Chris Dwyer is back with the second article in a four-part series that will present a series of best practices and recommended strategies for managing the modern contingent workforce framework (click here for Part I of this series).
During the first entry in this series, I discussed the importance of “respecting” the notion of the contingent workforce framework (I also refer to this as an umbrella). This will be a consistent theme throughout this series on CPO Rising, as many of our best practices pertain to the nuances and complexities of this unique contract talent framework. Today’s best practices revolve around a key component of contemporary contingent workforce management that, unfortunately, is often overlooked – data!
- Analytics are the key to the future. Think about every category sourced by your organization. Chances are that the sourcing team leveraged some type of intelligence before making any critical decisions. Contingent workforce management is no different; business intelligence, data reporting, analytics… they are all crucial items in truly understanding the ramifications of contract talent (including cost, budgetary items, performance against corporate objectives, etc.). Too, leveraging analytics can help any internal unit make an informed decision about utilizing a specific service or contractor. With the growing need for talent to fulfill project-based needs, executives know that they need high-quality candidates (and services) to meet those requirements.
- Develop the ability to drill-down into all forms of contingent workforce data. As we’ve stated previously, the contingent workforce category consists of more than just traditional temp labor. It has become important to understand the new angles to this complex category. For example, for project-based spend, how do current projects stand against milestones AND pre-defined budgets? Which regions of the organization are utilizing more consultants and services than others? Can you pinpoint instances of risk for those locations that leverage independent contractors? These types of data can provide valuable intelligence.
- Make sure your performance measurement initiatives look beyond the “simple” metrics. As recently as a few years ago, I talked to many organizations that were still gauging the success of their contingent workforce programs by the level of cost savings achieved on the overall spend in this category. While this approach may have been satisfactory five years ago, savings simply fails to capture the full value that can be derived from managing this category. For leading programs, quality has become a better indicator of success than cost savings. One metric that is increasingly used over the past couple of years is the percentage of temporary workers or projects / services that meet or exceed pre-defined goals, objectives, delivery dates and milestones. This quantitative spin (a “percentage”) on a qualitative notion (“quality”) can greatly assist organizations in measuring the quality and effectiveness of all aspects of managing the contingent workforce category.
- Leverage reporting to pinpoint trends and irregularities. While the wave of the future revolves around understanding and managing the complexities of the umbrella (ICs, SOW, services), organizations must not forget the efficiencies that helped them master the art of traditional temporary labor management. Cycle time and rate anomalies, as well as tenure violations, are critical to catch before they wreak havoc on corporate budgets (the same applies to catching excessive overtime in temp workers).
