For those of you that attended our December 15th webinar, Best Practices in Managing & Analyzing Services Procurement Spend, thank you for joining us.

For those of you that were unable to join, click here to listen to the very informative recording.

Please click on the image below to review the full deck.  

Thursday, February 15, 2012 
1:00 - 2PM ET (note new time/date)

As organizations recover from the Great Recession, many have become more adaptive to the role of contract talent. As leaders struggle not only with the uncertainty of the recovery, but with questions surrounding regulatory reform in key areas such as health care, the environment, and finance, contract talent will inevitably play an even more important role going forward. Integrating contract talent into the workforce planning model allows for greater talent flexibility as the needs of the organization changes and the workforce plan is created and followed.

This session will focus on the needs, challenges, and attitudes of organizations at this important economic inflection point and how fitting contract talent into the workforce planning equation will yield successful results such as lower human capital costs and higher productivity rates. Click here to register now. 

Paul Gartland
Director of Services Procurement

Paul Gartland has over 17 years of experience in staffing, Managed Service Programs and Services Procurement. Paul is currently the Director of Services Procurement for Allegis Group Services. Paul consultants with companies in how they are managing their Services Procurement/SOW business and helps determine if there is a better solution to their current process.

Prior is his role as Director of Services Procurement he was the Program Director for one of AGS' largest financial services clients leading a full service MSP that provides both staff augmentation and Services Procurement management for the client. Paul managed 18 dedicated program office staff members responsible for managing over $500M in spend spanning both staff augmentation and SOW services. 

Thursday, December 15, 2011
2 – 3PM ET 

Current economic conditions and strong competition are forcing companies to seek new ways to reduce costs and enhance profitability and cash flow, with businesses feeling the pressure to improve procurement effectiveness. 

Join Paul Gartland and Tracey Klein as they discuss best practices in managing and analyzing services procurement spend. They will specifically explore how best to utilize industry knowledge, first hand experiences, and market trends in performing this analysis.  See how your company can translate this information into action to achieve more effective spend management.

HRO Today sees MSP as a new and exciting category offering substantial opportunities for achieving talent goals as well as efficiencies in the acquisition and management of contingent employees. This webinar is part of a year-long educational campaign to help you fully understand the trends driving the use of contingent labor and realize the potential of an MSP program in executing your company’s HR strategy.  We hope you will participate.

For more information or to register for this complimentary webinar, click here.

Presenter Ronald Kreugel on The Recent Webinar Event:

 “On Tuesday 22nd of November Allegis Group Services and Staffing Industry Analysts presented a webinar about MSP and VMS Trends in Western-Europe. With more than 100 registered directors and senior managers responsible for and/or involved with procurement of contingent staff, the attendants of the webinar were informed about the continued growth of the MSP and VMS markets per region. Based on the results of Staffing Industry Analysts’ VMS MSP Landscape Report 2011 figures showed the trends per region, evolution of staffing procurement models and differences in maturity between markets. Allegis Group Services was proud to sponsor this webinar as being the world’s leading provider of neutral managed services solutions and world’s 2nd largest provider of SOW managed services solutions according to the SIA report.”

For those of you unable to join, click here now to listen to the very informative recording.

Download Our Free White Paper Now:

Isn’t it time for you to ‘upgrade’ your contingent workforce strategy?
10 Key Questions to Consider When Building a Workforce Management Programme

Additional Resources:

• VMS and MSP Market Size/Competitive Market Share: Staffing Industry Analysts’ 2011 Take 
  
• Rise of Blended RPO - Addressing the Total Talent Acquisition Need

Erik Karff, Manager of Marketing and Social Media for Allegis Group Services, recently held an exclusive interview with Bryan Pena, Vice President, Contingent Workforce Strategies and Research, on the upcoming CWS Summit in Las Vegas October 4th and 5th.

Bryan offered us some outstanding insights into the upcoming conference and we are sharing them with you.

