Naturally, over time, any industry develops its own set of words, terms and phrases that make their way into the vernacular. Their intentions are honest and innocent: to make things easier, more streamlined and to simplify the conversation. Sometimes they succeed. Sometimes they don’t. Industry jargon, particularly staffing agency jargon, can be like trying to understand a foreign language.

At Adecco, we know how to navigate the slippery slopes and we want to make sure you do too.  What follows is a list of frequently used staffing industry acronyms to help guide you and ensure that we are all speaking the same language.

9 Staffing Agency Acronyms

1) COM: Central Order Management.

Adecco’s Central Order Management (COM) process provides clients with all the benefits of single-source centralization without actually having an Adecco office in the workplace. By establishing a COM process to manage your program, we offer a centralized solution while providing consistent and responsive national service, simplified requisition placement, improved access to suppliers, consolidated billing and reporting, organized diverse supplier participation and measured quality.

2) CPE: Client Payrolled Employees.

Candidates referred to the vendor by the client. The vendor puts these individuals on their payroll at the request of the client. In the case of CPEs, the vendor does not recruit, screen, interview or select the employee.

3) MSP: Managed Service Provider.

A staffing program in which one vendor manages the entire program but does not actually fill orders. Often featuring a Vendor Management System tool, in a traditional vendor neutral MSP program, the MSP does not fill orders with candidates they recruit.

4) MVP: Master Vendor Program.

A staffing program managed entirely by a single vendor. This single vendor is responsible for filling orders, managing sub-vendors, recruiting, screening, training, reporting, invoicing and managing continual process improvements.

5) QBR: Quarterly Business Reviews.

A meeting between a vendor and a client to discuss the vendor’s performance, address agreed-upon service level agreements and drive continual process improvements. Typical QBR topics can include: ROI, usage trends, turnover, order activity, etc.

6) QPR: Quarterly Performance Review.

Branch audits which evaluate legal, operational and company requirements to drive compliance with baseline procedures. Typically, these audits cover rate management, client management, client setup and contract compliance, employee management, accounts receivable management, risk management etc.

7) RCE: Recruitment Center of Excellence.

Adecco’s Recruitment Center of Excellence (RCE) leverages scale, technology and our proprietary Talent Management Value Chain to provide staffing solutions that are unequaled in the industry. The RCE’s process and infrastructure are designed with a focus on our clients’ most critical needs including: Shorter time to submit, quality candidates, increased fulfillment, superior customer service.

8) SLA: Service Level Agreements.

Agreed-upon parameters by which a vendor and client measure the success of a temporary staffing program. At Adecco, typical SLA indicators include: orders filled, reporting timeliness and accuracy, time to fill, fill rate, usage, client satisfaction, associate quality etc.

9) VMS: Vendor Management System.

A web-based tool, used in many MVP and MSP programs, that expedites all aspects of staffing process (order entry, selection, assignment, tracking to approval, invoicing and billing) while facilitating real time interaction between the vendor, any sub-vendors and clients.

We understand that those who are new to the industry may think the terminology used is intimidating. You may be curious to know how staffing agencies work, but are having a hard time distinguishing their many terms. No need to worry – use the above definitions as your starting point! You will be surprised to see staffing is not as complicated as it seems.