This week, I spoke with Karen Thrasher who manages Southwest Airlines’ Contingent Worker program and also leads the People department’s FTE & Contingent recruitment functions. Karen has been in the contingent workforce management (CWM) space for about six years and particularly enjoys vendor management and participating in the strategic partnership between human resources and procurement. She is passionate about the employee experience and feels that Southwest’s approach to CWM is truly driving the future of the industry.

In this interview, I spoke with Anthony Nardi of Willis Towers Watson who holds stakeholder responsibility for their global contingent workforce business. Anthony’s background includes technical recruiting, operational and strategic positions roles ranging from requisition fulfillment to executing process excellence within global programs for a major MSP launching programs in the US, Asia, UK, Canada and Australia. He attributes his inclusive approach to contingent workforce management (CWM) to his global experience.

This summer, HireTalent is pleased to offer our partners and colleagues a summer series of interviews with leadership working within the contingent workforce management (CWM) space. This series will highlight their perspectives on where the industry has come from and where it is moving.

How, why, and where we work has changed; we are in a new industrial revolution, and there is section of our workforce being hotly debated. 

Statement of work (SOW) has become a fast growing component of contingent workforce management (CWM) programs. While SOW has been much discussed,  there has been little conversation around acquiring the actual skills and knowledge needed to make SOW work and manage it effectively.

There’s conventional wisdom that there are just things you never say at an exit interview. An understanding that for many reasons, primarily focused on preservation of relationships and references, it is difficult to leave behind meaningful feedback about why the decision to leave was made. There are few that have not experienced the exit interview and probably fewer who would argue that it is almost impossible to provide benevolent feedback to enable reflection within a saavy organization and provide improvement suggestions for the employment experience.

Within the Contingent Workforce Management (CWM) industry, the demand and processes used for obtaining top talent within the contingent population is a topic often discussed. However, there has been little conversation around how organizations are securing the top talent to manage their contingent populations and the candidate competencies, skills, and aptitude most likely to lead to success in program roles.

February 2016
 

Should we manage our contingent workforce operations... or should they?

January 2016

What effect does the absorption of an SOW population into a Managed Service Provider or Internally Managed Program have on the contingent workforce? 

December 2015

The MSP model is here to stay. How can we ensure continued process improvement for our existing programs? We discuss current value adds and challenges, as well as strategies to ensure ongoing program improvement from our roundtable meetings at the CWS Summit 2015.