Vendor Management Standards Committee Formed

The Human Capital Institute and a coalition of seven contingent workforce industry vendors announced today the formation of the Vendor Management Standards Committee. Advancing best practices and benchmarks for clients, COMSYS, Beeline, Allegis Group Services, Bartech Workforce Management, Comensura, MyBizOffice and ProcureStaff joined forces with the Human Capital Institute to develop and publish best practices and industry standards focusing on vendor management.

Here are some quotes from press releases on the Committee:

• "There is a great deal of confusion among buyers and industry insiders as to what constitutes a Managed Service Provider (MSP). The vendor management industry lacks consistency or standards around the services it provides."
  
  
• "We continue to see a substantial increase in the use of vendor management systems, especially with large- and medium-size firms nationwide . "
  


• "The Vendor Management Standards Committee will help to establish base standards that will serve as a fundamental set of expectations for any buyer who contracts with an MSP that adheres to the standards. "

More information can be found at the following link:

Vendor Management Standards Committee Formed to Promote Contingent Workforce Industry Best Practices. [Human Capital Institute]

Workforce Vision * Post: Bill Inman * Human Capital * Contingent Workforce * Globalization * Trends * Outsourcing

Top Business Trends for 2007

Top Small-Business Trends for 2007 as stated by Vistage, the world's largest CEO membership organization:

1. Increased Globalization


2. Heightened M&A Activity


3. Increasing divide between Baby Boomer and Generation Y workers

The above trends revolve around cost cutting, increasing profitable growth, and human capital.

“The global economy is increasingly being fueled by small businesses,” said Rafael Pastor, Vistage CEO and Chairman of the Board. “In 2007, more small businesses will not only experiment with global opportunities, but significant percentages of their growth and ability to compete will depend upon it.”

Vistage sees many of its members in the $50 - $100 million range either recently having gone through a merger or acquisition, or are anticipating one. In fact, a recent poll of Vistage members revealed that more than 50 percent are considering a merger, acquisition or both in 2007 as a way to help their businesses grow.

With staffing the No. 1 concern of small and medium-sized businesses executives, a new challenge will impact their ability to hire and retain skilled employees in 2007: a clash between work styles and expectations of Boomers vs. Gen Y. In many cases, Boomer executives are not creating work environments that fit the Gen Y mindset. Other Boomers are actively seeking out and catering to younger, less experienced employees because of their creativity, knowledge of new technologies and different viewpoints on business.

These trends are based on feedback and issues raised by Vistage members. Vistage International has more than 13,000 members worldwide who meet regularly to discuss their most pressing business issues and opportunities.

Vistage Reveals Top Business Trends for 2007. [Press Release]

Workforce Vision * Post: Bill Inman * Human Capital * Contingent Workforce * Globalization * Trends * Outsourcing

"Attempting to Stop Globalization Can Cause More Harm Than Good" - Yale Center for the Study of Globalization

"The global economic transition to a post-industrial economy has increased pace since the end of the Cold War, but the dislocations caused by rapid globalization rage on...Politicians find themselves pandering to narrow constituencies with petty, irrelevant legislation to build coalitions, often with majorities so razor thin that they are ungovernable. From France to Poland to the US, the appeals to the extreme groups result in proposals of nativist immigration and trade policies that do little to assuage the economic uncertainty confronting increasing numbers of voters around the globe. ... journalist Richard Hornik warns that “the dislocations wrought by globalization’s creative destruction are nothing compared to the economic chaos unleashed when efforts are made to halt or reverse the process.”

Is this true? Does attempting to halt or slow globalization do more harm than good to the countries that take this strategy?

Here are some quotes from this Yale Center for the Study of Globalization article:

• Politicians are reaping the whirlwind of more than a decade of over-promising and scapegoating.


• For the workforce, no job is safe. For all but the very wealthiest, working lives will henceforth be spent worrying about tomorrow's paycheck, health benefits and pensions.


