For businesses that rely on a contingent workforce to help with daily business operations, it can grow cumbersome to manually manage each vendor. However, implementing a vendor management system can further streamline your contingent workforce and heighten overall efficiency. In the content below, we outline what a vendor management system does and explore five ways they benefit your business.
A vendor management system (VMS) is a digital or web-based software application that allows businesses to manage their company’s complete contingent workforce hiring process in one streamlined solution. The system facilitates the requisition and approval process, distribution of requisitions to suppliers for candidate submittal, the interview and selection process, the onboarding and compliance process, the submittal and approval of time and expenses, and ultimately, the invoicing process.
As a result, a VMS allows you to collect and store data for analyzation to forecast future needs and ensure items such as rate compliance, legal/regulatory compliance are maintained, service levels are met as well as understanding spend patterns resulting in an optimized contingent workforce. Additionally, a VMS can be used by managed service providers (MSPs) who optimize and manage a talent pool on behalf of a client on an outsourced basis providing transactional processing as well as insights into best practices, legal/regulatory and market trends.
Due to the many capabilities of a vendor management system, a single business can greatly benefit from implementing one to help manage their contingent workforce. Below, we explore five ways in which a vendor management system benefits your business.
As a vendor management system stores all your vendor and contingent worker transaction data in a single, cloud-based solution, you can transform data into measurable results through analyzing this data. With a VMS’ capability to produce advanced reporting and analytics, your business can better detect future contract management needs and opportunities and discover any dangerous inefficiencies in the process or insufficient leads in your sourcing of key contingent talent.
Furthermore, a VMS can also assist your analytics team in identifying new markets, products, and even potential projects to expand with your most trusted and valued suppliers. Alternatively, this can help you explore new vendors. As a result, the advanced reporting and analytics works to support your process in obtaining measurable results including higher quality products, lower costs, and building strong relationships with your existing and new vendors.
After implementing your vendor management system and entering in your suppliers, you can then begin tracking and measuring performance against the contractual Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to ensure your vendors are complying with your specified requirements. Doing so enables you to ensure optimal performance and detect any inconsistencies that may need improvements. As a result, a VMS works to effectively increase efficiencies within your contingent workforce.
Every process, contract, and transaction runs as a lifecycle. From purchase requisitions to staffing temp hires and invoicing, effective VMS usage streamlines each lifecycle by reducing cycle times. Therefore, a VMS improves cost savings, boosts your profitability, increases operational productivity, and builds value by capturing more discounts and incentives for early payments along with increasing vendor and contingent worker engagement resulting in a higher quality output.
Leveraging a VMS benefits your business by reducing operational costs in multiple avenues. For example, a VMS works to effectively manage your vendor payment system and can quickly note any discrepancies regarding overtime and exaggerated pay rates. With the increased visibility brought by a VMS, you can quickly detect invisible costs that you can eliminate or manage properly.
Additionally, this system allows you to access available resources that help avoid additional recruiting and training costs. As a result, your business can better understand different labor types and their accompanying rates to make better contract and onboarding decisions.
Likewise, building strong relationships with your suppliers—due to a VMS’ effective procedures and processes—can also help you negotiate better rates, accessing discounts and incentives that further increase your profit margin and reduce operational costs.
By automating invoicing through an interface/API with your Accounts Payable (A/P) system, you can reduce ongoing costs associated with manual processing as well as reducing errors caused by a manual process.
Businesses must be vigilant in remaining compliant with local and governmental regulations by having the correct contracts, insurance, onboarding protocols, and payment structures in place. A vendor management system benefits your business and mitigates risks by:
Skilled workers are high in demand and are more apt to partner with businesses that are easier to work with. Therefore, a strong and efficient vendor management system works to benchmark pricing for talent with specific skills and experience requirements, allowing you to better run your contingent workforce hiring and onboarding process.
The time and resources taken to onboard new vendors can slow down your productivity and heighten operational costs if not properly conducted. However, with a supplier management system, you can effectively obtain all relevant vendor information such as bank details, capability information, regulatory data, and capacity details to input into the system in a fast and error-free way for approval. The sooner you onboard vendors, the quicker you navigate through the procurement process and begin building your vendor partnership.
It is important to note that automated processes contribute to worker retention and satisfaction by providing a streamlined solution for contractor productivity. A VMS simplifies the routine of initiating talent strategy, planning, and proposing qualifying candidates for available positions as well as providing better access/increased visibility across the enterprise for vendors. Furthermore, it creates a reliable system of invoicing, processing payments, and even distributing reimbursement when applicable.
