Delighting Patrons Drives Program Adoption

Question: Why are 54 percent of contingent workforce programs making servicing internal stakeholders a top priority?

Answer: A program is only as good as its adoption. 

You could have the latest VMS technology, a killer CW program office or a brilliant MSP. But those won’t necessarily increase program adoption among your hiring managers. The success of any CW program depends on the number of users, and users want ease of use. So a program manager’s goal is — or should be — to get an easy-to-use system that hiring managers like and will use. Of course, the contingent workforce program also has to provide competitive quality workers at reasonable prices. It’s not an easy mission.

So CW managers in charge do a number of different things to engage users and increase adoption. Here are 5 tips from the trenches.

  1. Adjust workflow approvals preset in systems so contingent hires aren’t mired in bureaucracy.
  2. Partner with your top suppliers to create a customer service agent role that follows up with temps on assignment to ensure satisfaction. “Our early feedback is showing that the temps really appreciate this follow-up,” says Ed Hidalgo, senior director of staffing at Qualcomm.  And, it frees up the hiring manager from having to focus on temp matters.  . 
  3. Be responsive to your customer — even if it’s just an email saying you will get back to them at a later date.
  4. On a regular basis, schedule an informal chat with your customers. “This chat should involve you explaining what the program offers and how you tailor the service/benefits to each of them,” says Gary Campbell, chief operations officer, Johnson Health Center.
  5. Work with the VMS provider to make the tool intuitive to use. “It should be ATM simple,” says Peggy O’Neill, ESPN’s contingent workforce program director.

You want your CW brand’s appeal to be strong across the company. And that requires happy internal stakeholders. The happier they are with the program, the more opportunities you create for adoption.