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What Did We Learn About the Future of Work in 2021?

Business Leadership Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 12/20/2021

I’m sure that the end of any year, not just 2021, warrants some level of deep reflection. However, the year that we just collectively experienced certainly calls for some retrospective insight, doesn’t it? 2021 marked the second full year of the worst public health crisis of our lifetimes and along with it, many transformations in how we all viewed both our personal and professional lives. From the business perspective, 2021 brought a host of talent-, technology-, and forward-thinking-led shifts that have forever altered the way we conduct business. Here’s what we learned:

No matter how rooted a business leader is to pre-pandemic times, remote and hybrid work are now foundational facets of the working world. Unified communication tools, better collaboration between leaders and their staff, and the general shift towards “flexibility” are all attributes of the new world of work.
Call it “The Great Resignation” or the “The Big Quit,” but what’s really happening is a true revolution of talent. The “talent revolution” is occurring all around us, with millions of talented professional voluntarily leaving positions in search of better working conditions, more flexibility, more empathy from leadership, more inclusive workplace culture, and, of course, better pay. The talent revolution is a stark reminder that leaders must reimagine talent engagement and talent acquisition if they are to thrive in the new year.
The extended workforce drives the Future of Work. Nearly 47% of all talent today is considered part of the extended workforce, a 10% leap from where it was at the every beginning of the pandemic. It’s not just a matter of tapping into the “evolution” of contingent labor, but rather truly robust communities of talent that take various shapes, including talent pools, talent marketplaces, niche staffing suppliers, personal and private talent networks, etc. Today’s extended workforce is a key element in how work gets done.
Empathy is a key Future of Work attribute. Leaders have to be in tune with the “human” side of its staff, as workers across the globe face personal and professional challenges that continue to eat into their thinned patience after 20+ months of pandemic ramifications (including severely ill relatives, lack of daycare, remote schooling, facing COVID themselves, etc.). Empathy-led leadership is, essentially, the only way forward.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) aren’t just buzzwords, but rather truly impactful pieces of the Future of Work movement. Let’s say it again: a diverse talent pool is the deepest talent pool. Bringing in diverse talent sparks innovation by bringing in new voices to the table, including talent from various genders, cultures, and nuero-diverse backgrounds.
Direct sourcing has become a transformational means of finding, engaging, and retaining top-tier talent. By the end of 2022, nearly 30%-to-32% of all talent will be engaged and acquired via direct sourcing, according to Future of Work Exchange research. Direct sourcing isn’t just a way to segment “known” talent into talent pools, but rather a strategy, program, and set of automated tools to develop true talent sustainability via recruitment marketing, leveraging the power of enterprise branding and culture, and cultivating deeper relationships with candidates.
Services procurement strategy is due for an overhaul. Collaboration, rather than control, is the Best-in-Class way to enhancing management of an extended workforce category that sometimes (or, often) dwarfs traditional staff aug from a spend perspective. Procurement executives must reevaluate how they approach SOW management and services procurement in 2022.
Talent communities will be more critical than ever in 2022. As we wrote recently: “The power of talent communities is driven by the innovative ways businesses are leveraging talent pools, talent networks, and talent clouds, converging with the nuances of the employer brand, social and emotional connections with both active and passive candidates, the the ultimate development of omnichannel, experience-driven candidate engagement.”
Business leadership needs to change its mindset heading into a new year. The talent revolution, combined with the pressure of a new coronavirus variant in a globalized yet disruptive world, means that leaders and executive personnel cannot go into 2022 with archaic strategies for managing operations and staff. Whether it entails “reimagining” or “rebooting” core leadership strategies, aspects such as inclusion (i.e., inclusive workplace environments), flexibility, agility, and a better understanding of employee emotional wellbeing (yes, including empathy!) are all necessary moving forward.
Technology is often considered central to the Future of Work movement, and 2022 proved that many times over. From digital staffing and direct sourcing to artificial intelligence and blockchain, the pathways of technological innovation all lead back into the very idea of work optimization.

Why You Should Seek to Collaborate, Rather than Control, with Procurement Processes

Contingent Workforce Procurement by Featured Contributor on 12/06/2021

[Today’s guest contribution was written by Paul Vincent, Global Head of Services Procurement at Randstad Sourceright.]

No one volunteers to wear a straightjacket unless they are a magician.

It is now almost 25 years since I had my defining services procurement experience.

I was working for a global corporation, and, after spending 11 years in different buying roles, I switched to product management and took responsibility for a portfolio that generated about $200M revenue per year. While in this role, I was asked to spearhead a comprehensive change agenda that included reflecting on the external service providers we contracted at the time.

To achieve this objective, I worked closely with the procurement professionals who supported my new division. I had not worked with this team before but I was confident that we could easily collaborate.