Although you have the internal staff to run a vendor management system independently, you may lack the configuration knowledge and best practices to choose and implement your VMS. However, consider partnering with our team of managed service providers (MSPs) at Monument Consulting to guide you and help implement the VMS on your behalf with the intention of handing it over for you to manage internally.
At Monument Consulting, we understand the importance of managing your contingent workforce in the most optimized and efficient manner. Therefore, our team uses vendor management systems to streamline our managed service provider services. Additionally, we offer contingent workforce management consulting services to share our expertise with your staff on how to operate your contingent workforce at maximum efficiency. Our team at Monument will train your team how to operate with a VMS and help with your configuration evaluation, system integrations, and VMS enhancements to tailor the program to your industry.
Are you looking to connect with Monument Consulting? Contact us today to ask about our contingent workforce consulting or managed service provider (MSP) services!
For businesses that rely on a contingent workforce to help with daily business operations, it can grow cumbersome to manually manage each vendor. However, implementing a vendor management system can further streamline your contingent workforce and heighten overall efficiency. In the content below, we outline what a vendor management system does and explore five ways they benefit your business.
The rise of the VMS (vendor management system) came out of the market demand for a better way to manage contingent labor. The software infrastructure to track, pay, and onboard your contingent workers only solves part of the need. Companies need to understand how to build an engagement process that is efficient, compliant, and effective.
To maximize results, companies typically lean on 3rd parties with the in-house expertise to guide them on contingent workforce management. One of the major trends for the past 20 years has been to fully outsource these programs using a Managed Service Provider (MSP).
However, in more recent years, companies have begun to show stronger interest in managing programs themselves, which leaves a gap for the rich expertise that MSP’s offer. This has ushered in a new era for standalone consulting, servicing clients with a menu of options without the limitations of a one-size-fits-all outsourced program.
MSPs provide an excellent solution for clients who are looking for an all-in-one package to implement, manage, and support their contingent labor. This solution is highly effective and cost efficient for clients with little to no in-house expertise. It provides the client the lowest risk option and can sometimes be the fastest path to success.
The MSP package draws a lot of appeal and provides immediate ROI and savings, which is why it is so popular across the contingent labor space. While the MSP model offers a multitude of benefits, there are draw-backs to consider.
While the MSP model provides an excellent service for clients without the in-house support to manage a program, it also takes away some of the client’s control over their own labor. Some clients are unwilling to take the risk on outsourcing so much of this critical procurement channel and prefer to keep the overall management within their own governance.
So how does a client keep the internal controls they desire without sacrificing the rich industry expertise an MSP offers? There are several reasons why a client might decide the MSP model is not right for them. We will explore some of the main client attributes that would make the MSP model an uncertain solution. Even if the MSP model is not the right fit, companies still need support, guidance, and expertise on the contingent workforce and are often lacking the internal resources to be successful. These companies will benefit greatly from a partner who can offer them stand-alone consulting services to support their program, without being required to enter a fully outsourced situation.
The great news for these types of companies is that there are options beyond the MSP. There are specialized companies who have built up years of industry experience and maintain in-house staff with expert-level skills around VMS, implementation, supplier engagement, and program management. Clients can decide to manage their contingent workforce program internally, but also recognize that they need some assistance in certain areas.
The contingent workforce management space is evolving and becoming more flexible to meet client demands. Companies should know they have options and can seek out the solution that is the perfect fit for their business needs. The first step is finding a partner with both the expertise and the agility to custom tailor a solution that is right for you. Companies should not be limited to providers who only offer MSP models, and should keep an open mind on what the market can offer.
You have the internal staff to run the program, but you are lacking the configuration knowledge and best practices to choose and implement your VMS. Consider bringing in a team of consultants to guide you and help stand up the VMS on your behalf, with the intention of handing it over for you to manage internally.
You have a functioning contingent workforce program but have not been able to realize the benefits of consolidating and cleaning up your vendor list. Leverage a company to come in and conduct an RFP, consolidate, and analyze your program metrics, make recommendations on how to maximize your buying power, and help you realize your new supplier engagement model.
You are limited to the rate data you have in-house and have not been able to do a formal comparison to the market. Bring in a 3rd party who has the market data and purchase a 1-time rate card analysis.
Monument Consulting continues to evolve with the CW industry. In addition to fully outsourced MSP programs, Monument has grown a global CW Consulting practice that leverages our depth of experience in running programs with an agile consultative approach to see how best practices and technical VMS deployments can address our clients’ challenges.
Monument recognizes the emerging trend in the industry where companies are either internally managing a program or looking for a contingent workforce expert. As a third-party solution, Monument has the desire and the expertise to meet both needs.
