• 3 min read

Health Service Gains Visibility into the Contingent Workforce and Talent Supply Chain

Client Profile: A leading not-for-profit health services company

Challenge

In early 2018, our client chose Simplify VMS to provide visibility into their contingent labor management program in the U.S. Prior to onboarding Simplify VMS, the client’s hiring managers experienced several challenges with managing their contingent workforce, including:

  • They didn’t have a full view of non-employees working for their organization; where they were located, which agency they were from, or which compliance procedures were followed (if any) to onboard them

  • They didn’t have one centralized process to manage their contingent workforce; creating a significant burden surrounding supplier engagement (e.g., contract negotiations, invoice reconciliation, etc.)

  • They didn’t have visibility into their talent suppliers’ pricing and markups; supplier base opacity often times resulted in higher costs to onboard contingent labor resources, which reduced the program’s return on investment

  • Their existing vendor management system (VMS) was not intuitive and lacked thorough reporting functionality, and so they were looking to replace it

Through a competitive RFP bid process, the client decided to go with Simplify VMS for its B2C-like intuitiveness, configurability, and system flexibility  (e. g., change requests go into production within days).

“Having Simplify VMS onboard helped us understand our contingent workforce strategy and costs better. Because of Simplify VMS, we were able to centralize our non-employee data and respond to ever-increasing compliance demands from our regulatory boy in a fraction of the time that it would normally take. It’s made all of the difference to us to have Simplify Workforce as our true business partner.”

Solution

By onboarding Simplify VMS, the client was able to centralize their contingent workforce data stream into one channel. From this channel, stakeholders were able to pull reports in real-time and automate workflows, which helped them when they needed to support compliance efforts and make their requisitions and approvals processes more efficient. Additionally, by having visibility into their supplier base, stakeholders were able to transform their talent management strategy through supplier rationalization efforts and by identifying new “best fit” talent suppliers.

Another major benefit of funneling their contingent labor data (e.g., invoices, timesheets, requisitions, etc.) through one tool was the creation of a single channel of information that program stakeholders could leverage for a variety of uses. This channel has eliminated the need for touchpoints (e.g., emails) and requisitions outside of the system, which has helped reduce the potential for rogue spend and maximized the program’s return on investment.

Result

The client underwent a government audit that Simplify VMS was able to support from start to finish, which helped limit the administrative burden on the client’s HR team, and ultimately helped the client avoid potential compliance fines that could have negatively impacted their ability to receive financial reimbursements from the regulatory body. By having the right VMS tool in place, the client simplified their compliance support efforts as the data to support the audit was readily available, centralized, and easily reportable.

By having more visibility into their contingent workforce, the client sponsor was able to rationalize their supplier base and reduce their administrative workload almost entirely. This enabled them to focus on strategic initiatives that helped drive their organization’s mission forward.

Overall, stakeholders were able to create measurable metrics for HR to use and drove inefficiencies out of the program. As a result, the client created a benchmark to measure return on investment against each year for HR, and they reduced costs by $81k in their first year by reducing inefficiencies throughout their contingent labor program.