The number of layoffs in the tech industry has been more than just headline-grabbing, it’s caused leaders to rethink how they staff. We’ll look at contingent workforce trends, how organizations are optimizing the latest patterns, and why Managed Service Providers (MSPs) have been on the rise.

Growth in Contingent Labor Force

The growth in the contingent labor force is nothing new. It’s something of a byproduct of the changing times. With people more mobile than ever before, they crave the same flexibility from their jobs. Moreover, an increasing number of individuals are extending their working years. Baby boomers, in particular, are committing to stay active in the workforce beyond the traditional retirement age, contributing to a shifting demographic landscape in the employment sector.

On the hiring side, organizations are starting to see how they can optimize their resources without sacrificing the quality of their results. Instead of having multiple parties work independently, Vendor Management Systems (VMS) and MSPs like Monument can be brought in to organize it all, so there are no dropped balls.

Around 80% of organizations use a contingent workforce of some kind, with about 65% of organizations planning to increase their usage of contingent workers in the near future. These are organizations that may struggle with turnover or they may just have uneven or unpredictable workloads. Regardless of why an organization turns to a contingent workforce, many often stumble onto a more efficient business model. The key is finding the right people to bring it all together.

Remote and Hybrid Workforce Adoption

The tech industry has been one of the most stubborn about coming back into the office, despite everything from incentives to threats from their employers. (It’s clear that there is something lost when people can’t work face-to-face, though the answer to this basic problem is far from one-size-fits-all.) This has led to organizations feeling pressured to find compromises where everyone can thrive.

Monument has seen how contingent workers can be used to improve the results of a remote or hybrid workplace, particularly when the organization is under strain. By providing full-time staff with more resources, organizations can simultaneously improve morale and productivity.

If you’re wondering who’s going to manage it all, the best MSPs have developed a track record of being able to strategize from top to bottom. Whether the question is how much to spend, how many workers are needed, or which suppliers to use, leaders can trust the right MSP to oversee it all.

Technological Trends

Gen AI and intelligent automation are everywhere these days, with companies across all industries at least curious about what it can do for them. This is a controversial subject for some, but it’s also an opportunity to cut down on the inefficiencies that are likely plaguing your employees. Ideally, technology can be used to facilitate the onboarding of a contingent workforce, so the contingent workforce can continue to adjust or add value to the company’s current systems.

Monument has seen clients drown in data, either failing to use it correctly or failing to use it at all. AI has the power to streamline analytics and reporting, but companies that put too much trust into it may inevitably find themselves wishing they hadn’t. If you’re looking for an MSP that has done their homework and successfully applied that research to individual organizations, you can trust Monument to deliver.

Focus on Skills, Not Experience

A contingent worker succeeds and fails by the strength of their skills. Even more than an employed worker, who could conceivably coast in a large organization based on a largely inflated résumé, a contingent worker has a limited amount of time to prove their worth. If they can’t hack it, they may not even make it until the end of the project, let alone be invited back should the organization need them again.

The trends are very straightforward here: if the organization isn’t able to ascertain the true value the worker brings, their entire contingency strategy can be compromised. Monument has helped our clients drill down on the exact expertise they need to fill each role, so there are fewer hiccups along the way. It can be difficult to find people who have the skills, personality, and availability to match the company, but it is possible when you use an MSP with the right connections and reputation within the industry.

Growth of MSPs

Given the contingent workforce we’ve covered, it’s easy to see why a quality MSP would be worth its weight in gold. A contingent workforce comes with a number of benefits, but it also comes with endless questions about how to staff, onboard, train, and wrap up.

The liability alone would be enough to make any employer question whether it was really worth it. MSPs have the expertise to take over even the most unwieldy of projects, finding ways to break down each phase into digestible pieces. They can maintain communication between workers and staff members, ensuring that both sides are on the same page about what’s expected.

When it comes to hiring a workforce, it’s important for organizations to understand not just how contingent workers view the situation, but also where they’re coming from. It’s not about catering to their demands, but about finding a bridge between the two (sometimes competing) objectives. It’s the MSP that can be the go-between, which is why organizations need to find teams that can successfully work with people from every walk of life.

There are a lot of risks for full-time employees on both sides of the aisle. Contingent workforce trends show that employees want to maintain their autonomy, and organizations want to have some flexibility when they’re staffing for major projects.

Contact Monument Today

Since 2003, Monument has been able to lead contingent workforces by focusing on both long-term goals and day-to-day execution. This isn’t a case of micromanaging employees, but about finding people who can commit to the job until it’s done. We manage everything (and everyone) under the umbrella for as long as our clients need us to. Contact us today to see how we can help!

The past few years have brought significant change to the world of employment. Much of the top talent in several industries are choosing to work as gig workers, freelancers, and contingent employees rather than full-time, permanent employees. As much as 40% of the total workforce is now contingent, creating challenges for companies as they try to integrate non-permanent workers into their company. Total talent management (TTM) provides a potential solution to this growing problem.

What is Total Talent Management?

