Ensuring compliance in the management of external workforce
Background
CoreChange played a key role in optimizing one of its clients’ procurement and management of external workforce, in collaboration with its partner, SAP Fieldglass. The client, a global telecom provider with operations in over 170 countries, have a significant need to hire external workforce and faced complex challenges. They required efficient and unified processes to manage thousands of consultants working in different countries and on various projects. After an in-depth pre-study, the client decided to use SAP Fieldglass as their VMS platform (Vendor Management System) to enhance the management of external resources. This platform aids in finding, hiring, managing, paying, and evaluating external consultants and consulting providers. Currently, up to 20,000 consultants are being managed through the new platform, covering 90% of the total cost.
Assignment
The client made compliance a top priority and brought in a senior project manager from CoreChange to lead a global change program. The program’s goal was to establish structure and enhance transparency regarding the external workforce throughout the organization. This was done to minimize both legal and commercial risks associated with not having control over the external workforce.
CoreChange led the work to drive the global change initiative by fostering awareness and knowledge within the organization, resulting in positive outcomes achieved through the following steps:
Stakeholder mapping: Identifying gaps among various units and organizational levels. Based on the gap, work with targeted and adapted communication to different stakeholders.
Communicating and providing training in proper processes and routines, which included conducting workshops and Q&A sessions. The program manager, acting as a neutral party, facilitated collaboration among different functions and roles within the organization to ensure progress and reduce friction.
Simplification was a key strategy. Materials were streamlined, and the purpose of the change was clarified. Simple guides with standardized terminology and definitions were created to set the stage for doing things correctly.
Presenting facts to address and motivate sceptical stakeholders about the need for the change and explaining the consequences of inaction.
Establishing tools and controls to maintain increased process compliance also after the program’s completion.
Results
The program was recognized as one of the most successful sourcing projects in 2022.
Sponsors and the steering group expressed significant appreciation for the project's outcomes and admitted that they had initially held doubts about the feasibility of the change.
The project laid the foundation for collaboration across different functions by introducing shared instructions and definitions, replacing the previous practice of each group having their own variations.
Cross-functional collaboration forums were established to facilitate knowledge sharing and address common issues.
The project also revealed weaknesses in existing processes and initiated ongoing improvements efforts. Furthermore, the project successfully employed widespread communication to clarify stakeholder expectations.
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