Medical Device Staffing: MSP Doubles Contingent Workforce

THE CHALLENGE 

Growth Is Only an Opportunity If You Can Execute It

Managing a contingent workforce across multiple staffing suppliers, timekeeping systems, and facilities is hard enough at steady state. When a medical device manufacturer needed to double its contingent workforce to meet rising demand, the cracks in its existing program became impossible to ignore.

The company ran three consecutive shifts across four buildings. Every staffing supplier tracked time differently. Supervisors were approving time in multiple systems every week with no consistency, no single source of truth, and no way to see the full workforce picture in real time.

Scaling into an environment like this posed a serious liability and was not a reliable workforce strategy. The complexity of managing a contingent workforce program at scale is well-documented across the industry. Workwell North America was recognized in the Everest Group PEAK Matrix Assessment for Contingent Workforce Management and MSP for its ability to deliver exactly this kind of structured, scalable program.

The company faced three challenges that had to be solved before growth could happen:

1. No Unified Timekeeping or Visibility Across Locations

Each staffing supplier operated its own timekeeping system. Supervisors managed approvals across multiple platforms each week without standardization or a consolidated view of the workforce spanning three shifts and four buildings.

2. Existing Suppliers Were Not Built to Scale

The company’s contingent workforce would need to grow to as many as 400 workers. There was no confidence that the existing supplier network could handle that volume reliably or consistently.

3. No Standardized Compliance or Onboarding Process

Without a centralized program, onboarding, offboarding, and compliance management varied by supplier. Pay transparency compliance added another layer of complexity the existing infrastructure could not support.

THE SOLUTION 

One Program. One System. One Point of Contact.

Workwell MSP took on the operational complexity so the client did not have to. The team designed a tailored MSP program that consolidated all suppliers, standardized all processes, and gave the company a single point of accountability for its entire contingent workforce.

All existing staffing vendors were consolidated into a single program with renegotiated, standardized agreements on more favorable terms. One timekeeping method replaced the patchwork of supplier systems across all locations. One primary program manager became the dedicated resource for every hiring manager and every contingent worker need.

To give the client real-time workforce visibility, Workwell MSP implemented Talient, its proprietary vendor management system. Hiring managers gained immediate access to headcount, open requisitions, rosters, and invoices in one place. Onboarding checkpoints, provisioning, and offboarding standardization were built directly into the system, making compliance a process rather than a manual effort.

To further protect candidate quality, Workwell developed a skills assessment questionnaire distributed to all suppliers. Only candidates who met the criteria advanced to the client interview stage.

For pay transparency compliance, the Workwell team coordinated across all suppliers to pull the data and prepare the reports the client needed to meet local requirements.

THE RESULTS 

What a Unified Medical Device Staffing Program Delivers

By consolidating a fragmented contingent workforce program into a single, scalable MSP structure, Workwell North America delivered measurable results from day one.

• First-year cost savings exceeded $200,000, driven by renegotiated supplier contracts and standardized rate structures across all job levels.
• The program scaled to support up to 400 contingent workers across three shifts and four buildings, with a supplier pipeline and operational infrastructure in place to sustain that volume.
• Reporting and billing were streamlined across all suppliers, replacing a patchwork of systems with a single invoice and a single source of truth.
• Onboarding and offboarding became consistent, systemic, and compliant, removing the variance that had previously made workforce management a manual burden.
• Staffing vendor performance improved across the board, with suppliers held to standardized program requirements for the first time.

The medical device staffing challenge this client faced is not unique to their industry. Fragmented suppliers, inconsistent processes, and no real visibility into the workforce are problems Workwell MSP solves every day. The structure changes. The results do not.