Here is what Bryan had to say:

AGS: What is the CWS Summit? Who is it for?

Bryan Pena: Now in its 7th year, the CWS Summit is the largest event anywhere dedicated to contingent workforce management and services procurement personnel.  In simpler terms, anyone who in any way is involved with handling external labor resources for their company can get value from attending.  This could be someone from Human Resources and Procurement of course but we also see participants who are in finance, operations or Information Technology as well.

AGS: What type of companies attend?

Bryan Pena: The attendance list looks like the who’s who of corporate America.  Companies like 3M, Apple, AstraZeneca, Cargill, Citigroup, HP, Delta Airlines, Facebook and hundreds of others.  Whether you manage a CW program of seven billion or seven million, there is value in attending.

AGS: Why would someone come to CWS, instead of other conferences?

Bryan Pena: While the agenda covers many HR and procurement topic areas it is important to remember that this event is only dedicated to issues facing contingent workforce managers.  That being said, nowhere else will you get such a focused perspective on this rapidly growing field. Since economist universally agree that the contingent workforce is becoming an ever more critical component in today’s volatile economy anyone who wants to stay on top of this complex field should strongly consider attending.

AGS: What can they expect this year?

Bryan Pena: But seriously, we have a great agenda this year, and I’m not just saying that because I wrote it!  For one we have a great set of keynotes; Dan Shapiro from the Harvard Program on Negotiation will be coming to share his perspective on how to improve supplier relations. Also, we are honored to have the former Secretary of Labor and professor Robert Reich coming to share his perspective on the future of work. While the keynotes are reasons to attend in and of themselves we are offering an assortment of panel discussions moderated by SIA staff on anything from Six Sigma, to cost savings, to program office construction.  Taking a cue from previous years, participants in these panels will be organized by program maturity to allow attendees to select those sessions which best apply to them: Beginning, Experienced and Advanced. 

Also, we are offering a selection of dedicated topic based workshops.  These are meant to be more detailed explorations of specific areas of interest to contingent workforce managers.  We have three such dedicated workshops scheduled this year: Crafting an RFP, Data Analytics and Recruitment Process Outsourcing. 

Finally, while it is hard to deny that there is a lot of valuable material to learn, and attending will definitely help the Contingent Workforce manager do their job better, lets don’t forget  it’s in Las Vegas, so the non-conference atmosphere will be second to none!

‘None of these resumes are a fit.  Are they even listening to what I’m asking for?’

‘I just extended an offer, and the agency’s candidate declined to take a different job.  This is totally unprofessional!’

‘Why is this search taking so long?’

For over a decade in staffing/recruiting I have heard these statements and more.  As days and weeks pass during a candidate search, the frustration mounts.  As the lack of quality submittals grows, your faith in your 3rd party staffing vendors begins to grow with it.  Yes, the relationships between agency and client can be challenging at times.  Working in both the 3rd party and corporate recruiting worlds I have been on both sides of this coin, and have garnered a unique perspective on these trials and tribulations.

As we all know, there are always two sides to every story.  Let’s look back at these questions again from a supplier’s point of view.

Manager: ‘None of these resumes are a fit. Are they even listening to what I’m asking for?’

Supplier’s Response: ‘All I received to begin the search was a general job description from the manager.  I sent over the candidates based on that format.  I have repeatedly asked the manager for feedback to see where/why we are missing to refine my search.  I still haven’t heard back on any of the resumes.’ 

Manager: ‘I just extended an offer, and the agency’s candidate declined to take a different job.  This is totally unprofessional!’

Supplier’s Response:  ‘The candidate was interviewing with the company for weeks.  By the time they finally extended the offer one month later, the candidate had received an offer from another company.  The process took so long that the candidate became unengaged.  We didn’t submit him to any other opportunities, and now we’re out of a placement.’

Manager: ‘Why is this search taking so long?’ 