I was so wrong.

During our first meeting, I asked for their opinions and ideas on how to best assess the performance of the incumbent suppliers. “We can do anything you want, Paul, as long as it is already written in the service schedules,” I was told.

But the service schedules didn’t seem to be as well defined as they could have been. I looked at this as an opportunity to get creative with the benchmarks.

“Of course, Paul, as long as we don’t ask the suppliers to do something new. We can’t risk them raising the price,” they suggested.

“We should also start to proactively look for alternative sources of supply,” I said.

“No, we can’t do that yet,” they replied.

“Why ever not?”

The procurement team explained that the contracts were not near enough to term and they didn’t want to waste time qualifying any new suppliers until they started the retendering process.

“But I want to explore what is available in the market,” I said, “and I am sure you have other suppliers you can recommend?”

“Well, not really, Paul,” they said. “We are so busy that we can’t monitor the supply market ourselves, so we typically ask stakeholders like yourself to nominate any additional suppliers for the tender.”

I took this as great news and thought it meant I could identify some new suppliers that we could hold exploratory meetings with.

“No. As we just told you, we can’t do that until we start the retendering process.”

This left me frustrated. I felt like the team wasn’t hearing my needs. I was the product owner and I wanted to begin this work. I also wanted to start meeting with the current suppliers to better understand our return on investment from working with them.

“You mean you want to challenge their pricing?” they said.

“No, not necessarily — I just want to know what we’re getting for our money.”

“Well, we would need to have that discussion with them. You are not empowered to talk commercial terms with suppliers, only the procurement team is.”

“But, I am the budget holder. I have a business need for their services. I am accountable for what they deliver. Why can’t I speak with them?”

“Sorry, Paul, you can speak to them about operational matters but when it comes to any commercial topics, you need to leave that to us.”

“I told you already I don’t necessarily want a price reduction, I just want to understand what value they are giving me.”

“Well, we need to be careful about that. You see, if you start asking them to increase their value then they might want more money. So we can avoid that if we control the conversation.”

And so, there you have it. Twenty-five years ago I first encountered that word “control” in a procurement/stakeholder context, and I have been allergic to it ever since.

Despite me being in charge of a product portfolio that brought in $200M a year, despite being accountable for decisions that affected hundreds of operations personnel, and despite being the budget holder of millions, apparently I couldn’t be trusted to speak to a supplier. Through the eyes of that procurement team, I was a maverick because I wanted to go outside of their process to instigate sensible and necessary business actions. I can still vividly remember the exasperation I felt at how little the team seemed to care about what was important to me. There was no collaboration.

In the 25 years since, in my various roles, I’ve seen many services procurement experiences play out similarly. And this naivety has infected managed services providers (MSPs), too.

Don’t set yourself up for failure.

How many procurement professionals are still viewing an SOW management solution as a way to stop their business stakeholders from doing something? How many MSPs focus their solutions on controlling or reining in perceived maverick or rogue behavior? If you have spent any time walking in a stakeholder’s shoes, you will agree that this mentality often leads to failure.

Ardent Partners’ and the Future of Work Exchange’s annual buy-side research, similar to many other contingent workforce research initiatives, consistently cites stakeholder resistance as the number one reason why services procurement solutions fail. And the number one reason stakeholders resist a services procurement solution is because, in reality, way too many of these programs have the characteristics of a straitjacket. So, who can blame them?

How to drive stronger collaboration.

In 2007, I returned to procurement, first as a global category leader and then a consultant. My experiences as a stakeholder had a transformative effect on the contribution I was able to offer to my internal and external clients. Here are the three key things I always tried to keep front-of-mind to improve outcomes:

Be oven-ready for new stakeholders. When primary stakeholders and budget holders rotate, as they very often do, there is a window of opportunity when the procurement team can be significantly valuable during their acclimatization period. What are the current supply arrangements? What are the issues of the day? How could the new stakeholder be a catalyst for increasing supplier value? Maintain a storyboard that can be ready at a moment’s notice. Being oven-ready like this also ensures the procurement lens is outwardly- and future-focused.
Always seek to improve the procurement process. It is critically important that you are regarded as a champion for effective and not outdated buying practices. Stakeholders will want speed and simplicity. Suppliers will want to minimize their cost of sale. True business partnering happens when all parties are invested in each other’s success, so the more you demonstrate a collaborative center of gravity, the more you can expect your stakeholders and suppliers to positively reciprocate.
Don’t expect anyone to volunteer to wear a straightjacket. The word control means to “to exercise restraining or directing influence over someone or something.” Through the lens of a services procurement solution, this means that reluctant participation is all you will be able to realistically expect. Better outcomes will result with stronger collaboration, rather than control.

The only way a services procurement solution can be sustainably successful is if it is insight-led and purposefully designed to enable the stakeholders’ objectives, not to control what they can and can’t do.

