Recently we defined the term "statement of work" from the perspective of strategically managing the workforce. Since the topic continues to be heavily debated, we thought we would provide additional information on how to properly evaluate how and when SOW ought to be considered more as a need for specific talent.
The subject continues to be popular because of two contributing factors: the consistent need to increase cost savings and the sophistication of the sourcing process. Unfortunately, the sophistication of the process breeds complexity. Not to mention a time-honored practice of leveraging SOW as an end run around head count restrictions. In order to deal with such complexity and mitigate risk associated with the SOW process, it is crucial to determine how your firm will assess when a deliverable is best achieved with a traditional consultative statement of work or a team of specific talent.
Consider these three criteria to help determine how to best manage SOW in the traditional sense, or as a contributing element to the overall talent supply chain.
Use social media to build your workforce
In the world of the workforce, we are not immune to the shift from traditional to new or social media. Consider this piece on Mashable today about leveraging social media to help in the job search. What struck me here is that other than the mechanisms leveraged, there is really nothing generally new about what some inspiring young employables did to secure employment.
Networking, preparation, reference-ability, and adaptation. These tactics are the executable elements of any good career development effort. Today, our reach is simply wider, our resources seemingly limitless, and our experiences more easily shared.
It seems that the career candidates out there have no choice but to aggressively leverage the tools that drive communication. But what about those of us seeking to develop a dynamic strategic workforce plan? How do we leverage today's media to help us intelligently build a plan that will let us preemptively build the workforce we need?
Establish a social media policy. I almost hate using a word such as policy. It flies in the face of what these new technologies are all about, fluidity, candor, and accessibility. Policy sounds restrictive. Regardless, social media has an impact on how your organization is perceived in the public square. It is critical to develop objectives of how the tools will be used to help you build and maintain your pool of talent. Sending out today's version of the wanted ad is certainly one way to go, but a true comprehensive policy will result in a more dynamic recruitment effort that creates a community of potential candidates. And what about retention? Is your firm helping employees connect with peers in online communities?
Create presence metrics for HR and hiring managers. Some firms make the mistake of simply prohibiting social media participation. This is a mistake. Key hiring managers and most certainly, human resources need to establish an online presence. Discuss what is going on in the organization. As hiring managers and HR establish the public persona of the firm, it also provides them an opportunity to network for talent. Social media can be the ultimate career fair. Require attendance from key resources in your organization. Measure their public discourse, the number of followers or friends, LinkedIn contact group participation, etc. (Implicit in such a recommendation is that you establish a sound policy that protects against the well-documented social media pitfalls.)
Involve your workforce partners. More mature talent supply chains have well-ordered workforce partners that serve the needs of all employment segments. An integrated social media campaign brings the supplier and the employer closer together, creating an ecosystem of talent rather than just a benign black box supply chain. The idea is to compliment what the supplier is doing for your organization, promote their success, and call them out on their failures. Jointly discuss trends and ground-breaking methods for cost reduction, quality protection, or collaborative achievement of a critical business objective.
Networking, preparation, reference-ability, and adaptation. These tactics are the executable elements of any good career development effort. Today, our reach is simply wider, our resources seemingly limitless, and our experiences more easily shared.
It seems that the career candidates out there have no choice but to aggressively leverage the tools that drive communication. But what about those of us seeking to develop a dynamic strategic workforce plan? How do we leverage today's media to help us intelligently build a plan that will let us preemptively build the workforce we need?
Establish a social media policy. I almost hate using a word such as policy. It flies in the face of what these new technologies are all about, fluidity, candor, and accessibility. Policy sounds restrictive. Regardless, social media has an impact on how your organization is perceived in the public square. It is critical to develop objectives of how the tools will be used to help you build and maintain your pool of talent. Sending out today's version of the wanted ad is certainly one way to go, but a true comprehensive policy will result in a more dynamic recruitment effort that creates a community of potential candidates. And what about retention? Is your firm helping employees connect with peers in online communities?
Create presence metrics for HR and hiring managers. Some firms make the mistake of simply prohibiting social media participation. This is a mistake. Key hiring managers and most certainly, human resources need to establish an online presence. Discuss what is going on in the organization. As hiring managers and HR establish the public persona of the firm, it also provides them an opportunity to network for talent. Social media can be the ultimate career fair. Require attendance from key resources in your organization. Measure their public discourse, the number of followers or friends, LinkedIn contact group participation, etc. (Implicit in such a recommendation is that you establish a sound policy that protects against the well-documented social media pitfalls.)
Involve your workforce partners. More mature talent supply chains have well-ordered workforce partners that serve the needs of all employment segments. An integrated social media campaign brings the supplier and the employer closer together, creating an ecosystem of talent rather than just a benign black box supply chain. The idea is to compliment what the supplier is doing for your organization, promote their success, and call them out on their failures. Jointly discuss trends and ground-breaking methods for cost reduction, quality protection, or collaborative achievement of a critical business objective.
Global reverberations: Another staffing tremor
Last week it was announced that the U.S. operations of the Albany Group would likely be sold. This is more fallout from the funding issues that Albany faced in the U.K. at the beginning of the year. U.K. operations are being liquidated, and it appears that parts of the company are quickly being sold off, contrary to earlier reports that U.S. operations were fine and would continue.