Supplier: ‘I haven’t sent any new candidates because I never received feedback on the first ones I sent.  We are too busy to be a “resume shop” to our clients.’

The common theme in each of these scenarios is that both parties’ feel like they are not getting what they need to be successful.  In speaking with my clients, and our vendor partners in the past, these issues are the most trying for any organization today.  Every company says that they want the best talent, but are they prepared to do what it takes to ensure that they get it each and every time?  The formula for success is easy, but the path to get there changes the mindset on how business has been done in the past.

The best Third Party Recruiting Agencies are experts.  When fully engaged, they have the ability to empower their clients with the top talent the industry has to offer.  So what’s the secret to being awarded premium talent from your 3rd party vendors?  … Highest bill rate?  … Nope.  … Length of contract?  … Not even close.  The organizations that benefit from their industry’s best talent and best supplier experience all understand one key item; Reciprocation. 

Dictionary.com defines Reciprocation as ‘a mutual giving and receiving’.  As with any successful relationship, business or personal, reciprocity is critical for long term success. If one party puts in less effort than the other consistently the relationship can, and will, fail.  This is the most common breakdown between any partnership; especially those between third party recruiter and hiring manager.  

There are three easy tips to ensuring a successful allegiance between manager and agency that each company should consider before engaging in any search.

1. Your time is not more important than the candidates’ or agencies’ time.  Surprised?  Long gone are the days of the elitist attitude in hiring.  The approach of ‘I have the power, because I have the job’ is a sure way to ensure that the agency will not send you their best.  You might get lucky a time or two, especially in the beginning or depending on the search, but long term if your company has this approach most established vendors will stop supporting them. 
   
   As a third party recruiter, my best candidates always went to my most engaged client’s.  This practice made us both look good to the candidates, and ultimately to each other.  A professional hiring process also ensured that I would receive referrals for both jobs and people.  Referrals are manna in recruiting and are vital to ensuring successful long term business growth for any agency/recruiter. 
2. Communication isn’t just key, it’s critical.The second biggest threat to a successful recruiting process is a failure in developing a successful communication plan between manager and agency.  Nothing frustrates a vendor more than daily calls requesting feedback from their candidates on an interview, and they can say nothing because they themselves still do not have feedback.  This makes the client look bad, and the vendor look worse.  If a client cannot offer regular, detailed feedback on agency submittals/ interviews, suppliers will stop supporting them.  A vendor’s time and reputation in the industry are too valuable to jeopardize their business on a client who would not afford the decency to provide feedback after they had invested time and effort on their work; regardless of who that client is.  Remember most agencies work on a contingent basis and only get paid once a placement is made.  What is their motivation to stick it out with a manager or company who can’t communicate in a timely manner, or at all?
3. Streamline your interview process. With the economy taking a turn for the better, job opportunities are increasing in many markets across the globe; creating more competition for the available passive and active talent pools.  Delaying the interview process, or indecisiveness on who to hire, can be detrimental to a manager’s ability to fill his/her job by creating an environment where a candidate becomes unengaged or even accepts another opportunity.  Any reputable third party agency will not create an environment of competition for their candidates between their clients, but ultimately they have no control over the candidate, or another agency, pursuing other opportunities during your interview process.
   
   Keep your process clearly defined from the beginning so that the agency can share this with the candidate before interviewing to set the stage, and lay out expectations.  Stick to this process whenever possible, and make sure that you keep lines of communication open during the interviews to avoid fall off.  Do this and your supplier’s will break their backs to ensure that the candidate stays with you and doesn’t take another opportunity.   

In my experience the companies who follow these steps consistently receive the best service, lowest prices, and highest candidate quality across the board.  When a supplier feels engaged and informed they will do what it takes to win for their clients time and time again.  It seems simple enough, but I’m continually amazed at how infrequently this level of partnership takes place in business today. 

‘I don’t have the time to hand-hold my vendors.  I thought they were the experts’.

