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.
Spend enough time in the mid-market, and you start to notice a pattern.
Every sales pitch from a vendor or consultant seems to begin with the same line: “We’ve taken our enterprise model and scaled it down, specifically for you.”
It sounds reassuring, doesn’t it? You get the best of the Fortune 500 playbook, just condensed. Like buying the travel-sized version of luxury shampoo at the airport. Same thing, right?
Not quite. The reality is that most mid-market companies end up with programs and technologies that were never designed for their scale. They inherit enterprise-lite versions that cost too much, demand too much, and return too little. And when adoption fails, the finger usually points at the mid-market company for not being “mature enough” - when in fact, the problem is that the model itself was never fit for purpose.
So let’s pull the curtain back. What do mid-markets really need from their contingent workforce strategies? And why is the current approach failing them?
The Mirage of Enterprise-Lite
Imagine a company with 2,500 employees and $120 million in contingent spend. Not small by any means - but not exactly a global juggernaut either.
They get sold an MSP program designed for companies with 50,000 workers. Governance meetings are held monthly, requiring six different departments to show up. A VMS platform is implemented that looks beautiful in a demo, but within three months requires three full-time administrators just to keep the lights on.
Suppliers? The roster is filled with global players who aren’t exactly hustling for contracts under a million dollars. Meanwhile, the local specialists who know the market are sidelined.
On paper, it all looks impressive. In practice, adoption flatlines. Hiring managers bypass the system because it slows them down. Costs creep up because nobody wants to wrestle with the process. And leadership quietly wonders why their “investment” feels more like a burden.
💡 Reflection time: Has your workforce strategy been designed for your reality - or are you living inside someone else’s PowerPoint deck?
What Mid-Market Leaders Actually Need
Let’s be honest: mid-market companies don’t need shrunken-down enterprise programs. They need something that’s actually designed for them.
They need simplicity. Tech that integrates quickly and doesn’t demand a small army to maintain. Dashboards that people actually use, not dashboards that win awards at trade shows.
They need lean governance. Enough oversight to stay compliant, but not so much bureaucracy that every rate card change takes eight weeks.
They need supplier ecosystems that reflect their size. Local and niche suppliers who treat a $300,000 contract like it matters - because to them, it does.
And above all, they need ROI that shows up in quarters, not years. Mid-markets don’t have the luxury of waiting three years to see whether the savings materialize. They need to see tangible results in year one, or better yet, by month six.
This isn’t about lowering ambition. It’s about designing for Mid-Market reality. 🎯
The Untapped Opportunity: Revenue Growth
Here’s the irony. Mid-markets make up a massive slice of the global economy, yet their workforce strategies are the least well-served. Vendors chase the enterprise logos, chasing volume and prestige. Mid-markets get offered the leftovers - scaled-down solutions, poorly adapted to their needs.
But the opportunity isn’t just about helping them save money. It’s about helping them grow revenue.
⚡ Faster workforce deployment means faster product launches = revenue sooner.
⚡ Leaner supplier ecosystems drive lower project delivery costs = cash freed up for reinvestment.
⚡ Agility beats bureaucracy = market share captured from slower enterprise competitors.
💡 Reflection time: Is your workforce program framed as a cost-saver - or as a revenue accelerator?
The Case for Numbers
One client I worked with spent around $10 million annually on contingent labor. Their enterprise-lite program delivered complexity, but not results. We rebuilt it with leaner governance, a smaller but more engaged supplier roster, and simpler VMS technology.
The result? They cut waste by 15% in year one - $1.5 million saved - while project delivery time dropped by 25%. 📊
In practical terms, they unlocked the equivalent of $2.5 million in additional capacity without hiring a single new person.
That’s not just savings. That’s growth fuel. 🚀
Why Tech Isn’t the Answer (On Its Own)
Now let’s address the elephant in the room: VMS technology.
Every vendor wants to pitch their platform as the silver bullet. “Implement our system and watch your workforce transform!”
But here’s the reality. Tech is an enabler, not an answer to every conceivable question. If your program is misaligned with your size, your suppliers, or your goals, no piece of software will save it.
I’ve seen VMS systems rolled out with great fanfare, only to become glorified invoice trackers because nobody had the time or appetite to use the advanced features. I’ve seen dashboards filled with more data than NASA’s mission control, but nobody could explain how any of it tied back to business ROI.
💡 Reflection time: Does your technology make workforce management feel easier - or does it just make the reports look prettier?
The problem isn’t the software itself. VMS tools can be incredibly powerful - in fact Beeline has an excellent VMS version that’s tailored specifically for Mid-Market companies. The problem is how organizations apply the software they choose. If the process is overbuilt, the tool becomes an anchor. If the process is right-sized, the tool becomes a rocket booster.
The difference isn’t in the technology. It’s in the strategy you wrap around it.
The Human Factor
Let’s not forget the human side of this. Because when strategies fail, it isn’t just numbers on a spreadsheet.
Hiring managers get frustrated. They stop using the system and go back to calling their favorite supplier directly. Workers feel mismatched - perm employees stuck on short-term projects, contractors disengaged because they’ve been slotted into the wrong roles. Suppliers lose trust because expectations keep shifting with every new governance meeting.
This isn’t just inefficiency. It’s erosion of trust. And once trust is lost, adoption is almost impossible to rebuild. 🛑
The Leadership Call-Out
Here’s where the mid-market often hurts itself most: leadership attention.
Too many CEOs and CFOs still dismiss contingent labor strategy as “too small” to deserve their time. But when 40-50% of your total workforce cost sits in contingent labor, calling it small is delusional.
If leaders continue to treat contingent workforce strategy as an afterthought, they’re effectively saying that up to half of their workforce cost doesn’t matter. And that’s not just a blindspot. That’s a leadership failure. ❗
The Future-Proofing Angle
By 2030, contingent labor could make up more than half the workforce in many industries. That means the mid-market won’t just be playing catch-up. They’ll be on the front line of workforce strategy.
Enterprises will still be slogging through committees, arguing over compliance frameworks, and writing thousand-page policy manuals. Mid-markets, if they play it right, can move faster, adapt quicker, and leapfrog the giants.
💡 Reflection time: By 2030, when half your workforce is contingent, will you be the mid-market organization that adapted - or the one still stuck copying models that never fit?
Closing Thoughts
The mid-market doesn’t need to scale like a Fortune 500. It doesn’t need to prove itself by copying enterprise models. It needs to embrace what it already has: agility, speed, and focus. 💪🏻
The trap is real - enterprise-lite solutions will keep failing. But the opportunity is bigger. Companies who designs strategies that fit the mid-market reality will unlock enormous growth.
So here’s the challenge: stop asking, “How do we scale like the giants?” Start asking, “How do we exploit the fact that we’re not one?”
Because in workforce strategy, being lean isn’t a liability. It’s the advantage. 🏁
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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.