• Parties at both ends of the political spectrum in Europe and the US will be left with self-defeating policies of raising trade barriers, defending domestic industries in distress, limiting social benefits to “true” citizens and wrapping it all in patriotic bunting.


• If politicians at both ends of the political spectrum continue to win votes by pandering to the worst fears and basest instincts of a frightened electorate, it seems only a matter of time before the resulting governments indulge in the self-destructive grand gestures that could lead to a global trade war or a violent anti-immigrant backlash or both.

Globalization: When Cure Is Worse Than Malady

Workforce Vision * Post: Bill Inman * Human Capital * Contingent Workforce * Globalism * Trends * Outsourcing

U.S. Temporary Employment in Decline for 1st Time in 3 Years

Temporary help payroll growth, as measured on a 12-month trend, has been weakening steadily over 2006, and finally crossed the line into the negative zone in November, falling 0.8% from the year earlier. This was the first recorded year-over-year decline in temporary help payrolls since June 2003. Part of the reason for this decline is the effect of Katrina on previous year’s numbers. November 2005 saw a large increase in temporary help usage in the weather-beaten Gulf Coast. Nonetheless, even taking this liberal perspective, it remains that temporary help payrolls are also up less than 1% above pre-Katrina levels, so volume growth is unquestionably weak at best. On a month-to-month basis, temporary help services rose 0.2% from October, adding 4,800 jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.

Workforce Vision * Post: Bill Inman * Human Capital * Contingent Workforce * Globalism * Trends * Outsourcing

Global Talent Management for Technology Executives

A recent study by the Economist Intelligence Unit and PricewaterhouseCoopers states:

Workforce investments represent a singular untapped opportunity for technology companies to drive financial performance in the coming decade. The effectiveness of these investments may well determine which companies succeed or fail; which companies continue to innovate, cut costs and drive productivity; and which companies spend too much energy just to replace the talnt they once had or work without cohesion due to poor leadership and direction.

The studies main observations about talent management for technology executives:

1. A priority with failing grades. Many technology executives are making human capital management a greater priority, but the survey shows they do not have a high regard for their firms’ capabilities in this area.

2. Acquiring hybrids. Executives are beginning to experience a painful scarcity for the essential employee: that talented, technically-savvy individual who can collaborate, innovate, and manage change.

3. Harvesting talent from within. Technology companies worldwide are focusing on personnel development and training, and, by inference, on the retention of new hires and existing personnel.

4. Managing global markets and global talent. Nearly half of all technology companies say they difficulty finding technical talent in emerging markets, and just under half say these difficulties include the retention of skilled people around the globe.

Read the study at:

Technology Executive Connections: Successful Strategies for Talent Management. [Economist Intelligence Unit and PricewaterhouseCoopers]

Workforce Vision * Post: Bill Inman * Human Capital * Contingent Workforce * Globalization * Trends * Outsourcing

Demand-Driven Workforce Management

Kronos', a leader in technology for workforce time tracking, descrbes "Demand-Driven" Workforce Management on their website. This exemplifies a major advantage to utilizing a contingent workforce which is the reduction of labor costs when a workforce can be easily augmented or cut back in conjuction with company and customer needs.


When the workforce is not aligned with demand (as in the above chart), your organization risks being overstaffed against customer volume, production workloads, or the patient census, all of which increase your payroll costs. Worse, it can also lead to understaffing and the inability to meet your customer service and quality standards. Rectifying the situation may require excessive use of overtime and premium labor.
Demand-Driven Workforce Management helps you to perfectly align the workforce with demand. As a result, you can reduce labor costs by minimizing overstaffing and improve quality by avoiding understaffing. Most important, your frontline managers can take a more proactive role in improving business performance. They are better able to manage responsibilities associated with staffing budgets, labor law and policy compliance, and employee satisfaction.

The Demand-Driven Workforce. [Kronos]

Workforce Vision * Post: Bill Inman * Human Capital * Contingent Workforce * Globalism * Trends * Outsourcing