Connect with Paul on LinkedIn, or visit Randstad Sourceright for more information on their solutions and offerings.

Why SOW and Services Procurement Should Matter To Your CEO

Business Leadership by Featured Contributor on 10/21/2021

[Today’s guest contribution was written by Paul Vincent, Global Head of Services Procurement at Randstad Sourceright.]

The origins of modern commerce can be traced back to the eighth century in India, where early organizations, called shreni, first started to emerge. Shrenis were associations of crafts persons and merchants and the people who worked for them performed various functions. They provided services such as training, the purchasing of raw materials and the distribution of finished products.

In all the time that has followed since, the world of business has undergone tremendous amounts of change. But the one constant is that few, if any, commercial organizations are ever likely to be totally self-sufficient. They will always need to spend a proportion of their operating costs on some form of external services support.

With more than 1,200 years of practice under our belt, you would think that we’d have the procurement of external services down to a fine art. Requirements would always be well-considered and clearly articulated. Service providers would know exactly what they have to do and how their customers will be judging their performance. Price negotiations would always be fair and equitable. And all parties would be working seamlessly together to create bi-directional best value.

Unsurprisingly, this is not the reality of the business world we live in.

Buying services involves people, and people have different perceptions of value. People have different tolerances of quality. They have differing levels of budget, knowledge, patience, urgency, and ambition.

Every day we talk to organizations who would like to buy services better, who know they should be buying them better. Some are not sure what they need to do and how to do it. Some know what to do but they never quite get around to doing it. Some are ready and willing, but they are waiting for someone else to make the decision for them before getting on with it.

And this is precisely why services procurement should matter to your CEO.

Firstly, because a CEO is ultimately responsible for maximizing shareholder value. And if they are to do that, then they need to be aware of what might be diluting it too. It is highly likely that the assumed ROI of procured services is being negatively offset by the inefficiencies and procrastination embedded in your organization’s buying processes. For example, according to the World Commerce and Contracting association (formerly IACCM), the most frequent source of claims, disputes and disrupted relationships is due to poorly drafted contracts, most notably around the scope and objectives of the work.

Here are five insights that your CEO should have ready access to:

How much is your company spending on external services in their entirety?
How much is your company spending on different types of services?
How has your company’s spend profile changed over time and what is driving that change?
Who are your company’s key suppliers and how strong are your relationships with them?
How do your company’s buying processes compare to recognized best practices?

If these insights are not readily available to your CEO, then it is implausible to claim that shareholder value is being maximized.

The second reason why services procurement should matter to your CEO is because they are the guardians of your organization’s reputation. There are increasing legal and compliance risks associated with the engagement of external service providers, such as disguised employment off-payroll, and so it is crucial that executive leadership are not only wise to these risks but that they implement appropriate and workable mitigation strategies, too.

The third and final reason is because CEOs need to ensure their organizations are continually scanning the market for competitive advantage. Organizations that purposefully adopt a win-win approach to their engagement of external service providers are much more likely to become a customer of choice. Customers of choice are much more likely to be given access to the most current, innovative, and progressive thinking from their service providers because the relationship is mutually beneficial.

Clearly a CEO should not be spending their time down in the weeds of spend analytics, contract negotiations, and supplier relationship management. However, at the macro level, if they can’t be certain your organizational approach to buying services is fit for purpose, it could have serious repercussions for the long-term health of your business.

Connect with Paul on LinkedIn, or visit Randstad Sourceright for more information on their solutions and offerings.

Services Procurement and the Future of Work: A Conversation with Paul Vincent, Global Head of Services Procurement at Randstad Sourceright

Contingent Workforce Procurement Solution Providers Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 08/16/2021

Last week, Randstad Sourceright announced the appointment of Paul Vincent as its Global Head of Services Procurement. In this Future of Work Exchange feature, Paul joins us to talk about how he views the current SOW management landscape, how this exciting topic fits into the greater Future of Work movement, and his new responsibilities at Randstad.

Christopher J. Dwyer: Hi Paul, it is great to chat with you once again, and congratulations on your new role. Pandemic aside, we’ve definitely seen some changes in the services procurement landscape over the past couple of years. Curious to hear your thoughts on these changes and how you feel MSPs can effectively tackle these challenges.

Paul Vincent: It’s good to catch up with you again, too, Chris, and let me start by commending you on the launch of the Future of Work Exchange. The site looks really smart, and I am sure it will become a valued resource for the talent industry.

The services procurement marketplace has unquestionably become more liberated during the past couple of years. Every MSP now seems to be selling some kind of SOW solution and buying organizations are clearly becoming more receptive to a proposal for help. VMS providers are building more tailored functionality into their platforms and there is a growing array of complementary digital tools which can further strengthen an MSP’s product offering if positioned correctly.

