting a genuine specialist with the skills and experience they claim to have can be difficult, especially if you're not competent in the area in which you're hiring, such as DevOps. MSPs guarantee you'll get a master DevOps engineer with the expertise and knowledge to get the job done.

You benefit from sophisticated technology without the price tag. 

The staff you hire through MSPs will happily use your internal software; however, it's often in your best interest to let them use their own tools. Managed staffing providers have access to advanced technology, which is often much more sophisticated than other businesses' software.

Security is always a priority.

 Many small businesses were targets of cyberattacks during the early stages of the pandemic. MSPs are very knowledgeable when it comes to protecting data from hackers. By outsourcing your staff, you can be sure the important information they handle will never fall into the wrong hands.

Increased flexibility boosts profits. 

Managed staffing providers allow you to benefit from a highly flexible workforce. If your business is seasonal, you can scale your workforce up and down accordingly to optimize profits. Equally, if you have the opportunity to work on ad hoc projects, you can use an MSP to hire additional staff to cater to the surplus work and increase income.

MSPs are the future

Managed staffing providers have introduced many business owners to a world of staffing benefits they didn't even know existed over the past 12 months. As the pandemic begins to settle down and life returns to some sense of normality, MSPs will continue to provide businesses with the skilled, agile workforce they need for a reasonable price.

In the near future, technology will continuously advance, and the way we work with it will develop, too. Over time, the traditional staffing model will become less common, while managed staffing providers will flourish. Take advantage of this modern, sophisticated means of recruitment today or risk being left behind tomorrow.

Author's Bio: David Miller is a freelance journalist and has a degree in journalism from UCLA. David spends most of his time ghost writing content.