Allowing consistent communication flow and establishing defined processes/timelines will eventually save the manager even more time by streamlining the practice of hiring.  This will only empower the experts to be successful on your behalf.   It’s your business, and if you want the best you have to build a partnership with your suppliers.  Reciprocation is the simple secret to ensuring your company consistently obtains the best talent from your staffing partners; every time.

 Considering a Managed Service Provider (MSP) is a great avenue for companies to help establish best practices, build efficiencies, and hold both manager and supplier accountable to the service level agreements established with their talent model.  As the liaison between supplier and client company, the policies and practices that are put in place allow an environment where each side feels empowered to be successful without feeling overwhelmed or over worked. 

Jeff Holmes works with Allegis Group Services as an MSP Program Director for the world’s largest hotel group.  An 11 year veteran of both the staffing and corporate recruiting worlds, he has spent the past 6 years with Allegis Group in a variety of capacities. Click here to find out more about Jeff. 

In today’s economy and competitive marketplace,   it is important now more than ever to excel at developing strong relationships and partnerships with your customers.  Of course, we all know the best way to do this is by providing superior customer service.    So, what does it take to deliver SUPERIOR customer service?   It’s more than just being an effective listener, being responsive and answering the phone every time.  It’s even way more than being positive, professional and pleasant to work with or having strong attention to detail.    While all of these traits are very important and key aspects of providing good customer service,   we need to challenge ourselves to be more than that… to go above and beyond. 

1.     Be Accountable:   Know your organization and your product or the service you provide.   You must also know your customer and what makes them tick.  What is their culture, their history?  What are their concerns?   How does the service you provide meet their needs?  Being accountable also means that you must deliver on everything that you say you are going to do and in the timeframe you say you are going to do it in.  If you miss a deadline or make a mistake, own up to it and figure out a way to resolve the issue.  Failure to be accountable causes your customer to lose faith in you and the services being provided.

2.      Be Innovative:   I  like to think my relationship with clients as a boat floating on the water:   We just set sail, everything seems to be going great and we are sailing along without a care in the world…Everyone is happy.   All of the sudden, we spring a leak!   Our gut reaction is to quickly plug the hole and stop the leak, right?   Well, wouldn’t you know it, five more leaks spring up!   Why is that?  Maybe we were too hasty in our attempts to stop the first leak that we didn’t realize the potential problems it would cause later on.  Isn’t it better to take the time to get to the root cause of the problem rather than just continuing to “plug holes?”  Challenge yourself to think outside of the box and propose brand new solutions or process enhancements. You never know….you may just be the one to revolutionize your business and the way your company operates! And guess what? You made your customer happy in the process!

3.       Over-Communicate:  Providing your customer with as much information you can is definitely better than nothing at all.  However, there are limits, and sometimes too much information can be a bad thing.   Be careful with communicating with your customer, you don’t want to end up sounding like Charlie Brown’s teacher! (“Wah, wah, wah, wah.”)  My point is that you should put yourself in the customer’s shoes and anticipate the questions that you might receive.  If you know what questions/objections you might encounter up front, then you can address them before your customer has a chance to bring anything up.  Your customer will walk away feeling confident that you’re the right person for the job and that they are in good hands.  

4.       Don’t be afraid to say “NO”:   The customer is always right…. Right?   Not always.  I recently read a blog entitled “Saying ‘No’ To Customers Can Save Your Company” where the author stated that “many businesses fail because their leaders lose focus while trying to incorporate all (or many) of their  customers’ suggestions.” We do this because saying yes makes the customer happy.   Additional he writes that “making customers temporarily happy while destroying your company is, in Crowdspring’s opinion, an unacceptable cost.  No company has unlimited resources and when you say yes to customers – you’re committing – and often, over-committing – those resources.”  There comes a time when the customer’s expectations of your product, service or turnaround time becomes unreasonable.  The balance here is knowing how to let the customer down easy.  Be prepared to share the reasons why you are turning their suggestion down. After all, we are the subject matter experts and the customer hired us for a reason, right? It is important to focus on providing an alternative solution to satisfy their needs.

