CWS 3.0: September 17, 2014

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Do you have it? New CW leadership skills are required

As CW program management professionals gather at Staffing Industry Analysts’ Contingent Workforce Strategies Summit and Solutions Forum next month, it is timely to reflect on the leadership required to manage today’s corporate CW program. New requirements and priorities are emerging for the strategic leverage of contingent work that go beyond the original program priorities of five to 10 years ago. CW program management content has evolved and matured over time, taking on a broader required role in its focus and scope.

Originally, the goal of the CW program was primarily to control cost, to deliver safe and reliable access to cost-effective contingent worker resources. The CW program was an internal entrepreneurial corporate effort that was self-funded with limited corporate wide empowerment but carried some very compelling ROI value propositions.

Another element was the increase of contingent work usage in companies that were experiencing crazy growth led by creative, innovative managers working in fast changing, competitive business applications. It was similar to the initial rollout of PC technology in the corporate environment, individual managers creatively brought the technology into the corporate setting thru rental budgets and executed amazing things with this new resource in spite of centralize IS department significant displeasure. In terms of contingent work, creative managers needed workforce flexibility that was temporary in engagement and cost-effectively provided the skill sets they required.

Today’s CW programs still require safe and reliable access to cost-effective workforce resources. The professional sourcing, vendor and administrative policy management capabilities are fundamental elements of any effective CW program leadership. But with the continued growth and expanding application of contingent workforce applications, CW program leaders need to incorporate additional talent management perspectives on a global playing field.

While median CW penetration of companies’ workforces hovers around 15 percent, some organizations have contingent workforce penetration rates of 20 to 50 percent. This requires CW program managers to shift their focus from cost and administrative management to talent management, program and adoption development and enterprise-wide change management.

Can your MSP solutions program leader effectively engage business unit or c-level executive leadership to drive compelling global adoption of CW program initiatives? Does your MSP leader or provider have the skills necessary to enhance your employment brand, sell the expansion content of your program within your corporate environment and/or empower you with business intelligence so you can effectively engage your corporation’s strategic workforce planning process? CW program and MSP solution management leadership needs to include elements of talent resource management experts, workforce planners, process management technologists and data scientists’ skill sets. 

The original focus and requirement of CW program leadership has not faded away. It is still a fundamental requirement that in many cases is more complex and made to look easy by the competence of today’s professionals. But the growing demands of competitive, innovative engagement managers are requiring more of a talent management play in the execution of the CW program and expecting its leadership to reflect that focus and deliver that business partnership value.