As the workforce landscape continues to evolve, businesses are turning to contingent workers to meet their staffing needs. This growing trend has made the contingent workforce a significant part of the labor market, and experts predict that we are quickly approaching the point where extended or contingent workers will comprise half of the workforce. To effectively manage this shift, it’s crucial to reimagine the talent supply chain and adopt a talent supply chain management strategy that accounts for this change.
In our latest webinar, we discussed why talent supply chain management is a complex and constantly evolving field, and why it’s essential for you to stay ahead of the curve to attract and retain the best talent.
The evolution of the talent supply chain
The talent supply chain is the process of identifying and managing the different channels through which organizations acquire talent. Traditionally, it involves locating and engaging suppliers, establishing terms and conditions, and identifying the right suppliers to support various jobs and job categories.
The traditional approach - and why it fails
The traditional talent supply chain is based on an industrial revolution-era notion of supplier consolidation and rationalization. In this approach to talent supply chain management, the focus is on consolidating and rationalizing suppliers (reducing the number of suppliers to a smaller and more manageable group) to create cost savings and streamline operations. But, this comes with a few drawbacks –
> Talent crunches:
Limiting the supply chain to a select number of suppliers can lead to a lack of diversity in talent – or an overall talent shortage – which may not align with your business needs. This can result in underperforming suppliers who cannot meet evolving demands.
> Lack of transparency:
Failing to modernize the talent supply chain often leads to a lack of transparency. Problems like poor communication, cost overruns, and overworked, underperforming suppliers hinders program adoption and growth, making it difficult to optimize talent supply chains. As program performance goes down, costs increase, and the ability to protect your company from demand volatility is limited.
> Ineffective management:
Traditional talent supply chain principles are based on an outdated idea that assumes there is a limited pool of talent available, and you must compete for it. However, in today’s world, there are many ways to connect with individuals and find the talent needed to fill roles. Relying solely on this approach can hinder your agility and responsiveness to changing demands, ultimately resulting in missed opportunities for optimizing your talent supply chain.
> Supplier reluctance:
Suppliers are sometimes hesitant to work with managed service providers (MSPs) due to a lack of transparency and trust in the MSP process. In some cases, suppliers may not fully understand how the MSP operates or may have concerns about the fairness of the selection process, which can lead to a decrease in program performance.
Supplier experience ties to these challenges
Suppliers are the critical component of the talent supply chain. They play a vital role in providing the workforce necessary to meet the needs of the enterprise, but the traditional approach to talent supply chain management often fails to prioritize them through
> Lack of response:
Suppliers often receive little to no response from program managers and are left in the dark about the status of their applications. This can lead suppliers to seek alternative avenues to get their talent noticed, such as going directly to a hiring manager. However, this reactive approach can be difficult for program teams to manage, leading to an increase in unanswered emails and phone calls.
> Negative experiences:
This lack of response creates a negative supplier experience, which translates into poor performances and unfavorable interactions with candidates.. Also, when suppliers face difficulties in communication and transparency, they may be less inclined to participate in the talent supply chain, leading to underperformance and limited pools of talent to draw from.
Building a supplier-friendly model to ensure best hiring results
Improving the supplier experience is essential for program success, and you can achieve this by prioritizing transparent and efficient communication to create positive supplier relationships. . Here’s how:
1) Recognizing the limitations of traditional metrics: Traditional metrics may not always work in your best interests. For example, if your metric for success is based solely on the number of hires made, you may miss out on opportunities to optimize the talent supply chain by focusing only on high-volume suppliers. Instead, if you’re able to recognize the importance of supplier strengths and evaluate based on the quality of hires, you can work with a diverse range of suppliers to achieve better results. So, it’s important to shift the perspective on supplier management.
2) Emphasizing on supplier strengths: Emphasizing supplier strengths means allowing suppliers to focus on areas where they excel rather than penalizing them for areas where they don’t. For example, if a supplier is particularly good at providing candidates for a specific role or skill set, they should be given more opportunities to do so. Instead of punishing them for not providing candidates for other roles or skill sets, you could look for other suppliers who are better suited in those areas. This approach drives healthy competition among suppliers, encouraging them to excel in their specific areas of strength, and providing the best outcomes for your business. It allows you to leverage the strengths of different suppliers to build a more diverse and capable workforce. Also, it can lead to cost savings because suppliers can be more efficient when working in their areas of strength.
3) Providing real-time supplier assessments: Real-time data allows for a more accurate assessment of supplier capabilities. Machine learning algorithms can learn from their actual interactions in real-time, such as their performance and job placements, and provide scorecards to improve their quality.
Are quarterly business reviews still relevant?
Quarterly business reviews (QBRs) are meetings between clients and suppliers that focus on strategic matters and offer ways to improve the partnership. However, this traditional approach to supplier management can hinder talent management today because it doesn’t always provide real-time feedback and misses opportunities for continuous improvement. To overcome these limitations, you should:
1) Provide forward-looking QBRs that encourage both parties to collaborate on new ideas and approaches that can enhance their relationship and drive innovation.
2) Shift the focus of QBRs from past performance to future planning and ensure that they align with current market needs and trends.
3) Strive for continuous improvement through real-time feedback and provide opportunities for suppliers to adapt to changes quickly.
Prosperix is transforming supplier management
To transform supplier management in today’s globalized economy, it’s a wise choice to embrace solutions that are designed to handle the rapidly-changing world around them. By embracing innovation, you can rethink your talent sourcing strategy entirely, transforming supplier management in ways that are reasonable and workable within your existing business frameworks.
At Prosperix, we have revolutionized the talent-sourcing model by making it dynamic and inclusive. Our model benefits all the stakeholders in the talent supply chain – businesses, suppliers, and candidates. Our proprietary hiring marketplace, which is integrated into our VMS network, gives clients access to the best talent in the market; our algorithms ensure that the best supplier within the platform fulfills job requisitions; our platform and processes ensure stellar candidate experiences. We democratize the supplier’s access to jobs, and by doing this, we drive healthy competition, ensuring that your contingent workforce program has the best hires at the best market rates.
Watch the webinar, then let’s talk about how we can modernize your talent supply chain.