Total talent management takes a comprehensive approach to managing an organization’s talent. In this model, rather than delegating full-time employees to the HR department and part-time or contingent talent to the procurement department, the same team handles all workers. This model breaks down some of the barriers between permanent and non-permanent talent and helps the company maintain consistency with all of its people.

Including both Employees and Non-Employees in the Talent Pool

Today’s organizations rely increasingly on freelancers and gig-economy workers to help bring in talent that they don’t necessarily need full-time. Sometimes, aligning this contingent workforce with the business’s strategies and philosophies is challenging when managed separately from the full-time employees.

The goal of TTM is to align the total talent, including these non-employees, with the business strategy and manage all types of labor in the same way. Having a mix of employees and non-employees allows for greater flexibility in resource allocation. Non-employees can be brought in for specific projects or tasks, providing the company with agility to scale up or down based on workload and requirements.

Embracing the Full Talent Cycle

TTM embraces the full talent cycle, including talent acquisition, talent development, performance management, workforce planning, and succession planning. Rather than having one department that brings people into the company and another that works on keeping them productive in their roles, TTM encompasses all of these roles into one talent management model.

Measuring Progress Using Tech and Analytics

A final component of TTM is the use of technology and analytics to measure the progress of the company’s talent. Today, numerous HRIS and VMS’s now offer combined TTM solutions. This component helps ensure everyone is working toward a mutual goal and helps the organization increase performance. By measuring progress and outcomes consistently across all talent, the company can potentially save money and increase profits.

4 Benefits of Total Talent Management

Successfully implementing a total talent management strategy will help your company maximize the effectiveness of each of your workers, regardless of employment status. This brings several distinct benefits, including:

1. Greater Visibility and Control of Workforce

Seeing the people on your team is easier with a TTM approach. Greater visibility means a better understanding of the spending done by the workforce, whether contingent or full-time. A TTM approach keeps top-tier talent easily accessible, even if they are not full-time employees. Using contract or gig workers can also reduce the workload on the full-time talent, which improves productivity across the board. Having greater visibility combined with greater control can help save money by ensuring spending across all workforces is seen and tracked.

2. Flexibility to Adapt to Changing Business Needs and Market Conditions

The TTM approach is agile, which means you can move people as needed to ensure the talent is in the right roles at the right time. Because a brand is not limited to the traditional hiring techniques other companies use, they are able to make strategic decisions about acquiring talent and getting the right people in place as quickly as possible when needs or market conditions change.

3. Focusing on Value, not Status

One of the drawbacks of traditional HR-based hiring models is the focus on the status of the employee as full-time vs. part-time or contingent becomes paramount. With TTM, the focus shifts to the value the individual brings to the company, regardless of their employment status. When people are honored for that value, they are better able to contribute their unique skills and expertise, leading to a more productive and collaborative work environment.

4. Strengthening of the Employer Brand

A non-traditional workforce allows you to produce better products or services for your clients. Not only does this improved product or service strengthen your company’s brand, but being able to integrate both contingent and permanent workforce into your daily operations smoothly shows that your business is an employer of choice in a crowded field. This, in turn, can help you acquire even more top talent because your company will stand out among the workers you want most.

What are the Challenges of Total Talent Management?

Integrating a contingent workforce with traditional, full-time employees is not always a seamless process. Like any hiring or talent management model, TTM does have some challenges.

Difficulty of Implementation

First, implementing TTM is complicated. Companies require specialization to be able to implement a TTM plan well. Many choose to partner with a talent consulting firm to help set up their TTM strategy effectively and utilize the specialized knowledge of the workforce consulting firm.

Need for Strategic Partnerships

For a TTM system to work, the HR and procurement departments must work together closely and build a strong partnership. If the business is benefiting from a managed services provider to assist with contingent talent, they also need to roll that into their TTM. In addition, any stakeholders in the company must be on board with the plan. All parties’ responsibilities must be clearly laid out and followed, or the system will not work.

Requirement of the Right Tech

Finally, TTM requires specific technology to manage and evaluate the various team members, both non-employees and employees. For example, brands may need to use a freelancer management system to keep track of the work of contractors and freelancers. This technology may be different than what is traditionally used by HR departments, so there is a learning curve and an investment involved. Partnering with a managed services provider that knows these technologies and then integrating the MSP into the TTM planning can help.

Working with an MSP Consulting Service Can Help

What is total talent management? For many companies, it is the solution to keep all of their team members unified and pushing for a common goal. Yet it is not always easy to implement. That’s where consultants come in.

 

As companies strive to improve their branding, streamline their hiring processes, and reduce their costs, the need for professional consulting services is clear. Monument Consulting offers Consulting Services to help companies implement, manage, and support contingent labor. Our MSP consulting services can easily tie into a TTM program to bring all of your talent to the same page.

If you are looking for help with TTM, reach out to us to learn more about our MSP consulting service

At its core, direct sourcing is a strategy where a company begins to look toward an internal candidate pool as a potential source for temporary employees. While every organization is a bit different, a direct sourcing environment usually has three basic elements: a technical solution that is used to get the aforementioned candidates into the recruiting funnel, a process or strategy to then curate those candidates, and compliance.

