Industries · Services
Staffing and outsourcing: temp work, recruitment, call centres and work platforms
How staffing agencies, recruiters, business process outsourcing firms and online work platforms make money from other people's work; why a temp agency lives on a 3 percent margin; how a call centre's profit depends on billable hours and attrition; how AI and new rules for gig work are changing the industry from 2024 to 2026; and how to crack the cases.
Key takeaways
- These firms sell other people's work.
- In temp staffing, almost every dollar of revenue is someone's pay.
- Staffing and outsourcing cases usually ask why profit fell when hiring slowed, how to respond to AI, whether to enter a new country or service, or how to price a contract.
- Explain temporary staffing, permanent recruitment, business process outsourcing and online work platforms, and how each charges
- Calculate a temp worker's markup, gross margin and contribution, and what a small rate cut does to it
- Calculate the profit of a contact centre from seats, billable hours and costs, and what falling volumes do to it
- Describe the players and the shifts from 2024 to 2026 in Europe, the United States, India, the Philippines and the Gulf
- Crack typical staffing and outsourcing cases, starting with the real driver: the spread between the price billed and the pay of the worker, and how many paid hours are billed
Lessons
How staffing, recruitment, outsourcing and work platforms work
The four business types, who employs the worker in each, how each charges, and the measures every firm watches.
Staffing and outsourcing economics: the spread, billable hours and the cost of churn
What one temp worker earns an agency in a week, why a 3 percent rate cut can wipe out the profit, how a contact centre makes money, and what lower call volumes do to it.
Staffing and outsourcing players, trends 2024 to 2026, and how to crack the cases
Who the players are by region, what changed from 2024 to 2026 (the hiring slowdown, AI in contact centres, shift apps, rules for gig work), typical prompts, traps and drills.
Worked cases in this module
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Key terms