Welcome to CPO Rising’s all-new feature, the Future of Work Influencer series, which will highlight innovative voices in the evolving world of work. This exciting new series will be a go-to spot for progressive thoughts on how technology, transformational thinking, and revolutionary ideas are changing how work gets done. Be sure to check out past articles in this series here.

Paul Vincent, Global Head of Services Procurement at Hays Talent Solutions, joins us for this week’s Future of Work Influencer feature:

Christopher J. Dwyer: Hi Paul, it’s great to chat with you once again. You’ve been in the contingent workforce and talent management industry for quite some time; tell us a little bit about yourself and your background.

Paul Vincent: Likewise, Chris, I always enjoy our conversations. To be honest, it might have been called different things over the years, but it feels like I have been in and around the contingent/talent management space for most of my career. I have spent the past four years in product-related roles, first with KellyOCG and now with Hays Talent Solutions.

Before Kelly, I spent six years running my own advisory practice, helping organizations to buy and sell business services more effectively. I helped a variety of sell-side providers to win more contracts, from the largest and most established consulting firms in the world, to a local air conditioning company. I helped procurement teams of varying levels of ambition to increase their influence and impact. I also supported budget holders more directly in sourcing and engaging the talent they needed.

Prior to establishing Insight Sourcing Solutions, I had a successful corporate career within BT Group PLC (one of the world’s largest telcos) traversing many procurement, commercial, and change management positions.

CJD: Every time you and I talk, the conversation always gravitates towards SOW management and services procurement, two subcategories of non-employee labor that we are both incredibly passionate about. Why should businesses make more of an effort to centralize and standardize these oft-overlooked aspects of contingent workforce management?

PV: For me, Chris, there are four key reasons.

The first is to maximize return on investment, and you cannot possibly achieve this consistently without introducing some form of process rigor. The second is improving speed-to-productivity. The third is to minimize the service provider’s cost of sale, which is an area of value generation that I feel most, if not all, buying organizations overlook. Finally, it is to ensure that any individual who plays a part in the buying process can optimize their personal “return on effort.”

CJD: Tell us about your role at Hays Talent Solutions and your plans for the position.

PV: Well, firstly, I want to say how excited I am about the opportunity I have been given. Hays has a great pedigree in the workforce solutions marketplace and they have high ambitions, which was a very big attraction to me. My role, as the Global Head of Services Procurement, is to help our client-facing teams produce incremental value in three key areas: 1) by offering clients the most compelling and practical improvement ideas for how they engage outcome-based talent, 2) by helping them to identify, scope, and deliver whatever interventions will bring these ideas to life, and, 3) by tracking how these interventions are helping our clients to become more competitive in their chosen fields.

CJD: MSPs have long demonstrated incredible value in regard to the way SOW-led projects/labor and services procurement is ultimately managed. Yet, so many current MSP customers are not actively leveraging the solution to oversee and handle this critical area of the external workforce; what is the true value of the MSP model in managing SOW and services?

PV: You and I have certainly mulled this one over a few times!

I have been reading an interesting book by the American organizational theorist Russell Ackoff recently and one of my favorite quotes is: “A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” That is often how I feel when I hear visibility, control, and cost savings being touted as the primary goals of a services procurement/SOW management program.

Whilst these things are important, they are merely the means to an end and not the end itself. The primary goal when engaging outcome-based talent should be to liberate how the work gets done rather than constrain it. If you want proof of this just look at the statistic from your last annual survey, where more than 90% of respondents said the reason they did not implement an SOW program was because of stakeholder resistance. If we therefore view success as putting a straightjacket around the people with the need and the budget, then we should not be surprised. But, if we focus on how we enable their success then why wouldn’t they want to leverage the MSP model?

CJD: We know that SOW/services can account for upwards of 55%-to-65% of all contingent labor. From a spend perspective alone, it’s a critical area to enhance. From a Future of Work perspective, however, how does this fit in?

PV: Organizational agility, speed-to-market, and competitive differentiation, these are all things that can be directly-impacted by a well-designed and dynamically deployed services/SOW management program. There is also the fact that, and again Chris, I think many buying organizations overlook this, it is going to be increasingly important to become the most attractive client of choice.

If you help service providers to reduce their cost of sale, these savings can be passed onto you. If you proactively help service providers to hit the ground running, they will be more productive and deliver your objectives sooner. If you underwrite their performance by giving them a great testimonial, they will sing your praises to other service providers who may work for you in the future.

These are core beliefs that need to become the norm in services/SOW programs, and I, for one, am going to try and lead the way!

Connect with Paul on LinkedIn, or visit www.haystalentsolutions.com for more information on Hays Talent Solutions.

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