CWS 3.0: October 8, 2014

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Big data tool to optimize strategic workforce plans

With all the hype about “big data” and metrics tracking, contingent workforce managers have a lot to consider. But comparing their data to that of their peers isn’t always an apples-to-apples endeavor, nor is accurate data always available, especially at the micro level. A job category at one company may have different tasks than at another, making comparisons complicated at best. However, the Talent Data Exchange, announced this week at the CWS Summit in Las Vegas, is a membership-based data aggregation service that aims to enable companies to compute the cost of nonemployee labor and other critical metrics, to test the validity of their workforce strategies, anonymously and precisely.

Today, most companies have to source temporary workers and independent contractors without verifiable insight into market dynamics or benchmarks of talent supply chain performance. The Talent Data Exchange seeks to provide a sizable source of hard data to reliably answer these questions. The tool will accomplish this by breaking work assignment needs into granular bits and pieces to define job functions more precisely, so companies can get a comprehensive and accurate picture of the labor market.

“Companies are addressing economic uncertainty by filling more roles with contingent workers, on-demand,” said Jason Ezratty, Brightfield Strategies’ president. “The Talent Data Exchange helps to ensure these decisions are cost effective and in line with a greater workforce strategy.”

The tool will benefit contingent workforce programs in several ways. It will provide insight into how their program’s performance and metrics compares to the overall market. And program managers can use the tool to gain a better understanding of market dynamics, talent supply chain performance, market rates, statutory costs or other labor market benchmarks.

Staffing Industry Analysts, publisher of this newsletter, announced it plans to offer membership to the Talent Data Exchange as part of its Contingent Workforce Strategies Council and corporate membership offerings.

 “We constantly strive to provide better market information on the fast-changing world of contingent work,” said Barry Asin, president of Staffing Industry Analysts. “We are excited to partner with Brightfield Strategies on this effort to develop better data sources and analytics on the use of contingent labor and look forward to enhancing the information flow in the marketplace.”

The goal is to capture as much as possible of the $100 billion in annual contingent workforce global spend transacted in vendor management systems. Staffing Industry Analysts estimates the total global contingent workforce market at $3 trillion.

The exchange will be operational in January 2015.