What do hiring managers need from an outsourced workforce solution?

As businesses around the world struggle to find quality candidates, more employers could secure the volume and calibre of talent they need by working with a managed service provider (MSP). But getting stakeholder buy-in for a new outsourced workforce solution isn’t always easy.

It’s especially important that those who design and implement the solution do so with the needs of hiring managers front of mind. If not, a lack of engagement (and, as a result, compliance) is sure to follow. But what do hiring managers actually need from an outsourced workforce solution?

Here are the top three things workforce solution buyers should keep in mind.

1) Insight: hiring managers need the power to make data-backed decisions

In recent years the quality and availability of workforce analytics has improved exponentially, helping businesses drive informed decision-making to achieve superior planning and outcomes in relation to the workforce - and the people who supply it.

Workforce analytics enable the effective leveraging of resources across an entire programme. This includes identifying and tracking different aspects of the workforce, such as high performers, headcount, and turnover.

By digitally tracking the availability of skills both within the business and externally in the market, leaders can identify the skills they are lacking, and determine if they should be acquired on a full-time, flexible, contingent, or statement of work basis.

Supplier insights that track and benchmark supplier performance across contingent workforce programmes are also becoming increasingly important to decision making - arguably just as important as data relating to the workforce itself.

Here at Guidant Global, our interactive platform for assessing supplier performance, VISION, has enabled us to take programme visibility to the next level with real-time data on distribution, response rate, pricing, and headcount in relation to individual suppliers.

Read more about making the most of recruitment data analytics.

2) Mobility: hiring managers need solutions that suit the hybrid work world

With a growing number of people working remotely, mobile-enabled talent solutions have never been more vital. Workforce solution buyers should make it a priority to empower their hiring managers to search, screen, and interview candidates and approve timesheets and expenses from home and on the move.

Candidates, too, need the option to complete the recruitment process - end to end, from assessment and interview to onboarding - on a mobile device. Digital-first solutions such as chatbots and video interviewing can be used via mobile to streamline candidate communication, both during the hiring process and beyond.

The power of quick and mobile hiring journeys
When our customer, a US government contractor, expanded its operations into Ireland, we helped them build a brand new local team in record time.

Using bespoke chatbots to eliminate manual screening, and using video interviewing software to engage qualified candidates, we were able to increase candidate engagement with a quick and mobile recruitment process.

This digital-first approach removed an entire round of initial screening, saving hiring managers up to 75 hours across 100 applicants alone. It also halved time-to-hire from 20 days to 10.

3) Expertise: hiring managers need a workforce partner who can consult and advise

Contingent workers have never been a bigger part of the global workforce mix than they are today. One consequence of this ‘rise of contingent’ is that there have never been so many hiring managers with limited knowledge of how to recruit and retain contingent workers.

That’s where your managed service provider (MSP) really earns their crust. The best workforce partners offer hands-on process guidance every step of the way, as well as expert advice from a legislative and regulatory perspective, to keep your hiring managers on track.

This guidance can include:

• what you should be paying workers to streamline costs whilst securing talent
• what you should be paying suppliers to guarantee you get the services you need
• coaching and training on interview best practice and candidate engagement
• diversity and inclusion training, particularly around unconscious bias.

An outsourced workforce solution should make it as straightforward as possible for busy, and often inexperienced, hiring managers to get great talent into the business. Workforce experts who can advise, guide, and coach play a crucial role in making that possible.

Define and solve problems to get great engagement

We often remind our customers, whether they specialise in HR or procurement, that their hiring managers weren’t hired to recruit; it’s an add-on to their day jobs. The business needs to get something done, and they’re tasked with finding the right person to do it.

It’s important for any outsourced workforce solution buyer to keep this in mind as they weigh up providers and solutions. The success of any new programme will depend upon how well these ‘end user’ needs are understood and met.

For 2022 and beyond, solutions that prioritise insight, mobility, and expertise will have the greatest chance of success.