So, we are definitely entering a period where SOW-based spend is going to be increasingly supported by workforce solutions providers in some way. The $64M question is going to be: what way is the best way?

This is where I think the market gets most interesting. There is still quite a big difference between an MSP who really understands the nuances of the services procurement landscape versus one that fundamentally still treats this part of the workforce as a subset of an organization’s contingent staffing population.

For example, when you see an MSP only talking about classification, compliance, and control, then this is a tell-tale sign that they are not really thinking about how to best serve the people who have the need and budget for the services themselves. These people, who after all are the primary stakeholders for any SOW management solution, need an MSP who can give them speed, simplicity, ready access to the highest-performing and most innovative service providers, and ultimately the best bang for their budgetary buck.

CJD: One of the things I admire about your work in the market all these years is that you have a deep understanding of both the client and service provider sides of SOW and services procurement. What are two or three of the most valuable insights that this experience has given you?

PV: This is a tough question, Chris, as there are so many insights I could share. However, if you pushed me for my top three then I would probably select these ones.

Firstly, it is important to remember that price and perceived value are very different things. It is a common misconception that users of SOW-based services will want to pay as little as possible and this is a mentality trap that procurement professionals and MSPs can get themselves into. In a staff augmentation world, hiring managers typically don’t want to pay more than the prevailing market rate. In a services procurement world, business users want to pay an appropriate price and as it is their budget, then ultimately, they will need to decide on the price that most aligns with the value they perceive they are going to get from the service provider in return. The role of a good procurement advisor is to help their business stakeholders to identify and then critically evaluate the various commercial options open to them. Then they need to ensure that their stakeholder’s preferred option is properly encapsulated within a well-documented statement of work.

Secondly, whilst the SOW management triangle has three interdependent relationships (i.e., between the business user, centralized procurement, and the service provider), the most crucial relationship is always the one between whoever wants the work done and whoever is going to be doing the work. An effective SOW management solution will facilitate this relationship so that it is as commercially agile as possible. Those procurement functions and MSPs who seek to control this relationship instead will never be sustainably successful.

Finally, I passionately believe that an MSP should be delivering value throughout the entire SOW life cycle. However, in my experience, many MSPs seem to limit their boundary lines to the supplier selection and contracting phases in the process only. I have never understood this – because there is a huge amount of value that can be offered across the project definition, delivery, and evaluation phases, and this value often just gets left on the table.

CJD: These are great insights, Paul, and what resonates with me in particular are your observations about the breadth of the MSP value proposition when it comes to services procurement. So, turning to your new role and an obvious question is: what has attracted you to Randstad Sourceright?

PV: I am thrilled to be joining Randstad Sourceright and there were two main reasons why I could not let this opportunity pass me by. The first is the hugely ambitious and exciting vision that CEO Mike Smith has set for the organization, and in particular the impact and contribution that he expects services procurement to play. The more Mike talked me through his strategic intent for services procurement, the more I felt this was a journey that I wanted to be part of.

Secondly, I will have a chance to work with a very skilled team. Randstad Sourceright already has a number of sales, operations, and subject matter experts working on SOW-related activities across the organization and further recruitment activity is underway. All of this talent will now be unified globally under my leadership and a joint strategic vision focused on creating measurable business value for our clients. I am especially going to enjoy working with Scott Brewer, who will run our SOW center of excellence. Scott has laid some impressive foundations during the past 18 months and there is a strong platform to grow from.

CJD: This role sounds like the perfect fit for you. What do you see as your key priorities during the first few months?

PV: Well, like in any new role there are going to be many people that I will need to get to know across the organization. But I expect the bulk of my time will be spent getting a really good understanding of our current SOW proposition and what we are delivering across the active client programs. From what I have seen, I think the offering is already pretty compelling, particularly from an analytics point of view, but as I finalize our new team structure and future ways of working, I will get a feel for the areas which might have scope for further development.

CJD: Maybe it’s because I’ve known you for so long, but I have to imagine that you already have some ideas as to how you would like to see RSR’s SOW offering evolve…am I correct?

PV: You’re right, you know me well and I do have some ideas already germinating, but it’s important that I take the time to really understand the current offering first and to gather a range of input from across the organization. What I can tell you is that Mike has set me a very clear objective – which is for Randstad Sourceright to be regarded as the undisputed market leader driving services procurement value for our customers. I am very energized by this goal, and I have every intention of delivering it!

CJD: I am very sure you will, Paul, and we look forward to hearing more from you here on the Future of Work Exchange. Best wishes on your new role at Randstad Sourceright, and thanks again for taking the time so soon after your new appointment.

Connect with Paul on LinkedIn, or visit Randstad Sourceright for more information on their solutions and offerings.