Key takeaways
This guide covers seven signs that it may be time to switch to a contingent workforce supplier that grows with your needs, whichever worker types you engage, and what to look for in one: time to talent, visibility, rate consistency, compliance ownership, flexibility, worker type coverage, and global reach.
Switching suppliers does not have to mean replacing your VMS or MSP, because a modern supplier can work inside the setup you already run. Lifted, an Upwork Company, does exactly that.
A small pilot, such as one business unit, one worker type, or one region, lets you compare time-to-fill, rates, and hiring manager feedback against your current suppliers before you expand.
Think about the last time a hiring manager asked for a contractor and heard “we can get you someone in a few weeks.” What did they do next? Many will quietly find someone on their own. That workaround is often the first sign that a supplier setup built for yesterday’s program is being asked to carry today’s.
These signs are about your current supplier relationship, and they apply whichever worker types you engage, whether that is independent contractors, employees through an employer of record, or augmented teams. Each sign below covers why it matters, what it can cost you if it goes unaddressed, and what good looks like.
You do not need to see all seven at your enterprise today. If two or three sound familiar, consider also reading how a modern supplier works inside your existing program.
1. Hiring managers or functional leaders need talent in days, not weeks
Picture an engineering manager who needs a specialist next week for a product launch. Your current supplier quotes a few weeks. What would you do in that seat? Most leaders would ask around, find someone through their own network, and get the work moving. The project stays on track, but your program may not know that person exists, what they cost, or what contract they are on.
That is why speed is more than a convenience metric. When your supplier is slower than the workaround, teams might decide to go around it, and you lose visibility and control over the spend, the contracts, and the risk that comes with them.
What good looks like is a supplier hiring managers choose because it is the fastest route, not because they have to. For example, Lifted’s average time-to-fill is under 3 days, supported by a global talent pool of 18M+ profiles.
2. Your supplier can’t give you the data you need
Try this test. Could you tell your CFO today how many contractors work across the business, what they cost, and which contracts they sit under? If answering means a report from procurement, another from HR, and a handful of emails to hiring managers, you are seeing a common pattern. Each function holds a piece of the picture, and each supplier tends to report in its own format. A useful question to ask: does your current supplier give you the headcount, spend, and contract data you need, in a form you can use?
The cost tends to show up at uncomfortable moments: a budget review where the totals do not reconcile, or a leadership question you cannot answer with confidence. A fragmented view also makes it harder to spot off-contract hiring early, so small patterns can grow before anyone names them.
What good looks like is one accountable supplier that reports on headcount, spend, and engagement status in one place and works alongside the systems you already use. If you run a VMS such as SAP Fieldglass, Lifted plugs in as an approved supplier so finance receives one consolidated invoice and spend report rather than many. For more ideas on running a well-governed program, see our contingent workforce best practices.
3. You want consistent, transparent rates from your supplier
Do you know what you pay for the same role across your suppliers? When one supplier bills a role at one rate and another bills a different rate for similar skills, each contract can look reasonable on its own. Side by side, the picture can change. Markups on top of worker pay can vary by supplier, by business unit, and by contract, and hiring managers may end up choosing a supplier based on price differences they cannot see. Even with a single supplier, rates can drift between roles, business units, and worker types.
The cost is rarely a single line item. It looks like budgets that are harder to forecast, rate conversations that start from a weaker position at renewal, and savings that never reach the teams who could put them to use.
What good looks like is a single, transparent rate card applied consistently across teams, with visibility into what each engagement costs. Lifted is typically 10% to 30% cheaper than traditional suppliers.
4. You want a clear owner for the compliance work with your supplier
Who, specifically, owns the paperwork? In many programs the honest answer is “it depends.” Onboarding documents may sit with the supplier, contracts with procurement, and the question of what to do when something looks off with legal or HR.
When tasks are tracked by hand and responsibility is split, things usually work until someone asks for a record. Gaps tend to surface during an audit or a legal review, which is a stressful time to find them. A good place to start is asking how much of this work your current supplier handles, and how much it leaves with you.
What good looks like is clear roles, documented steps, and one point of accountability, with standardized contracts rather than a different set for each vendor. Lifted’s compliance model typically includes contractual indemnification for clients, depending on the engagement type. Your own legal, tax, and HR advisors should still guide the policies and goals that fit your enterprise, and it can help to bring them in early. If you want a starting point on one related topic, our guide to avoiding worker misclassification covers the basics.
5. Your supplier needs to flex when demand shifts
Think about the last time demand moved fast: a launch, a seasonal peak, a hiring freeze. How did your supplier respond? Some suppliers are built for steady volume. When you need ten people in two weeks, or need to pause several engagements, the strain starts to show.
The cost is easy to recognize afterward: a launch window missed, or paying for capacity you no longer need. There is a quieter cost too. Each time your supplier cannot keep up, hiring managers or functional leaders often can learn that the approved route is not the flexible one, and the ‘we’ll-just-hire-a-freelancer’ workaround mentioned earlier generally starts again.
What good looks like is a supplier that moves at the pace of your business, with existing talent redeployed in about 30 minutes and a large talent pool to draw from when you need more. Lifted, an Upwork Company offers exactly that.
If you are curious how teams tend to fall into the habit of reaching for a staffing agency first, the capacity trap is worth a read.
6. You would rather work with one supplier across every worker type
Hiring managers and functional leaders know the work, but they are rarely experts in worker types, and they should not have to be. Many programs end up with one vendor for independent contractors, another for employer of record, and another for staff augmentation. That setup can work, until the answer changes in the middle of a search.