Examples of how direct sourcing is used include tapping into employees who may have recently retired, those who are “silver medalists” in that they may not have been selected for a previous role but are still viable, and those who have been referred by others.

 

Why Use Direct Sourcing?

 

All told, direct sourcing brings with it a wide range of different benefits that cannot be ignored. Maybe the most immediate of these is that a business gets to use the power of its strong employer brand to not only attract top talent for an available position but to retain them as well.

This also gives them the ability to get someone into an available role as quickly as possible, which in turn allows them to start performing faster than would be traditionally possible. In other words, by leveraging an internal candidate pool, companies can potentially reduce the time and resources required to identify and recruit suitable candidates.

Other benefits include the fact that direct sourcing gives businesses access to known, proven talent (as opposed to requiring them to go searching for them), along with the fact that they are already well aware of a candidate’s experience within the context of the position that needs to be filled.

 

Benefits of Direct Sourcing

 

In a larger sense, direct sourcing can save your business time. By filling available positions quickly, it decreases the amount of time it takes for those positions to start being productive and generating revenue. Direct sourcing also can be a viable way to drive cost savings across the board. This is especially important given an organization’s current rate structure. 

From the point of view of the client, another benefit of direct sourcing is that it helps significantly improve worker quality. The people you’re tapping into are already familiar with your organization, therefore they can “hit the ground running,” so to speak. You have a robust pipeline of pre-identified candidates to draw from, which also comes with the ability to redeploy known talent in a way that makes sense given your current goals. The productivity gains that come with this alone can be enormous in most situations.

From the perspective of the candidate, direct sourcing is also a great way to continue to build a long-term relationship with the client. It’s access to an opportunity that they might not otherwise have if they were on the outside looking in, which can be a potential chance to further their career. It also gives them the ability to work and be productive in a known environment, as opposed to “starting over” with a new employer. It’s also a way to choose positions that they’re inherently interested in, which can be a way to drive their commitment to the workplace as well.

 

Principles of a Direct Sourcing Program

 

Generally speaking, there are five main principles of any viable direct sourcing program to be aware of. They include:

 

• Strategy: Businesses need to utilize their brand to build a talent pool that may include retirees, referrals, recruited talent, and more.

• Technology: A digital platform is required to create talent pools by leveraging ATS, HRMS, and VMS systems.

• Curation: Candidates need to be managed in a way that connects the right people with the right open jobs through curators, such as Monument Consulting.

• Payroll: A payroll provider is also required to act as the employer on record (EOR) for any temporary workers on assignment.

• Redeployment: Finally, businesses need to be able to quickly redeploy known workers who can begin immediately and excel quickly, thus reducing the time to fill available positions.

 

Timelines for Implementing Direct Sourcing

 

Again – every organization is different, which means that the timeline for direct sourcing can and will often vary wildly. Having said that, direct sourcing implementation typically takes between 13 and 18 weeks. Through Monument Consulting, this includes a program readiness assessment of the current program, strategy, goals, and best practices.

During this period, there will also be a review of a business’ technical operations and procedures to help make sure that all technical configurations, integration requirements, and financial resources are being met. Based on what you discover, various teams can be set up for operations, training, and a larger program office.

At this point, a technical build can proceed. This can include setting up and configuring client instances, branding, VMS integration, job board integration, and other key factors. Once completed, testing and a complete user training program can be conducted.

Finally, a candidate campaign and a proactive marketing strategy can be developed that includes social media, various recruitment sites, and an effective email campaign.

 

Ingredients for a Successful Direct Sourcing Program

 

In addition to access to known talent and client branding/marketing efforts, ingredients for a successful direct sourcing program include:

•  Buy-in from all key stakeholders. That includes at the executive level and in terms of talent acquisition, marketing, legal, and even business users.

•  Program ownership and accountability, especially from those at the top of the organization and with regard to team leaders.

 

Key Success Factors

 

One of the key success factors for any direct sourcing program involves the ability to identify skill sets to source via this channel. Businesses also need to drive volume through the direct sourcing channel to promote healthy activity.

Overall, success depends on your ability to provide “preferred” status to direct sourcing channels for release and distribution. A client’s brand will also need to be leveraged and an internal careers page should be created. This will go a long way towards attracting the largest pool of potential candidates to each open position – which in and of itself is the most important benefit of all.

If you’d like to find out more information about whether you should be utilizing direct sourcing contingent labor, or if you’d just like to discuss your own situation with a professional in more detail, please contact the team at Monument Consulting today.

Generally speaking, a business will leverage a wide range of different resources in order to effectively manage its contingent workforce. This is especially true of those organizations that are in the process of rapid expansion, reorganization, or restructuring of third-party talent.

If your business is in this position, you may have seen two terms regularly used in your research: MSP and VMS. But what are the differences between an MSP vs VMS, and how do they both ultimately contribute to the same larger whole? The answers to those questions require you to keep a number of important things in mind.

What Is an MSP?

Also commonly referred to as a Managed Service Provider, an MSP is a term used to describe a team of people who are singularly dedicated to managing all facets of the contingent workforce program on behalf of a business. This includes essential functions such as supporting the sourcing of suppliers, shortlisting resumes, onboarding of contingent workers, and rate card market analysis – essentially helping to manage the entire req to check lifecycle for a company’s contingent labor workforce program.