Are you looking to connect with Monument Consulting? Contact us today to ask about our contingent workforce consulting, readiness assessment or managed service provider (MSP) services!
For businesses that rely on a contingent workforce to help with daily business operations, it can grow cumbersome to manually manage each vendor. However, implementing a vendor management system can further streamline your contingent workforce and heighten overall efficiency. In the content below, we outline what a vendor management system does and explore five ways they benefit your business.
We understand that with COVID-19 social distancing regulations in place, the annual event may look differently this year. However, the upcoming CWS can still provide insight regarding the new landscape in contingent workforce labor. In the content below, we explore what you can expect from the upcoming 2020 Contingent Workforce Summit event regarding virtual booths, emerging industry trends, and vendors.
Although the event was scheduled to take place from September 14th to September 17th, 2020 at Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel in San Diego, CA, the Contingent Workforce Summit is now launching virtual booths. However, if you are a scheduled vendor for this event, this allows more attendees to discover your company.
With virtual booths, viewers can select from the list of vendors and virtually visit your company. Additionally, guests can “tap” on any desired company to connect with a live representative and instantly have a video conference.
As with any annual conference, guests want to discover new or forecasted trends for the upcoming year. For 2020, the most prominent discussion in the contingent workforce industry is without a doubt going to be surrounding what a post-COVID world will look like for many businesses.
No one likes a recession of any sort, especially the current recession brought by the global Coronavirus pandemic. Despite the slight chance that the economy could soon recover, many companies will reconsider hiring new employees for some time. Many will opt for reliance on contingent labor as they scale back in the coming months.
COVID-19 has drastically reimaged the contingent workforce labor landscape. Business owners are looking to better protect their company by hiring temps and contractors in lieu of solidifying full-time laborers. Therefore, with direct sourcing, contingent workforce programs are now becoming more recognized during these unprecedented times.
As one of the platinum vendors for this summit and virtual event, Monument Consulting is a contingent workforce consulting company offering both contingent labor management and consulting services.
If attending CWS Summit 2020 virtually, you can directly access different marketing material and white papers without video chatting with Monument. Alternatively, after reviewing the documents, you can opt for a follow-up video call with any questions or service requests. With seven devoted representatives available, you can easily contact one of our consultants.
At Monument’s virtual booth, you can easily discover and explore consulting services offered and the company’s vision. Monument recognizes the emerging trend in the industry where companies are either internally managing a program or looking for a contingent workforce expert. As a third-party solution, Monument has the desire and the expertise to meet both needs.
Are you looking to connect with Monument Consulting? Contact us today to ask about our contingent workforce consulting or managed service provider (MSP) services!
For businesses that rely on a contingent workforce to help with daily business operations, it can grow cumbersome to manually manage each vendor. However, implementing a vendor management system can further streamline your contingent workforce and heighten overall efficiency. In the content below, we outline what a vendor management system does and explore five ways they benefit your business.
Drive volume to smaller group of preferred suppliers
Enforce clear contractual guidelines with suppliers
Leverage VMS capabilities for LI process management
Use data & analytics to drive informed behavior
When implementing a new contingent workforce program for LI labor, take the following key items into consideration:
Because of the nature of Light Industrial management, it’s important to take the time to understand the most effective methods that will get you on the path to a “Best in Class” program.
By Julie Pittman, Program Director
As unemployment rates continue to drop and the candidate market remains competitive, resources with unique and high-demand skillsets are looking at flexible employment options. Working as an independent contractor enables them to promote their capabilities to more employers with flexible schedules and the ability to set their price. In an ever-changing climate for employers seeking to hire top talent, employers must often consider new talent channels, including Independent Contractors (IC). We explore how 3rd party compliance vendors can help manage all your independent contractors.
Unfortunately, independent contractors open the door to increased scrutiny and risk. Clients must be vigilant in ensuring they have the correct contracts, insurance, onboarding protocols, and payment structure to always remain in compliance.
One of the most effective ways to ensure these items are in place is to leverage a 3rd party compliance vendor or payroll provider to help onboard and manage Independent Contractors.
Utilizing a 3rd party compliance payroll provider that handles Independent Contractors’ administrative management through an established and formalized process is the best way to reduce risk and deliver efficiencies while also resulting in savings. Whether engaging a payroll provider directly or with an MSP’s assistance, the benefits to this type of relationship are not ones to be overlooked.
Below are some of the key benefits of using a 3rd party compliance vendor for IC compliance:
The payroll provider will assume all risks associated with the contingent workers’ classification and typically indemnify the client against potential legal outcomes.
They will ensure proper classification by conducting a thorough analysis of the resource, the job request, and management style. They will also provide ongoing compliance by holding the client accountable via periodic engagement audits.
