The challenge
Our client, a multinational sustainable agriculture company provides agricultural products supporting farmers around the world. The business challenged Guidant Global to centralise their global contingent labour program that was previously run in-house.
The key objectives for the newly Guidant Global-led program included:
- Delivering a total talent enablement platform for a highly complex, decentralised workforce
- Increasing the visibility and reporting capabilities for their high-volume, global contingent workforce
- Ensuring a continuous talent supply in challenging labour markets
- Reducing risk and streamlining processes while introducing process standardisation and governances
SAP Fieldglass VMS platform was elected to underpin the global program, capturing all labour categories and services including temporary, worker profile management, payroll, independent contractors and Statement of Work.
Our implementation approach
We recommended a phased deployment, which we considered the most responsible approach given the decentralised, and geographically diverse client.
We initially launched the contingent workforce platform first in North America. Once successfully implemented, we partnered with our client team to engage their most complex facility management providers to launch a profile management solution. This was then followed by our independent contractor compliance and payroll services. During the same period, our team launched the program in four countries across Europe.
Challenges overcome
The primary challenges we encountered were not unexpected by either the Guidant Global team — based on our past experience of implementing similar scaled programs — or our client’s executive management team.
European locations were initially hesitant to adopt the new program model. This necessitated working closely with local stakeholders to give them a clear understanding of our role and responsibilities as the MSP, the differentiation between the MSP and existing staffing suppliers, and the value of the program to their specific operations.
To speed up program adoption, we employed a customised approach to change management for each country. We also devised country-specific communications that promoted program acceptance and an understanding of the program benefits to each community. We further eliminated doubt by establishing a liaison between Guidant Global’s supplier relationship management team and the incumbent supply base to ensure successful program participation and talent supply.
Ultimately, our collaborative, client-centric program management philosophy was critical to the successful, cross-country adoption of the program and its continued success.
Impressive results
The first phase of the implementation, covering the North America contingent and worker profile management solutions, launched on-time. As the program matured, our client account team began introducing innovative concepts for finding hard to find technical talent.
Within the first six months of implementing the program, we identified $5 million in hard cost savings for our client, which continues to increase as the program has expanded and matured.
Today, the program represents more than $200 million in annual spend, operating in North America, Puerto Rico, Belgium, Canada, France, India, Netherlands and Switzerland. The program is planned to expand to a further 19 countries, including Germany, Italy, Morocco, Russia, Serbia, Turkey and the UK.
