The power of Contingent Workforce visibility through data analytics

 

Talent management is currently amidst a digital revolution – this is happening to a backdrop of changes in skills demand, candidate sentiment, and where work gets done. With the power of workforce analytics, a Managed Service Provider (MSP) can provide all information in the contingent workforce lifecycle - from market conditions to supplier performance, benchmarking data, and granular details on staffing operations. With this data, actionable intelligence through the identification of problems and opportunities is created, and solutions - based on data - can be implemented.

 

Data-driven hiring is by no means a new concept, but in recent years the quality and availability of insight have improved exponentially. With a data-driven contingent workforce strategy, you can ensure that you have the right talent at the right time. However, without the tools to guide this strategy, there is always the risk of overspend and potential compliance issues.  

 

Informed decision making 

 

Everest Group Research firm highlights that data and analytics-driven decision-making is key to achieving superior outcomes in contingent workforce management programs. 

Dashboard reporting

 

At Guidant, we provide industry-leading dashboard reporting, accessed through our online Client Relationship Management tool. These dashboards utilize monthly VMS (Vendor Management System) information, transforming static reports and manual processes that describe historical transactions into interactive dashboards that we use to identify unconventional correlations and provide predictive insights to drive improvement actions and initiatives. 

This management information is used to analyse performance, constructively identify issues, and inform recruitment strategy through long-term trend analysis. In addition, dashboards provide the mechanism to conduct root cause analysis on SLAs or KPIs. 

Advanced workforce analytics

 

Capturing all contingent labour utilization activity allows an MSP to conduct continuous analysis and provide recommendations for improvement. Guidant delivers management information suites detailing granular metrics including spend, headcount, average time to fill, and tenure – among many others, filtered by job category or location. 

In addition, we provide innovative contingent workforce analytics that optimizes workforce planning and predicts specific outcomes, resulting in better performance from initial requirement to assignment end. 

As a result, customers operate with increased agility and ideally position themselves to compete for the best talent—utilizing predictive analytics algorithms to assess multivariate predictors of contractor performance. These include ratings, skills, education, experience, and knowledge.

Supply chain reporting

 

We ensure our customers have access to the best candidates in the market by providing the right staffing supplier mix per location and labour category, with jobs appropriately defined with competitive prices.

Guidant has developed a proprietary interactive decision support system, VISION, that aggregates supplier data globally across our workforce programs. VISION delivers supplier performance and program benchmarking insights, enabling users to monitor and explore key influencers through root cause analysis.

For customers, VISION offers the opportunity to have total visibility of the performance of your supply chain, facilitating supplier optimisation by identifying low/high performers. 

For suppliers, it can give access to their performance data, where they are performing well and where there is an opportunity for improvement and provide a benchmark comparison against other suppliers to encourage healthy competition throughout the supply chain.

Supporting technologies

 

Within each program, Guidant utilizes a unique mix of proprietary and preferred technology to create the most efficient and effective tech-stack for our client’s environment. 

Thanks to big data, talent leaders can now map the broader talent landscape to aid organizational efficiency and gain competitive advantage through additional services.

Brightfield Talent Data Exchange (TDX) is a secure online platform benchmarking key criteria within a managed service program against the market. It allows users to test new resourcing strategies on a role-by-role basis and at a program-wide level by utilizing and comparing against anonymous, real-life market data.

Guidant’s competitive rate structure methodology utilizes multiple data points to establish a rate card, including specialized market analysis tools such as TDX, supplier RFIs, aggregated data from our VMS channel partners, and comparable client experiences. 

Today, technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) intersect with talent analytics to offer a whole new dimension of visibility and control to programs. Analytics-enabled AI will bring exponential efficiencies and benefits for businesses as capabilities evolve.

AI-based candidate matching brings multiple business benefits. It not only enables MSPs to quickly match the best talent with open roles, by drawing on a wide range of sources to create candidate personas, but it also has the potential to boost DE&I by removing unconscious bias in the recruitment process. Meanwhile, predictive analytics offers insight into the probability of filling a requisition on time, ensuring better organizational oversight, while chatbots can aid engagement and vetting.

The human touch

 

An MSP brings the personal approach, a human touch and program experience to the data. . No algorithm or data set, no matter how complete or advanced, will capture the actual complexity of work without the additional context and expert interpretation an MSP can provide – unlocking the potential of data and tech. Therefore, a strategic MSP partner must have a broad data analysis capability to find solutions, fix processes, and make adjustments to drive long-term workforce strategy.

As MSPs use technology to present more mature insights, our role will continue developing as consultative advisors from assisting business leaders in better curating, retaining, and forecasting talent needs, to improving decisions on workforce diversity and solving complex business issues. 

Your MSP workforce partner must provide visibility into your contingent workforce activity and have the human problem-solving expertise to utilize data to plan and manage future-fit workforces in an increasingly competitive environment.