No matter the size of your organization, today’s workforce is becoming increasingly complex.
Large businesses are changing their hiring processes in a bid to improve flexibility, mid-market companies are using staffing agencies to beat the skills shortage and small businesses are using new hiring techniques to access highly-skilled candidates.
Businesses of all sizes have one thing in common, they are optimizing their use of contingent workers to create agile workforces that fully prepare them for changing market conditions. As a result, most companies today have a mix of both permanent workers and non-employees - with many of these hired through staffing agencies.
According to an Intuit 2020 report on 20 trends that will shape the next decade, roughly 25 to 30 percent of the US workforce is currently contingent, and more than 80 percent of large corporations plan to substantially increase their use of a flexible workforce in the coming years.
Meanwhile, the report expects that the average small business will become smaller over the next decade due to agility requirements and the use of contingent workers.
Managing a mixed workforce
Managing a mixed workforce has become increasingly complex. Unfortunately, most companies are now mismanaging it. This is resulting in poor hiring decisions, hidden costs, the use of ineffective staffing agencies and many other issues that are affecting a company's bottom line.
Using a vendor management system (VMS) should be an essential component of your non-employee workforce management strategy, but did you know that you can also use some VMS solutions to manage your permanent workforce as well?
A VMS shouldn't just be for your contingent workers, it should be for all externally-sourced workers. That includes permanent employees sourced through a staffing agency.
Before we get into why your organization would choose to manage its permanent workers in a vendor management system, let’s first take a look at what a VMS actually is and why it’s beneficial to your non-employee workforce management.
So, what is VMS software?
A vendor management system is a cloud-based software platform that automates and consolidates the management of your entire non-employee workforce, and the staffing vendors you use to source them - all in one centralized location.
While many organizations are still using ineffective manual processes to manage their externally-sourced workforce, such as contingent workforce spreadsheets, VMS software will allow you to automate this entire process. Everything from engaging your staffing agencies, measuring vendor performance, sourcing independent contractors (IC) and paying them will be automated on your VMS.
Through this automation, centralization and consolidation, your organization will be able to create a superior non-employee workforce management strategy.
The benefits of using a VMS include:
- improved workforce visibility;
- significant money savings;
- more-informed IC hiring decisions;
- better vendor choices;
- and much more.
Can I use a VMS to manage my externally-sourced perm employees?
The benefits of VMS software aren't just reserved for your non-employee workforce.
Some vendor management system platforms, such as Conexis VMS, are now including functionality that allows you to source permanent employees via staffing agencies within the platform.
This is particularly useful for small and mid-market businesses in which one person (or a small team) is often responsible for managing both the permanent workforce as well as contract labour.
This is completely different for large corporations, which likely have teams of procurement dedicated to contingent labour. Large businesses have completely separate teams for non-employee and permanent workforce, and the budget to invest in completely different solutions.
Mid-market companies that use staffing agencies for their non-employee workforce, and have a small dedicated team to manage the hiring of both independent contractors and permanent workers, will benefit greatly from automating the process of both in one centralized platform.
Want to learn how this could be beneficial to your business?
Contact ConexisVMS today. We’ve developed an innovative vendor management system that allows small and medium-sized businesses to manage the recruitment and hiring of both contract and permanent positions, with no minimum spend required.
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