The challenge
As the new AMP8 regulatory period approached, one of the UK’s largest water providers needed a more effective way to manage a growing contingent workforce. Demand was rising, but its existing model, shaped by more than a decade with the previous provider, no longer offered the pace, control, or visibility required to support future workforce needs.
The organisation faced a complex transition. It needed to improve delivery quality, strengthen governance and workforce insight, and create a better experience for hiring managers and temporary workers, all while maintaining service continuity across a large, geographically dispersed workforce.
At the same time, there was clear pressure to tighten cost control. Reducing off-contract spend, improving rate-card compliance, and strengthening oversight of services procurement and statement of work arrangements had become critical to improving spend visibility and limiting leakage.
Against this backdrop, the client appointed Reed Talent Solutions as its strategic managed service programme (MSP) partner to deliver a more scalable, controlled, and insight-led approach to contingent workforce management.
Our solution
Embedded onsite teams
Dedicated onsite teams are embedded across multiple locations, building trust, strengthening stakeholder relationships, and developing a deep understanding of the client’s culture and operational needs. Physical presence - including in remote and field‑based environments - promotes a partnership approach and aids continuous improvement and innovation.
Sector-expert recruiters
Our sector‑specialist recruiters bring deep expertise across utilities, including engineering, construction, capital delivery, technology and data, and high‑volume customer service. Working closely with hiring managers, they provide market insight on rates and attraction strategies, transforming the client’s recruitment processes to improve access to talent, retention, and satisfaction.
Our specialist engineering team has been critical in quickly sourcing and onboarding leakage detection engineers – helping the client increase find and fix rates by 70% and achieving the lowest ever level of leakage; a key strategic priority. On top of this, the volume recruitment team has delivered 100’s of high-quality customer service hires - many of which take up permanent roles, helping our client maintain its position as the leading listed company for Ofwat’s customer satisfaction rating.
Technology transformation
Reed Talent Solutions’ introduction of a market-leading vendor management system provides robust process controls and a single source of truth for contingent workforce data, supported by real‑time dashboards that deliver insight into rates, diversity, fulfilment, and workforce performance.
Our digital compliance platform, supported by specialist screening services, introduced faster background vetting across the contingent workforce. Automated checks, advanced fraud‑detection tools, and secure identity and employment verification have strengthened assurance, while reducing turnaround times and improving the candidate experience.
Impact and results
Our master vendor MSP has transformed the delivery of their contingent workforce, raising the bar for delivery quality, insight, governance, and candidate experience after more than a decade with another provider.
Within the core service, we manage annual spend exceeding £30m, growing the workforce from approximately 400 to over 700 contingent workers since go‑live. This expansion has enabled us to meet increased demand while reducing off‑contract spend.
We have also implemented a robust services procurement and statement of work capability, enhancing visibility, control, and spend management across independent consultants and service providers.
Speed and experience
Time‑to‑offer reduced from 27 days to 11 days
Screening turnaround reduced to under five days for contingent workers
Hiring manager satisfaction at 98%
Quality and retention
Approximately 10% contingent workforce coverts to permanent roles each quarter
Volume contact centre attrition <six per cent, (industry benchmark ~25%)
More than £450k in cost avoidance delivered through reduced churn and improved quality
Cost and control
Up to 40% reduction in fees through improved commercials, model efficiencies, reduction in off-contract spend and tighter rate-card compliance
97%+ direct sourcing rate, reducing costs and minimising consultancy leakage
Scale and continuity
Migration of 400+ workers across 80+ locations with no disruption to service delivery
Continuous improvement
Our continuous improvement and innovation (CI&I) programme has delivered scalable, on‑demand permanent hiring solutions, supported legislative and compliance changes, advanced social value and environmental, social and governance (ESG) priorities, and strengthened employee value proposition (EVP) development. It has also enabled recruit, train, deploy models, services procurement solutions, and technical skills programmes - ensuring continuous service evolution, while building long‑term capability within the client’s internal teams.
The Reed Talent Solutions MSP has seen many successes. Overall fill rate is 97%, and initiatives like candidate wellbeing sessions and hiring manager support have driven best practice and performance.
Furthermore, Reed Talent Solutions has regularly reviewed attrition and the pre-screening process when it comes to recruitment, all of which has resulted in better quality candidates being submitted. This has resulted in a high number of temp-to-perm conversions, which has delivered over £450k of cost avoidance.
Learn more about how we can support your workforce strategy, get in touch with one of our experts today.
