Managing multiple warehouses is tough. They all have their own constantly changing, and growing, staffing needs. Yet, despite your best attempts at hiring, your warehouses require short-term temps to deal with your wild business fluctuations.
Even more challenging, is the fact that you are managing these temporary workers using nothing more than spreadsheets, sharepoint sites or perhaps an in-house database. This method is heavily manual, unproductive, frustrating and, most importantly, costly.
The end result is limited visibility into the performance of your staffing agencies. Does this sound familiar?
This is an all too common scenario for warehouse and operations managers in organizations that are growing and don’t have the need, or budget, for an enterprise level vendor management system – also known as a VMS.
So, what are you meant to do?
If you have looked into the VMS market today, you will notice that it is full of enterprise level solutions touting things like artificial intelligence (AI) and proprietary algorithms. These may be things you don’t need, and they always come with a crazy price tag.
In fact, many of these solution providers won’t even speak to you because your business is “too small”.
Thankfully, you understand the importance of getting the right size solution that does exactly what you need, can grow with your business and fits nicely within your budget - but does that even exist?
Don’t despair, the VMS market is shifting and solutions for small and medium-sized warehousing organizations with complex demands now exist. These systems can help you achieve your goals of driving efficiencies, visibility and cost controls related to your warehouse’s non-employee workforce.
When you begin the vendor management system buying process for your warehouse temporary staffing requirements, there are some key items to watch out for. Conexis VMS has listed the top ones here, to help you make the right VMS choice:
#1 - Functionality
Most vendor management systems are built around facilitating the engagement and management of technical or administrative temps.
The business rules, volumes and complexities of these hires is relatively low. That means VMS systems that focus on these hires have not evolved into the areas that are critical to warehousing environments and logistics managers, such as acquiring and managing temps and the staffing agencies providing them.
When looking for a VMS for your warehousing environment, it’s important to look for some specific functionality to improve how you manage both temp workers and vendors. Here are some of the most important functionalities to look for:
Health and safety - It is critical for warehouse and operations professionals to be made aware of, and be able to track, any safety incidents that have occurred within their facilities. A VMS that is functional for warehouses should allow users to record and report on these incidents.
Volume handling - A VMS for warehousing environments needs to be able to handle high volume requests for temporary labour requirements. Often hundreds at a time. On the flip side, the system must be able to allow staffing agencies to submit hundreds of candidates on one submission who can quickly be onboarded to start on-site often within hours, or at the very least the next day.
Shifts - Work shifts that differ across workers, sites and jurisdictions with different rates for different shifts, such as OT and DT, is critical.
Timeclock integrations - Most warehouses today use some form of automated click in and clock out system. A vendor management system should be able to take in the data from that timeclock system, and convert it into worker time cards in the system that then can be converted into supplier invoices.
Multi-tenant - A VMS should allow organizations the flexibility to assign locations to specific users.
Supplier invoicing and payment - One of the most frustrating and inefficient temp processes is invoicing. Every supplier has a different process and they are constantly sending in invoices with errors or needing corrections. A VMS should automate the supplier invoicing process in a closed-loop environment to prevent the risk of invoice errors.
Contract management - Your staffing agency agreements, statement of works (SOW’s) and worker agreements can become overwhelming to manage. The VMS you choose should be able to effectively manage the various contracts used in your warehouse.
Worker onboarding - Ensuring that you complete worker background checks and other onboarding steps is an important process that mitigates the risk to your organization when bringing on temporary workers. A VMS should enable and track this process right up to the worker being on site.
Budget management - Warehouse managers must be able to track forecasted and used temp spend, it is important that the VMS of your choice has this functionality.
Permanent and contract hires - Being able to post permanent hire requests, as well as just temps, is an important function for warehouse managers who don’t want to have multiple systems or processes for their staffing agencies for both full-time and temporary work.
Rate cards - Many warehouse managers have pre-negotiated rates with their agencies. A VMS should allow organizations to build their rate cards into the system. This will ensure all contracts are in alignment with pre-negotiated rates.
You should also make sure that any VMS being used for warehousing environments has reporting and supplier onboarding and management functionality.
#2 - Security and information management
In today’s world any software or systems you use must have the latest security protocols. Not only that, but the organization providing these systems needs to adhere to the latest privacy and information protection legislation such as HIPAA, PIPED and GDPR.
This is more important now than it has ever been before, with cybercrime consistently on the rise. The 2017 Official Annual Cybercrime Report estimates that cybercrime will cost more than $6 trillion annually by 2021 - up from just $3 trillion in 2015.
#3 - Scalability
To manage a successful business, you need to be fully prepared for the requirement to grow or reduce your workforce at a moment’s notice. This is more true for warehouses where seasonal demand can have a dramatic influence on your workforce requirements.
To make sure your warehouse is able to scale seamlessly, it’s crucial you choose a VMS system that is able to scale with your business. The last thing you want to do is choose a system that reaches its limits to support you while you are still growing.
#4 - Price
Vendor management systems vary wildly in pricing rates and approaches. The latest pricing model is a license-based monthly fee. VMS systems could be based on the number of users, the amount of contingent spend being processed through the system or the amount of records. Watch out for VMS providers who charge ridiculously high implementation fees. The trend is to no longer pay implementation fees for out of the box set ups.
- Read More about VMS for Manufacturing & Light Industrial:
➡️ VMS For Manufacturing: Seamlessly Manage your Manufacturing Extended Workforce
➡️ How a VMS Helps Navigate the Complexities of a Manufacturing Workforce
➡️ Light Industrial Staffing: Now is the Time to Better Manage your Temp Workers with a VMS
➡️ Light Industrial Staffing Agencies: How to Find the Right Vendors➡️ Manufacturing & Light Industrial: Applying a VMS to Temps➡️ Industrial & IT Staffing: Seeing Rapid Growth➡️ Warehouse: How to Manage Contingent Workers & Staffing Agencies
Interested in learning more about Vendor Management Solutions?
Whether you are looking for a new VMS Solution, or just getting started, we are here to help. See how easy Conexis is to use by taking a quick 2 minute Self-Guided Tour. Contact Us for a Free No-Obligation Consultation to discuss your workforce challenges (and get immediate actionable insights) or Book a Personal Demo Today!
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