“Let’s say your company has selected a vendor that can do only agent of record, but cannot do employer of record. You have found the person, you run worker classification, and classification says that in that specific country, for that specific engagement model, you cannot engage that person as an independent contractor through an agent of record. And now you’re stuck. You need to go find another vendor that can act as the employer of record. So now you’ve lost time, and probably lost the candidate too, because that person isn’t just going to sit around until you find another vendor.” – Ernesto Lamaina, General Manager, Lifted, an Upwork Company
The lost time and the lost candidate are the visible costs. A less visible one is that a supplier offering only some models may be inclined to steer you toward the ones it can deliver, even when another model would fit the work better.
What good looks like is one supplier across independent contractors, Agent of Record (AOR), Employer of Record (EOR), staff augmentation, and outsourcing, so the right engagement model can be chosen for the work without restarting the search.
7. You want your supplier to cover every country you hire in
When your hiring takes you into a new country or market, what does your current supplier do? Whether you engage independent contractors, employees through an employer of record, or augmented teams, you will often need to work with an additional provider or partner – each with its own pricing, contracts, compliance requirements, and way of operating. Do that a few times and you can end up with a patchwork of regional vendors.
Layers of partners can also mean stacked margins and a more fragmented experience for hiring managers and talent alike. The cost is often the complexity you take on every time the business grows.
What good looks like is one supplier with reach across the countries you hire in, so a new market does not have to mean a new vendor relationship. Lifted supports engagement of contingent talent in 180+ countries, as seen in the Hitachi Energy rebrand, which drew on Lifted specialists in 24 countries. What is available for a given worker type in a given country depends on local requirements, so it is worth confirming your locations early.
What to look for in a supplier that grows with your needs
If several of these signs sound familiar, the aim is a supplier that can grow with your enterprise and your team, not one you will outgrow again in two years. These questions can help you compare.
Area | Question to ask | What “grows with you” looks like |
|---|---|---|
Speed | Does time to talent hold up as volume rises? | Talent starting in days |
Cost | Does one rate card still apply as I add teams? | Consistent, transparent pricing |
Visibility | Does reporting stay in one place as I add worker types? | One accountable source |
Compliance | Do roles stay clear as engagements multiply? | Documented steps, one owner |
Flexibility | Can I scale up and down without renegotiating? | Quick redeployment |
Coverage | Can I add a worker type or country without a new vendor? | One supplier across regions |
Fit | Will it work inside my VMS or MSP, such as SAP Fieldglass? | Plugs into what you run |
Lifted, an Upwork Company, is a tech-enabled contingent workforce supplier built to grow with your needs. It supports independent contractors, Agent of Record, Employer of Record, staff augmentation, and outsourcing, and it plugs into existing VMS and MSP programs, so you can start with one use case and add others later without changing your existing program.
Read more about what a tech-enabled contingent workforce supplier is.
How do you switch contingent workforce suppliers without disrupting your program?
You can switch contingent workforce suppliers without disrupting your program by starting small and running the new supplier alongside the one you have. You do not have to move everything at once.
Which of the seven signs hurts most right now? Slow fills, rates you cannot compare, a gap in the worker types or countries your current supplier covers? That sign tells you where a pilot is likely to show results fastest, and it gives hiring managers a concrete reason to try something new.
Next, choose a contained slice: one business unit, one worker type, or one region. What would a fair comparison look like there? Many teams find it helpful to agree on a few measures up front, such as time-to-fill, rates, and hiring manager feedback, so the results do not depend on anyone’s impressions. A few weeks of side-by-side data can be enough to show a pattern.
Then ask the hiring managers what changed for them, because their experience often decides whether a new route sticks. If the results hold up, expand from there, and bring your own legal, tax, and HR advisors in early on anything that touches worker types.
Because Lifted, an Upwork Company, onboards like any other supplier, you can begin with one use case and add others later without changing your existing program. See how Lifted works inside your existing program.
Frequently asked questions
When should I switch contingent workforce suppliers?
The right time to switch contingent workforce suppliers is usually when the gap between what you need and what your supplier delivers keeps showing up in the same places: roles that take weeks to fill, spend you cannot see clearly, or worker types and countries your supplier cannot cover. One slow quarter is not necessarily a reason to switch, but a pattern is worth taking seriously. A useful first step is a small pilot with a new supplier alongside your current one, so you can compare results before committing to anything bigger.
How is a modern supplier different from a traditional staffing agency?
A modern contingent workforce supplier typically runs sourcing, engagement, and payments on its proprietary technology, like Lifted, an Upwork Company does, while a traditional staffing agency often works requisitions by hand through recruiter networks and phone calls. In practice, the difference often shows up in how quickly shortlists arrive, how clearly you can see what each engagement costs, and whether one supplier can cover more than one worker type. When you compare suppliers, it can help to ask what happens when your needs change halfway through a search.
Do I need to replace my VMS or MSP to switch suppliers?
Switching suppliers does not require replacing your VMS or MSP. A modern supplier, like Lifted, an Upwork company, can plug into the VMS or MSP you already run, such as SAP Fieldglass. Lifted onboards like any other supplier, so your existing approvals, reporting, and governance can stay in place, and your MSP, if you have one, can keep setting policy and overseeing the supplier network. Many programs also bring their own pre-identified talent into a new supplier alongside the talent it sources, so you do not have to start from scratch.
Author
Lee Willoughby
Senior Marketing Director, Lifted
Lee Willoughby is the Senior Marketing Director at Lifted, an Upwork company helping enterprises source, engage, and manage contingent talent across every contract type. With a background as a co-founder and workforce technology entrepreneur, Lee focuses on the future of contingent workforce management, helping organizations navigate the complexities of global talent, compliance, and workforce transformation.
This content is for general informational purposes only, and is not intended to be and should not be viewed as legal or tax advice. Readers should contact their attorney or tax professional to obtain advice with respect to any particular legal or tax matter. Information discussed can change frequently, and Lifted cannot guarantee that all information is current at all times.