Note that in some situations, an MSP may be an internal team of people that is self-managed by the business. More commonly, however, this is an independent, third-party organization performing tasks like those outlined above.

The responsibilities of an MSP will vary and are indeed typically tailored to meet the unique needs of a business. Having said that, examples can include but are not limited to things like:

• Program management.
• Reporting and tracking.
• Supplier selection.
• Negotiations and management.
• The day-to-day management of requisition processes.
• Managing invoices.
• Payment reconciliation.
• Rate benchmarking.
• Business intelligence.
• Regulatory guidance and compliance.
• And more.

Note that an MSP will also act as a kind of “command center” for all third party talent within an organization.

There are many benefits that an MSP will bring with it, chief among them being reduced costs. In many situations it may be easier to hire someone else who specializes in these aforementioned functions than it would be to tackle them yourself. An MSP allows you to bring in true experts and leaders in the field without the costs of building that knowledge in house. Another benefit of an MSP is increasing compliance and decreasing risk. This is primarily done through MSP management of the onboarding and offboarding process, as well as frequent audits. This expertise also helps to significantly streamline processes, which improves productivity across the board.

Enlisting the services of an MSP can also help with the implementation of management strategies, along with making meaningful changes to the ones that are already there. MSPs can assist with program maturity models, the visibility of contingent workforce metrics, they can help consolidate the invoicing process, and more. They can also help make sure that all contingent workers are in compliance with all relevant policies, procedures, and laws.

Note that regardless of the unique needs that an MSP is filling, their performance will still be measured based on the same core metrics. Those are the quality of the work that they’re performing, the amount of time it takes them to reach a desired outcome, and the cost of their services relative to the amount of money they are ultimately saving the business.

What Is a VMS?

A Vendor Management System (also commonly referred to as a VMS for short), on the other hand, is a term that refers to the technology that supports the daily operations of a workforce program. It also involves the data that travels throughout a business’ essential processes, all based on an SaaS (software-as-a-service) model.

The responsibilities of a VMS include but are not limited to capturing day-to-day action in a contingent workforce lifecycle. This might involve tracking the process of identifying a need and/or request, assistance with the overall hiring process, managing the onboarding and offboarding processes, invoicing, assisting with payment processes and more.

One of the major benefits of investing in a VMS includes creating a higher level of visibility into mission-critical data, which in turn brings with it robust reporting capabilities. Organizational leaders will no longer have to wonder about the who, what, and where questions as they pertain to a contingent workforce pool. They will know, beyond the shadow of a doubt. This almost immediately brings with it the opportunity to identify areas for cost savings and efficiency improvements that would have likely otherwise gone undiscovered. After a period of time, it allows for forecasting and trends to be easily spotted, giving the user the ability to front run any problems that might be coming.  It also helps to avoid compliance and risk-related issues, too.

How Do MSP and VMS Differ?

While a Managed Service Provider and a Vendor Management System are both invaluable parts of a contingent workforce program, they’re two totally separate ideas and should be treated as such. An MSP refers to the team of people, while a VMS is the technology they use. For a very simplistic example, an MSP would be the contractor you hire and the VMS would be the tools he or she uses to build a house. Both have the same goal – building the house – but they’re totally separate in the larger scheme of things. Often, an MSP is brought on as a consultant to help pick the VMS; much like the contractor would recommend what building materials to use to build the house.

To that end, an MSP and a VMS work together in partnership to create a smooth, simple connection between the user (like the hiring manager, for example) and the suppliers and/or vendors that they’re working with.

Companies can use both an MSP and a VSM to manage their contingent workforce. Or, they can self-manage with only a VMS by their side. Which of these two options is the most appropriate will ultimately come down to the organization and the unique needs that it is trying to accomplish.

Founded in 2003, Monument Consulting is built on a commitment to our clients and our shared values. Through our genuine passion for delivery, relentless pursuit of perfection, and bold decision making, we are creating a more agile contingent workforce so businesses can dream bigger, receive the benefits they need, and achieve more. Our expertise is proven, and we’ve worked with a suite of Fortune 500 companies to help implement innovation that lasts. Our agile model allows us to pick the best tool(s) based on the flows and gestures that will truly meet our client’s needs and bring them the best outcomes.

If you’d like to find out more information about what the major differences are between a Managed Service Provider and a Vendor Management System, or if you just want to speak to a professional about your own needs in a bit more specificity, contact us.

The SAP Fieldglass Vendor Management System (VMS) is a powerful tool which allows your company to coordinate external workforce programs. Companies of all sizes leverage the Fieldglass tool to drive efficiency, reduce costs and gain productivity.

When implementing Fieldglass, it’s critical to have a defined process that helps your employees, leadership and key stakeholders understand a clearly defined road map. A well thought out SAP Fieldglass implementation process, with well-defined stages and milestones, will help track progress and guide all participants towards the shared goal of a successful launch.

 

What is SAP Fieldglass?

