Welcome to this issue of The Contingent Compass. Each week, I send two essays to help you navigate the complex world of the Contingent Workforce. If you need support on your journey, upgrade to a paid subscription where you’ll instantly be able to interact with the community through group chat, live Q&A’s, gain access practical program tools and useful how-to guides.
When you’re in the mid-market, it’s easy to feel invisible. Too big to stay scrappy, too small to command the clout of a Fortune 500. Vendors often treat you like a second-tier account. Consultants sell you “enterprise-lite” solutions that never quite fit. And when you look at the giants, you can’t help but feel like you’re stuck in their shadow.
But here’s the twist: the very things you see as weaknesses - smaller budgets, smaller teams, leaner governance - are actually what make you stronger.
The giants are drowning in their own complexity. You aren’t. And in the race for talent, that makes you dangerous. ⚡
The Trap of Copying Giants
Most mid-market organizations make the same mistake. They buy into a model designed for the Fortune 500 and try to shrink it down. They’re sold a “scaled” MSP, a VMS that dazzles in demos but demands an army of admins, or governance structures written for a workforce of 50,000 applied to one of 2,000.
It looks neat on slides. It falls apart in practice.
I’ve seen adoption rates stall below 40% in mid-markets trying to run enterprise-lite programs, compared to 65-70% in true enterprise models. Within two years, the savings plateau. Costs creep back in. Hiring managers quietly bypass the program to get work done.
The problem isn’t that the company is mid-sized. The problem is that the model was never built for them in the first place.
💡 Reflection: Is your workforce program genuinely designed for your scale - or just repackaged from an enterprise model?
Why Agility Beats Bloat
Enterprises love process. Want to change a rate card? That’ll take six committees, three steering groups, and about 18 months of your life. By the time the decision is made, the market has already moved.
Mid-markets don’t have that problem. They can pivot in weeks, not years. They don’t need a task force to approve every change. They can strip back unnecessary process, adapt quickly, and measure ROI in real time.
I’ve seen lean mid-market programs hit adoption rates over 80 % in under a year. 📈 Most Fortune 500s would envy that speed.
This is the underdog advantage: the ability to act quickly, course-correct fast, and deliver outcomes while the giants are still in committee.
A Case in Point
A mid-sized financial services firm I worked with had been running an enterprise-lite MSP for years. Adoption was stuck at 35%. Their VMS required three full-time admins just to keep the lights on. Hiring managers grumbled, suppliers underperformed, and savings were nowhere to be seen.
Leadership made the brave decision to scrap the model and rebuild from the ground up. They introduced lean governance, invested in simpler tech, and reset their supplier strategy around local specialists who actually cared about $300,000 contracts.
Within 12 months, adoption was over 80%. Costs dropped by double digits. Supplier performance improved because the program finally matched reality.
That’s the mid-market advantage in action. 🚀
The Supplier Dynamic: A Hidden Edge
Here’s something most mid-markets overlook: suppliers treat you differently.
Global staffing firms will always prioritize their enterprise accounts. A $30 million contract gets more attention than a $300,000 one. That’s just math.
But local and niche suppliers? They hustle. They know your $300,000 contract could be the anchor that keeps their business thriving. They’ll invest more, move faster, and deliver harder than the big guys who slot you in as “tier three.”
If you build the right supplier ecosystem - a smart mix of local specialists and scalable partners - you can get more loyalty and performance than most Fortune 500s ever see.
That isn’t a disadvantage. It’s leverage. 💪
The Global Angle
Operating internationally? Your advantage gets sharper. 🌍
Enterprises almost always push one-size-fits-all. They roll out U.S.-style contingent models in Germany, where strict labor laws make perm employment dominant. They apply rigid European compliance in Singapore, where project-based SOW rules.
And they get tripped up, again and again.
Mid-markets have fewer layers to cut through. They can adapt more quickly to local rules, local culture, and local talent markets. They can balance global strategy with local nuance without tying themselves in knots.
It’s the difference between a cargo ship and a speedboat.
The Leadership Blindspot
Here’s the catch.
Too many mid-market CEOs and CFOs dismiss contingent workforce strategy as “too small” to deserve their time. But when 30-40% of your total workforce cost sits in contingent labor, that isn’t small. That’s EBITDA. That’s growth. That’s compliance risk sitting in plain sight. ⚠️
Ignore it, and it doesn’t disappear. It festers until it becomes expensive.
The real mid-market trap isn’t budget or clout. It’s leadership failing to see contingent workforce strategy for what it is: a lever for growth, agility, and resilience.
The Cost of Inaction
What happens if mid-markets keep copying enterprise models instead of designing for their scale?
They’ll keep overpaying for talent. They’ll keep bleeding efficiency through bloated supplier models. They’ll keep exposing themselves to compliance risk.
And they’ll keep missing growth opportunities because they can’t get the right people in fast enough.
In a market where speed wins, doing nothing isn’t neutral. It’s falling behind. ⏳
💡 Reflection time: If your workforce program disappeared tomorrow, would your managers fight to keep it - or quietly breathe a sigh of relief?
The Executive Lens
The mid-market advantage is not about survival. It’s about offense.
For CFOs: Lean programs deliver faster ROI. Enterprises measure in years. You can measure in quarters.
For CEOs: Agility is a competitive differentiator. Giants can’t move as fast as you. That’s your weapon.
For Boards: Contingent workforce isn’t a procurement issue. It’s a growth lever.
The giants are benchmarking themselves against each other. You don’t have to. You can chart a different path.
The Future Lens
By 2030, contingent labor could represent half the workforce in many industries.
Enterprises will still be holding committee meetings, debating compliance frameworks, and trying to align their thousand-page policy manuals. Mid-markets, if they play it right, will already have moved.
They can design leaner, faster, more effective programs that scale naturally. They can leapfrog the giants not by being bigger, but by being smarter.
💡 Reflection: Are you underestimating your agility because you’re benchmarking yourself against the wrong companies?
The Closing Challenge
Mid-markets aren’t stuck in the middle. They’re positioned at the front of the race - if they choose to see it that way. 🏁
The trap is real. Enterprise-lite programs will keep failing. But the opportunity is bigger. You can design something sharper, leaner, and more profitable than any Fortune 500.
So here’s the challenge: stop asking, “How do we scale like a Fortune 500?” Start asking, “How do we exploit the fact that we’re not one?”
Because in workforce strategy, a scalpel will always beat a sledgehammer.
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If you need support on your journey, upgrade to a paid subscription where you’ll instantly be able to interact with the community through group chat, live Q&A’s, gain access practical program tools and useful how-to guides.