Going beyond what traditionally constitutes quality customer service is what will set you apart from your competitors.   In addition to having a very satisfied customer, you will have earned their respect, demonstrated an innovative and reliable customer service experience, and you will have just re-branded yourself, and your company!  

The author of this post, Melissa Belardi, has been with Allegis Group Services and part of the Cummins program since March of 2010. She has nearly 7 years of recruiting and staffing experience within various industries including Light Industrial, Automotive, Admin/Clerical, Pharmaceutical Sales, and Clinical Research.   

Click here to find out more about Melissa.  

Join us for a live interview and Q&A with Faye Holland, Managing Director, European & Asia Pacific Operations, SharedXpertise, Global Executive Director of HROA , as we interview Faye about the upcoming HRO Europe Conference (November 2 – 4, 2011). Learn about the conference’s benefits and why it is imperative that you attend.

At this live Webinar/Interview you will have the opportunity to:

When: Wednesday, August 17, 2011 10:30 AM-11:00 AM

Where: (US)Conference line (866) 246-4691, code 7039509 or International Call In: Global Numbers

Go to: https://allegisgroupservices.webex.com/allegisgroupservices/j.php?J=596391230

Start the dialogue now and leave your questions in the comment section below. 

Let’s face it…not so long ago, being in procurement wasn’t seen as a very sexy occupation. Ok…I know some of you are chuckling thinking it’s still not that exciting, but I beg to differ. And I’ll give you five good reasons why you should give procurement and sourcing professionals more credibility and respect.

1. They are the unsung heroes of the recession and economic crisis. Since the beginning of the economic downturn, cost containment has become a key priority for organizations of all sizes. This means that the procurement group has increased its strategic position on the corporate totem pole. In many cases, the CPO is now not only at the Board Room table, but is actually an invited guest. Increasing revenues or decreasing costs…fundamentally, those are the two ways to positively impact your net income. In a time of recession, increasing revenues can be a challenge at best, so decreasing costs becomes the focus. Strategic sourcing, which frankly has always made sense to do…becomes a priority, and the procurement group drives that process.
2. They take the heat from every part of the company. Not only do CPOs and their groups have to answer to the CFO…but they have internal stakeholders across all areas of the company as well. A recent report ("The CPO in 2011: The Toughest Job in the Global 1000") by HfS Research states that a CPO’s job is “not for the faint of heart”. This is most definitely true—CPOs are on speed dial from every internal department from accounting to product management to the office of the CEO. They are being asked to cut costs by one department…while being told that they can’t trim costs by another department that “requires” something specific for their product. One thing I know for sure—if procurement is brought into the conversation earlier in the process, decisions can be made with all information on the table and everyone gains.  Speaking of which… 
3. They use robust information to make decisions. Procurement execs use market intelligence in all their sourcing decisions. They are well-informed about the supply markets in which they are involved and provide compelling information to any negotiation. At a minimum, this includes costs, but it can also include finding innovative suppliers…or collaborating on product improvements including service and process.
4. Their job requires a skill set that is enviable. Not so long ago, I worked as a consultant. A few years in to it, I remember someone asking me why I had chosen business school vs. a graduate school that might prepare me for a specific career—like med school or law school—something I could be trained to start “doing” right away. So I started thinking about what I was learning as a consultant and realized that the skills I acquired—being able to think on my feet, enjoying the opportunity to speak in front of a crowd, managing a variety of different moving parts, analyzing complex data and learning to tell a compelling story from it—were things that I could take with me in ANY future career. The same can be said for people in procurement. The skills they have mastered are crucial and should be leveraged and appreciated. In their roles, they learn to manage complex supply chains…they master the art of negotiating on price and other intangible factors that contribute to the total value…and they generally own supplier relationships. Individually, each of these skills is useful for professional OR personal reasons, but collectively, these skills pack a powerful punch.
5. They are innovators. Have you looked around a Procurement Department lately? Any misconceptions that people in procurement are old, stodgy pencil-pushers need to be completely erased. At SIG (www.sig.org, an organization that provides best practice events, content and networking opportunities for sourcing and outsourcing professionals, primarily from Fortune 500/Global 500 companies), over the past four years, we’ve noticed a massive shift in the demographic of people representing their procurement, sourcing and outsourcing groups. Not only are these folks incredibly bright, but they are also choosing these careers out of college and actually training for them. The talent management pool is becoming bigger because this has become a career of choice. With that energy and passion, comes innovation. Nothing in procurement is “as it used to be.” If SIG members are at all representative of the market as a whole (which they most definitely are), then this group is one of the most collaborative and innovative in their organizations. They seek best practices…they share key learnings…and they implement new ideas with passion and determination. They are doers.