 

SAP Fieldglass is a cloud-based system used to find, connect with, manage and pay an external workforce. With the rise of the gig economy and contract workers, there is an ever-increasing need for systems to manage, coordinate, align, and integrate this component of the modern workforce.

 

According to SAP, 42 percent of the workforce spend today is on external workers. A recent survey also reported:

 

• 73 percent of respondents indicated an external workforce was important to operating at full capacity and meeting demand
• 55 percent said that without an external workforce, their organizations could not conduct business as usual
• Only 20 percent had the systems necessary to adequately manage external workers and turn off access at the end of a project

 

What does Fieldglass bring to the table? Its solutions provide various tools to help manage an external workforce, including:

 

• Contingent Workforce Management: Allows enterprises to find, manage and pay external employees, automating management to streamline processes, improve security, and boost productivity
• Services Procurement: Source, manage, and pay external service providers, including contractors, consultants and agencies
• Worker Profile Management: Track and manage workers not covered by a Statement of Work or a job posting
• Assignment Management: Manage external work assignments across multiple projects to improve cost controls, efficiency, and compliance

 

The Monument Consulting Approach to SAP Fieldglass Implementation

 

For the most effective SAP Fieldglass implementation, Monument Consulting uses a well-defined methodology. With distinct, articulated phases and gates, our strategic implementation plan provides a clear path for all members of the implementation team. The methodology continually lays out where the project stands and what needs to be done.

Each client’s situation is unique, and the methodology for SAP Fieldglass implementation is flexible to allow for efficiency and progress at each stage. At its core, our methodology is designed to ensure Monument Consulting knows the current state and the desired outcomes of the implementation. That knowledge allows our consultants to design a customized implementation solution that meets our clients’ goals and delivers.

While each client’s circumstances will vary based on scope, resources, and time, in most cases the SAP Fieldglass solution can be implemented in 21 weeks. Success depends greatly on the client’s ability to engage the right stakeholders to ensure that buy-in, sign-off, communication and engagement are all managed carefully at each phase. Engaging the right stakeholders early and at predefined intervals minimizes the need for rework, which can have an impact on the overall project timeline.

 

What Are the Stages of SAP Fieldglass Implementation?

 

There are six phases to the Monument Consulting implementation methodology. Each phase has a gate assigned to it that corresponds to a key project milestone. The gate is designed to ensure that decisions are made whether to move to the next phase, continue work on the current phase, make necessary changes to the current phase before moving forward, or putting the project on hold.

Here is a closer look at each phase and gate.

 

Pre-implementation

 

The pre-implementation phase involves discovery, where the Monument Consulting team works with the client team to understand the current state of systems, technologies and desired outcomes. Critical to this phase is understanding the pain points – whether it’s decentralized workforce management, out-of-control workforce costs or a need for more efficiency. This is the first step towards developing a cohesive project plan that delivers desired results.

In the first three phases of the project, there are a few key milestone meetings to facilitate the transition from project start to discovery and pivoting into design.

 

Discovery

 

This SAP Fieldglass implementation phase helps to reduce risks, identify opportunities to enhance the program and develop a cohesive road map. In this phase, the project team researches, collects and assesses information about the program, the current state, and the desired future state.

The discovery stage allows consultants and the project team to determine the goals, vision and possible risks. It helps define the architecture and approach needed for project success. This phase involves analyzing data, understanding interdependent systems, interviewing managers and key stakeholders, and establishing priorities.

 

Design

 

The design phase is where the future state begins to take shape. This phase includes numerous session attended by the client’s full project team where they will be stepped through detailed future state wireframes and see the solution come to live via SAP Fieldglass demos that have been configured per the working future state requirements. 

The design phase offers the client an opportunity to provide final input before requirements are documented and finalized. The client will be asked to sign off on requirements to close out the design phase. 

 

Testing

 

Once the SAP Fieldglass implementation solution has been designed and the requirements have been signed off, testing will be the next key step. Monument Consulting will execute extensive testing of the VMS followed by System Integration Testing with the client to ensure all established feeds are working as expected. Testing closes with an opportunity for select client users to test the VMS solution via User Acceptance Testing.

 

Launch

 

When testing concludes, the new Fieldglass configuration is moved from a testing environment to a production environment. The launch phase is an exciting time, the culmination of months of hard work and dedication.

Integral to the process of any new system is change management. Employees, vendors, and stakeholders will need to understand and become familiar with new technologies, systems, and procedures. Data migration may change. Suppliers may need to be onboarded. Each of these steps is essential for sustained success and buy-in.

 

Hypercare

 

Monument Consulting recommends a hypercare period of 2-4 weeks after go-live with a 90-day stabilization period thereafter. This time helps ensure everything is working as designed, the team has a chance to work out any links and teams can analyze program results. It helps to identify optimization recommendations and reach a state of stability before any changes are implemented.

With Monument Consulting, you can develop a powerful solution that helps manage external workforces. To learn more about our services, contact us today.

