There are many contingent workforce solutions you can deploy to get the most out of your contingent workers. The solutions you nominate must be right, specifically for your organisation’s talent needs. So, it stands to reason, these are critical workforce decisions.
But there’s one that we can attest, is perhaps the most important of all.
And that’s strategic sourcing.
Strategic sourcing of your contingent workforce holds a myriad of competitive advantages for your business, as long as you embed this approach into the DNA of your contingent workforce solutions.
As we continue to wade through the ongoing global pandemic, we’re seeing more and more organisations embracing the advantages of contingent workers.
And when sourced and managed strategically, these workers have the capacity to:
- Enable the organisation to acquire specialist, high-end talent they may otherwise not have been able to afford
- Reduce the organisation’s headcount and talent costs
- Improve the organisation’s efficiencies in being able to quickly upscale or downscale depending on how the market is moving
- Improve the organisation’s productivity and quality of service delivery
- …amongst other benefits
And it’s the sourcing of these workers that is as crucial as how they’re managed. You see, most companies approach the management of contingent workers as the pure play of contingent workforce solutions.
But they’re wrong. It’s the sourcing that’s equally – if not more – important.
Here’s why you need to embrace strategic sourcing – and optimise your contingent workforce solutions.
What is Strategic Sourcing?
Strategic sourcing is the process of reviewing, streamlining and continually improving both the procurement function of your business, and your talent supply chain.
The result enables your organisation to analyse the sources and channels through which the best contingent talent is being found. And by maintaining this activity over time, your business can augment the best sources and channels, for the best contingent workers, with the best fit for your business.
It’s genius.
Contingent Workforce Solutions – The Strategic Sourcing ‘How To’
Procurement: The Primary Function for Strategic Sourcing
Your contingent talent procurement plan is one of the key contingent workforce solutions, underpinning strategic sourcing. By mapping out the expectations, benchmarks, and success measures over time, your procurement function will enable your business to:
- Achieve improved procurement efficiencies
- Keep costs of contingent labour down
- Source the best contingent talent. So, procurement delivers optimal value to your business
- Be talent competitive
HR and Procurement: The Ultimate Partnership
A successful collaboration between HR and Procurement will allow your business to realise an integrated, strategic force for the sourcing and allocation of contingent workers. This partnership will therefore be positioned to deliver long-term value to your business. With increasing agility, a unified HR/Procurement approach will enable the sharing of information, information transparency, and clarity on business needs, as the procurement of contingent talent is undertaken.
The starting point for a healthy procurement ecosystem lies in creating a world-class data, information, and intelligence strategy that provides visibility into spending decisions, consumption patterns, performance and quality data, supply chain risks, market insights, and intelligence.
Supplier Relationships
With the backing of the HR team, and a talent procurement plan in place, your procurement team can focus on the assessment and management of suppliers delivering the best contingent talent. By nurturing these relationships over time, your organisation will be able to get the most return for your investment in contingent talent – simply by sourcing the best in the market.
Technology
Vendor Management Systems (VMS) are a critical function in the efficient sourcing and management of contingent workers. With sophisticated reporting capabilities thanks to advances in VMS technology, the VMS can automate the analysis and reporting of your supplier’s performance. With speed and accuracy, your HR and Procurement can make accurate sourcing decisions, based on hard data and performance insights. Brilliant.
Let’s talk about strategic sourcing for your business…
There are host of additional strategic sourcing ideas, to enhance the contingent workforce solutions in place at your business. If you would like to know more, please reach out to me here.
