A United Front

In the Aberdeen Group’s study, respondents said that responsibility for managing contingent-labor programs is divided among four main groups: HR (29%), business units (20%), procurement (19%) and finance (17%). With no one department taking the lead, procurement is saddled with inconsistent costs and inefficiencies.

Overcoming such parochialism can be difficult. Not every manager is comfortable with technology, let alone VMS systems, and may insist on changes to make it more user-friendly. Hiring managers may become disenchanted over their perceived loss of control. Staffing contractors can be resistant to change. Communication and formal feedback mechanisms are vital to continuously exceed the expectations of a broad spectrum of stakeholders. “Coordinating and shepherding stakeholders through any mode of change, whether transformation or continuous improvement is critical, and well-done orchestration will make virtually any contingent workforce program substantially better,” says Staffing Industry’ Mester.

Different stakeholders have different needs. Some hiring managers feel that on-boarding cycle times are most important because they depend on contingent employees to fill out business operations during peaks and surges in demand. Others feel that price is most important because they feel P&L pressures from program and department budget managers. Legal is concerned with co-employment issues and SOX compliance. HR demands greater visibility into the hiring process.

“Companies can take proactive steps to build organizational buy-in,” Mester says, “such as quarterly business reviews with primary program partners to go over metrics for each of the key ROI drivers identified during transformation.” Semi-annual user satisfaction surveys help illustrate which program tweaks are being well-received and what internal customers think will make the program run even better.

Using such formal communications channels enables the people in charge of the contingent-workforce program to quickly address concerns and adopt fresh ideas efficiently and openly. With evidence of a process that can promptly alleviate their concerns, hiring managers and vendors alike became more accepting of the new system.

Whether companies choose to outsource their contingent staffing completely to some managed services provider in-house, they need to do so without disenfranchising the end users — those actually using the workers. “[managed services providers] can take over many functions, but companies still need to engage end users to prevent runaway spending and non compliance,” says Manpower’s Klemp.

Next

STEPS

8		Deploy a VMS for requisition entry and approval, order fulfillment, on-boarding and off-boarding activities and time entry and approval
8		Understand and be sensitive to cultural differences when implementing a global contingent-worker hiring program
8		Develop standard job descriptions across all geographic areas to ensure your ability to match the right skill set with the right job and limit the potential for over-hiring.