CWS 3.0: October 15, 2014

Print

Post-CWS conference: A review and some predictions

What happens in Vegas, doesn't always stay in Vegas. Having attended the Staffing Industry Analysts CWS Summit and Solutions Forum in Las Vegas last week, I believe it’s more accurate to say “What happens in Vegas, stays on the Twitter wall!”

We kicked off the week with a CWS Council meeting, attended by almost 70 HR and procurement professionals representing nearly as many enterprises. At the same time, a CCWP certification training class was in full swing, and everyone eagerly anticipated the first keynote address, when Staffing Industry Analysts President Barry Asin shared his expert view on the future of contingent work in 10 simple predictions.

The energy, enthusiasm, levels of interaction, number of tweets, knowledge sharing and networking were fantastic, right up to the heavily attended final session, moderated by Bryan Peña, SIA’s VP, contingent workforce strategies and research.

There was an overwhelming expectation the conference would make a lasting material difference to the attendees’ programs, both strategically and tactically. There was an eagerness to participate I’ve not often experienced in other conferences. Driving this enthusiasm was a sense and understanding that contingent workforces — whether HR, operations or procurement led — were becoming more strategic, more core business to companies facing new and unique talent sourcing, cost management and compliance complexity issues.

Key trends emerged as to what attendees really wanted: practical and detailed guidance on independent contractor and freelancer compliance, preparing for requirements of the Affordable Care Act, funding model thought leadership, matching VMS technology to program goals, benchmarking, rate-card management & measuring what matters; global expansion of programs; in-house versus outsourced program management.

At first glance the topics look oriented to respond to special interests, but in reality all attending were diligently engaged with increasing their body of knowledge around all things contingent work. This explains the high attendance at the CCWP training: managers and leaders are reaching out to educate themselves to build their professional capability and maturity.

Predictions from this conference week? For those new to the industry, I predict HR and procurement will spend more time assessing their own organization’s capabilities before choosing a management model for their contingent talent needs. Also, newcomers will be more interested in assessing out-sourcing options and models before making choices. No longer will there be a head-on rush to implementation and deployment; rather, the focus will be on making more insightful choices for a longer-term solution. Third, newcomers are all too aware that direct cost-savings on bill rates alone will not build a business case for their program and are busy gathering data on other direct and indirect savings that are realistic captures for them.

The focus is a little different for those with a few years under their belt. More mature programs are assessing globalization options and are looking to realign their outsource models, both from a funding, operational and technology platform perspective. Overwhelmingly, experienced managers are keen to discover where their program sits in respect to other competing programs. This is not just focused on benchmarking, but more comprehensively on strategies in dealing with ACA, compliance, performance metrics, the supplier ecosystem and choosing in-house or outsourced managed service options. Finally, mature programs are aware they have an identity and that identity, to attract top talent at the right price, needs to brand and market itself actively and make the program appeal to diverse interest groups.

As a discipline that brings economic rewards to all enterprises that rely on contingent workers, contingent value and significance is ever increasing. As a career path for workers who want to invest in their own personal professional brand, finding employment through contingent programs is becoming increasingly attractive. The conference has confirmed loud and clear: the future looks bright for contingent workforce management.