Back in October, I had the opportunity to sit down with new PRO Unlimited CEO Kevin Akeroyd on the Contingent Workforce Weekly podcast to discuss his outlook for the contingent workforce industry and his overall vision as the new leader for one of the market’s most mature MSP and VMS solutions. With the launch of the company’s new RatePoint market rate intelligence platform, I once again chatted with Kevin about his thoughts on the impact of the new application, the innovation behind it, and his overall views on the agile workforce in 2021.

Christopher J. Dwyer: PRO Unlimited just announced its RatePoint market-rate intelligence application. This is, of course, a major industry development. Tell us about it.

Kevin Akeroyd: RatePoint is a new SaaS application that provides employers with on-demand rate and hiring intelligence for professional contingent positions globally. We’re super excited about this new offering because historically a lack of market rate intelligence has prevented organizations from fully optimizing hiring decisions. PRO’s RatePoint platform changes this paradigm by offering instant access to the world’s largest market rate data repository.

RatePoint uses this vast data repository and PRO’s advanced technology to help companies optimize their contingent workforces. It also enhances an organization’s entire spectrum of services and contingent strategic sourcing, including outsourced services providers (SOW). Lastly, it streamlines and standardizes organizations’ contingent taxonomy across markets and job descriptions, all from a purely vendor-neutral strategic approach, offering unbiased hiring intelligence for the modern workforce. The application also creates value via seamless integration with PRO’s industry-leading Vendor Management System (VMS), Wand.

As a critical component of a holistic technological ecosystem, RatePoint will help companies drive their businesses forward as part of their human capital strategy.

CD: In a very strange 2020 (and assuming the early parts of 2021 will be similar), the focus has shifted back to cost savings as a core performance arena for contingent workforce management. As savings re-enters the picture as a core contingent workforce management (CWM) program differentiator, how important will market rate intelligence be?

KA: Market rate intelligence is incredibly important for increasing cost savings. Without this type of intelligence, organizations frequently pay higher market rates by role and/or location, resulting in significant unnecessary spend.

This challenge of accurately assessing market rates has been compounded by the coronavirus pandemic and the uptick in remote work across the United States and globally. As you’d expect, organizations looking to hire in new locations often lack market rate intelligence for those locales.

A powerful rate intelligence platform can help these companies understand how rates for contingent workers shift when looking at different locations, and whether there are untapped areas that offer better value. Not only can this intelligence drive valuable cost savings, but it also has the potential to increase diversity, accelerate time to fill, and expand an organization’s pool for niche skills.

CD: You and I chatted about the “platform” aspect of the greater enterprise software market. Why do you believe that our industry needs this type of model?

KA: The number of contingent employees is increasing worldwide, currently making up about 40% of the workforce – and growing. At the same time, organizations worldwide are exploring new avenues for leveraging the advantages a contingent workforce offers, such as access to talent, greater flexibility, innovation, cost reduction and protection against financial risk. Additionally, the contingent workforce has become a large spend category, transforming it to a C-suite strategic priority.

The established spend management and HCM platforms don’t address the full contingent workforce management lifecycle in all its complexity. Furthermore, they aren’t capable of harnessing the data to provide analytics and intelligence on companies’ contingent workforce segments. Put simply, the current platforms need to evolve to meet the needs of the marketplace.

A holistic platform that can deliver the technology, data/analytics and managed services to optimize the full contingent workforce program is going to help organizations exceed both their contingent workforce goals and their broader organizational objectives. Being the platform that seamlessly interoperates with ERP, HCM, HRIS, P2P, and Data and Analytics systems will be paramount.

CD: How do you see the agile workforce making a critical impact in the months ahead?

KA: As I mentioned earlier, contingent workers already make up about 40% of the workforce, and many Global 2000 executives I’ve spoken with have been talking about the number increasing to 50% or 60% over the next few years. The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated this timeline, so instead of looking at this shift taking place over years, in many cases we’re talking about months.

In this landscape, especially given lingering economic uncertainty, an agile workforce is critical. For organizations looking to expand their remote workforces, we think the solution starts with the contingent workforce. What better place to attempt such a new approach to talent acquisition than contingent labor, where you can “try before you buy”? Under this approach, an organization can target key roles or departments in a nuanced, data-driven method.

Put another way: by starting with contingent labor, if the organization elects to change course in six months, the contingent workforce offers a safer alternative to hiring remote full-time employees.

CD: What’s your overall outlook for 2021?

KA: The onset of the pandemic in early 2020 led to a decline in contingent hires, but it quickly rebounded and increased higher than pre-pandemic levels. As such, we expect contingent roles will replace many full-time, white-collar jobs going in 2021. By late 2021, we expect over half of skilled workers will be contingent, and employers will need to successfully manage this expanding workforce.

To that end, companies will need to expertly address rapidly evolving areas related to the gig economy such as localization, globalization, changing regulatory and labor laws, remote work, and diversity and inclusion, among others.

In addition, as the spend under management continues to expand, the contingent workforce management program will no longer be pushed down the org chart and relegated to tactical plans. Instead, the C-suite will increasingly be more involved in strategic discussion around this workforce.

Furthermore, the use of machine learning, AI and emergent market rate intelligence technologies tied to both data analytics and VMS is going be more important than ever. They’ll need to provide stakeholders with the ability to enhance sourcing, managing and tracking of the global non-employee workforce, optimizing it as part of their overall human capital strategy.

Check out more information about PRO Unlimited, as well as their new RatePoint market rate intelligence solution.

Tagged in: Christopher Dwyer, Complex Categories, Contingent Workforce, Future of Work Influencer, Innovation, People, Process, Solution Providers, Strategy, Technology