Before I started working at SIG, in all honesty, I didn’t get it—didn’t get why this space was so exciting…didn’t see what I see now. This is a dynamic, fast-changing area and the people in procurement represent the best and brightest. I’m drinking the Kool-Aid now. I get it. I have a deep respect for both the people in procurement and the very critical roles they play in their organizations and hope you will too.

About Sourcing Interests Group
Sourcing Interests Group (SIG), www.sig.org, is a membership organization that has served sourcing and outsourcing professionals from Fortune 500 and Global 1000 companies throughout its 20-year history. SIG is unique in that it blends practitioners, service providers and advisory firms in a non-commercial environment. Members of all types are focused on improving bottom-line performance, quality and customer service through strategic sourcing/procurement and outsourcing initiatives. SIG is acknowledged by many as a world leader in providing an ongoing forum for networking and sharing thought leadership, innovation and “next” practices.
Request more information about SIG membership.

SIG’s next Global Leadership Summit will be held October 18 – 20, 2011 in Seattle, WA. Click here for more information. 

Successfully managing both family and work commitments is nothing short of a remarkable balancing act. Planning is the most important aspect to maintaining this balance.  As a working mom or business consultant, I plan everything!

Here is a personal example of how that balance was recently thrown off for me. While at a conference, working from a Boston hotel room, I had found out that the nanny didn’t arrive at the right time for my husband to get to his early morning meeting. Was this my fault? Despite my need to be responsible for everything (a common working mom trait) I’m going to go out on a limb here and say no, this was not my mistake.  And in all seriousness my husband would completely agree. 

There is a direct correlation to the advice I give to my clients, to how I run my consulting projects and how I manage my own home life.

While I have been in a project management type role for the vast majority of my career, it’s really in my current career as a consultant that I recognized the value and skill that project planning really brings to everything in your life. 

So whether you are seeking to implement a MSP/VMS, a new strategy or just looking for that perfect summer nanny, using the fundamentals of a good project plan will help you get there. There are a vast amount of resources from books to certification and on-line resources to take you through the formal fundamentals of a project plan.  Here’s just a few of my basic favorites:

• Define the scope-What are you trying to accomplish?

• Estimate a timeline and then the corresponding details-When you start putting activities to a realistic timeline, it’s often very enlightening.  This exercise seems to make a big impression upon my clients and my spouse.  Putting a timeline to paper brings a big dose of reality to the undertaking at hand.

• Document Everything-Keep records and notes. Every time you change from your baseline, write down the change was and why it was necessary. Every time a new requirement is added to the project write down where the requirement came from and how the timeline or budget was adjusted because of it.

• Communication, communication, communication-Have a weekly status no matter what.  Sit down with your project team, husband, nanny or customer.  Even when you’re inclined to say there isn’t anything to talk about, the opportunity for both parties to communicate and expect the regular interaction and feedback is critical.