This model will also help bridge the gap on the higher insurance limits that an IC may not afford. This helps to open the market and opportunity for both the client and resources.
A client can expect a simplified contract structure to execute just one agreement with the payroll provider, who will then implement direct agreements with each IC. This is a way to ensure consistent terms and reduce the volume of contract requests with a client’s legal team.
This process will also help streamline all onboarding and payments. Once contracts are complete, clients will have one POC to complete onboarding and ensure the contractor is set up compliantly. The payroll provider will also handle all reconciliation and invoice processing directly with the resources. This allows the client to process one consolidated invoice for all independent contractors.
At Monument Consulting, we understand the importance of managing your contingent workforce in the most optimized and efficient manner. Therefore, our team uses the industry’s leading vendor management systems to streamline our managed service provider programs. Additionally, we offer contingent workforce management consulting services to share our staff’s expertise on how to operate your contingent workforce at maximum efficiency. Interested in Freelancer Management System? Learn more here.
Are you looking to connect with Monument Consulting? Contact us today to ask about our contingent workforce consulting or managed service provider (MSP) services.
It’s common in the industry for clients to utilize SOW workers for a multitude of projects. Historically, it’s typical for the workers on these projects to be H1B VISA holders. When using this type of labor, it’s important to have a tight compliance strategy to ensure the client is protected. A contingent workforce program can help.
Below are our top three recommendations to help manage your H1B contractor population and support your vendors.
Clients should always know the worker population on a VISA. Failing to keep track of such could result in a contractor working outside of compliance regulations.
Client letters are an essential part of the H1B VISA process, as they help demonstrate that a valid employer-employee relationship exists. The absence of a client letter makes it likely that the H1B case will receive a request for evidence (RFE), as well as greatly increases the risk of denial.
Clients must be pro-active in working with the vendor to provide proof that they are working with a client in the United States and their end date on the specified project. Therefore, client letters must be drafted and signed by the client when a new H1B worker starts a project.
Clients must remain prepared to show proof of compliance to Immigration Services at any instance and have the correct data available on demand to share with them upon request.
Clients who formalize their contingent workforce programs and decide to leverage a Vendor Management System (VMS) can utilize the functionality available to track the H1B worker population in the tool, determine those workers who are on a VISA, as well as notate the expiration date of their current VISA.
This is crucial as it provides the ability to run reports and stay ahead of the expiration dates. Not only is it imperative to maintain consistency with the expiration dates/housing of the client letters sent, but it is vastly important to stay compliant and have an efficient way of tracking the letters if required to show proof to Immigration Services.
Here is an example workflow you can deploy in your VMS to help automate this process:
To help ensure you have the best overall management of your H1B worker population, remember these key best practices: know who the population of VISA workers are, track the expiration dates in an auditable way for those workers, and partner with your vendors to ensure paperwork is kept up to date.
At Monument Consulting, we understand the importance of managing your contingent workforce in the most optimized and efficient manner. Therefore, our team uses the industry’s leading vendor management systems to streamline our managed service provider programs. Additionally, we offer contingent workforce management consulting services to share our expertise with your staff on how to operate your contingent workforce at maximum efficiency.
Are you looking to connect with Monument Consulting? Contact us today to ask about our contingent workforce consulting or managed service provider (MSP) services!
By Desiree Sprague, Program Manager
For companies that are shifting their workforce approach in an adjustment to the impact of the Coronavirus, the talent on-demand workforce is quickly becoming a growing trend in several industries’ talent management strategy. Unlike traditional staffing options, the on-demand workforce focuses on the flexibility of the task, matching worker’s skills to outcome desired and tapping into a pool of workers that traditional staffing agencies may not have access to, or in some cases, may not be willing to support such as short-term, highly specialized requirements.
As the desire for flexibility grows among the workforce, recruiters are seeking independent engagements and using on-demand platforms to help them with their business development. This trend is spanning across many labor categories including, IT, marketing, accounting/finance, creative, and more.
On-demand talent or freelancers are a wonderful solution for companies that are looking to expand their parameters of what talent looks like. This solution can bring in hard-to-find talent, while filling the gaps in your total talent management strategy.
The number of available on-demand talent platform options can intimidate a client, and it can be difficult to decipher which ones to use. Therefore, utilizing a curator and aggregator of these platforms helps them engage with many on-demand platforms while keeping the simplicity and working through one vendor.
The benefits of working through a company like this include:
As companies look to engage with on-demand talent, it’s important to remember that this type of talent is not going to look and feel like the traditional worker. Typically, talent on-demand works remotely, which offers the flexibility to widen the talent pool.