Contingent Workforce Management

Now, more than ever, people prefer more flexible forms of employment as opposed to the traditional workforce model. The concept of the contingent workforce is one that has become increasingly popular – especially over the last decade. A contingent workforce is one that is made up of freelancers, independent contractors, and consultants who are hired for either a specific amount of time or on a project-by-project basis. There are no illusions that these workers will stay with a company on a permanent basis – instead, the opposite is true. They are temporary positions that can pay well and are important, creating a mutually beneficial situation for all parties involved.

What Is Contingent Workforce Management?

A contingent workforce is one that can certainly bring advantages to any organization – but the management of the contingent workforce is equally important. With the right approach and long-term strategy, companies can enjoy all the benefits of this process with as few potential downsides as possible.

Simply put, contingent workforce management is the hiring and managing of temporary employees. Organizations will typically pair a managed service provider (MSP) with a vendor management system (VMS) to manage their contingent workforce process. The MSP works with each of the client’s vendors to ensure all open positions are properly recruited for, and the MSP works with the client to ensure management of the contingent workforce is done compliantly.

Why Is Contingent Workforce Management Important To A Business?

More often than not, contingent workers are brought into a business via MSP oversight assisting  third-party agencies or suppliers. In this situation, the supplier would be the worker’s employer of record. The employee does not technically work for the business in question – they work for the agency and have simply been assigned to a specific job for a specific period of time.

All of this also helps to underline the idea, and the importance, of contingent workforce management. These types of workers play an invaluable role in the narrative of any business, but they still require a steady hand in terms of management to ensure that everything flows as smoothly as possible. Contingent workforce management helps to keep permanent employees separate from temporary employees, thus allowing workers to fill the exact position that is required of them at precisely the right time.

When it comes to the effective management of a contingent workforce, there are a number of important things to keep in mind. Foremost, a contingent workforce can quickly assist a business scale as it continues to grow and evolve – or better position the business to account for seasonal fluctuations that are inherent in certain industries. With a permanent workforce, it’s harder to respond to market fluctuations quickly. If you don’t have a certain degree of foresight, you’ll end up at a disadvantage more often than not.

Of course, none of this is to say that effective contingent workforce management isn’t without its fair share of challenges. Yes, employers are able to effectively scale their workforce up or down as an ever-changing situation dictates it. But at the same time, human resources teams aren’t just managing the employees themselves – they’re also managing a relationship with the company who supplied those employees as well. Therefore, things become challenging in that the client doesn’t necessarily have the same level of oversight that it normally would.

Contingent workforce management can be made easier with the following a few key best practices. Finding the right partner for contingent workforce procurement can mitigate challenges that arise when managing your contingent workforce. The right partner will understand what the client is trying to accomplish, and is every bit as invested in its own success as they are.

From a technology perspective, a vendor management system is highly – one that allows organizational leadership to effectively manage the various sources that these contingent employees are coming from. With a strong vendor management system, the client can easily administer, manage, and locate their contingent workforce.

Lastly, the help of a managed services provider (MSP) will also be recommended to bring these contingent workers together with the more permanent workforce, allowing them both to become something stronger as a collective than they ultimately would have been able to achieve on their own. That will in turn help not only the employees, but the business itself.

Workforce Marketplace Projections And Impacts To A Contingent Workforce Program

At times, there will be a surplus of workers who can offer their skills and services on a temporary basis. These workers, known as the contingent workforce, may have more room to negotiate their contracts with employers who need them. However, employers may also use contingent workforce management systems to find and hire the best workers for their projects. This could make the market more competitive for both workers and employers.

In addition to the ever-shifting supply and demand, we’re likely to see certain trends start to play out based on projections in the industry:

• Adaptable services: Workforce programs may start to expand to meet the needs of quickly scaling companies. It will make for a more competitive environment.
• Risk mitigation: Compliance violations can quickly derail a company’s relationships with its clients, not to mention the company itself. Because hiring contingent workers can be tricky, workforce programs will need to spend more time on their risk mitigation strategies to protect everyone involved.
• Better performance: Contingent workers may not need very much training, but it will take at least a little time to get up and running in their role. You should start to see workforce programs building a stronger culture of teamwork as a way to reduce friction during every step of the process.

For anyone looking to either hire in the future or continue relying on contingent workers to fill the gaps, it’s likely to be a hospitable environment for at least the rest of the year and into 2024.

Why Recent Events Made Contingent Workforce Programs More Prevalent

Events like COVID shifted people’s mindsets in ways that the world could have never predicted. The rules of the game, which included everything from commuting to set hours, became far murkier. And while it’s true that these changes were happening before they started making headlines, the pace at which it happened was unprecedented. It left employers wondering how they could manage a workforce that had very different expectations and priorities.

The solution turned out to be contingent workers for many employers. These professionals may have sacrificed some degree of security, but they were willing to do so in exchange for more freedom. Plus, they were able to step in when they were needed and then exit based on the project they were working on. Given the fluctuations of the economy, this also helped employers manage staff without having to go through the rigamarole of endless rotations and contracts.

Contingent workers are nothing new, even if the workforce programs have ramped up in terms of scale and scope. In the past, a conglomeration might have hired seasonal workers during the holidays or outsourced the work to a vendor. Today, companies of nearly every size may find themselves needing the expertise of a specialist on a fixed timeline. It’s a phenomenon that we’re likely to see more across industries, and it can be directly traced back to how the government, citizens, and employers responded to an economy that was forced to pivot on a dime.

