This year for the first time, Staffing Industry Analysts launched a case study of innovative contingent workforce programs. After reviewing dozens of submissions, the SIA team identified six that we felt were the most innovative and invited them to present their programs to attendees at the 2012 CWS Summit, held last week in San Diego.
Novartis
Presented by: Roger Hendry, Head of Novartis Switzerland Indirect
By deploying what became the first VMS /MSP deployment in Switzerland, Novartis developed an innovative processes and custom workflow to drive program success. Hiring managers complete just six fields to acquire talent, easing the administrative burden and resulting in a 99 percent compliance rate. This high program adoption rate enables better supplier performance visibility, data quality and cost savings. Implementing a CW program in Switzerland, known for its banks and chocolates, posed its own unique challenges.
Eli Lilly
Presented by: John Heigl, Consultant, Flexible Staffing
As with many companies, Eli Lilly had issues with contingent worker quality and user experience. Low survey response rates and end-of-assignment feedback created a challenge for the program owners to identify opportunities and improve adoption and client satisfaction. With poor responsiveness to its survey tools, the company needed to figure out a mechanism wherein it could diagnose quality issues around workers and come up with an appropriate solution. By applying uniform rules within a VMS, consistent nomenclature and feedback capture, Eli Lilly was able to make dramatic changes to its program to better define quality, something that resonated with its internal stakeholders and conference attendees.
K12
Presented by: Lexi Elliot, Sr. Director, Recruiting Services
K12, a technology-based education company founded in 1999, had a problem. It had been growing at an incredibly rapid pace (averaging 50 percent year-over-year employee growth) and its ability to sustain such growth relied heavily on its contingent workforce. The complexity of worker classifications coupled with a lack of visibility of into its talent supply chain created a problem. By deploying a robust payrolling program with a hybrid MSP, it was able to provide the visibility and scalability that its previous program sorely lacked.
United Parcel Service (UPS)
Presented by: Trey Austin, Director, Global Contingent Staffing Program
As with any unmanaged CW program, United Parcel Service (UPS) struggled with program improvement. Suspect and error-filled data created issues for the company when interpreting and identifying opportunities. Further, its decentralized program made it difficult to consistently manage disparate contracts across dozens of suppliers. To solve this problem, UPS considered a number of options and finally decided to roll out an external MSP and VMS together. In doing so, the company was able to realize more than $6 million in savings and reduce its vendor base to 37 from 97. Savings were realized through not only margin capture, but by retasking its background checking procedures through its own UPS LexiNexis portal. Many CWS managers in the audience identified with the challenges outlined in this presentation.
Freescale Semiconductor
Presented by: Lesa Seyer, Global Talent Acquisition Programs Manager
Freescale Semiconductor is a global leader in processing solutions advancing the automotive, consumer, industrial and networking markets. Through a strategic partnership with its providers, Freescale was able to realize significant savings through creative use of e-auction solutions and sourcing strategies. It is a study in the multitude of ways a company can achieve substantial program savings while maintaining provider quality and internal operational excellence. By partnering with its MSP while keeping an eye toward supplier success, it was able to capture savings without burning bridges with their vendors.
Qualcomm
Presented by: Ed Hidalgo, Director, Global Staffing
In late 2010, Qualcomm pitched the idea and won the opportunity to build its VMS tool from scratch. The company's CW program is managed internally. While many companies looked to Excel spreadsheets or Access databases as a stop-gap measure, Qualcomm intended to build a long-term solution customized to its unique needs. It assembled a team with representatives from multiple departments. After months of whiteboard sessions the team developed the framework for a system. Built in Java with the supplier front-end in HTML 5, the system is now live in the U.S., India, Taiwan, China, Canada and U.K. and has almost 100 suppliers in the tool.
The early response from the supplier base has been incredibly positive. There are more than 500 open requisitions being sourced and managed in the tool around the globe by its internal MSP — the CW sourcing and scheduling team manages the tool, evaluates the talent, provides feedback to suppliers, works with the candidates and coordinates the entire talent acquisition process. Its mission is to work with the internal customers and suppliers to ensure that they engage the right worker at the right price at the right time. Conference attendees were impressed with the creativity deployed by the Qualcomm team and the way in which they were able to build a successful VMS from the ground up.
In the end, Qualcomm was the audience choice as most innovative program, though each finalist was well-represented and received significant votes and commentary. All participants should be proud of their accomplishments and how they pushed our industry forward in an era of constant change.