Additionally, on-demand talent is typically best utilized when looking to complete a project with a clear outcome. This allows talent curators to match the outcome with workers’ specific skills, to ensure the final product is completed correctly. Clients have less control over setting working hours and the focus is shifted to the completion of the task. As a result, the on-demand workforce is incentivized to maintain a high satisfaction rating as this follows them from project to project.
Are you still unsure of which talent on-demand platform to use? Consider partnering with our team of managed service providers (MSPs) at Monument Consulting to implement and internally manage your on-demand talent.
At Monument Consulting, we understand the importance of managing your contingent workforce in the most optimized and efficient manner. Therefore, our team uses vendor management systems to streamline our managed service provider services.
Additionally, we offer contingent workforce management consulting services to share our expertise with your staff on how to operate your contingent workforce at maximum efficiency. Our team at Monument will train your team how to operate with a VMS and help with your configuration evaluation, system integrations, and system enhancements to tailor the program to your industry and on-demand talent needs.
Are you looking to connect with Monument Consulting? Contact us today to ask about our contingent workforce consulting or managed service provider (MSP) services!
By Morgan Mazza, Sr. Program Director
With regulations incessantly evolving across the contingent workforce industry, it can be hard to remain compliant while also mitigating clients. Below, we define IR35 and explore three effective client mitigation strategies to alleviate the risk posed by the new regulations.
IR35 is the UK’s regulatory version of proper classification for Independent Contractors (resembling regulations around using 1099s vs W2s here in the US). Essentially, the IR35 defined is a piece of legislation that allows HMRC (HM Revenue and Customs) to collect additional payment where a contractor is an employee in all but name.
The law expands to include the private sector effective as of April 2020, so companies doing business in the UK need to start thinking about how they will manage this population and stay compliant.
If they choose to work with PSC’s (Personal Service Companies), the new regulations put more responsibility on the client to classify the worker correctly and pay taxes. In the UK, this is the loose equivalent to a 1099 worker.
For UK clients who use PSC’s, the client would have to classify the worker correctly. If they discover during that classification that the worker is doing a job that qualifies them as an “employee,” the client would then be responsible for paying their social taxes to the UK government. This is a shift from the previous regulations, which placed the responsibility for tax obligation on the PSC, not the client.
To help mitigate the risk posed by the new regulations, clients can consider any of the three strategies below.
Like in the United States, one optional policy is to avoid PSC’s (Independent, self-employed workers) altogether. Suppose the worker is a PAYE employee of the agency you hire them through. In that case, the agency is responsible for paying all their employment taxes, and the client has no additional obligations.
Use an “umbrella company” (a version of a payroll company) for sitting between the client and the PSC and covering all the necessary employer tax obligations. This can be a pricey option as it raises the workers’ rates by at least 15% unless you can get the worker to take a pay cut to cover the difference.
Establish a system & process for conducting internal assessments on all PSC’s in the organization to help properly classify them and take appropriate action on any that fall under the new regulations. This would need to be established and conducted on all active workers & implemented as a new process for all new workers hired going forward. This is something you can partner with your MSP on to help design an efficient process towards proper classification and leverage features within your VMS to help automate and streamline.
All clients doing business in the UK should seriously consider taking immediate action to understand the current worker population better and determine the best course of action.
Although you have the internal staff to run a vendor management system independently, you may lack the configuration knowledge and best practices to choose and implement your VMS. However, consider partnering with our team of managed service providers (MSPs) at Monument Consulting to guide you and help implement the VMS on your behalf to hand it over for you to manage internally.
At Monument Consulting, we understand the importance of managing your contingent workforce in the most optimized and efficient manner. Therefore, our team uses vendor management systems to streamline our managed service provider services.
Additionally, we offer contingent workforce management consulting services to share our expertise with your staff on how to operate your contingent workforce at maximum efficiency. Our team at Monument will train your team on working with a VMS and help with your configuration evaluation, system integrations, and VMS enhancements to tailor the program to your industry.
Are you looking to connect with Monument Consulting? Contact us today to ask about our contingent workforce consulting or managed service provider (MSP) services!
By Ashlee Gagstetter, VP Strategic Delivery
How many old pairs of shoes do you have collecting dust in your attic? In the case of Monument’s Richmond office, the answer is a lot. In less than a month, Monument collected over 200 pairs of shoes for our Soles4Souls Shoe Drive! Soles4Souls is an international organization, that does more than just put shoes on the feet of the impoverished; they also use shoes to create empowered entrepreneurs in third-world countries. Just 20 pairs of shoes can provide a year’s worth of shelter for a family in Haiti! We are so proud of this drive and will continue to work with Soles4Souls in the future.