How A Contingent Workforce Program Can Align To Hr Cycles

The most efficient workforce programs will be aligned with the cycles of HR. Here are a few things to focus on if you’re trying to streamline different groups:

• Details: The most efficient contingent worker programs are ones that can identify not just who is needed but where and when they’ll be required. Once this is all determined, it can be checked side-by-side against the performance management, hiring, and offboarding cycles of HR.
• Policies: Ideally, your contingent workers will be treated the same as permanent employees, even if there are a few key differences. It helps foster camaraderie and build a sense of loyalty, even for contractors who will eventually leave the organization.
• Automation: Automation makes it possible to smooth out any wrinkles in onboarding, performance tracking, and payment schedules. It can translate to far fewer hassles and confusion, which can make for an easier experience all around.
• Suppliers: The right workforce suppliers will be able to take a lot of the responsibility off of HR’s plate, which can make for a much more organized process. There should be less confusion as to who is responsible for what, making it easier for contingent workers to jump into the role and get to work.

Every organization will have its own HR policies to contend with, but it’s critical for every company to reconcile one workforce with the other. It’s the only way to keep teams working together during tough projects.

How Much Can An Industry Save With A Contingent Workforce?

A contingent workforce can save an industry a significant amount of money, though it’s clear that these figures are heavily dependent on the sector and the timing of the estimations. Some estimates put it at an average of 15% of labor costs, while others put the estimates as high as 30%.

It’s easy to see how costs can rack up for the hiring of one worker. From the benefit package to an HR manager’s time to the training, there are numerous factors that go into the onboarding of hiring an employee. Should that employee quit in a few months, this can make for a major financial loss. Some companies have built turnover into their budget, but they shouldn’t necessarily have to. A contingent workforce can remove a lot of these costs right from the word go. Not only will you cut back on the amount of training that you have to do for each worker, but you can standardize the contract so there’s far less work involved on either side of the table. Plus, you have a firm end date for the worker, so everyone can plan ahead.

Benefits Of Contingent Workforce Management

In order to understand the finer points of a contingent workforce, we must first come to a better understanding of what it is acting as a viable alternative to. In the vast majority of situations, a business will hire all of its employees as part of an in-house workforce. Those employees officially work for the business itself. They are paid some type of yearly salary or, in the case of some positions, an hourly wage. This results in a mutual understanding between both the employee and the employer that the worker will hold the position for a significant amount of time. In addition to the terms of employment, workers who fall under this category also receive the option for additional benefits such as healthcare, paid time off, and retirement benefits.

A contingent workforce comes with numerous advantages for the employee and the employer. These benefits include increased flexibility, fewer costs, and access to high-quality, in-demand talent. Organizations can fluctuate their contract labor numbers depending on their business demands, resulting in fewer layoffs, lower costs, and worker flexibility.

• Increased flexibility

1. A contingent workforce can provide organizations with the flexibility it needs to rapidly scale up or down depending on business needs without delays associated with full-time employees.

• Cost-effective

1. Although contract workers often have higher salaries than full-time employees, organizations do not have to pay the contingent workforce medical benefits, vacation time, or sick pay.

• Training

1. Organizations save time and money with a contingent workforce. Contract workers are highly specialized – they do not require a significant amount of training.

Challenges Of Contingent Workforce Management

Although a contingent workforce provides an organization with an abundance of advantages, contingent workforce management also comes with its fair share of disadvantages. Some of these challenges may include difficulty with compliance, job security, training restrictions, and communication barriers.

• Non-compliance

1. Contingent workforces often include a network of vendors – this makes compliance more difficult with a contingent workforce.

• Job security

1. Contingent workers have limited job security due to being hired based on business demands. This may result in contingent workers being less committed to the organization.

• Training restrictions

1. Contingent workers may not have access to corporate training resources that are available to full-time employees.

• Lack of understanding the arrangement

1. The end date of the contingent worker’s contract is not always set in stone. Because of this, contractors may feel led on once their contract has come to an end.

Monument Consulting Can Help

Founded in 2003, Monument Consulting is built on a commitment to our clients and our shared values. Through our genuine passion for delivery, relentless pursuit of perfection, and bold decision making, we are creating a more agile contingent workforce so businesses can dream bigger and achieve more. Our expertise is proven, and we’ve worked with a suite of Fortune 500 companies to help implement innovation that lasts. Our agile model allows us to pick the best tool(s) based on the flows and features that will truly meet our client’s needs and bring them the best outcomes.

If you’re looking for a partner who’s ready to help, contact us.

At its core, vendor onboarding involves an organization collecting the information needed to set up a third-party as a supplier or vendor for their own supply chain. An integral part of supplier onboarding is ensuring the prospective supplier complies with the laws, regulations, and standards required by your organization.

