Home
Who is Archway WFC
Services
Topics of Interest
What is a Contingent Worker?
Use A Consultant for CWM?
Consulting on Vendor Choice
An Effective Assessment
SOX and CWM
Contact
 


Before any Contingent Workforce Management solution is considered (or offered, for that matter), it is vital that your organization has a clear and consistent view of both the current environment and the goals.  Without that, it is virtually guaranteed that the solution will not fit…either too much, not enough, or the wrong focus.

A vital starting point is an in-depth assessment of your contingent workforce management environment.  A comprehensive discovery and evaluation process should be conducted by someone with significant expertise in business processes in general and the contingent workforce in particular.  This could be done by in-house resources, a potential solution provider, or an independent consultant; objectivity is key.  The process should be specifically designed to be as non-intrusive as possible, respecting the time of your people, and should involve people from senior management through practitioner. 

The overall goal of the assessment is to understand and document the way things are, describe strengths and weaknesses, recommend process improvements, and identify related financial impact opportunities.  There are certain focus areas which should be included, with specific questions tailored to uncover factual information.


  • Management - The overall Corporate contingent workforce management environment, goals, concerns, and risk personality
     
  • Players - Who tends to be directly affected by, interested in, or has interaction with this part of the business
     
  • Process - How things operate today, what works, where the pain points are, and what does it cost
     
  • Contractor Usage/Demographics - The scope of the contingent workforce utilization and cost
     
  • Supplier Environment - The supplier management process, supplier community, and relevant issues
     
  • Compliance - The risk areas regarding co-employment, benefit, tax exposure and how they are being addressed
     
  • Systems - The technical personality, internal system mandates, and probable integration requirements for any comprehensive solution
     
  • Security - Current concerns and direction regarding site and data security, background screening, etc. for non-employees


A good assessment follows a four step process:

  • Investigation
  • Evaluation
  • Documentation
  • Recommendation


The results of the assessment can invaluable for:

  • Achieving internal understanding of how your company manages the contingent workforce (including “just how big is it, anyway?”) and how much it is costing
     
  • Building a corporate perspective of who all of the ‘players’ are and understanding both the similar and diverse concerns and requirements across organizational responsibilities
     
  • Understanding where risk areas are, their relative impacts, and how/if they are being mitigatedReaching agreement on the objectives of your company's contingent workforce management initiative
     
  • Developing strategic sourcing directions
     
  • Identifying areas of strength and opportunities for improvement in efficiency, effectiveness, costs, and risk management (includes processes, policies, tools)
     
  • Defining solutions which are uniquely appropriate to your situation, including scope, implementation phases and timelines, and ROI expectations


For more details on the assessment process and how an assessment could be constructed for you, please contact Archway WorkForce Consulting via the Info Request Form or email to brian.korsmeier@archwayconsulting.com.



© 2010 by Brian Korsmeier  -  You are free to print or distribute this material as long as you include this copyright statement or attribute the contents to the author.  Please let me know if you include any of these statements in any of your documents.



 
Top