The biggest risk when evaluating your current MSP or VMS for renewal isn’t how well it’s performing today. It's whether the model will limit the workforce choices you can make tomorrow.
Your workforce strategy should determine how you meet demand—not the limitations of your technology, vendor, or operating model.
That’s the challenge with renewal conversations. It often starts and ends with performance.
Did the program meet its service levels? Were financial targets achieved? Are suppliers performing? Is technology doing what it was designed to do?
Those questions matter. But the answers mostly tell you how your program has performed against expectations that may have been set years ago.
Your workforce strategy never stands still. The strategy you used two to three years ago may not fit your needs today. And the strategy you will use two to three years from now may look different again.
It’s impossible to know exactly what your workforce model will need to support in the future. Internal capabilities may grow. Labor markets may change. New populations may come into scope. Technology will evolve. You may build an internal float pool, expand an internal agency, introduce digital workers, or change how much responsibility your organization wants to manage internally.
You cannot predict every change. So, ask yourself: Does the current model give you the flexibility and choice to evolve as your organizational needs change?
That is the question to put at the center of your next renewal.
Here are five more questions that can help you find the answer.
The value of your workforce model isn't just what it manages. It's the choices it gives your leaders.
As your workforce strategy evolves, those choices may include where you source talent, which labor channels you use, how technology supports the process, and how much responsibility your internal team owns.
Data should expand those choices, not simply create more dashboards. The real test is whether your model gives leaders the information they need and when they need it.
Can finance see where labor spend is moving before the variance appears at month-end?
Can operations identify where demand and fulfillment are moving apart?
Can procurement see supplier concentration, rate exceptions, and performance differences?
Can HR and clinical leaders determine whether an internal resource could meet a need before turning to external labor?
A mature workforce program should help leaders make those decisions easier—not make them for you.
This is also where MSP and VMS evaluations begin to differ. With an MSP, consider how your operating partner interprets information, brings forward recommendations, and helps turn those recommendations into action. The question is whether that support expands your ability to make informed decisions or narrows the choices available to you.
With a VMS, look at integrations, data accessibility, workflows, and whether your team has the information it needs to manage the program.
When evaluating your current program, ask for examples of decisions the program has helped your teams make—and what changed as a result.
Every organization will define workforce capability differently. For one health system, it may mean building an internal float pool or internal agency. For another, it may mean stronger workforce data, governance, supplier management, automation, or greater internal ownership of the program.
The goal does not have to be complete self-management. Some organizations will want a partner to continue operating significant parts of the program. The question is whether your current model can support the capabilities you want to build without locking you into how the program operates today.
Start by defining what you want your organization to be better equipped to do two or three years from now. Then ask whether your MSP or VMS is helping you get there.
At the end of the next term, you should be able to identify not only what the program accomplished, but what your organization is now capable of doing that it could not do before.
Neutrality is no longer just about how many staffing suppliers have access to your program. It is also about whether your workforce model gives you the freedom to choose where talent comes from in the first place.
When a position needs to be filled, what determines where you look for talent first?
Depending on the need, the right source may be an internal float pool, an internal agency, per diem talent, or an external staffing supplier. Different roles, specialties, and markets may require different approaches. Your workforce strategy should determine that path—not a predetermined labor channel.
When external suppliers are needed, the traditional questions about neutrality still matter. How are opportunities distributed? What determines supplier priority? Are routing criteria transparent and consistently applied? And if your MSP is affiliated with a staffing company, what governance is in place to ensure sourcing decisions align with your organization’s objectives?
The goal is not to favor one source over another. It is to keep that choice in your leaders’ hands. Your MSP or VMS should give them the information and flexibility to determine the right source for each need—not make that decision for them.
Savings should show whether the workforce choices you are making are improving your overall economics.
That means understanding what is driving the result. Savings can come from rate reductions, lower agency utilization, reduced overtime, increased internal workforce utilization, improved supplier performance, lower administrative costs, or reductions in unmanaged spend.
For example, lowering an agency bill rate creates savings. But shifting appropriate demand to an internal resource may change the economics in a different way. If bill rates decline while agency utilization increases, the rate report only tells you part of the story.
At renewal, look beyond the savings figure. Ask whether your program gives leaders the visibility and choice to decide how demand should be filled—and whether those decisions are improving the overall economics of your workforce.
You may not know what your workforce strategy will look like three years from now. But you should know whether your current model gives you the flexibility to change with it.
You may build an internal workforce program, add a new labor category, change your supplier strategy, introduce new technology, or decide your team should own more—or less—of the program.
The question is how easily your MSP or VMS can support those decisions. Can changes be made within the existing model, or do they require a new scope of work, contract negotiation, technology change, or commercial decision?
Flexibility does not mean your organization needs to manage everything itself. It means your leaders can decide where responsibility sits and change that decision as your capabilities and workforce needs evolve.
At renewal, ask what you can change within the current model, what requires renegotiation, and what would require you to change models entirely. The goal isn’t to predict every future workforce decision, but to preserve your ability to choose what comes next.
A program can be performing well today and still limit the choices your organization can make tomorrow.
That is why renewal should evaluate more than service levels, rates, and current-state performance. It is an opportunity to determine whether your workforce model gives leaders the capabilities, information, and flexibility to make different choices as your strategy evolves.
Ask:
What decisions can our leaders make that they could not make before?
What capabilities are we building?
Do we control where and how we source talent?
Are those choices improving our workforce economics?
Can we change the model as our strategy changes?
You cannot know every workforce decision you will need to make in the future. But you can make sure the decision you make today preserves your ability to choose what comes next.
That is the conversation to have before another multi-year commitment is signed.
These five questions are just a starting point. Want a better understanding of where your workforce model currently stands? Take a quick 4-question assessment and find out. It takes less then 2 minutes to complete the Workforce Architecture Assessment.