Before you begin the supplier onboarding process, it’s important to verify whether or not there are existing suppliers within your current supply chain that can be leveraged to meet your needs. Awarding business within your current supply chain will not only help strengthen your existing supplier relationships, but it will also increase the speed of delivery for the task at hand. If you’re unsure whether or not your current supply chain can address your needs, a GAP analysis can be performed to verify if bringing on a new supplier is the right step to take.

If you determine a new supplier is needed, vetting the new suppliers will be crucial to identifying the right partner to move forward with. You need to make sure any partner that you’re considering entering into an agreement with can truly meet your deliverables. To properly vet the suppliers, you should request they complete a Request for Information (RFI). The RFI will determine if this supplier can meet the needs of your client – if the supplier is not a good fit at this time, create a profile for them to store in your database.

 

When is Vendor & Supplier Onboarding Necessary?

There is a gap or a need your current supplier pool is not filling, but should you immediately look for a new supplier? You may believe a larger supplier pool is the best option – but in reality, a larger supplier pool may dilute your results. When a problem arises, analyze your current supplier pool first by performing a GAP analysis.

Performing a GAP analysis is an integral step in determining whether or not you need to onboard a new supplier. This will either validate that your organization does have a gap within your current supplier base or determine that your gap can be addressed through your current supplier pool. If you can’t solve your problem among your current supplier list, draft an RFI that centers around the issue you are trying to solve, and request suppliers provide the needed information to solidify that they can meet this demand.  Send the RFI to your prospective supplier base – the responses to your RFI will allow you to determine which supplier(s) are capable of addressing your issue at hand.

The vetting process is an integral part of successful supplier onboarding. Vetting is the process of diligently investigating your prospective suppliers prior to moving forward with a partnership. You must collect details from the RFI to determine if the prospective supplier will fill your gap or need. If you determine the prospective supplier is not capable of addressing your issue at hand, create a profile for them to store in your data base. Monument Consulting has an abundant list of suppliers and the needs that they support – creating this database is very useful for when a client comes to us with a gap in the future.

 

Why is Vendor Onboarding Important?

Implementing a supplier onboarding process is the premise of building strong partnerships with your suppliers. Not only will it strengthen your business relationships, but it will also assist your organization to mitigate risks, streamline processes (similar to a VMS), increase efficiency, and ensure compliance within your organization’s internal and external policies and regulations.

While the supplier onboarding process takes time, it is important to ensure all suppliers are fully compliant in order for your organization to minimize exposure to risk. Your hiring team may be eager to fill roles, but it must be done in a compliant manner with a deep due diligence process. Steps you may take to ensure supplier compliance include, but are not limited to, determining their financial health, verifying they have the right level of insurance, and processing a background check.

Although business needs may urge you to fast-track supplier onboarding, missteps in the process can cause business disruptions and impact your current supplier partnerships. To mitigate this, a standardized onboarding process can ensure all requirements are met to form a successful partnership.

 

3 Keys to Successful Supplier Onboarding

If through your GAP analysis, CW Readiness Assessment, and vetting process you’ve determined that moving forward with a new supplier is the right next step, there are several processes to follow in order to achieve successful supplier onboarding. Below are the main steps you’ll need to ensure the process flows smoothly.

1. Document your approval process
   • Before you build your supplier onboarding process, you should establish clear approval policies. Determine who from your organization needs to approve the onboarding of a new supplier, gather the necessary approval in writing, and store the approval per your compliance requirements.
2. Establish onboarding requirements and expectations
   • Outline your program’s supplier onboarding policies, procedures, and systems. Clearly outlining your requirements and expectations will not only allow your company to easily vet and approve appropriate suppliers, but it will also ensure the prospective suppliers are compliant with your regulations.
3. Establish a communication and training plan
   • As you develop your onboarding process, communication and training must be highly considered. This will increase efficiency, reduce the risk of human error, and strengthen supplier relationships.

Proper supplier onboarding also helps to ensure the supplier understand the rules of the program before they start. Together, examine the rules of engagement and the rules of the program; Define every document that needs to be filled out. As suppliers return the requested documentation, assign a member of your team to be accountable for ensuring each document is filled out completely and accurately. By auditing documentation as it is submitted, you will help mitigate risk of missed information which can result in impacts to your deliverables down the road.

 

After Onboarding

Once you have successfully onboarded your new supplier, your organization must ensure the supplier is fully prepared to support the client. To do so, you must provide training and orientation sessions to ensure your new supplier has all of the information necessary to successfully support your client. You will need to conduct a high-level introduction between the supplier and the client by setting up introductory meetings between the supplier and procurement, HR, management, and other appropriate client resources. Once the supplier has started supporting your client, begin tracking the performance.

Founded in 2003, Monument Consulting is built on a commitment to our clients and our shared values. Through our genuine passion for delivery, relentless pursuit of perfection, and bold decision making, we are creating a more agile contingent workforce so businesses can dream bigger, receive the benefits they need, and achieve more. Our expertise is proven, and we’ve worked with a suite of Fortune 500 companies to help implement innovation that lasts. Our agile model allows us to pick the best tool(s) based on the flows and features that will truly meet our client’s needs and bring them the best outcomes.

If you’re looking for a partner who’s ready to help, contact us.