So, what happens in Dussledorf may stay in Dussledorf, but the fact remains that it has implications here in the U.S. This highlights how connected our global economy has become. Particularly in the staffing industry, where there is quite a bit of non-U.S. ownership and broad global operations. While it may be bad here in the U.S., for companies who are spread out across the globe, the conditions are far more complex. Think about global banking, currency fluctuations, and employment laws in multiple countries and jurisdictions. Mensch! (German for "Oh my gosh")
First, full disclosure here: I work for a privately-held, U.S.-based company. So it would be easy to advocate that everyone simply buy U.S. However, the bigger point here is that in these next few years, recovery will take time, and it will happen at different rates in different places.
So, what happens in Dussledorf may stay in Dussledorf, but the fact remains that it has implications here in the U.S. This highlights how connected our global economy has become. Particularly in the staffing industry, where there is quite a bit of non-U.S. ownership and broad global operations. While it may be bad here in the U.S., for companies who are spread out across the globe, the conditions are far more complex. Think about global banking, currency fluctuations, and employment laws in multiple countries and jurisdictions. Mensch! (German for "Oh my gosh")
First, full disclosure here: I work for a privately-held, U.S.-based company. So it would be easy to advocate that everyone simply buy U.S. However, the bigger point here is that in these next few years, recovery will take time, and it will happen at different rates in different places.
In case you missed it: March 5
Most of the discussion today is on the Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) February unemployment report. Joel Capperella has more details and analysis on the report, but a quick review shows that the unemployment rate held steady at 9.7 percent. Temporary employment continues to grow, with 48,000 jobs added.
Also in the news these past two weeks:
Also in the news these past two weeks:
- IndustryWeek reports on a recent study by the Aberdeen Group that found "Strategic Workforce Planning is Emerging as a Top Priority." Sixty-four percent of companies surveyed expect organizational efforts in workforce planning to increase in 2010.
- The Wall Street Journal posted a chart comparing 2008 and 2009 unemployment rates by state. The average unemployment rate for the nation, for both years, was 9.3 percent.
- The New York Times explores how the economy has created a new class of people, the new poor -- those Americans used to life in the middle class who now have to rely on public assistance, possibly for years to come. The article also takes a historic look at the circumstances surrounding past recessions and depressions, and compares those recoveries to the struggles we might experience in the coming months.
February BLS indicates continued growth of temporary employment
Our readers should be accustomed to the analysis we afford the Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly Unemployment Report. Generally speaking, we take a long-view and a pragmatic approach to dissecting the numbers. For those new to The Seamless Workforce, understand the following perspectives:
We'll return in a moment to some of the aforementioned factors, but let's put the focus back on today's BLS numbers, and consider the following:
- Recovery will be plodding and slow.
- Temporary employment figures are a leading indicator of employment trends.
- Examining unemployment numbers in isolation is meaningless -- it's critical to factor in other economic indicators.
We'll return in a moment to some of the aforementioned factors, but let's put the focus back on today's BLS numbers, and consider the following:
Does your workforce partner complete you? (Part 1 of 2)
They say timing is everything. I had been thinking about following up on my earlier post about companies (especially those in Europe) experiencing funding issues, when we got word that a fairly prominent company was ceasing to provide managed staffing programs (MSPs) right here in the U.S.
"No big deal," you say? No big deal unless you are one of the customers who currently uses their MSP services and got the announcement saying you have 60 days to find another provider. Thanks for your business. Have a nice day.
Unfortunate, but timed perfectly to help illustrate my current and previous point: The game has changed and your staffing partner (MSP, VMS, IT supplier, or whatever) is not the same company it was two years ago.
One particular point I promised to make in my earlier post was about the challenges of vendor neutral programs, particularly in this economy. For the moment, let's set aside the discussion of what's good and bad about a vendor neutral model and focus on the business side.
"No big deal," you say? No big deal unless you are one of the customers who currently uses their MSP services and got the announcement saying you have 60 days to find another provider. Thanks for your business. Have a nice day.
Unfortunate, but timed perfectly to help illustrate my current and previous point: The game has changed and your staffing partner (MSP, VMS, IT supplier, or whatever) is not the same company it was two years ago.
One particular point I promised to make in my earlier post was about the challenges of vendor neutral programs, particularly in this economy. For the moment, let's set aside the discussion of what's good and bad about a vendor neutral model and focus on the business side.
The hidden complexities of VMS tool selection
Some time back, I had the good fortune of crossing paths with Jason Busch of Spend Matters. Jason's blog is well worth the read for sourcing and procurement pros, as well as those in finance that seek to better leverage process improvement to drive cost efficiency.
Jason recently authored a post about the selection of vendor management technology. It is, as is frequently the case, a thoughtful and well-researched piece with some very sound recommendations.
I do believe, however, that Jason mitigates the complexity for those that are seeking a solution to assist them with the management of this segment of workforce.
I recently wrote a post defining Statement of Work (SOW), and I was glad to see Jason included evaluating a technology for its depth of coverage over the SOW process. It is notable because the maturation of the sourcing/procurement of theses processes, one in which the sophistication of the buyer is exponentially greater than five years ago, includes the intersection of multiple parties who all come from different perspectives: human resources, procurement, finance, and the business itself.
Jason recently authored a post about the selection of vendor management technology. It is, as is frequently the case, a thoughtful and well-researched piece with some very sound recommendations.
I do believe, however, that Jason mitigates the complexity for those that are seeking a solution to assist them with the management of this segment of workforce.
I recently wrote a post defining Statement of Work (SOW), and I was glad to see Jason included evaluating a technology for its depth of coverage over the SOW process. It is notable because the maturation of the sourcing/procurement of theses processes, one in which the sophistication of the buyer is exponentially greater than five years ago, includes the intersection of multiple parties who all come from different perspectives: human resources, procurement, finance, and the business itself.
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