HR strategy, operating model and VMS in one coherent move
Client
An R&D and production site for electronic equipment within an international group, active in B2B and B2C
Role
Responsible for HR service delivery and supply chain management
The client had no active management over a significant HR spend category: project sourcing, self-employed contractors and statements of work. There was limited insight into total spend, into employee and contract compliance, and into the associated risks. The assignment was to define the HR strategy and implement the operating model, alongside a Vendor Management System (SAP Fieldglass) as backbone.
The site needed more transparency and governance over all components of the contingent workforce, process consistency, risk management and compliance, cost control and quality fulfilment of open positions. Profiles ranged from embedded software to engineering and research.
On top of that, the assignment required change management and training for stakeholders who had to adopt new processes and a new system. It wasn't about one tool choice, but about a redesign of how flexible deployment was steered.
We took responsibility for HR service delivery and supply chain management, with a focus on project, programme and process compliance, reporting and strategic recommendations. We built the trajectory in phases: first full transparency and control over the professional workforce, with implementation and configuration of the VMS, streamlined order, contract and invoice processes, contract negotiations with agencies and real-time KPI reporting.
In a next phase the focus went to supplier performance management and rationalisation, a broker model, compliance management and advice on new country legislation. The final phase built a total blended workforce solution for all contract types, permanent and temporary. Change management following ADKAR/Prosci ensured that communication and training plans were fully designed and rolled out.
The difference became tangible as soon as hiring managers, suppliers and internal stakeholders worked with the same process and the same data. Decisions were backed by real-time information and KPIs, instead of by isolated notifications or fragmented Excel files.
The culture change the tool supported was at least as important as the technology itself. The organisation started seeing its flexible workforce as a strategic part of the talent strategy, not as an operational leftover.
Total talent management is not a tool, it is a way of thinking about how an organisation deploys its full workforce. Strategy, operating model and system are designed together here, or each of the three keeps stalling.
For this site, the combination of standardised processes, an implemented VMS, structural reporting and targeted change management delivered a workable foundation. Continuous improvement could thus become part of daily operations, with attention to both cost control and talent quality.
